The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-21
DR. TALMAGFS SERMON.

Washington. July 1l.--In this dis. lourse Dr. Talmage shows the cause oi the great financial dieturbances which
 ake place every few years and ar
 airns the people who live beyond their means: text, Jeremiah xvii, Il, AS the partridge sitteth on eggs ana hatcheth them not, so he that gettetn riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days and<a at bis end shall be a fool"
 Anusion is here made to well known fact in natural history. II partridge or quail or a robin brood the eggs of another species. the young win not stay with the one that nap pened to brood them. but at the nrst opportunity will assort with their own species. 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. It will leave the man in sorry predicament and make him feel very silly.
 What has caused all the black days of financial disasters for the last sixty years? Some say it is the credit sys- tenn. Something back of that. Some say 1t is the spirit of gambling ever and anon becoming epidemic. Something hack of that Some say 1t is the sud- den shrinkage in the value of securitie which even the most honest and in- teiligent men could not have foreseen. Something back of that. I will give you the primal cause of all these dis turbances. It is the extravaganza of modern society which impels man to spend more money than he can honest ly make. and he goes into wild specu- fation 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. $1o.0o0. s2o.0o0 income. is not enoug.. for a man to keep up the style of living he proposes. and there fore he steers his bark toward the niaelstrom. Other men have suddenly snatched up $50.000. s100.000. Why not he? The present income of the man not being large enough, he must move earth and hell to catch up with his neighbore. Others have a country seat: so must he. Others have an extravagant caterer: so must he. Others have paIatial residence: so must he.
 Extravagance is the cause of all the defalcations of the last sixty years, and. if you will go through the history of all the great panics and the great financial disturbances. no sooner have you found the story than right back of 1t you will find the story of how many horses the man had, how many carriages the man had. how many resi- dences in the country the man had, how many banQuets the man gave always. and not one exception for the lost sixty years. either directly or indi- rectly extravagance the couse.
 The Refinements of Life.
 2 Now for the elegances and the refine ments and the decorations of life. l cast my vote. While am considering this subject basket of flowers is hand ed in-flowers paradisiacal in their beauty. White calla with a green back ground of begonia. A cluster of helio- tropes nesting in some geranium. Sepal and perianth bearing on them the marks of Gods finger. When see that basket of flowers, they persuade me that God loves beauty and adorn- ment and decoration. God might have made the earth so as to supply the gross demands of sense, but left il without adornment or attraction. In. stead of the variegated colors of the seasons the earth might have worn ar unchanging dull brown. The tree might have put forth it's fruit without