Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1899-04-28
ON THE CITY STREETS
The Contrasts of Splendor and Woe
Seen Upon Them.
Or. Talmage Says They Are Unlike
the Democratic Gospel of Christi
Their shams, Pretensions hnd
Temptations,

washington, Copyright lSsS')
In this discourse DR.. Talmage, who
has lived the most of his life in cities,
draws practical lessons from his own
observations; text, Proverbs 1920:
"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 musically 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 evangelistin bios
SONS preaching of Gods love, and the
winter is a 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 any
| thing from the voices of the noisy and
dusty street. You go to your mech
anism, and to your work, and to your
merchandise, and you come back again
and often with how different 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, beaten
with the feet of toll and pain and pleas
rre, 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 with
out. 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 ten
o'clock every day the city is jarring
with wheels and shuffling with feet and
humming with voices and covered with
the breath of smokestacks and a-rush
with traflickers. Once in awhile you
find man going along with folded
arms and with leisurely step, sthough
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 on their faces, as though
they had some errand which must be
executed at the first possible moment.
You are jostled by those who have bar
gains to make and notes to sell. Up
this ladder with hod of bricks, out
of this bank with roll of bills, on this
dray with load of goods, digging a
cellar, or shingling a roof, or shoeing
horse, or building wall, or mending
a watch, or binding a book. Industry,
with her thousand arms and thousand
eyes and thousand feet, goes on singing
her song of work, work, work, while
the mills drum it and the steam
whistles fife it. All this is not because
men love TO 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
Can ii be that passing up and down
these streets on your way TO work and
! business you do not learn anything OF
the worlds toll and anxiety and strug-
) gle? Oh, how many dropping hearts
how many eyes on the watch, how
many miles Travelled, how many bur.
dens carried. how many losses sus-
! fered how many battles fought, how
many victories gained, how many eN-
asperations endured-what losses, what
hunger, what wretchcdness, what pal.
lor, what disease. what agony, what de-
spair! Sometimes ! have stopped al
the corner OF the street as the multi
tudes went hither and yon, and it has
seemed to be a great pantomime, and as
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-beautiful in its confusion
and confused in it's beauty. In the car
| peted aisles Of the forest, in the woods
from which the eternal shadow isnevei
lifted, on the shore of the sea over
, whose iron coast tosses the tangled
foam sprinkling the cracked cliffs with
baptism of whrlwnd and tempest
[ is the best place to study God, but ir
; the rushing, swarming, raving street
is the best place TO study man.
Going down TO your place of business
and coming home again | charge yor
? 10 look about-see these signs Of power
3 ty, of wretchedness, Of hunger, of sin
, Of bereavement - and as you &C
! through the streets and come bach
/, through the streets, gather up in thu
; arms of your prayer all the sorrow, al
the losses, all the sufferings, all the be
> reavements of those whom you pas
and present them in prayer before al
D all sympathetic God. In the great day
3 of eternity there will be thousands O.
I persons with whom you in this worlt
= never exchanged one word who viii
( rise up and call you blessed. and ther,
! will be thousand fingers pointed a
\ you in Heaven, saying; That is tn,
man, that is the woman, who helped
me when | was hungry and sick anC
wandering and lost and heartbroken
, That is the man, that is the woman.
q And the blessing will come down upor
I you as Christ shall say; II was hun
, cry. and ye fed me; ! was naked, ant
ye clothed me; | was sick and in pris
I on, and ye visited me. lnasmuch as Y,
did ii TO these poor waits of the street
ye did it TO me-"
Again, the street impresses me will
the fact that all classes and conditions
of society must commingle We some
times culture a wicked exclu sivenese