Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1900-08-22
SERMONS Of THE DAY
Preached By Rev. Dr.. ralmage

Subject, The Mission Of CitIes-SIoraIIy
They Arc No Worse Than the Country
-vice 10 More Apparent. But Not More
Prevalsnt-A Plea For Honest Living.
fCopyrieht lsooI
WASHINGTON, D. C.-From st. Peters
burg, the Russian capital, where ne was
cordially received by the Emperor and
Empress and the Empress Dowager, DIR.
Ialmage sends this discourse, in which he
shows the mighty good that may be done
by the cities and also the vast evil they
may do by their allurements to the unsus-
Recting and the unguarded. The text is
Zechariah J. IL: my cities through pros
perity shall yet be spread abroad"
The city is no worse than the country.
The vices OF the metropolis are more evil
dent than the vices of the rural districts,
because there are more people to be bad,
If they wish to be. The merchant is as
good as the farmer. There is no more
worse cheating; it is only on larger
scale. The countryman sometimes preva-
ricates about the age of the horse that he
sells, about the size of the bushel with
which he measures the grain, about the
peaches at the bottom of the basket as
being as large as those at the top, about
the quarter of beef as being tender when
it is tough, and to as bad an extent as the
citizen. the merchant. prevaricates about
caicoes or silks or hardware.
And as t. villages, L think that in some
respects they are worse than the cities,
because they copy the vices of the cities
IN the meanest shape, and as to gossip, its
heaven is country village! Everybody
knows everybody's business better than
he knows it himself. The grocery store
! or the blacksmith shop by day and night
is the grand depot for masculine title tat
flq and there alxvavs m ba william. -
half dozen women who have their sun
bonnets hanging near, so that at the first
item of derogatory news they can fly out
and cackle it all over the town. Country
men must not be too hard in their criti-
cism OF the citizen, nor must the plow run
too sharply against the yardstck.
Cain was the founder of the first city,
and l suppose it took after him in morals.
1t takes a city long while to escape from
the character of the founder. Where the
founders of city are criminal exiles, the
filth, the vice, the prisons, are the shadow
of those founders. 1t will take centuries
for New York to get over the good influ-
ence of the pious founders of that city
the founders whose prayers went up in
the streets where now banks discount,
and brokers bargain, and companies de-
clare dividends, and smugglers swear Gus
tom house lies, and above the roar of the
wheels and the crack of the auctioneer's
ship thee, o thou almighty dollar!'
Cities are not evil necessarily, as some
have argued. They have been the birth
place of civilization. In them popular lib
erty has lifted its voice. Witness Genoa
and Pisa and Venice. After the death OF
Alexander the Great among his papers
were found extensive plans OF cities, some
to be built in Europe, some to be built in
Asia. The cities in Europe were to be
occupied by !asiatics; the cities in Asia
were to be occupied, according to his
plans, by Europeans, and so there should
be q commingling and fraternity and
kindness and a good will between the con-
tinents and between the cities. So there
always ought to be. The strangest thing
in my comprehension is that there should
be chickering's and rivalries among our
American cities. New York must stop
| caricaturing Philadelphia, and Philadel-
phla must stop picking at New York, and
certainly the continent is large enough
for st. Paul and Minneapolis. What is
good for one city is good for all the cities;
Here Is the great highway of our national
4, prosperity. On that highway of national
prosperity walk the cities.
A city with large forehead and great
brain-that is Boston; a city with delb-
crate step and calm manner-that is Phil
adelphia; city with its pocket full OF
change-that Is New York; two cities
gong with a rush that astounds the con-
| tinent-they are St. Louis and Chicago;
| city that takes its wife and children along
Louisville Pittsburg, all the cities of the
north, and all the cities of the south,
some distinguished for one thing, some
for another one for professional ability,
another for affiuence, another for fashion,
but not one to be spared. What advan-
tages one advantages all. What damages
Boston Common damages Washington
square. Laurel Hill, Mount Auburn,
Greenwood, weep over the same grief
| The statue of Benjamin Franklin in New
York greeting the bronze statue of Ed
ward Everett in Boston. All the cities
there should go on chickering's and rival
! ries. / plead for higher style of brother
/ hood or sisterhood among the cities.
| Again, in all cities l am impressed with
, the fact that all classes and conditions OF
society must commingle. We sometimes
cultivate a wicked exclusiveness. Intel,
! lect despises ignorance. Refinement Will
have nothing to do with boorishness.
Gloves hate the sunburned hand, and the
| high forehead despises the fiat head, and
I the trim hedgerow will have nothing to
do with the wild copsewood, and Athens
hates Nazareth. This ought not SO to be.
like this democratic principle OF the gos-
fact that we stand before Gdd on one
and the same platform. Do not take on
any airs. Whatever position you have
I gained in society, you are nothing but a
man, born of the same Parent, regener-
ated by the same Spirit, cleansed IN the
same blood. tn lie down in the same dust
~ get up IN the same resurrection. II l.
high time that we all acknowledged not
. only the Fatherhood of God, but the
brotherhood of man.
| Again, in all cities I am impressed with
the fact that it is a very hard thing for n
man to keep his heart right and to get to
heaven. Infinite temptations spring upon
us from places of public concourse. Amid
so much affluence, how much temptation
to covetousness and to be discontented
with our humble lot! Amid so many op
portunities for overreaching, what temp
tation to vanity Amid so many saloons
of strong drink, what allurements to dis
sipation! in the maelstroms and hel
| gates of the street, how many make quick
and eternal shipwreck! If man-of-wal
comes back from a battle, and is towed
,, into the navy yard, We go down to look
a. the splintered spars and count the hui
let holes, and look with patriotic admira
tion on the flag that fioated IN victory
from the masthead. But that man i
more of curiosity who has gone through
thirty years of the sharpshooting of busi
ness life, and yet sails on, victor over the
! temptations of the street. Oh. how many
have gone down under the pressure, leav
| ing not 80 much as patch of canvas tc
| tell where they persisted. Their dishones
ties kept tolling in their ears.
Again, in all these cities l am impressed
with the fact that life is full of pretenson
and sham. What subterfuge, what dou
Bile uealing, what two facedness. Do al
| the people who shake hands love eacl-
other? Are all those anxious about yom
health who inquire concerning ity Do al
want to see you who ask you to call? Doe.
all the world know half as much as il
pretends to know? Is there not many a
! wretched stock of goods with brilliant
store window? Passing up and down ths
streets to your business and your work
are you not impressed with the fact that
society is hollow, and that there are sub
terfuges and pretensions? Oh, how many
there are who swagger and strut, anG
how few people who are natural and walk!
While fops simper and fools snicker and
| ampIetons uggIe, how few people are nar-
! ,raf and laugh! l say these things not to
! .reate in you incredulity or misanthropy,
l. 7 nd of