The Penn's Grove record., 1897-09-10
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE By THE NOTED
DIVINE.

OIscuSstnB the BeeinttOns Capi.
tai and Lebor-somA Futile Remedic,
--Christ Was the Greatest Friend Of
h Capitalist and the Toi1er.
TEXT: Whatsoever ye would that men
should do to you, do you even so to Them
Matthew VIII. II.
The greatest war the world has ever seer
Is between capital and labor. The strife ID
not like that which In history Ia called the
Thirty Years war, for It is a war OF centur.
les, 1t is q war OF the five continents, It Is d
war hemisphere. The middle classes In
| this country, upon whom the nation has de-
pended for holding the balance OF power and
for acting as mediators between the two
extremes, are diminishing, and II things GO
on at the same ratio as they are now going
1t will not be very long before there will be
no middle class In this country, but all will
be very rich or very poor, princes or pau
pers, and the country will be given up to
palaces and novels.
The antagonistic forces are closing In
upon each other. The Pennsylvania miners
strikes, the telegraph operators strikes,
the railroad employees strikes, the move
ments OF tho boycotters and the dyna-
miters are only skirmishers before a gen.
eral engagement, or, II you prefer It. es-
capcs through the safety valves OF an i'm
prisoned force which promises the explo-
sion OF society, You may poohpooh 1t; you
may say that this trouble, like an angry
child, will cry itself to sleep; you may be.
little 1t by calling 1t Fourierism or social.
ism or st. Simonism or nihilism or com.
munism, but that will not hinder the fact
that II Is the mightiest, the darkest, the
most terrific threat OF this century. All at.
tempts at p~acidcation have been dead fail.
ures, and monopoly Is more arrogant and
the trades unions more bitter, "Give us
more wages" cry the employees. 'You
shall have less, say the capitalists. s'Com.
pei us to do fewer hours Of toll in a day.
You shal toll moro hours" say the others,
Then under certain conditions we will not
work at all" say these. "Then you shall
starye," say those. And, the workmen
gradually using up that which they Hc.
cumulated in better times, unless there be
some radical change we shall have soon In
this country 4 1000, 600 hungry men and wom-
en-. Now, 1000, 900 hungry people cannot
be kept quiet. All the enactments oflegis.
latures and all the constabularies OF the
cities and all the army and navy Of the
United States cannot keep 1000, 900 hungry
people quiet. What, then2 viii this wal
between capital and labor be settled by
human wisdomp Never. The brow Of the
n becomes more rigid, the fist Of the
other more clinehed. .
But that which human wisdom cannot
achieve will be accomplished by Christianity
IL 1t be given full sway. You have heard OF
medicines so powerful that one drop will
stop a disease and restore o patient, and /
have to tell you that one drop Of my text
properly administered will stop All these
woes Of society and give convalescence and
complete health to all classes. 'Whatso.
ever We would that men should do to you
do you even SO them
l shall first sh6w you how this quarrel be.
tween monopoly and hard work cannot be
stopped, and then I will show you how this
controversy will be settled.
Futile remedies. In the frat place, there
will come no ~paciacation to this trouble
through an outcry against rich men merely
because they are rich. There Is no member
OF a trades union on earth that would not
be rich IL he could be. Sometimes through
a fortunate invention or through some acct
dent Of prosperity a man who had nothing
comes to a large estate, and we see him
arrogant and supercilious and taking peo-
pie by the throat. There is some
thing very mean about human ma
tnre when 1t comes to the top. But II
Is no more a sin to be rich than Il Is a sin
to be poor. There are those who have
gathered a great estate through fraud,
and then there are m~illionaires who have
gathered their fortunes through foresight
IN regard to changes In the markets, and
through brilliant business faculty, and
every dollar OF their estate Is as honest ms
the dollar which the plumber gets for
mending a pipe or the mason gets for
building a wall. There are those who keep
in poverty because of their own fault, They
might have been well of, but they gave
themselves to strong drink, or they smoked
or chewed up their earnings, OF they lived
beyond their means, while others on the
same wages and IN the sans salaries went
on to competency, / know a man who Is
all the time complaining of his poverty and
crying out against rich men. while he htrn-
self kpaItG tVvh dnDa and uyta n oaJ a,.ot,..
and is filed to the chin with whisky and
beer.
Micawber said to David CopperAeld.
"Copperield, my boy, E1 income, twenty
shiliings md sixpense expences; result.
misery. But, Copperleld, my boy, 81 In.
come, expenses nineteen shillings and six
pence; result, happiness" And there are
vast multitudes 0 fpeople who are kept o
because they arc the victims Of their own
tmprovidence. II Is no sin to be rich. and
it Is no sin to be poor. / protest against
this outcry which l hear against those who.
through economy and self denial and ASST
duty, have come to large fortune. This
DombardmeDt OF commercial success will
never stop this quarrel between capital and
labor.
Neither will the contest be settled by
cynical and unsympathetic treatment Of
the laboring classes. There are those who
speak of them as though they were only
cattle or draft horses. Their nerves are
nothing, their domestic comforti Is nothing
their happiness is nothing. They have no
more sympathy for them than u hound has
Tor O hare or a hawk for q hen or O tiger
for a calf. When Jean Vatican, the great.
est hero OF Victor Hugo's writings, after a
HE OF suffering and brave endurance. goes
into Incarceration and death, they clap tho
book shut and say, GOOD for himl'' They
stamp their feet with indignation and say
lust the OnpOqtta nf fiSava tho u,orLIno
classes" They lave all their sympathies
| with Shyiock, and not with Antonio and
Portia. They dfes Slutocrats, and their
feelings are Internal. They are Oiled with
irritation and Feasibility on this subject.
10 stop this awful imbroglio between
capital and labor they will lift not so much
as the tip end OF the little finger.
Neither will there be any qualification Of
TINS angry controversy through violence.
God never blessed murder.
Ine poorest use you can put q nan to Is
to kill him. Blow up tomorrow all the
country seats on the banks Of the Hudson,
and all the fine houses on Madison SQUARE.
and Brooklyn Heights, and Bunker HIM.
and hlttenhouse Square, and Beacon street,
and all the bricks and timber and stone
Will Just fall back on the bare head OF
American labor. The worst enemies OF the
working classes In the United States and
ireland are their demented coadjutors.
ASooSoihnttou, tHo uSSdSsluutlOn OF Lord
Frederick Cavendish and Mr.. Burke In
Phoenix Park, Dublin, In the attempt to
ayenge the wrongs of Ireland, only turned
away from that afflicted people millions Of
sympathizers. The attempt to blow up the
House OF Commons in London had only
this effect-to throw out OF employment
tens OF thousands of innocent Irish people
In England.
Well, il this controversy between capital
n labor cannot be settled by human wis.,
dom, II to-day capital and labor stand with
their thumbs on each others throat, rs
they do, 1t is time for US to look somewhere
else for relief, and 1t points from my text,
roseate and iubilant, and puts one hand on
the brOAdcloth shoulder OF canital and nnts