The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1901-07-19
A SERMON ON MONEY.
DR.. Talmage Arraigns Those Who
Live Beyond Their Means.
Causes of Great Financial Disturb
snces show - Extravagance the
Cause of Most Declarations
Meeting Ones Obligations.

WHICH PAaSN N'NAJ ~"
years and arraigns the people who live
beyond their means; text, jeremiah
17;11: LAS the partridge stitch on
eggs and hatcheth them not, so be 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
or n 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 assert 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 man may gather under his
wings the property of others. but 1t
will after awhile escape. 1t viii 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-
TEN. Some thing 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
ulation 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. S2e,0 900 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 he'll to
catch up with his neighbors. Others
have a 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 tinan-
cial disturbances, no sooner have you
found the story than right back of il
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 go years, either directly or
indirectly extravaganza the cause.
Now for the elegances and the re-
finements and the decorations of life.
cast my vote. While am considering
this subject n basket of flowers is
handed in--fowers paradisiacal in
their beauty. White Gala with a green
background of begonia, A cluster Of
heliotropes nesting in some geranium.
Sepal and perianth bearing an them
the marks of Gods finger. When !
see that basket of flowers. they per-
suade me that God loves beauty and
adornment and decoration. Coo
might have made the earth so as to
supply the gross demands of sense, but
left it without adornment or attrac-
lion. 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.
Look out Of your window any morn
ing after there has been dew. and
see whether God loves Jewels. Put a
crystal of snow under a microscope and
see what God thinks of architecture.
God commanded the priest of olden
time to have his robe adorned with
wreath Of gold and the hem of his gar
ment to be embroidered in pomegran-
ates. The earth sleeps and God blank
cts il with the brilliauts of the night
sky. The world wakes, and God
washes il from the FURNISHED LAYER of
the sunrise. So / have not much pa
thence with man who talks as though
decoration and adornment and the ele-
gances of life are sin when they are
Divine!y recommended. But there is
line TO be drawn between adornment
and decorations that we can afford
and those we cannot afford. and when
man crosses that line he becomes
culpable. cannot tell you what is ex-
traVagant for you. You cannot tell me
what is eXtrayagant for me. What is
right for queen may be squandering
for duchess. What may be econom-
lea. for you. man with larger income,
will be wicked for me, with smaller in
come There is no iron rule on this
subject. Every man before God and
on his knees must judge what is ex-
trnvagance, and when a man goes into
expenditures beyond his means he /,
extravagant. When a man buys any
thing he cannot pay for, he is extrava-
giant.
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
their circumstances and are all the
time sailing so near shore that bust
ness misfortune or an attack Of sick