The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-08-06
FINANCIAL DISTRESS.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Prescribes for
It's Alienation.
Cheerful Behavior and Conversation, Prop
err Christian Investment and n
Great Spiritual Awakening
the Remedies.

The following discourse by Rev. T..
Dewitt Talmage indicates how all may
aid in restoring good times. 1t is based
on the text:
Wherefore doth living man complainf-La-
meniations, fiji. 80
A cheerful interrogatory in the most
melancholy book of the Bible! Jere-
miah wrote so many sad things that
we have word named after him, and
when anything is surcharged with
| grief and complaint, we call it a jere-
miad. But IN my text, jeremiah, as
| 10y n sudden jolt, wakens US to a 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 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 every thing 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 n cheerful soloist, but
the grand chorus has been one of lam
entatiOn, accompanied by dirges over
FRUSTRATED commerce, silent manufac-
tories, unemployed mechanism, and
all those disorders described by the
two short words, "harI times" The
fact is that we have been paying for
the bloody luxury of war, more than
30 years ago. There were great na-
tional 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, 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
if 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-
Htical 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
brain. Yet we go on grooming, groan-
ing, grooming, rs 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 a 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. l have
noticed that the people who are most
vociferous against the day in which we
live are those who are in comfortable
circumstances. l have made inquiry
of those persons who are violent in
their Ieremiads against these times,
and l have asked them: Now, after
all, arc you not making a living?"
After some hesitation and coughing,
clearing their throat three or four
times. they say, stammeringly: Yes"
So that with great multitude
of people it is not aquestion of getting
a livelihood, but they are unhappy and
because they can not make
as much money as they would like to
make. They have only $1,000 in the
bank, where they would like to have
s a. 900. They can clear in a year only |
s., 900, when they would like to clear
SO, 600, or things come out just even.
Or in their trade they get three dollars |
a 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 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 |
knowing which way to turn?" Yes, |
I 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 l put
upon men in comfortable circumstan-
,es, 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
nan can talk 50 men into dependency,
While one cheerful physician can wake
I'D into exhilaration a whole asylum of
1t is no kindness to
he poor or the unemployed for you to
DIN in this deportation. If you have
lot the wit and the common sense to
hink of something cheerful to say,
hen keep silent. There is no man
hat can be independent of depressed
The medical journals
ire ever illustrating it. l was reading
If five men who resolved that they
would make IN experiment and
zee what they could do in the
way of depressing stout, healthy
nan, and they resolved to meet
linn at different points in his journey;
md as lie stepped out from his house
II the morning in robust health. one
II the five men met him and said:
Why, you look very sick to-day. What
5 the matter?" He said: Il am in ex-
client health; there is nothing the
natter" But passing down the street,
lie began to examine his symptoms,
md the second of the five men met
i'm and said: why, how bad you
ook." Well" he replied, 81 don't
eel very wellT After awhile the
bird man met him, and the fourth man
net him, and the fifth man came up
nd said: why, you look as if you
lad had the typhoid fever for six
weeks. What is the matter with
-ou?' And the man against whom
he stratagem had been laid
vent home and died. And ;