The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1900-08-09
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
TALKS ABOUT THE ONLY TRUE
RELIGION"
Makeshifts of Human Manufacture Are
Useless When Measured by Gods
Plumb Linc-Religions Made to Suit
Conditions.

from Trondhjem, Norway, where
DR.. Talmage is now staying, he sends
the following discourse, in which he
shows that the world can never be ben
Gifted by religion of human manu-
facture, which easily yields to ones
surroundings, but must have religion
let down from heaven; text, Amos vii,
8: And the Lord said unto me,
Amos, what seest thou? And I said,
A plumb line"
The solid masonry of the world has
for me fascination. Walk about
some of the triumphal arches and the
cathedrals 400 or 600 years old, and see
them stand as erect as when they were
built, walls of great height, for CEN
turtles not bending a quarter of an
inch this way or that. So greatly
honored were the masons who builded
these walls that they were free from
taxation and called "free" masons.
The trowel gets most of the credit for
these buildings. and its clear ringing
on stone and brick has sounded across
the ages. But there is another imple-
ment of just as much Importance as
the trowel, and my text recognizes it.
Br1cklayers and stonemasons and
| carpenters, in the building of walls,
use an instrument made of a cord, at
the end of which a lump of lead is
fastened. They drop it over the side
OF the wall. and, as the plummet nat
urally seeks the center of gravity in
the earth, the workman discovers
where the wall recedes and where it
bulges out and just what is the per.
pendicular. Our text represents God
as standing on the wall of character
which the Israelites had built and in
that way testing it. And the Lord
said unto me, Amos, what seest thou?
And I said, A plumb line
What the world wants is straight up
and down religion. Much of the So
called piety of the day bends this way
and that to suit the times. 1t is
oblique, with low state of sentiment
and morals. We have all been build
Ing wall of character, and it is glar-
1ngly imperfect and needs reconstruct
ton. How shall it be brought into
perpendicular? Only by the divine
measurement. "And the Lord said
unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And
l said, A plumb line"
The whole tendency of the times is
to make us act by the standard of
what others do. We throw over the
wall of our character the tangled
plumb line of other lives and reject
the lnfallible test which Amos saw.
The question for me should not be
what you think is right, but what God
thinks is right. This perpetual refer
ence to the behavior OF others. as
though it decided anything but human
falllbllity, is mistake wide as the
world. There are 10000 plumb lines
IN use. but only one is true and exact.
and that is the line of Gods eternal
right. There is mighty attempt be-
ing made to reconstruct and fix up the
Ten Commandments. To many they
seem too rigid. The tower of Pisa
leans over about Is feet from the per-
pendicular, and people go thousands
OF miles to see it's graceful inclination
and to learn how, by extra braces and
various architectural contrivances. it
is kept leaning from century to cen
Jury. Why not have the ten granite
blocks of Sinai set little aslant? Why
not have the pillar of truth leaning
tower? Why is not an ellipse as good
as square? Why is not an oblique
rs good as straight up and down? My
friends, we must have a standard.
Shall it be Gods or mans?
Society Utterly Askew.
The divine plumb line needs to be
thrown over all merchandise. Thou
sands of years ago Solomon discovered
the tendency of buyers to depreciate
goods. He saw man beating down
an article lower and lower and saying
1t was not worth the price asked, and
when he had purchased at the lowest
point he told everybody what sharp
bargain he had struck and how he out
Witted the merchant. at is naught
faith the buyer, but when he is gone
lis way, then he boasteth' proverbs
TX, 14). Society is SO utterly askew
IN this matter that you seldom find
seller asking the price that he ex-
poets to get; he puts on higher value
than he expects to receive, knowing
that he will have to drop. And if he
wants $50, he asks SIS. And if he
wants $4,000, he asks $500. cit is
Taught" saith the buyer THE fabric
Is defective; the style of goods is
hoor; | can get elsewhere better ar
licle at smaller price. 1t is out of
fashion; it is damaged; it will fade;
1t will not wear WE'LL" After awhile
The merchant. from oyerpersuas: on or
from desire to dispose Of that particu-
lar stock of goods. says. well. take it
1t your own price " and the purchaser
goes home with light step and calls in
70 his private Office his confidential
friends and cf""lsles while he tells
how for half pro he got the goods.
In other words, he lied and was proud
If it.
| Nothing would make times so good
and the earning of livelihood so
easy as the universal adoption of the
law of right. Suspision strikes through
Ill bargain making. Men who sell
know not whether they will ever get
the money. Purchasers know not
whether the goods shipped will be ac-
eording to the sample. And what, with
the large number of clerks who are
making false entries and then abb
sconding and the explosion of firms
that fail for millions of dollars, hon
est men are at their wits ends to