The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-07-16

course DIR. Talmage shows the causes OF
the great financial disturbances which
take place every few years and arraignt
the people who live beyond their means:
text, Jeremiah xvii, II, "As the partridge
stitch on eggs and hatcheth them not, 50
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 a well known
fact in natural history. If a partridge o.,
a quail or a robin brood the Eggs of an.
other species, the young will not stay
with the one that happened to brood
them, but at the first opportunity will
assert with their own species. Those of
us who have been brought up in the
country have seen the dismay of the
farmyard hen, having brooded aquatic
fowls, when after awhile they tumble in
to their natural element, the water. So
my text suggests that q man may gather
under his wings the property Of others,
but it 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 system. Some
thing back of that. Some say it is the
spirit of gambling ever and anon becom-
ing epidemic. Something back of that.
Some say it is the sudden shrinkage in
the value of securities, which even the
most honest and intelligent men could not
have foreseen. Something back of that.
] will give you the primal cause of all
these disturbances. 1t is the extrava-
gance Of modern society which impels q
man to spend more money than he can
honestly make, and be goes into wild
speculation 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 dollars
income, $4,000, $4,000. income, is not
enough for n man to keep up the style of
living he proposes, and therefore 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 earth and
hell to catch up with his n%eighbors. 9th
ers have 4 country seat; so must he.
Others have an ~extrayagant caterer; so
must he. Others have a palatial resi-
dence; 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 financial dis
turbances, no sooner nave you found the
story than right back of it you will find
the story Of how many horses the man
had. how many carriages the man had,
how many residences in the country the
man had, how many banquets the man
gaye-always, and not one exception for
the last GO years, either directly or indi-
rectly extravaganza the cause.
The R-ennements of Life.
Now for the elegances and the refine
ments 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 Gala with q green background Of
begonia. A cluster Of heliotropes mes
Ting in some geranium. Sepal and pc
rianth bearing on them the marks of
Gods finger. When I see that basket Of
flowers, they persuade 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
seft it without adornment or attraction.
Instead Of the v~ariegated colors Of the
seasons the earth might have worn an I'M
changing dull brown. The tree might
have put forth its fruit without the
prophecy Of leaf or blossom. Niagara
80 - ~OAAS wv Ill I'LL -
without thunder and winged spray.
Look out of your window any morning
after there has been a dew and see
whether God loves jewels. Put a crystal
Of snow under a microscope and see what
God thinks Of architecture. God COM
manded the priest Of olden time to have
his robe adorned with q wreath Of gold
and the hem Of his garment to be en-
broidered in pomegranates. The earth
sleeps, and God blankets it with the bril-
= liants of the night sky. The world wakes,
and God washes it from the FURNISHED
laver Of the sunrise. So / have not much
patience with n man who talks as though
decoration and adornment and the ele-
gances Of life are a sin when they are
diyinely recommended. But there is a
line to be drawn between adornment and
. decorations that we can afford and those
We cannot afford. and when a man crosses
that line he becomes culpable. I cannot
tell you what is ext~ravagant for you.
4. You cannot tell me what is extravagant
for me. What is right for a queen may
be squandering for a duchess. What
may be economical for you. a man with
larger income. will be wicked waste fol-
me. with smaller income. There is nc
iron rule on this subject. Every man be-
fore God and on his knees must judge
What is extravaganza, and when a man
goes into expenditures beyond his means
ne is extravagant- When g man buys
anything he cannot pay for, he Is ex.
~travagant.
There are families in all our cities who
can hardly pay their rent and who owe
all the merchants in the neighborhood
and yet have an apparel unfit for their
circumstance ard are all the time sailinS
so near shore that business misfortune o
an attack of sickness prepares them fol
pauperism. You know very we'll there
are thousand Of families in our great
cities VINO stay in neighborhoods until
they have exhausted all their capacity to
get trusted. They stay il the neighbor
hoods until the druggists will let them
have no more medicines, and the butchers
will sell them no more meat, and the
bakers will sell them no more bread, and
the grocerymen will sell them no more
sugar. Then they find the region un'
hoalthp apd thov hire n aornau whom