Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1897-08-04
REV. DIR. TALMAGG.
Tho Eminent Divine's Sunday
Discourse.

n Fiea FOR OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES PrescrTp
tions For the Cure of Business DE
precision: Cheerful Conversation M,
Behavior, Proper Christian invest
"ent' and Great Spiritual Awakening
TEXT: Wherefore doth living MAJ
inf'-Lnmentations ill.,, 80.
cheerful interrog atory in the most mel
anchoiy book of the Eiblel jeremiah wrot,
SO many sadthings that we have Il wort
named after him, and when ANYTHING |:
surcharged with grief and ompiaint W.
call 1t Jeremiad. But in my text Jere
miah, AS by sudden jolt, wakens us to q
thankful spirit. Our blessings are so mucI
more numerous than our deserts that he l.
surprised that anybody should ever find
fault. Having life and with it thou
sand blessings it ought to hush into perpet-
ual silence everything like criticism of thu
dealings of God. Wherefore doth living
man complaint
Is Frightening, for the last few years thi
land has been set to the tune Of Naomi 4
There has been here and there a cheerful
soioist, but the grand chorus has been one
OF iamentation, accompanied by dirges over
Frustrated commerce. silent maDuIactories,
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, expending life and treasure and
we'll nigh swamping the national finances.
and north and south, east and west, have
ever since been paying for those four years,
Indulgence in barbarism.
But the time has come when this depres
sion ought to end--yea, when 1t will end ir'
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 politi-
cal economists tell us that there is no good
reason for continued prostration Plenty
OF money awaiting investment. The ma
uonai health with never so strong an arm
or SO clear a brain. Yet we go on groaning
groaning, groaning, as though God haI
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
objurgatton we are under such
OF snivei that We cariffofsfo carciiffof stop.
inere are ssffTrthree prescriptions by which
! Deneve that our individual and National
finances may be cured of their present de-
preston. The first is cheerful conyersa5
tion and behavior l have noticed that the,
people who are most vociferous against the
day in which We live are those who ar, in
comfortable circumstances. 1 have made
their jeremiads against these times and II
have asked them, Now, after all are YOU
not making livinS2" After some hesita-
tion and coughing and clearing their throat
three or four times they say stammeringiy.
Yes. Sothat with great multitude of
people II Is not question of getting n
livelihood, but they are dissatisfied because
they cant make as much money as they
would like to make. They have only
s2ooW In the bank, where they would like
10 have s4ooo They can clear in year
only S5OOO, when they would like to clear
. lO ,OOO, or things come out just even Or
i'll their trade they get So day when they
wish they could make ~ or s5 oh"
says some one, ARE you not aware of the
fact that there Is great population out of
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 1t better than anv
man in private life can know that sad fact |
Tor II comes constantly to my eye and ear.
but who is responsible for this state OF
things?
Much of that responsibility 1 put upou- !
men in comfortable circumstances who by |
an everlasting growing keep public conf |
ience depressed and new enterprises from |
starting out and new houses from being
built. You know very we'll that one de-
'pondent man can talk fifty men into de-
5pondency, while one cheerful physician
can wake up into eXhilaration n whole asyI
lum OF hypochondriacs. 1t is no kindness,
to the poor or the unemployed for you to
Join in this deploration. If you have not
the wit and the common sense to think OF
cheerful to say, then keep silent
Now will make IA contract. If the peo-
pie of the United States for one week will,
talk cheerfulIy, will open all the manu-
factories, | will give employment to all the
unoccuFied men and women. will make IA,
lively market for your real estate that is
eating you up with taxes. l will stop the
long professions on the way to the poor
house and the penitentary and will spread
I 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, Il
will take that contract but we cant affect |
he whole Lation." My hearers and read
re-, representing as you do all professions.
all trades and all occupations, ii |
you should resolve never again to utter
dolorous word about the money
markets, but by manner and by voice
md by wit and caricature and, above
Ill, by faith in God to try to scatter this
latfonal gloom, do you not believe the in
luence would be instantaneous and wide'
pread? The effect would be felt around
he world. For God sake and for the sake
i the poor and for the sake Of the en-
'ioyed quit growing. Depend upon it, if
Tou men in comfortable circumstances do
lot stop complaining, God will blast your
larvests and see how you will get along
Without a corn crop and He will sweep you
With floods, and He will devour you with
and He will burn your city.
I you men in comfortable circumstances
eep on complaining, God will give You
omething to complain about. Mark that
The second prescription for the allevia-
ion Of financial distress Is proper Chris
ian Investment. God demands of every
Individual state and nation certain pro
'ortion of their income. We are parsimo-
ious. We keep back from God that whici;
'eiongs to him, and when we keep haea
nything from God he takes what We keep
ack aaa-he takes more. He takes it by
torn, by sickness, by bankruptcy, by any
ne of the 10000 ways which he can en-
hoy. The reason many of you are cramped
n business IL because you have never
earned the lesson of Christian generosity.
lou employ an agent. You give him IA
easonable salary, and, 10, you find ont
ides the salary. What do you do? Dis
harge him. Well, we are Gods agents.
ie puts in our hands certain mon
VS.. Part is to be ours, part is to be
His. Suppose We take all, what them
lie will discharge us. He will turn us over
o financial disasters and take the trust
way from us. The reason that great multi
udes are not prospered In business il sim
,ly because they have been Withholding
rom God that which belongs to Him.
The rule is, give and you will receive, ad-
Minister literally and you shall have more
o administer. I am in full sympathy with
he man who was to be baptized by INNER
ion, and some one said, you had better
cave your pocketbook out; it will get wet
No." said he, II want to go down under
he wave with everything. 1 want to con
'ecrate my property and all to God" And
70 he was baptized. What we want in this
country is more baptized pocketbooks.
The only safe investment that man
,an make In this world Is in the cause ot
christ. na man give from superabun-
lance, God may or he may not respond
with a blessing, but il a man give until ha
Ieels it, IL a man give until 1t fetches thu
blood, II man give until his selfishness
,ringes and twists and covers under it. no
VIII get not only spiritual proht, but he
viii get paid back in hard cash or la con.
'ertible securities. We often see men who
IRE tight listed who seem to get along S,ith
heir Investments very Profltably, aolvjth-
tanding all their parsimony. l:at Vrait.
suddenly in TINT mans history every