Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-03-23

the Gospel of Christ-rcmptntions
For the Unwnry-shnms aud Pre-
tcnsions-woris For Christians.
tCopyrlght, 1899, by American Press Asso-
clatlonl
WASHINGTON, March 19.-In this dis
course DR.. Talmagc, who has lived the
most of his life in cities draws practical
lessons from his own observation; text
Proverbs /, o0 "Wisdom cricth without
She uttercth 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 responds to day, and night TO
night, and flower to flower, and star to
star in the great harmonieS of the uni
verse The springtimc is an evangelist
in blossoms preaching Of Gods love, and
tho winter Is ~ prophet-whitc bearded
denouncing Woo against our sins. We arc
all ready to listen to the voices of nature.
the voices of the noisy and dusty street.
You go to your mechanism, and to your
work and to your merchandise and you
como back aEain-and often with how
different n heart you pass through the
streets. Are there no things for MS TO
learn from these pavements over which we
pass? Are there no tufts of truth growing
up between these cobhlcStoncs, beaten
with the feet of toll and pain and pleasure,
the slow tread of old age and the quick
step of childhood? Aye, there ara great
harvests TO be rcaped and now ! thrust in
the sickle because the harvest is ripe.
Wisdom cricth without She utterGth
her voice in the streets.
Toll and Struggle,
In the first place the street imprcsses me
with the fact that this life is a scene OF
Toll and struggle. BY 10 O'Clock every day
the city is Earring with wheels and shut
fling with feet and humming with voices
and covered with the breath Of smoke
stacks and a-rush with trafllckCrS Once in
while you find u man going along with
folded arms and with lcisurey 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 GRAND which must be executed
at the first possible moment You are
iostled by those who have bargains 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 Smuggling roof
or shooting horse, or building wall OF
mending a watch, or binding "a book In
dustry, with her thousand arms and
thousand eyes and thousand feet, goes on
singing her song of work, work, work
while tho mills drum it and the steam
whistles fife it, All this is not because
men love toll. Some one remarked Every
man is as lazy as he can afford to be.
But il is because necessity with stern brow
and with uplifted whip stands over yor
ready whenever you relax your toll tC
make your shoulders sting with the lash.
Can it be that passing up and dowr
these streets on your way to work ant
business you do not learn anything o
the worlds toll and anxiety and strug
gle? Oh how many dropping hearts, how
many eyes on the watch, how many mile
Travelled, how many burdens carried, how
many losses suffered, how many battle
fought, how many victories gained, how
many defeats suffered, how many exas
"
hunger, what wretchcdness, what pallor'
what disease, what agony, what despair
Sometimes | have stopped at the corner o
the street as the multitudes went hlthe
and yon, and IT has seemed to be grea
pantomime, and as l looked upon it III,
heart broke This great tide of human
life that goes down the street is rapiC
tossed and turned aside and dashed ahcat
and driven back--beautiful in its confu
sion and confused in its beauty. In tn,
earpsted aisles of the forest, in the wood
from which the eternal shadow is nevc
lifted, on tho shore of the sea over who's
iron coast losses the tangled foam sprn
king the cracked cliffs with n baptism o
whillwind and tempest, is the best plac
to Study God, but in the rushing, swarm
ing, raving street is the best place to stud,
man.
All Glasses Meet,
Going down to your place OF bushes
and coming home again i charge you L
look about-see these signs Of poverty, O
wretchedness, Of hunger, of sim of he
reavement--and MS you 20 through tn
streets and come back through the streets
gather up in the arms of your prayer al
the sorrow, all the losses, all the suffer
ings, all the bereavements of those whom
you pass and present them in prayer be
fore an all sympathetic God. In the grea
day Of eternity there will be thousands O
persons with whom you in this worl
never exchanged one word who will rise II
and call you blessed, and there will be
thousand fingers pointed at you in heaven
saying, THAT is the man, that is tn
woman, who helped me when | was hun
CRY and sick and wandering and lost an
heartbrohen That is the man, that is tn
woman And the blessing will com
down upon You as Christ shall say .
was hungry, and yc fed me; l was naked
and We clothed me; Twas sick and in prison
and ye visited me. Inasmuch as We did /
to these poor waits of the streets, We di
II to me. "
Again, the street impresses me wit
the fact that all classes and conditions c
society must commingle. We sometime
culture wicked exclusiveness Intellec
despises ignorance. Refinement will hay
nothing to do with boorishness Glove
hato the sunburned hand, and the hig
forehead despses the fiat head, and tn
trim hedgcrow viii have nothing to d
with the wild copsewood, and Athens hate
Nazareth This ought not so to be. III
astronomer must come down from HI
starry revelry and help us in our navigi
ton. The surgeon must come away froi
his study OF the human organism and 81
our broken bones The chemist mu.
come away from his laboratory, where /
has been studying analysis and synthesi
and help US TO understand the nature
the soils. ] bless God that all classes