Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1900-08-17
REV, DR.. TALMACE.
THE EMINENT DIvINE's sUNDA'
DISCOURSE.
Subject, The Mission Of Cities-Mofally
Thoy Are No Worse Than the Country
Vice is More Apparent, But Not More
Preyaleut-A Plea For Honest Living,
downright 1900. !

They Are No Worse Than the Country
Vice is More Apparent, But Not More
Prevalent-A Plea For Honest Living
copyright isOcl
WASHINGTON, d. C.--From st. Peters
burg, the Russian capital, where he was
cordially received by the Emperor and
Empress and the Empress Dowager, DIR.
Talmage 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-
pecting and the unguarded The text Is
Lechariah i, II: 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
cheating in town than out OF town-no
worse cheating; it is only on a 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, prevarlcates ABOUT
| caliooes or silks or hardware.
And as t. villages, / 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, It's
! 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
| tie. and there are always in the village
half dozen women who have their sun
| bonnets hanging near, so that at the first
| item of derogatory news they can hy out
| and cackle it all over the town. Country
men must not be too hard i'll their crlti-
| cism of the citizen, nor must the pillow run
too sharply against the yardstick.
Cain was the founder of the first city,
| and | suppose it took after him IN morals.
| 1t takes city long while to escape from
| the character of the founder. Where the
| founders of city are criminal exlles, the
| filth, the vice, the prisons, are the shadow
| for New York to get over the good infu-
ence of the pious founders OF that city
the founders whose prayers went up III
| 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
malet ascends the ascription, eve wor-
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
/ nj nF CltIp
| to be built in Europe, some to be built IN
| Asia. The cities in Europe. were to be
occupied by nsiatics; the cities i'll Asia
were to be occupied, according to his
| plans, by Europeans, and so there should
| be a comminghng and fraternity and a
| kindness and 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
prosperity. On that highway of national
prosperity walk the cities,
A city with large forehead and great
brain-that is Boston; city with deIi6'
crate step and calm manner-that is Phil.
adelphia: a city with its pocket full OF
change-that is New York; two cities
gong with rush that astounds the con-
tinent-they are st. Louis and Chicago; q
city that takes its wife and children along
with it-that is Brooklyn. CINCINNATI,
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 afluence, another Tor fashion,
hut not one to be spared. What advan-
tages one advantages all. What damages
Boston Common damages Washington
souare Laurel Hill, Mount Auburn,
Greenwood. weep over the same gr1ef.
The statue of Benjamin Franklin in New
York greeting the bronze statue OF Ed
ward Everett in Boston. All the cities a
confraternty. | cannot understand now
there should go on chickering's ana rival
ries ] plead for higher style OF brother
hood or sisterhood among the cities.
Again. in all cities | am impressed with
the fact that all classes and conditions OF
society must commingle. We sometimes
cultivate 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
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'
pel of Jesus Christ which recognizes the
fact that we stand before God ON one
and the same platform DO not take on
any airs. Whatever position you nave
gained in society, you are nothing but q
man. born of the same Parent, regener-
ated by the same Spirit, cleansed In the
same blood, to lie down in the same dust
TO get ND in the same resurrection. III is
high time that we all acknowledged not
only the Fatherhood of God, but the
brotherhood of man. 80,
Again. in all cities | am impressed with
the fact that it is very hard thing tor a
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 discontinued
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
sipationi lin the maelstroms and bel
gates of the street, how many make quick
and eternal shipwreck! If man-oi-wai
comes back from battle, and is towed
into the navy yard, we go down to look
al the splintered spars and count the bull
let holes. and look with patriotic admlIa
ton on the flag that hoated Ill victory
from the masthead. But that man Is
more of curiosity who has gone through
thirty years of the sharpshOoting OF bus
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 so much as patch of canvas to
tell where they persisted Their dishones
ties kept tolling in their ears.
1 -: =, III +Loeo c;+;oc / an, immersed