The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-07-31
DR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

Few Years-wasted Wealth.
Copyright 1901
WASHINGTON, D. Gin this discourse
DR.. Talmage shows the causes OF the great
financial disturbances which take place
every few years, and arraigns the people
who live beyond their means; text, Jere'
miah xvii. II, "As the partridge sltteth on
eggs and hatcheth them not, SO ne that
getteth riches and not by right shall leave
them in the midst Of his days and at MS
end shall be fool"
Allusion is here made to a well.known
fact in natural history. If a partridge or
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 as
sort with their own species. Those OF us
who have been brought up in the country
have seen the dismay of the tarmyard
hen, having brooded aquatic fowls, when
after awhile they tumble into their nat
ural element, the water. 80 my text spg'
gests that a man may gather under his
wings the property of Others, but it will
after awhile escape; it will leave the man
in sorry predicament and make MIN feel
very silly. :,
What has caused all the black days Of
financial disasters for the last sixty years!
Some say it is the credit system. 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 sudden shrinkage In the value
of securities, which even the most honest
and intelligent men could not have tore,
seen. Something back of that, l will
give you the primal cause OF all these disc
turbances. 1t is the extravaganza OF
modern society which impels a man to
ho hnnpsfIv
make, and he 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, SlO,-
600, $4,000 income is not enough for a
man to keep up the style of living he pro-
poses, and therefore he steers his bark to-
ward the maelstrom. Other men have
suddenly snatched up $1,000 or Sl00, ,0O0-
why not he? The present income of the
man not being large enough, he must move
earth and hell to catch up with his neigh
bors. Others have a country seat-so
must he; others have an extravagant ca.
terer-so must he; others have palatlai
residence-so must he.
Extravaganza is the cause of all the de.
falcations of the last sixty years, and If
you will go through the history of all the
great panics and the great financial dis
turbances 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 carriages the man had,
how many residences in the country the
man had, how many banquets the man
gave-always, and not one exception for
the last sixty years, either directly or in
directly extravaganza the cause.
Now, for the elegances and the refine
ments and the decorations Of life l cast
my vote. While I am considering this
subject basket of flowers is handed in
flowers paradisaical in their beauty-white
mia; a cluster of heliotropes nesting in
some geraniums; sepal and perianth bear
ing 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 left it with:
out adornment or attraction. Instead of
the variegated colors of the seasons, the
earth might have worn an unchanging dull
brown. The tree might have put forth it's
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 morning
after there has been dew and see
whether God loves jewels. Put crystal
of snow under microscope and see what
God thinks of architecture. God COM
manded the priest of olden time to have
his robe adorned with wreath of gold
and the hem of his garment to be embroid-
cred in pomegranates. The earth sleeps:
and God blankets it with the brilliants of
the night sky. The world wakes. and God
washes it from the FURNISHED laver of the
sunrise. So I have not much patience
with a man who talks as though decora.
ton and adornment and the elegances of
life are sin when they are drinely rec
commended. But there is line to be
drawn between adornment and decora-
tion that we can afford and those We cam
not afford. and when q man crosses that
line he becomes culpable. I cannot tell
you what is extravagant for you. You
cannot tell me what is extravagant for
me. What is right for queen may be
squandering for a duchess. What may be
economical for you, man with larger in
come. will be wicked waste for me, with
smaller income There is no iron rule on
this subject. Every man before God on
his knees must judge what is extrava-
gance, and when a man goes into expen-
ditures beyond his means he. is extrava-
CANT. When a man buys anything he can
not pay for, he is extravagant.
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 cir
cumstances, and are all the time sailing
so near shore that business misfortune or
an attack of sickness prepares them for
pauperism. You know very well there are
thousands of families in our great cities
who stay in neighborhoods until they
have exhausted all their capacity to get
trusted. They stay in the neighborhoods
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 gro
ceryman 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
butchers, the bakers and the grocerymen
come and give them the best rounds OF
beef and the best merchandise of all sorts
until they find out that the only compen.
sation they are going to get is the ac-
quaintance of the patrons. There are
thousands of such thieves in all our big
cities. You see, I call them by the right
name, for if man buys anything he
does not mean to pay for he is. thief. -,
OF course sometimes men are flung OF
misfortunes, and they cannot pay. / know
men who are just as honest in having
failed as other men are honest in succeed
ing. ! suppose there is hardly a, man VINO
has gone through life but there have been
some times when he has been so hurt OF
misfortune he could not meet his obliga-
tions. But all that I put aside. There
are a multitude of people who buy that
which they never intend to pay for. for
which there is no reasonable expectation
they will ever be able to pay. Now, if
you have become oblivious Of honesty and
mean to defraud, why not save the mer-
chant as much as you can? Why not 90
some day to his store and when nobody
is looking just shoulder the ham or the
spare rib and in modest silence steal
away?