The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-07-30
LIPE'S BRIGHT SIDE.
THREE PRESCRIPTIONS FOB THE CURE
or BUSINESS DEPRESSION

EEPRESCRIPTIONS FOR THE CURE
or BUSINESS DEPRESSION
Rev. DR.. TalmAge Preaehss . Sermon Of
Business Cheer Christian Investment.
Spiritual Awakening-A Warninx-LEs's'
Shipwrecks-Worth Of the soul
This discourse of DR.. Talmage shows
good times, and is most appropriate.
Text, Lamentations iii, 80, Wherefore
doth a living man complaint"
A cheerful in~terrogatory in the most
melancholy book of the Bible. Jere-
miah wrote so hal sad things that we
have a word named after him, and
when anything is surchanged with
grief and complaint We call it a jere-
miad. But in my text jeremiah, as by
a sudden jolt, wakens us to a thankful
spirit. Our blessings are so much more
7, numerous thar our deserts that he is
surprised that anybody should ever
find fault. Having life and with it a
thousand blessings it ought to hush into
perpetual silence everything like criti-
cism of the dealings of God. Where
fore doth a 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 a cheerful solOist, but the grand
chorus has been one Of lamentation,
accompanied by dirges over protracted
m silent manufactures unem-
plOyed mechanism, and all those diSOr-
ders described by the two short words,
hard times" The fact is that we have
been paying for the bloody luxury of
war more than 80 years ago. There
were great national differences, and we
lac not enough Christian character to
settle them by arbitration and treaty,
n SO we went into battle, expanding
life n treasure and we'll nigh swamp
ing 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 de-
preston ought to end-yea, when it
will! end if the people are willing to
| do two or three things by way of f1nan-
cial medicament, for the people as we'll
as congress must join in the work of
rec~uperatiOn. The best political econo-
mists tell us that there is no good rea-
son for continued prOstratiOn. Plenty of
money awaiting investment. The ma
tiOnal health with never sc strong an
arm or so clear a brain. Yet we go 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 became 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.
A PLEA FOR CHEERFULNESS.
There are three prescriptions by
which 1 believe that our individual and
national n may be cured of their
present depression. The first is cheer
full conversation n behavior. I have
noticed that the people who are most
vociferous against the day in which we
live are those who are in comfortable
circumstances. I have made inquiry Of
those persons who are violent in theil
jeremiads against these times, and ]
lave k them, Nov, after all, are
you not making a living?" After some
hesitation and coughing and clearing
their threats three or four times they
say stammeringly, Yes" So that
with a great multitude of people it is
hOt d 4uSliOu vi SclIIHS d l1tcll1lOOu
but hey are dissatisfied because they
annOt make as much money as they
would like to make. They have only
$1,000 in the bank, where they would
like to have $4,000. They can clear in
a year only 5000, when they would like
to clear $1O, 600, or things come out JUS
even. Or in their trade they get SO q
day when they wish they could make
81 or IS. "Oh," says some one, care
1 Won NOT q NO ~ IF tho foot that %Iovvo :,
a great population out of employment
and there are hundreds Of the good
families of this country who are al
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 fo1
this state of things?
Much of that responsibility I put
upon men in comfortable circumstance
Who by an everlasting growing keep
public confidence depressed and new
enterprises from starting out and new
houses from being built. You know
very we'll that one Respondent man car
talk so men into dependency, while one
cheerful physician can wake up into
ex~hilaration a whole asylum of hypo-
chOndriacs. 1t is no kindness to the
poor or the unemployed for you to join
hoN lloN NlIO
wit and the common sense to think OF
something cheerful to say, then keep
silent. There is no man that can be in
dependent of depressed conversation
The medical journals are ever illustrat-
ing it. 1 was reading of five men who
resolved that they would make an ex-
pertinent and see what they could dc
in the way Of depressing a stout
healthy man, n 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 and said: Why
you look very sick today. What is the
matter?" He said: Il am in excellent
health. There is nothing the matter
But, passing down the street, he began
to examine his symptoms, and the Sec
Ond Of the five men met him n said
why, how bad you do look!" Well
he replied. Il don't feel very WELL
After awhile the third man met him
and the fourth man met him, and the