The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1900-08-22
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE YTHE NOTED
DIVINE.

Subject: The Kind of Religion That the
World Needs-OnIy That Which Comel
Straight Down From Heaven Can BE
OF Benefit to Humanity.
copyright lsou.l
WASHINGTON, D. &. From Norway,
where DR.. Talmage is now staying, he
! sends the following discourse, IN which he
/ shows that the world can never be bene-
| flied by a religion of human manufacture,
which easily yields to ones surroundings,
but must have religion let down from
heaven; text, Amos vii, g: And the Lord
said unto me, Amos, what seest thou! And
said, A plumb line."
The solid masonry of the world has for
me 4 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 buildcd. walls OF
great height, for centuries rot bending a
quarter Of an inch this way or that. So
greatly honorcd were the masons who
buildcd these walls that they were free
from taxation and called free" ,nasons.
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 implement of
just as much Importance as the trowel.
and my text cecogni yes it. Hrlcklayers
and stonemasons and carpenters in the
building OF walls use an instrument made
of a cord, at the end of which lump OF
lead is fastened. They drop it over the
side Of the wall, and. as the plummet nat
urally seeks tho centre of gravity in the
earth, the workman discovers where the
wall 'recedes and where it hulgcs out and
Just what is the perpendicular. Our text
represents God as standing or. the wall
of character, which the 1sraelites had
built. and in. that way testing it, "And
the Lord said unto me. Amos, what secst
thou? And / 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 a
low state of sentiment and morals. We
have all been building wall Of character,
and it is glarinclv imperfect and needs re-
construction. How shall it be brought into
perpendicular? Only by the divine meas
urement. "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. 9TH
ers do. We throw over the wall OF our
character the tangled plumb line of other
lives and reject the infallibe. 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 fallihility,
is q mistake as 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 at
tempt being made to reconstruct and fix
up the Ten Commandments. To many. they
,.-.l Nf pIoo 90 NO
over about thirteen feet from the perpen-
dicular, and people 60 thousands Of miles
to see its graceful inclination and oElearn
how, by extra braces and various architecs
tural contrivances, it is kept leaning from,
century to century. Why not have the ten
granite blocks of Sinai set little aslant?
Why not have the pillar of truth lean;
ing tower? Why is not an ellipse as good
as square? Why is not an oblique as
good as straight up and down? My
friends. we I. ust have standard. Shall
it be Gods or mans?
The divine plumb line needs to be thrown
over all merchandise. Thousands Of years
ago Solomon discovered the tendency of
buyers to depreciate goods. He saw
man beating down, an article lower and
lower, and saying it 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 had outwitted the merchant. 1T
is naught, saith the buyer, but when he Is
gone his way, then he boasteth" prov
erbs Xxx, l4). Society is so utterly askew
in this matter that you seldom find sell.
er asking the price that he expects to get.
He puts on higher value than he expects
to receive, knowing that he will have to
drop. And when he wants fifty he says
seventy. five, and is he wants 1000 he asks
$500, '"It is naught,"' saith the buyer.
"The fabric is defective, the style Of goods
is Door. / can get elsewhere better ar
ticfe at smaller price. It is out of fash
ion, it .s damaged, it will fade, it will not
wear we'll" After awhile the merchant,
from overpcrsuasion or from desire to dis
pose of that particular stock OF goods, says,
"Well, take it at your own price, and the
purchaser goes home with light step and
calls into his private Office his confidential
friends and chuckles while he tells how
for half price he got the goods. In other
words. he lied and was proud OF it.
Nothing would make times so good and
the earning of livelihood so easy as the
universal adoption Of the law OF right.
Suspicion strikes through all bargain MAX
ing. Men who sell know not whether they
will ever get the money. Purchasers know
not whether the goods shipped will be ae-
cording to the sample. And what, with
the large number of clerks who are max.
ing false entries and then absconding and
the explosion of firms that fail for mill
ions of dollars, honest men are at their
wits ends to make a living. HI: who
stands up amid all the pressure and does
rlyu. is accomplishing something toward
the establishment of high commercial
prosperity.
The pressure to do wrong is stronger
from the fact that in our day the large
business houses are swallowing up the
smaller, the whales dining on buefish and
minnows. The large houses underscll the
small ones because they buy in greater
quantities and at lower figures from the
producer. They can afford to Ike moth.
ing or actually lose on some styles of
goods, assured they can make it up on 9TH
ers. So great dry goods house goes out
side of it's regular line and sells books at
cost or less than cost, and that swamps
the bookseller, or the dry goods house
sells bric-abrac at lowest figures, and that
swamps the small dealer in bric-a-brac.
And the same thing goes on in other
styles OF merchandise, and the consequence
is that all along the business streets OF all
our cities there are merchants OF small
capital who are in terrific struggle to keep
their heads above water. The ocean liners
run down the NnWlOuluianu lshiis
smacks. This is nothing against the man
who has the big store, for every man has
as large store and as great business as
he can manage.
TO feel right and do right under all this
pressure requires martyr grace, requires
tivire support, requires celestial re-en-
forcement. Yet there are tens of thou
sands of such men getting splendily
through. They see Others going up and
themselves going down, but they keep
their patience and courage and their Chris
tian consistency, and after awhile their
SUCCESS will come There is generally re-