Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1900-08-15
SERMONS Of THE DAY
Preached BY Rev. Dr.. Talmage

SubjecAs. The Kind of Religion That ths
World Needs-OnIy That which Cor 80
Straight Down From Heaven Can As
OF Benefit to Humanity.
tcopyrieht lsoaI
WASHINGTON, D. C.. From Norway,
where DR.. Talmage is now staying, he
sends the following discourse, in which he
shows that the world can never be bene-
fitted by a religion of human manufacture,
which easily yields to ones surroundings,
but must have a religion let down from,
heaven; text, Amos vii, 8: And the Lord
said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And
said, A plumb line"
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 builded. walls of
great height, for centuries lot 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 implement of
Just as much Importance the trowel,
and my text recognizes 1t. Bricklayers
and stonemasons and carpenters in the
building OF walls use an instrument made
of cord, at the end of winch a lump of
lead is fastened. They drop it over tie
side of the wall, and, as the plummet nat
urally seeks the centre of gravity in the
| earth, the workman discovers where the
wall recedes and where it bulges out and
Just what is the perpendicular. Our text
| represents God as standing on the wall
of character, which the Israelites had
hrIt n,d hat l,.I
the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest
thous And l 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 obique, with a
have all been building wall of character,
and it is glarinelv 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 infallible 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
it decided anything but human fallibllity.
is a mistake as wide as the world. There
are 10, 900 plumb lines in use, but only one
ia 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
seem too rigid. The tower of Pisa leans
over about thirteen feet from the perpen-
dicular, and people go thousands of miles
to see its graceful inclination and to learn
how, by extra braces and various archltec-
tural contrivances, it is kept leaning from
century to century. Why not have the ten
granite blocks of Sinai set a little aslant? :?
Why not have the pillar of truth lean
ing tower? Why is not an ellipse as good
as a square? Why is not an oblique as
good as straight up and down My
friends. we n ust have a 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 a
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, IA. Society is SO utterly askew
in this matter that you seldom find a sell
er asking the price that he expects to get
He puts on a 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 2OOO he asks
$500. 1T is naught," saith the buyer.
The fabric is defective, the style of goods
is poor. l can get elsewhere a better ar,
ticle at a smaller price. 1t Is out of FASH
ion, it As damaged, it will fade, it will not
wear we'll" After awhile the merchant,
from overpersuasion or from desire to dis
pose of that particular stock OF goods, says,
We'll, 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 nalf 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 max
ing Men who sell know not whether they
will ever get the money. Purchasers know
not whether the goods shipped will be ac-
cording to the sample. And what, with
the large number of clerks who are max.
ing false entries and then abscondlng nd
the explosion Of firms that fail for mill
ions of dollars, honest men are at their
wits ends to make a living He who
stands up amid all the pressure and does
Fight is accomplishing something toward
the establishment of a high commercial
prosperity.
The pressure to do wrong is strorTer
from the fact that in our day the l. ,ge
business houses are swallowing up the
smaller, the whales dining on blue !, and
minnows. The large houses underseil the
small ones because they buy in greater
quantities and at lower figures from the
producer. They can afford to make moth.
ing or actually lose on some styles OF
goods. assured they can make 1t up on 9th
g. dry ponHs hnuSa
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 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 Newfoundland fishing
smacks. This is nothing against the man
who has the big store, for every man has
as large, a store and as great business as
he can manage.
To feel right and do right under all this
pressure requires martyr grace, requires
Livine support, requires celestial re-en-
forcement Yet there are tens of thou
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
tribution In some form for greediness. The
owners of the big business will die, and
their boys will get possession of the bust
ness, and tn a cigar in their mouths and
full to the chins with the best liquor and
behind pair of spanking bays they will
pass everything on the turnpike road to
temporal and eternal perdition. Then tho
business will break up, and the smaller
dealers will have fair opportunity, or the
spirit of contentment and right feeling will
take possession of the large firm, as re-
Gently with famous business house, and
the firm will say: I'VE have enough money
for all our needs and the needs of our
children Now let us dissolve business