The Plattsmouth daily herald. (Plattsmouth, Nebraska) 1883-19??, September 26, 1887, Image 3
J THE DAILY HERALD, PL ATTSMOUTII, N EHR ASK A , MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1687. 3 V j I THE DIVINE PLUMB LINE. REV. DR. TALMCES SERMON AT THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE. A Straight l' Hiitl Down Itc-Hlon Viit-l I5iihIih-h 1 'nn leu Cuiifteri liy h ( I.urk of Cufiil;iio Mruln Worker Need an Murli Sympathy nit I-ulMrcrn. UltooKl.YN, Si.t. 2. After tlio roat Cnn-atiori nuiif tlu? 1iv; im-t-r doxoloy in tli UrooUyn t:il-i-;u-l" this morning Or. Talina; -x jm mic ! 1 the-sixth chapter of tlic m-i-oml -i.stl; t tin ( Vii in tliians. wttiiii; forth the iiiiimrtaiifti f reparation from lal fellowship, ami wiy inj; that a man in no IxtUr th in the roin Htiy ho kerps. l'rofeHsor Ihiiry Myro llrown played nn oran solo, Snat:i No. 1 in 1J minor, ly (fiiilhiianl. Tho sul jett of tho wrinon wan "A Straight Up inl lkiwn li-liion," uii'l tlm text was Aliuis vii, H: "And th! Iionl said unto me, Amos, what wefct thou? and I ki'uI, A pluui! line." Dr. Talmntf! said: The solid masonry of tho world has to mc u fascination. 'alk aliout somu of the triumphal arches ami tin; cathedrals, four or six hundred years old, and see them stand as erect Jus when they -ve-ro Lnilded; walls of urcat height for cen turien, not lwiidin a iiarter"if an inch this way or that. So greatly honoretl wcro the masons who lnilll tin-so walls that they were free from taxation and called 4'fro" iii:lsoiis. The trowel K't most of the credit for Ih'.-sc Iciii'lins, and its clear rinin on stone and l.i ii-k has honndi-il across the aes. I!ut there is another implement of just as much iui ortance its the trowel, and my text rcc onizirs it. Uricklaycrs and stone masons ami carM-nters, in the lmLMiri.n of walls. us; an instrument made of a cord, at the t-nd of which a lump of lead is fastened. They drop it over the Hide of the wall, and, as the plummet naturally sts-ks the center of gravity in the earth, the work man discovers where the wall recedes and where it hules out and just what is the icrienliciil:ir. Our text represents God as standing on the wall of character, which the Israelites liad huilt, and in that way measuring it. "And the Lord said unto mo, Amos, what seest thou? and I eaid, A plumb line." What the world wants is a straight up and down religion. Much of the so called iety of the day 1 tends this way and that, to suit the times. It is horizontal with a low state of sentiment and morals. AVe liave all Ik-mi building a wall of charac ter, and it is glaringly imerfoct and Heeds reconstruction. How shall it be la-ought into the jerpendicular? Onlybj divine measurement. "And the Lord said to me, Amos, what seest thou? and I said, A plumb line." The whole tendency of tho times i3 to make us act by the standard of what others do. If they play cards, we play cards. If they dance, wo dance. If they read certain styles of books, we read them. We throw over tho wall of our character the tangled plumb line of other lives and reject the infallible test which Amos saw. The question for mo should not lo what you think is right, but what Cod thinks is right. This periotual ref erence to the liehavior of others, as though it decided anything but human fallibility, is a mistake as wide as the world. There are 10,000 plumb lines in use, but only one is true and exaot, and that is the line of Gem's eternal right. There is a mighty attempt being made to reconstruct and iix up tin-Ten Command ments. To many they seem too rigid. The tower of I'isa loans over alout thirt een feet from the perpendicular, and peo ple go thousands of miles to see its grace ful inclination, and by extra braces and various architectural contrivances it is kept leaning from century to century. Why not have the ten granite blocks of Sinai set a little aslant? Why not have the pillar of truth a leaning tower? Why is not an ellipse as good as a square? Why 13 not an oblique as good as straight up and down? Mv friends, we must have a 6tandard: shall it Ihj God's or man's? The. divino plumb line needs to lx thrown over all merchandise. Thousands of years ago Solomon discovered the ten dency of buvers to depreciate goods. lie Baw a man boating down an article lower and lower, and savins it was not worth the price asked, and when he had pur chased at the lowest price he tola every body wliat a sharp bargain he had struck. and how he had outwitted the merchant Proverbs xx. 14: "It is nausrht, it is naught, saith the buyer; but when he is gone his way, then heboastcth." So ut terly askew is society in this matter that you seldom find a seller asking the price that he exiects to get. lie puts on a hijrher value than he proposes to receive, knowine that he will have to drop. And if he wants fifty, he asks seventy-live. And if he wants 2,000 he asks S..100. "It is naught," saith the buyer. "The fabric is defective; the style of goods is poor; I can get elsewhere a bettor article at a smaller price. It is out of fashion it is damaged; it will fade; it will not wear well. After a while the mer chant, from over lx-rsuasion or desire to dispose of that particular stock of poods, 6avs, "Well, take it at vour own price, and the purchaser goes home with light step and calls into his private office his confidential friends, and chuckles while he tells how that for half price he got the goods. In other werds he lies, and was proud of it. Nothing would make times as good and the earning of a livelihood so easy as the universal adoption of the law of right. Suspie-iem strikes through all banrain makinr. ilen who sell know not whether they will ever get tho money. Purchasers know not whether the goods shipped will l according to the sample. And what, with the large num ber of clerks who are making false en tries and then absconding to Canada, and the explosion of firms that fail for mil lions of elollars. honest men are at their wit's end to make a living. lie who 6tanels up amid all the pressure and does right is accomplishing something towards the establishment of a high commercial prosperity. I have deep sympathy for the laboring classes who toil with hand anel foot. But we must not forget the business men who, without anv complaint or bannered processions through the street, are enduring a f-tress of circumstance's terrilic. The fertunate nrorile of today are those who are receiving elaily wages or regular salaries, And the men most to be pitied are those who conduct a lusiiua3 while prices are fallinz. and yet try to pay their clerks and employes, and are in such fearful utrait that thoy would quit business to morrow if it were not for the wreck and ruin of others. When people tell me at what a ruinously low price they purchased an article", it gives inc more dismay than satisfaction. 1 know it means tho bank ruptcy and defalcation of men in many departments. Tho men who t6il with the brain need full as much sympathy as those who toil with the hands. All busi ness lifu is struck through with suspicion, nn i panics are only the result of want of confidence. The pressure, to do wrong is all the stronger fn.m the fact that in our day the large; business houses are swallowing up the smaller, the whales dining on blue lish and minnows. Tho large houses undersell the small ones Ix-cuuse they can afford it. They can afford to make lothing, or actually lose, em some styles of goods, assured they can make; it up on others. So, a great dry goods house; goes outride of its regular lino and sells !ooks at cost er less than cost, and that swamps the booksellers; or, the dry goods house .sells bric-a-brae at lowest ligure, that swamps the small dealer in bric-si-brac. And the same tlnng goes on m either tyles of merchandise, and the conse quence is that all along me ousiness streets of all our citiws there are mer chants of small capital who are in tcrriliw t niggle to keep their heads alioe water. lhev Cunaruers run down Hie Newfoundland fishing smacks. This is nothing against tho man who h.'is tho big store, for every man lias as large a stre ii ii 1 as gre-at a business as he can manage. To feel right and do right under all this pressure requires martyr grace, requires divine support, requires celestial re-eu- forcement. Yet there are tens of thou sands of such men getting splendidly through. They see others going up and themselves going down, but they keep their patience anil their courage and their Christian consistency, and after a wliilo their turn of success will come. The owners of the big business will die and their loys will get iiosscssion of the busi ness, and with a cigar in their mouth and full to the chin with the !est liquor and behind a pair of spanking bays they will pass everything on tho turnpike road to temporal and eternal perdition. Then tho business will break up and the smaller dealers will have fair opportunity. Or the spirit of contentment and right feel ing will take possession of the large iirru, as recently in the case of the great house of A. A. Low & Co., and the hrm will sr -- We have money enough for all ... needs and the needs of our children; now, let us dissolve business and make way for other : ' '' Ii" " Tnstc: d of leinir stait.vi i:i . .. .;eof magnanimity, as in the case just men tioned, it will ljeeomo a common thing. I know of scores of great business houses that have had their opportunity of vast accumulation and who ought to quit. Hut ierhaps for all the days of this gen- eration the struggle of small houses to keep above under tho overshadowing pressure of great houses will con tinue; therefore, taking things as they are, you will bo wise to preserve your equilibrium and your honesty and your faith, anel throw over all the counters and shelves and barrels and hogsheads and cetton bales and rice casks the meas uring line cf elivine right. "And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? and I said, A plumb lino." In tho same way we need to measure our theologies. All sorts of religions aro putting forth -their pretensions. Some have a spiritualistic religion, and then- chief work is with ghosts, and others a religion of jolitical economy proposing to put an end to human misery by a new si vie of taxation, and there is a humani tarian religion that looks after the body ef men and lets the soul look after itself, and there is a legislative religion that proposes to rectify all wrongs by enact ment of better laws, anel there is an aesthetic religion that by rules of exquisite taste would lift the heart out of its ele- fermities. and religions of all sorts, relig ions by the peck, religions by the square foot, and religions by the ton all of them devices of the devil that would take the heart awav from the only religion that will even- effect anything for the hu man race, and that is the straight up and down rcligicii written in the beok, which begins with Genesis and ends with Rev elation, the religion of the skies, the old religion, the God given religion, the ever lasting reli'-Ion, whie-h savs: "Love God -above all and your neightor as yourself." All religions but this one begin at the wrong end and in the wrong place. The Bible religion demanels that we first get right with God. It begins at the top and measures down, while the other religions begin at the bottom and try to measure up. They stand at the foot of the wall, up to their knees in the mud of human theory and speculation, and have a plum met and a string tied fast to it. And they throw the plummet this way, and break a head there, and thow the plum met another way, and break a head there, and then they throw it up, and it comes down upon their own pate. Fools! Why will you stand at the foot of the wall measuring up when you ought to stand at the top measuring down? A few days ago I was in the country, thirsty after a long walk. And I came in, anel my child v. as blowing soap bubbles, and they rolle-d out of the cup, blue and gold and green and sparkling and beautiful and orbicular, and in so small a space I never saw more splendor concentrated. But she blew once too often, and all the glory vanished into suds. Then I turned and took a glass of plain water, and was refreshenl. And so far as soul thirst is concerned, I put against all the glowing, glittering soap bubbles of worldly reform and human speculation, one draught from the fountain from under the throne of Genl, cfcar as crystal. Glory be to God for the relnrion that dreps from above, not coming up from beneath! And the Lerd said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? and I said, A plumb Une." I want you to notice this fact, that when a man gives up the straight up and down religion in the Bible for any new fangled religion, it is generally to suit his sins. You first hear of his change ef religion, and then you hear of some swindle he has practiced m Colo rado mining stock, telling some one if he will put in 10.000 he can take out $100,000, or he has sacrificed his chastity, or plujigeel into irremediable worldhness. His sins are so broad he has to broaden his religion and he becomes as broad aa temptation, as broad as the soul's dark ness, as broad "as hell. They want a re ligion that will allow thepi to keep their Bins, and then at death say tv them; "Well done, good and faithful servant," anel that tells them: "All is well, for th.-ro is no hell." What a glerious heavi n they hold leforo us! Come, let us go in and see it. There is Herod and all the balx-s he massacml. There is Charles Guiteau and Jim Fisk and IioUspierre, tho friend of the French guillotine, and all tho liars, thieves, house burners. garrtters, pickpoo-kets and liln rtines of all the centuries. They have all got crowns luid thrones and harps and scepters, and when the-y chant they sing: "Thanksgiving and honor and glory and 1 nwer to the broad religion that let us all into heaven without rejientancu and faith in those disgraceful dogmas ef ecclesiasti cal old fogy ism." My text gives mo a grand opportunity of saying a useful wend to all young men who are miw forming habits for a life time. Of what use to a stonemason or a bricklayer is a plumb lino? Why not build the; wall by the unaided eye and hand ? ISoe-ause they aro insufficient, 1h ea use if there; I ; a deflection in the; wall it cannot further on Ijo corrected. lo calise by the law of gravitation a wall must be straight in order to bo symmet-rie-al and safe. A young ii:an is in dag ger of getting a elefit in his wall of e haracter that may never bo corrected. One of tho best friends I ever had die-el of delirium tremens at sixty years ef age, though ho had net since twenty-one years of age before which he had been elissi pated touched intoxicating liquor until that particular carousal that took him olL Not feeling well in a street on aheit summer elay, he stcpiod into a drug store, just as you or I would have done, anel asked for a dose of semiething to make liim feel Iiettcr. And there was alcohol in the elose, anil that one drop aroused the old appetite, and ho entered the first liquor store, anel stayed there until thor oughly under the power of rum. He en tered his home a raving maniac, his wife and daughter Hoeing from his presence, until he was taken to the city hospital to die. The combustible material of early habit had lain quiet nearly forty years, and that one spark ignited the con llngi ation. Rememljer that the wall may be one hundred feet high, and yet a dellec tion ene foeit from the fenmdation aHects the entire structure. And if you live a hundreel years ami do right the last eighty years, you may nevertheless do something at twenty years of age that will damage all your earthly existence. All you who i..;vo iuut nemses ior yourselves or ior others, am I not right in saying to these mg men, you cannot build a wall so high as to be inde-penent Of the character of its foundation? A man before 30 years cf age may commit enough sin to last him a lifetime. A cat that has killed one pigeon cannot lie cured. Keevp it from killing the first pigeon. Now John, or George, or Charles, or William, or Alexander, or Andrew, or Henry, cr whatever be your Christian name or sur name, say here and now: "No wild oats for me; no" cigars or cigarettes for me; no wine or beer for me; no nasty stories for me; no Sunday 6prees for me. I am going to start right and keep on right. Goel help me, for I am very weak. From the throne of eternal righteousness let down to me the principles by which I can be guieled in buileling everything from foundation to capstone. Lord God, by the wounded hand of Christ, throw mo a plumb line!" Ijorel Nelson s general direction when going into naval battle was: No man can do wrong that places his 6hip close along side that of the enemy. My friend, you will never do wrong if you keep your life close alongside the Ten Commandments. Do right, and you can be as brave as Marl.i Theresa, who rode up the Hill of Defiance and shook her sword at the four corners of the earth. But," you say, "you shut us young folks out from all fun." Oh, no; I like fun. I believe in fun. I have had lots of it in my time. But I have not had to go into paths of sm to had it. No credit to me, but because of an extraordinary parental example and influence I was kept from outward transgres sions, though my neart was uau enough and elesperately wicketl. I have had fun illimitable, though I never swore ene oath, and never gambled for so much as tho value of a pin, and never saw the inside of a haunt of sin save as when ten years ago, with commissioner of jiolice, and a eletective and two elelers of un church, I explored these cities by mid night, not out of curiosity, but that I nught in pulpit discourse set before the people the poverty and the horrors of underground city life. Yet, though I never was intoxicated for an instant, and never committee! one act of dissoluteness, restrained only by the grace of God, with out which restraint I would have gone headlong to the bottom of infamy, I have had so much fun that I don't believe there is a man on the planet in the present time who has had more. Hear it, men and boys, women and girls, all the fun is on the side of right. Sin may seem attract ive, but it is deathful, and like the man chineel. a tree whose dews are poisonous. The only genuine happiness is in an hon est Christian life. The Chippewa, .want ing to see God, blackens his face with charcoal and fasts till he has a vision of what he calls God. Jly God I can see best when I take my hat off and let the sunshine blaze in my face, and after a reasonable breakfast. He is not a God of blackness and starvation, but of light and ple-nitude, noonday sun compared to two brothers. and the glory of the is Egyptian midnight it. mere they go The one was converted a year ago in church, one Sunday morn ing during prayer or sermon or hvmn No one knew it at the time. The persons on either side of hiru suspected nothmg, but in that young man's soul this process weut on: "Lord, here I am, a young man amid the temptations of city life, and I am afraid to risk them alone; come and be my pardon and my help; save me from making the mistake that some of my comrades are making, and save me now. And quicker than a flash God rolled heaven into his soul. He is just as jolly as he used to be. is just as bril liant as he used to be. He can strike a ball or catch one as easily as before he was converteei. With gun or fishing rod in this summer vacation he was just as skillful as before. The world is brighter to liim than ever. He appreciates pict ures, music, innocent hilarity, social life, good jokes, and has plenty of fun, first class fun. glorious fun. But his brother is coins: down hilL In the morning hia beau aches from the champagne debauch, Everybody sees he is in rapid- descent. What cares ho for right or decency or tho honor of hid family name? Turned out of employment, depleted in iiealth, cast deiwn in spirits, tho typhoid fever strikes liim in the smallest room on tho fourth story of a fifth rate lioarding house', cursing God and calling for his mother and lighting back demons from his dying pillow, which is lie-sweated and torn to rags. He plunges out ef this world with the shriek of a destroyed spirit. Alan for that kind of fun! It is remorse. It is despair. It is blackness of darkness. It is wen; unending and long re ver Iterating and crushing as though all ' the mountains of all continents rolled on him in one avalanche. My soul, stand back from such fun. Young man, there is no fun in shipwrecking your character, no fun in disgracing your father's name. Thero is no fun in breaking your numb er's he-art. There is no fun in tho phy sical pangs of tho dissolute. There is no fun in the preifligale's de-athlied. There is no fun in an undone; eternity. Para celsus, out of the ashes of a burnt rose, said he ceiuld recreate the rest but he failed in tho ak-heniic undertaking, and roseate life; once burned down in bin can never again le muelp to blossom, i Oh, this plumb line of tho everlasting right! God will throw it over all our lives to show us our moral deflections. God will threiw it over all churches to show whether they are doing useful work, er are standing instances of idle ness and pretense. He will throw that plumb line over all natiems to demon strate whe-ther their laws are just en cruel, the-ir rulers gexxl or bad, their am bitions holy or infamous. Ho threw that plumb line over the Spanish monarchy of other days, and what became of her? Ask the splintered hulks of her over thrown armada.- He threw that plumb line over French imperialism, and what was the result? Ask the ruins of the Xuileries, and the fallen column of the Place Vendome, and the grave trenches eif Si-elan, and the blood of revolutions at different times rolling through the Champs Elysees. He threw that plumb line over ancient Rome, and what liecame of the ealm ef the Cfcsars? Ask her war eagles, with lieak dulled and wings bro- en, flung helpless into the Tiber. lie threw it ove-r tho Assyrian empire eif a thousand years, the thrones of Seiuiramis, and Sardanapalus, and Shalmanesc-r, of twenty-seven victorious expeditions, the cities of Phoenicia kneeling to the scepter, and all the world blanched in the pres ence. What became ef all tho grandeur? Ask the fallen palaces cf Khorsabad and the corpses of her 1S1.000 soldiery slain by the angel of the Lord in one night, uid the Assyrian sculptures of the world s museums, all that now remains ct mat splendor before which nations staggered and crouched. God is now throwing that plumb line ove-r this American re public, and it is a solemn time with this nation, and whether we keep his Sab baths or dishonor them, whether right eousness or iniquity dominate, whether we are Christian or infidel, whether we fulfill our mission or refuse it, whether we are for God or against him, we'll de cide whether we shall as a nation go on m higher and higher career or go elown in the same grave where Babylon and Nineveh, anel Thebes, and Assyria are scpulchered. "But, say you, "u there be nothing but a plumb line, what can any eif us do? Feu- there is an eld proverb which truth fully declares: If the best man's faults were written on his forehead it would make him pull his hat over his eyes.' What shall wo do. when, according to Isaiah, Kjod shall lay judgment to the line and righteousness to the plummet?' " Ah, hero is where the Gospel comes in with a Saviour s righteousness to make up for our deficits. And while I see hanging on tho wall a plumb line, I see also hang ing there a cross. And while the one condemns us the other saves us, if only we will hole! to it. And here and now you may be set free with a more glorious liberty than Hampden or Sidney or a Kosciusko ever fought for. Not out yonder, or down there, or up here, but just whore you are you may get it. The invalid proprietress of a wealthy estate in Scotlanel visited the continent of Luroie to got rid of her maladies; and she wont to Baden Baden and tried those waters.and went to Carlsbad and tried those waters. anil went to Homburg and tried those waters, and instead of getting better she got worse, and in despair she said to a physician: " W hat sliall I dor His reply was: "Medicine can do nothing for you. Yon have one chance in the waters of Pit Keathlv, Scotland." "Is it possible?" she replied. "Why, those waters are on my own estate! She returned and drank of the fountain, and in a few months completely recovered. Oh, sick, and diseased, and sinning, anel dying hearer, why go trudging all the world over, and seeking here and there relief for your dis couraged spirit, when close by, and at your very feet, and at the door of your heart, aye, within the very estate of your own consciousness, the healing waters of eternal life may be had, and had this very hour, this very minute, this very Sabbath? Blessed be God that over against the plumb line that Amos saw is the cross, through the emancipating power of which you and I may livs and live forever! Compressed Air on Tap. A down town merchant who had reatl the story of "How the Elevator Works," a short time ago, calleel the attention of a reporter to the fact that in England compressed air is considered much better under some circumstances for operating the elevator than water. In Liverpool London, and other ports, he said, the ele vators in the big warehouses were op-er-ated almost exclusively by compressed air. wluch when exhausted into various rooms of the buildings serves to ventilate and purify them. Another advantaj claimed for compresse-d air is its great elasticity. The elevators run more smoothly and stop and start less ab ruptly, and are less liable to breakage when a quick stop is made than when water is used. New lorkbun. For tho Colored People. One of the most select hotels in Sara toga is one which is open to colored peo ple only. Its proprietor is said to be worth $200,000. Among his guests this year have been several young colored women of .wealth and position. Two of them wore diamonds of great value. One of these dusky beauties was considered the belle of Saratoga by her race, and her somewhat haughty manner showed that she realized what is due to a queen of beauty. Chicago Times. . o o TS & SHOE 'he same quality 1 -oods K) i.erec-nt. chcatior than uny liiir went of the liHbifiii. Will never he uneleix.hf. Call ami he com liiciil. ALSO lEESZE-XiBLSEIsrCSr FESTER FURNITURE fARLOl SET! L.l 1 J hf -FOR ALL von Parlors, ISedrooms, OiEHng-rooiiis, Kitchens, Hallways and Ollirfs, GO TO Where a magnificent fctock abound. UNDERTAKING AND EMBALMING A SPECIALTY. COIiNEIl MAIN AND SIXTH Pi roPPr JP ) A I V2 S (SUOOKS.SG it TO J. M. Kor.KUTS.) Will keep conttiiittly on Ji:iiul :i full aiid complete Hock of i.i.c fobs aod Medicines, Paints, Oils, Wall Paper and a Full Jni; of DRUGGIST'S STTTIDiaill PURE LIQUORS. m. be Mum ii i m bU., STAPLE AND FANCY FM&UM, FMEB & FRO. VISIONS, VU A M" ;;(' A W rnxTT7 . . 1 11 VL .-. -HAS THE LEST EQUIPPED- lllg l PUTTSKOUTH W sr prepared to do nil EE1 WQMJ WMS All Bill lTeqds, Eivelopes, Btjsiqess Cqi'ds, Visijiilg Cqi'ds, Cii'ciilqi's, " 19osgi, oi ciy otliei' clqss of pidqiig. Scmfi ic vfHir f V' t ? r MERGES. EMPORIUMS BcDROOH SET ! CLASSES OF- of Goods and Fair Prkxn I'hATTSMOUTII, N::ni!ASu 2 LTV OF FIXK Ci'-OCIiKUY. B. MURPHY & CO. OR CfiSS COUNTY. l(hiHTif) En