The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1897-08-07
TALMAGE's SERMON.
Prescriptions for the Alienation
Of Financial Distress.
Pointers for Croaksrs Who Infess the
Country-Chserful Behavior and
Conversation Ono of the
PanacsaA

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, in the fol
lowing sermon, shows how all mai
help restore good timea The text is
wherefore doth living man complaini-Ls
mentations, Ill, 80
A cheerful interrogatory in the mosi
melancholy book of the Bible Jere
miah wrote 80 many sad things tina
we have q word named after him, ant
when anything is surcharged will
grief and complaint, we call 1t jere
miad. But in my text, Jeremiah. al
by a sudden jolt, wakens us to thank
full spirit.
Our blessings are so much more nu
merous than our deserts that he is sur
prised that anybody should ever find
fault. I Having life, and with it thou
sand blessings, it ought to hush into
perpetual silence everything like crit
icism of the dealings of God. "Where.
fore doth living man complaint"
While everything IN our national
finances Is Frightening, for the last
few years the land has been set to the
tune Of Naomi" There has been
here and there cheerful soloist but
the grand chorus has been one OF lam.
entation, accompanied by dirges over
Frustrated commerce, silent manufac-
tories, unemployed mechanism, and
I'll those disorders described by the
two short words, "hard times" The
fact is that we have been paying for
the bloody luxury of war, more than
30 years ago. There were great ma
aI ~
enough Christian character to settle
them by arbitration and treaty, and
so we went into battle, expanding life
and treasure, and well nigh swapping
the national finances; and north and
south, east and west have ever since
been paying for those four years in
diligence in barbarism. But the time
has come when this depression ought
to end-yea, when it will end
II the people are willing to do
two or three things by way Of
financial medicament, for the people
as well as congress must join in the
work of recuperation. The best po-
litical economists tell US that there Is
no good reason for continued prostra-
ton. Plenty of money awaiting in
vestment The national health with
never SO strong an arm or so clear a
brain. Yet we go on grooming, groan-
ing, 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,
and after all these years Of whimper
and wailing and objurgation, we are
under such momentum Of SWIVEL that
we cannot stop. ..
There are three prescriptions by
which believe that our individual and
national finances may be cured of their
present depression. The first is cheer
full conversation and behavior. have
noticed that the people who are most
vociferous against the day in which we
live are those who are in conf ortable
circumstances l have made in quiry
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 hesitation Sand .coughing,
their throat three or four
times, they say, stammeringly: Yes"
So that with a great multitude
Of people it is not question of getting
a livelihood, but they are unhappy and
dissatisfied because they can not make
as much money as they would like to
make. They have only $4,000 in the
bank, where they would like to have
81, 900. They can clear in year only
s., 900, when they would like to clear
$40, 900, or things come out just even.
Or in their trade they get three dollars
4 day when they wish they could make
four dollars or five dollars. "Ohw says
some one, "are you not aware of the
fact that there is a great population
out of employment, and there are hun
dreds Of the good families of this coun-
try who are at their wits end, not
which way to turn?" Yes,
1 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 responsible ty I put
upon men in comfortable circumstan-
ces, who, by an everlasting growing,
keep public confidence depressed and
new enterprises from starting out and
new houses from being built. You
knew very well that one respondent
man can talk so men into dependency,
while one cheerful physician can wake
up into exhilaration whole asylum of
1t Is no kindness to
the poor or the unemployed for you to
Join in this deploration. II you have
not the wit and the common sense to
think Of something cheerful to say,
then keep silent. There is no man
that can be independent OF depressed
The medical journals
are ever illustrating IL. was reading
Of Ave men who resolved that they
would make an experiment and
see what they could do in the
way of depressing a stout, healthy
man. and they resolved to meet
him at different points in his journey;
and as he stepped out from his house
IN the morning in robust health, one
Of the five men met him aud said:
why, you look very sick to-day. What
s the matter?" He said: II am in ex-
,ellent health; there Is nothing the
But passing down the street.