Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-11-21
Calm1aQe
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaae, d. D.

beTHOU Turns lne brighter sue VI the
picture of our national life and shows
US that we ought to be thankful that
we are living in times that have under
gone vast Improvement since the good
old days" Of our grandfathers. The
text is Psalm iv, 6, There be many
that say, Who will show us any good?'
The depTeciators, the carpers, the
fault finders, the calamity howlers, the
pessimists, who, like the blind fish Of
Kentuckys Mammoth cave, cannot
see the light of day. have an ancestral
record as old as the human race They
belong especially to no one century or
generation. Their family connections
are not limited to the Caucasian race,
or to tSe Ethiopian, or to the Malay,
or to the red skinned American Indian,
or to the Monaghan, or to the jaun-
diced faced Chinaman. They are found
alike in the poor mans hut and the
rich mans palace, among the sailors
on shipbOard and the citizens on land.
Like the EskimOs, they live among
the arctic icebergs. They thrive well
the boiling heat of the tropics. They
are found among all social classes Of
all nations of all times.
Mythology placed a representative of
the class among the Greek gods on
Mount Olympus. His name was Mo-
mus, the god OF fault finding and
mOckery He took pleasure III finding
fault with men. He found fault with
the gods themselves. lie criticised
Vulcan because after he had made
man he did not place window in his
breast, so that mans thoughts could
be seen by the passersby. He de-
nounced Minerva after she had built
a house because she did not make the
house movable. He found fault with
Neptune because he did not place the
horns of the beast he had created
farther forward in his forehead, so
that he could fight better He kept on
finding fault with everybody and
everything until at last the gods be-
came disguised and drove Momus out
of heaven, because, said they, heaven
can be no heaven with a chronic fault
finder around
What the Grecian NEUROLOGICAL gods
said in reference to heaven with a
Menus in it is literally true. No soci-
ETY. on earth can be happy or content
ed with a chronic grumbler around.
And yet, coming up to the glorious cell
ebration Of our autumnal Thanksgiv
ing day of 1904, we find our pessimistic
Momuses everywhere. This is the
time when we ought to be making an
inventory of all our blessings, instead
of which these modern calamity howl
ers are making a false collection Of
misanthrOpic statements. They are
also making their pessimistic prophe-
cies. Not only are they saying that the
world is going to the dogs, but they
furthermore assert that it has already
gone to the dogs why" they say,
1--WE have nothing to be thankful for
this Thanksgiving day. Ills true there
is more money in the world, more than
ever before, but we do not have it.
ssOur social, civic and spiritual condi-
ss,tions for the great mass of folks were
neyer at as low ebb as they are today.
WHO Will show us any good?" they cry,
as the calamity howlers of my text
cried in Davids time, thousands of
years ago.
Modern Times Versus Ancient.
Some of these modern fault finders
are trying to make our times out to b'
much worse than were the ancien
times | will pick up their challenge
They ask. who will show US an.
good?" l answer, Il will" And 1 viii
show that the church eff Jesus Chris
is better today spiritually than the al
cient church. l will show that moder
governments are better and the home
are better and people in the mass ar
higher toned morally and better. Tn
fact that a lot of chronic croakers a
this Thanksgiving time are goin
around finding fault with things doe
not in The least prove that most pee
pie are poorly clad poorly fed, poorl
housed and under the merciless heel
of despotic tyrants. AS a rule, 70
wilLzfind that those people who grun
BILE the most have the least to grumbl
about
The Menus of political life declare
that there is nothing in our natfona
life to warrant thanksgiving. He says
Modern rulers and legislators are self
ish oppressOrs. They. do not govern b.
Gods Colder Rule, but by force. Tn
code Of civilized nations is immoral
merciless and unjust. 1t cOnnives Il
the crimes of government and con
dones the thefts of a province. Stron.
governments trample upon the right
of the weaker governments. Within
those governments one social elias
places the yoke of tyranny upon tn
other social class Within those GOV
ernments laws are not equitable an
inst. We find that the poor man VIII
steals a loaf of bread to avert starvi
ton is hustled off TO jail, as Jean Va
Jean was sent to the galleys with
twenty years sentence for stealing tw
Ioaves of bread to feed the gaunt an
baggard and starving children of b
widowed sister. On the other hand.
man like James Fisk, II he is a bi