The Penn's Grove record., 1899-03-24

Luxury and the %Snualor of Great cities
Thrown Into Violent Contrast-Object
Lessons Drawn From Experience.
TEXT: "wisdom crieth without; she ut
tereth her voice in the streets "-Proyerps
l., 20.
We are all ready to listen to the voices OF
nature-the voices of the mountain, the
voices OF the sea, the voices of the storm,
the voices of the star. AS in some OF the
cathedrals in Europe there is an organ at
either end Of the building, and the one In
strument responds unsteady to the other,
so in the great cathedral Of nature day re-
spends to day and night to night and
flower to flower and star to star in the
great harmonies OF the universe, The
%springtime is an evangelist lii blossoms
preaching of God's love, and the winter IS
a prnphet@White neutrality-suspicious.
WOO against our sins. We are all ready to
listen to the voices, of nature, but how rev
Of US learn anything from the voices of the
noisy and dusty street? You go to yout
mechanism and to your work and to your
merchandise, and you come back again,
Ind often with how different a heart you
oass through the streets. Are there no
:hings for us to learn from these pave
nents over which W. pass2 Are there no
;ufte OF truth growing up between these
;obblestones, beaten with the feet OF toll
1T pain anu IIChSult, lhO ~ thtuN -
Did age and the quick step OF childhoodY
Aye, there are great harvests to be reaped,
and now | thrust in the sickle because the
harvest Is ripe. wisdom crieth without!
The uttereth her voice in the Streets"
In the first place, The street tnpfesses
ne with the fact that ehle life Is a scene of
.oli and struggle, BY ten o'clock every day
he city is Earring with wheels, and Snuff
Ing with feet, and humming with voices,
and covered with the breath of smoke
stacks, and a rush with traflckers, Once
IN awhile you find a man going along with
,olded arms and with leisurely step, as
though he had nothing to do; but for the
most part, as you find men going down
these streets on the way to business, there
8 anxiety in their faces, as though they
1ad some errand which must be executed
At the first possible moment. You are
.ostled by those Who have bargains to
make and notes to sell. Up this ladder
with d hod Of bricks, out of this bank with
/ roll Of bills, on this dray with a load of
goods, digginga cellar, or Smuggling a roof,
Or shoeing a horso, or building a wall, or
nendinsa watch, or binding a book. In
aestfy, with her thousand arms and thou
sand eyes and thousand feet goes on sing
ing her song OF work, work, work, while
he mills drum 1t and the steam whistles
fife 1t. All this not because men love toll.
some one remarked, every man Is as lazy
as he can afford to be." But 1t Is because
necessity with stern brow and with aplifted
whip stand over you ready whenever you
relax your toll to make your shoulders
sting with the lash.
Can 1t be that passing up and down
these streets on your way to work and
business that you do not learn anything
Of the worlds toll and anxiety and
struggle? oh, how many dropping hearts,
how many eyes on the watch, how many
miles travelled, how many burdens carried,
how man losses suffered, how many
battles fought, how many victories gained,
how many defeats suffered, o many eX-
ASPIRATIONS endured; what losses, what
hunger, what wretchedness, what pallor,
what disease, what agony, what uespairl
Sometimes / have stopped at the corner of
the street as the multitddes went hither
and yon, and it has seemed to me n great
p~antomime, and as l looked upon 1t my
heart broke. This great tide of human life
that goes down the street is a rapid; tossed
and turned aside, and dashed ahead, and
1riven back-beautifui in its confusion,
and confused in its beauty. In the carpeted
aisles OF the forest, in the woods from
which the eternal shadow is never lifted,
On the shore OF the sea over which iron
coast losses the tangled foam sprinkling
the cracked cliffs with a / baptism of whirl-
wind and tempest, is the best place to
study God, but in the rushing, swarminG,
raving. street Is the best place is study
nan. >
Going down to your place Of business
And coming home again, 1 charge you to
look about-see these signs of poverty, of
w~retchedness, Of hunger, of sin, of bereave-
ment-and as you go through tho streets,
and come back through the streets, gather
DIP in the arms of your prayer all the sor-
row, all the losses, all the sufferings, all
the bereavements Of those whom you pass,
and present them in prayer before an all
sympathetic God. In the great day of
eternity there will be thousands of persons
with whom you in this world never ex-
,hanged one word, will rise up and call
you blessed, and there will be a thousand
fingers pointed at you in heaven, saying:
THAT is the man, that Is the woman, who
helped me when l was hungry and sick and
wandering and lost and heartbroken. That
Is the man, that is the woman" and the
blessing will come down upon you as
Christ shall say: 81 was hungry, and ye
ted Me; 1 was naked, and ye clothed Me; l
was sick and in prison, and We visited Me;
lnasmuch as We did it to these poor waits of
the streets. ye did it to Me-"
Again, the street fmpresses me with the
TACT that all classes and conditions OF So
,iety must commingle. We sometimes cul-
ture a wicked exclusiveness. Intellect de-
,pises ignorance. Refinement will nave
1Otnlnp 10 90 WITH UOOriSnQeSS. blOVeS
hate the sunburned hand, and the high
forehead despises the fiat head, and the
trim hedgerow will have nothing to do
with the wild c~opsewood, and Athens hates
Nazareth. This ought not so to be. The
astronomer must come down from the
starry revelry and help us in our navlga-
lion. The surgeon must come away from
his study Of the human organism and set
our broken bones. The chemist must come
away from his laboratory, where he has
peen studying analysis and synthesis, and
help Us TO understand the nature of the
soils. I bless God that all classes of peo-
pie are compelled to meet on the street.
The glittering couch wheels clashes against
the s%cavenger's cart. Fine robes run
against thr ~peddler's pack. Robust health
meets a sickness. Honesty confronts
fraud. Every class OF people meets every
other class. Impudence and modesty,
pride and humility. purity and beastliness,
frankness and hypocrisy, meeting on the
same block. in the same street, in the same
city. oh, that is what Solomon meant
when he said, THE rich and the poor meet
together; the Lord is the Maker OF them
ALL"
l like this democratic principle of the
gospel of Jesus Christ which recognizes
the fact that we stand before God one and
the same platform. Do not take on any
airu Whntavar rocitIop to, baya painad