The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-08-15
A SERMON ON MONEY.
Dr.. Talmage Arraigns Those Who
Live Beyond Their Means.
Causes of Great Financial Disturb
ances Show Extravagance the
Cause of Most DefalcatiOns-
Meeting Ones Obligations.
copyright. 1901, by Louis Klopsch. N. VI
Washington.

Washington.
In this discourse DR.. Talmage shows
the causes of the great financial dis
turbances which take place every few
years and arraigns the people who live
beyond their means; text, Jeremiah
It'll: ''As the partridge sitteth on
eggs and hatcheth them not, SO he that
getteth riches, and not by right, shall
leave them in the midst of his days and
at his end shall be a fool"
Allusion is here made to well-known
fact in natural history. If partridge
or a quail or robin brood the eggs OF
another species, the young will not
stay with the one that happened to
brood them, but at the first oppor-
tunity will assort with their own spe-
cies. Those of us who have been
brought up in the country have seen
the dismay of the farmyard hen, haV-
ing brooded aquatic fowls, when after
awhile they tumble into their natural
element, the water. So my text sug-
gests that a man may gather under his
wings the property Of others, but 1t
will after awhile escape. 1t will leave
the man in a sorry predicament and
make him feel very silly.
What has caused all the black days
of financial disasters for the last 60
years? Some say it is the credit sys-
tenn. Something back of that. Some
say it is the spirit of gambling ever and
anon becoming epidemic. Something
back of that. Some say it is the sud-
den shrinkage in the value of securi-
ties, which even the most honest and
intelligent men could not have fore
seen. Something back of that. will
give you the primal cause of all these
disturbances. 1t is the extravaganza
of modern society which impels man
to spend more money than he can hon
estly make, and he goes into wild spec
ula ton in order to get the means for
inordinate display, and sometimes the
man is to blame and sometimes his wife
and oftener both. Five thousand dol
lars income, $4,000, $40, 900 income, is
not enough for a man to keep up the
style of living he proposes, and there
fore he steers his bark toward the
maelstrom. Other men have suddenly
snatched up $4,000 or 100000. Why
not he? The present income of the
man not being large enough, he must
move heaven and earth and hell to
catch up with his neighbors. Others
have country seat; so must he. 9th
ers have palaitial residence; so must
he
Extravaganza is the cause of all the
defalcations of the last 60 years, and if
you will go through the history of all
the great panics and the great fnan-
cial disturbances, no sooner have you
found the story than right back of it
you will find the story of how many
horses the man had, how many car
riages, how many banquets the man
gave-always, and not one exception
for the last 60 years, either directly or
indirectly extravaganza the cause.
Now for the elegances and the re-
fnements and the decorations of life. |
cast my vote. While I am considering
this subject a basket of flowers is
handed in-flowers paradisiacal in
their beauty. White calla with green
background of begonia. A cluster of
heGotropes nesting in some geranium.
Sepal and perianth bearing on them
the marks of Gods finger. When l
see that basket of flowers, they per-
suade me that God loves beauty and
adornment and decoration. God
might have made the earth so as to
supply the gross demands of sense, but
left it without adornment or attrac-
tion. Instead of the variegated colors
of the seasons the earth might have
worn an unchanging dull brown. The
tree might have put forth its fruit
without the prophecy of leaf or bios
som. Niagara might have come down
in gradual descent without thunder
and winged spray.
There are families in all our cities
who can hardly pay their rent and who
owe all the merchants in the neighbor-
hood and yet have an apparel unfit for
time sailing SO near shore that busi-
ness misfortune or an attack of sick
ness prepares them for pauperism
Youknowveryw well there are thousands
of families in our great cities who stay
in neighborhoods until they have ex-
hausted all their capacity to get
trusted. They stay in the neighhor-
hood until the druggists will let them
have no more medicines, and the butch
ers will sell them no more meat, and
the bakers will sell them no more
bread, and the groceryman will sell
them no more sugar. Then they find
the region unhealthy, and they hire a
carman, whom they never pay, to take
them to some new quarters where the
merchants, the druggists, the butch
ers, the bakers and the grocerymen
come and give them the best rounds of
beef and the best sugars and the best
merchandise of all sorts until they find
out that the only compensation they
are going to get is the acquaintance of
the patrons. There are thousands of
such thieves in all our big cities. You
see I call them by the right name, for it