The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-08-11
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
4 Plea For Observation-Disclosures Prest

4 Plea For observation-disclosures Prescrip-
lions For tho Cure of Business De-
p%ression: Cheerful Conversation and
Behavior. Proper Christian Invest
ment, and a Great Spiritual Awakening.
TEXT: Wherefore doth a living man
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. ill.,, 80.
A cheerful interrogatory in the most mel
ancholy book Of the Bible! jeremiah wrote
so many sad things that we have q word
named after him, and when anything Is
'sureharged with grief and complaint we
call 1t q jeremiad. But in my text Jera-
miah, as by q sudden jolt. wakens us to e
thankful spirit. Our blessings are 50 much
more numerous han our deserts that he is
surprised that anybody should ever find
fault. Having life and with it a thou
sand blessings it ought to hush into perpet-
ual silence everything like criticism OF the
dealings of God. Wherefore doth q living
man complaint"
While everything in our national finances
Is Frightening, for the last few years the
and has been set to the tune of Naomi
There has been here and there O cheerful
%soloist, but the grand chorus has been one
OF lamentation, accompanied by dirges over
Frustrated commerce, silent manufactures,
unemployed mechanism, and all those dis
orders described by the two short words,
"hard times" The fact is that we have
been paying for the bloody luxury of war
more than thirty years ago. There were
great national differences, and we had not
enough Christian character to settle them
by arbitration and treaty, and so we went
into battle, expanding life and treasure md
well nigh swamplng the national finances,
n north and south, east and west, have
ever since been paying for those four years
indulgence in barDarism.
But the time has come when this depres-
sion ought to ~end-yea, when it will end il
the people are willing to do two or three
things by way OF flnuncial medIcament, for
the people Us well as Congress must join in
the work Of recuperation. The best politi-
cal economists tell us that there is no good
reason for continued prostration. Plenty
OF money awaiting investment. The ma
tional health with never so strong an arm
or so clear a brain. Yet we 60 on grooming,
grooming, grooming, as though God had
put this nation upon Cruel and allowed US
. but one decent breakfast in six months.
The fact Is, the habit Of complaining has
become chronic In this country, n after
all these years OF whlmper and walling and
objurgation we are under such a momentum
Of SWIVEL that we canno stop.
There are are three prescriptions by which
I believe that our individual and National
finances may be cured Of their present de-
preston. The first is cheerful converse
tion and behavior. Ihave noticed that the
people who are most vociferous against the
day in which We live are those VINO are in
comfortable circumstances. / nave made
inquiry Of those persons who are violent In
their jeremiads against these times, and /
have asked them, Now, after all, are you
not making a living?" After some hesita-
ton and coughing and clearing their throat
three or four times they say stammeringly,
eyes" SO that with a great multitude OF
people 1t is not a question Of getting q
livelihood, but they are dissatisfied because
they can't make as much money as they
would like to make. They have only
$4,000 in the bank, where they would like
to have $4,000. They can clear in a year
only $4,000, when they would like to clear
$40, 900, or things come out just even. Or
in their trade they get 50 a day when they
wish they could make "a or IS. "Oh,"
says some one, "are you not aware OF the
fact that there Is a great population out Of
employment, and there are hundreds Of
the good families OF this country who are
at their wits end, not knowing which way
to turn" Yes, l know it better than any
man in private life can know that sad fact,
for it comes constantly to my eye and ear,
but who is responsible for this state OF
things?
Much Of that responsibility I put upon
men in comfortable circumstances who by
an everlasting growing keep public conf
dence depressed and new enterprises from
starting out and new houses from being
built. You know very we'll that one de-
spondent man can talk fifty men into de-
spondency, while one cheerful physician
can wake up into exhilaration q whole asy-
lum Of hypochondriacs. 1t Is no kindness
to the poor or the unemployed for you to
join in this deportation. If you have not
the wit and the common sense to him Of
something cheerfult to say, then keep silent.
Now [ will make q contract. II the peo-
pie Of the United States for one week will
talk cheerfully, I will open all the manu-
factories, l will give employment to all the
unoccupied men and women, I will make q
lively market for your real estate that is
eating you up with taxes. I will stop the
long professions on the way to the poor
house and the penitentiary and I will spread
q plentiful table from Maine to California
and from Oregon to Sandy Hook, and the
whole land shall carol and thunder with
national jubilee. But says some one, II
will take that contract, but we can't affect
the whole nation" My hearers and read
ers, representing as you do all professions,
all trades and all occupations, il
you should resolve never again to utter
markets, but by manner and by voice
and by wit and caricature and, above
all, by faith in God to try to scatter this
national gloom, do you not believe the in
f1uence would be instantaneous and wide
spread? The effect would be felt around
the world. For Gods sake and for the sake
of the poor and for the sake Of the en-
ployed quit growing. Depend upon it, II
you men in comfortable circumstances do
not stop complaining, God will blast your
haryests and see how you will get along
without a corn crop, and He will sweep you
with floods, and He will devour you with
grasshoppers, and He will burn your city.
II you men in comfortable circumstances
keep IN complaining, God will give you
something to complain about. Mark that!
The second prescription for the allevia-
tion Of financial distress Is proper Chris
tian investment. God demands of every
individual state and nation a certain pro-
portion of their income. We are parsimo-
NOUS. We keep back from God that which
belongs to him, and when We keep back
anything from God he takes what we keep
back, and he takes mora. He takes it by
storm, by sickness, by bankruptcy, by any
one OF the 10000 ways which he can ON
ploy. The reason many OF you are cramped
In business is because you lave never
learned the lesson OF Christian generosity.
You employ an agent. You give him a
reasonable salary, and, 10, you find out
that he Is appropriating your funds, be-
sides the salary; What do you do2 Dis
charge him. Well, we are God agents.
He puts In our hands certain mon
eys. Part is to be ours, part is to be
His. Suppose we take all, what then?
He will discharge us. He will turn us over
to financial disasters and take the trust
away from US. The reason that great multi
tudes are not prospered in business ia sim
ply because they have been Withholding