Connecticut western news., 1900-08-09
BY THE PLUMB LINE,
THE KIND OF RELIGION THAT THE
 WORLD NEEDS.

Comes Straight Down From Heaven
 Can ne of Deneat to Humanity--Man
 Made Religions Are Useless.
 WASHINGTON, Aug. 5.-From Trondh- 3em. Norway, where Dr. Talmage Is now staying, he sends the following discourse, in which he shows that the world can never be benefited by 2 re- aigion of human manufacture, 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 thouf And said, A plumb line"
 The solid masonry of the world has for me fascination. Walk about some of the triumphal arches and the cathearals, 400 or 600 years old, and see them stand as erect hs when they Were bhilded. walls of great height, for eeaturies hot bending a quarter of an inch this way or that. So greatly honored were the masons who builded knese 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 She troweI and my text recognizes it. Bricklayers and stonemasons and car penters In the building of walls use an instrument made of a cord, at the And of which a lump of lead Is fasten- ed They drop it over the side of the wall. and, as the plummet naturally seeks the center of gravity in the earth. the workman discovers where the wall recedes and where 1t bulges out and just what Is the perpendicular. Our text represents God as standing on the wall of character, which the Israeftes had built, and in that way festihg 1t. And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And said, A plumb line"
 What the world wants Is straight mp and down religion. Muchfof the so called piety of the day bends this way and that ts suit the times. It Is .obliQue. with low state of sentiment and morals. We have all been building wall of character, and 1t Is glaringly imperfect and needs reconstruction. How shall it be brought Into perpen- dfeularf Only by the divine measure ment. And the Lord said unto me, Amos. what seest thou? And I 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 fhe infalAble 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 1t decided anything but human fallibilfty, Is a 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 a mighty attempt be- fng made to reconstruct and fix up the Ten Commandments. To many they seem too rigid. The tower of Pisa leans over about 13 feet from the per
 
 of miles to see It's graceful inclination and to learn how, by extra braces and various architectural contrivances, 1t ts kept leaning from century to cen kury. Why not have the ten granite blocks of Sinai set little aslant?' Why not have the pillar of truth a leaning tower1 Why Is not an ellipse as good as a square? Why is not an obiique as good as straight up and down? My friends, we must have a standard. Shall 1t be Gods or man,s9
 The Divine Plumb Line. The divine plumb line needs to be thrown over all merchandise. Thou sands sf years ago Solomon discovered the tendency of buyers to depreciate goods. He saw a man beating down m 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 a sharp bargain he had struck and how he had outwitted the merchant. Ut Is naught. saith the buyer. but when he is gone his way. then he boasteth" {Proverbs xx, IA. Society Is so utter ly askew in this matter that you sell dom find a seller asking the price that he expects to get. He puts on higher Saiue than he expects to receive, know ing that he will have to drop. And when he wants 50 he says 10, and If he wants 2,0OO he asks 2,5O0. Ut Is naught." saith the buyer. ..'The fab Tic is defective. the style of goods Is poor. can get elsewhere better ar tticle at a smaller price. It Is out of fashion, 1t Is damaged, 1t will fade, 1t will not wear we'll" After awhile the merchant. from overpersuasion or from desire to dispose 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 kis 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 1t.
 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 making. Men who sell know mot whether they will ever get the money. Purchasers know not whether the goods shipped will be according 10 the sample. And what, with the large number ef clerks who are making false entries and then absconding and the explosion of firms that fail for millions, of dollars, honest men are al Nheir wits end to make living. He who stands ups amid all the pressure and does right Is accomplishing some Rhing toward the establishment of g 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 bluefish