Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-03-20
LIFE IN GREAT CITIES
DR.. TALMAGE TELLS OF ITS SPLEN-
DOR AND ITS WOE

own observations The Voice of
the Streets.
copyright. 1899. by American Press Asso-
ciatiOn.l
WASHINGTON, March 19-In this dis
course DR.. Talmagc. who has lived the
most of his life in cities. draws prac-
teal lessons from his own observation;
text. Proverbs i, 90, ''Wisdom crieth
without: she uttereth her voice in the
streets ="
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 instrument
responds unsteady to the other, SO in the
great cathedral of nature day responds
to day and night to night and flower to
flower and star to star in the great har-
monies of the universe. The sprlngtlme
is an evangelist in blossoms preaching of
God $ love. and the winter is prophet
white bearded = denOuncing woe
against our sins. We are all ready to
listen to the voices of nature, but how
few of US learn anything from the
voices Of the noisy and dusty street?
You go to your mechanism and to your
work and to your merchandise, and you
come back again. and often with how
different a heart you pass through the
streets Are there no things for US to
learn from these pavements over which
we pass? Are there no tufts of truth
growing up between these cobblestOnes,
tho foot Of foil and
and pleasure, the slow tread Of old age
and the quick step of childhood? Aye.
there are great harvests to be reaped,
and now thrust in the sickle because
the harvest is ripe. wisdom crieth
without: she uttereth her voice in the
streets.
In the first place, the street impresses
me with the fact that this life is a scene
of toll and struggle By 10 O clock ev-
cry day the city is Earring with wheels,
and shutting with feet, and hummlng
with voices. and covered with the breath
of smokestacks. and arush with traffick-
ers Once in awhile you find a man go
ing along with folded 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 is anxiety in
their faces. as though they had some
errand which must be executed at the
first possible moment. You are jostled
by those who have bargains to make
and notes to sell. Up this ladder with
a bod of bricks. out of this bank with
a roll of bills on this dray with load
of goods. digging cellar, or Singing
a roof, or shoeing a horse, or building
a wall or mending watch, or bind
ing book. Industry. with her thou
sand arms and thousand eyes and thou
sand feet goes on singing her song of
work work, work. while the mills
drum it and the steam whistles fife it
All this not because men love toll.
Some one remarked, every man is as
lazy as he can afford to be. . But it is
because necessity with stern brow and
with uplifted whip stands over you
ready whenever you relax your toll to
make your shoulders sting with the lash.
The Worlds Toll and Anxiety.
Can it 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 many losses suf-
fered, how many battles fought, how
many victories gained, how many de-
feats suffered, how many exasperations
endured; what losses, what hunger,
what wretchedness. what pallor. what
disease, what agony. what despair
Sometimes | have stopped at the corner
of the street as the multitudes went
hither and yor, and it has seemed to be
great pantOmlme, and as L looked
upon it my heart broke. This great tide
of human life that goes down the street
is rapid. tossed and turned aside, and
dashed ahead, and driven back-beau-
tiful in its confusion, and confused IL
its beauty. II the carpeted aisles Of the
forest, in the woods from which the
eternal shadow is never lifted. on the
shore of the sea over whose 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, swarm
ing. raving street is the best place to
study man.
Going down to your place Of business
and coming home again. | charge you
to look about-see these signs Of power
ty, of Indebtedness, of hunger, of sin,
of bereavement-an as you go through
the streets, and come back through the
streets, gather up in the arms of your
prayer all the sorrow. all the losses, all
the sufferings, all the bereavements Of
those whom you pass, and present them
in prayer before an all sympathetic God
I'm the great DAY of eternity there will
be thousands of persons with whom you
in this world never exchanged one word,
nd