The life and sermons of Rev. T. De Witt Talmage

Front matter

--sift''

THE

Life and Sermons

Chapter I. A Personal Exploration Of The Haunts Of Vice

Ezekiel Commanded to Explore Sin in His Day — Divine Commission to Explore the Iniquities of Our Cities — "Wild Oats" — Criticism of Papers — Three Million Souls for an Audience — Houses of Dissipation — Moral Corpses — Cheapness of Furnishing — Music and Pictures— The Inhabitants Repulsive — Surrounded by Music — Young Men from the Country — Triumph of Sin — Blood of a Mother's Heart — Cannot Hide Bad Habits — Fratricide and Matricide — The Way of the Transgressor is Hard — Destroyed without Remedy 29

Chapter II. Lepers Of High Life

"Policeman, What of the Night?" — Desperadoes in Jerusalem — King Solomon's Household — Night of Three Watches — Two Elders of the Church — Muscular Christianity — Pulpit Physical Giants — Spiritual Athletes — Thomas Chalmers — Deepest Moral Slush of His Time — Hue and Cry Raised — "Ye Hypocrites" — Men of Wealth Support Haunts of Sin — Gospel for the Lepers of Society — A Moloch Temple — Heads of Families — Public Officers — Obstacles in the Way — Dens of Darkness — The Men who have Forsaken their Homes 43

Chapter III. The Gates Of Hell

Gambling Houses — Costly Magnificence Untrue — Merciless Place — Twelve Gates — Impure Literature — Novelette Literature — Wide Gate — The Dissolute Dance — First Step to Eternal Ruin — Indiscreet Apparel — Fashion Plates of the Time of Louis XVI. — Henry VIII. — Modest Apparel — Fashion Plate of Tyre — Alcoholic Beverage — License Question — Gates Swing In — Is there Escape? — Practical Use of these Sermons — Holy Imbecility — Christmas Night at the Farm House— Poor Wanderer— "Oh ! Mother." 57 viii

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV. WHOM I SAW AND WHOM i MISSED

Genesis xiv:10 — American Cities — Devil Advertising Free Gratis - — Purlieus of Death — Hard Working Classes Missed — Grand Trunk Railroad — Fortunate Young Men — Vortex of Death — Midnight on Earth — Sense of Piety — "Kept" — Maelstrom of Iniquity — Aching Hearts— Fragments of Broken Homes — Miserable Copy of European Dissipations — Toadyism — Revolution Needed — Public Opinion — Police Complicity — Edward Livingstone — The Printing Press — John Bunyan, Richard Baxter, Five Oceans of Mercy — "Home, Sweet Home." 71

Chapter V. Under The Police Lantern

A Mighty City — Midnoon — Midnight — Clerical Reformers — Their Brave Charge — Mortal Fear — Tenement Houses — Ring the Bell — Flash the Lantern — Night' s Lodging — Silken Purse — Hear ! Hear ! ! — The Homeless — The Bootblack — The Newsboy — "You Miserable Rat!" — New Recruits — New Regiments — The Shipwrecked — The Two Magic Lanterns — The Home — A Change of Scene — Another! Still Another ! ! — Flowers — Greenwood — Poverty — Coroner — Potters' Field — Close the Two Lanterns 83

Chapter VI. Satanic Agitation

Enemy^of all Good— "Give me 500,000 Souls"— But a Short Time — Elevated Railroads — Crowded to Death — Underground Railroads — Castle Garden — Jenny Lind — Trinity — New York Dailies — Mightiness of the Press — "Nations Born in a Day"— Exhaustion of Health — Newsboys' Lodging House — Boys — Extra Romp and Hilarity — Over the Doorway — Savings Banks — Western Fever Among Them — Howard Mission — Good and Bad Amusements — Temptation — "Come with Me"— Stinging Remorse — To Hesitate is to Die. . . .96

Chapter VII. Among Thieves And Assassins

The Attack-^Night of Theft and Assassination — "Who is My Neighbor?" — Responsibility — Rogues' Gallery — Loaded Pistols — Show Me Crime — Respect Crime Pays the Law — "A Den of Thieves" — Plans Matured — Liquors Poisoned Four Times — Their Modus Operandi — $75,000 Check — Division of Spoils — Blackmailers — Never Fear Them — A Principle Laid Down — Professionals — Dens that Excite Only Pity — "You Must Dress Better" — Crime the Offspring of Political Dishonesties — Immense Cost of Crime — Grace —No Admittance—Two Incidents-— A Second Deluge — Mercy, , . 112

CONTENTS.

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Chapter VIII. Club-houses Legitimate And Illegitimate

Two Armies — Sword Fencing — Unlucky Clip — An Honest History of Clubs — Leading Clubs of Europe — Of America — Their Wealth — Membership — Furnishing — Fascination of Club Houses — ■ Another Style — Flushed Face — " Chips" — Test their Influences — Generous at the Club, Stingy in the Home Circle — Thousands of Homes Clubbed to Death — Epitaph — Effect on Your Occupation — A Third Test— A Vital Question— The Little Child's Influence— The Three Strands— Pull for Your Life 128

Chapter IX. Poison In The Caldron

The Students of Gilgal — Gathering Herbs — Death in the Pot — Iniquity must be Roughly Handled — Its Hiding Place — A Good Home is Deathless in Its Influence— Unhappy Homes are Blood Relatives to Crime and Rascality — Occasional Exceptions — An Indolent Life — The City Van — Four Ways of Getting Money — An Incident — How to Depreciate Real Estate — Warning from Gladstone — The Marriage Day— The Scene Changes — Leaving the Farm House — Anxiety of Parents— The End — Put Back Now! 140

Chapter X. The Cart-rope Iniquity

Construction of a Rope — No One Can Stand Aloof — Honest Gambling Establishments — An Introduction to a First-Class One — Second Class— The "Roper In"— Policy— "Saddle"— "Gig"— "Horse" — Exchange — Desire for Gain — Incidents — Close Proximity to Wall Street — Gift Enterprises — Their Evil Tendency — Be Honest or Die —The Prodigal— The Game Ended 151

CHAPTER XL

THE WOMAN OF PLEASURE.

Solid Satisfaction — An Error Corrected — Albert Barnes— Plant One Grain of Corn — Mere Social Position — Do Not Covet It — A Worldly Marriage — Mere Personal Attractions — Abigail — Make Yourself Attractive — Not Ashamed of Age — Culture Your Heart — At the Hospital— "Seven Days"— "Hold My Hand"— Flatteries of Men — An Angel — Discipleship of Fashion — Fashion Plates — Biblical Fashion — A Beautiful Attire — A Bright World 160

Chapter XII. The Sins Of Summer Watering Places

An Ancient Watering Place — Tradition Concerning It — Modern Watering Places— A Picture — The First Temptation — Sacred Parade — Crack Sermons — Quartette — Air Bewitched — Horse Racing — Deceptive Titles— Saratoga— Bet? Run High— -Greenhorns Think All is

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CONTENTS.

Fair — Sacrifice of Physical Strength — Fash enable Idiots — "Do Thyself No Harm" — Hasty Alliances — Domestic Infelicities — Twenty Blanks to One Prize — Load of Life — The Fop — Baneful Literature — Its Popularity at Watering Places — The Intoxicating Beverage 170

Chapter XIII. The Tides Of Municipal Sin

Intense Excitement — The Stranger's Reception — A Wild Laugh — Temptations to Commercial Fraud— "This Rivalry is Awful" — Decide for Yourself — One with God is a Majority — Political Life — Allurements to an Impure Life — Cormorants of Darkness — Six Rainbows — A Thousand of Them — "Tick, Tick!" — An Enraptured Vision 183

Chapter XIV. Responsibility Of City Rulers

Ancient Tyre — A Majestic City — Its Magnificence — Its Present Position — Character of a City — Cities Hold the World's Sceptre — If an Unprincipled Mayoralty or Common Council, there Will be Unlimited License for all Kinds of Trickery and Sin — Questions that Interest the Merchant — Educational Interests — In Some Cities these Interests are Settled in the Low Caucus — Character of Officials Affects the Domestic Circle — Even Religious Interests Affected — John Morrissey! — Pray for Your Mayor and All in Authority — Perils and Temptations of the Police — An Affecting Incident. . .193

Chapter XV. Safeguards For Young Men

David and Absalom — A Bad Boy — A Broken-Hearted Father — "Is the Young Man Safe?"— Same Question Must be Asked To-Day — Not as Other Men Are— Wm. M. Tweed — His Strong Nature — Success — Failure — Who Would Live Such a Life? — Love of Home — Can Never Forget It — A Second Home — Nothing Coarse or Gross at Home — Industrious Habits — The First Horticulturist — Work or Die — A High Ideal of Life — Aim High — Respect for the Sabbath — An Incident — The Greatest Safeguard — The Great Want — "I am the Young Man" — The Turning Point 207

Chapter XVI. The Voices Of The Street

Voices of Nature — This Life is a Scene of Toil and Struggle — Industry — All Classes and Conditions of Society Must Commingle — Democratic Principle of the Gospel — Hard to Keep the Heart Right — The Man of War — The Victorious Veteran of Thirty Years' Conflict — Life is Full of Pretension and Sham — How Few People are Natural — A Great Field for Charity— Poor Wanderers — Strong Faith of Childhood — All the People Looking Forward — No Census —Twelve Gates 221

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Chapter XVII. Hekoes In Common Life

Great Military Chieftains — Unrolling a Scroll of Heroes — Heroes of the Sick Room — Heroes of Toil — Sword vs. Needle — Great Battle-fields — Domestic Injustice — No Bitter Words — Peabody — Grinnell — Missionaries at the West — Sacrificing Parents — Melrose Abbey — The Atkins Family — "Fire!" — Who Are Those Paupers? — Coronation Day — Do Not Envy Anyone — The Great Captain's Cheer. .230

Chapter XVIII. The Midnight Horseman

A Dead City — Midnight Witchery — Melrose Abbey — Alhambra — Jerusalem in Ruins — The Midnight Ride — Midnight Exploration — Jerusalem Rebuilt — Plato — Demosthenes — Church Affection — The Church — Sacrifices for It — Secret of Backsliding — Building Without Secure Foundation — Old-Fashioned Way — Does It Hurt? — New-fashioned Way — Wants a Ride — Reason People are Angered — "You're a Pauper" — Triumphant Sadness — Palace of Shushan — Its Immensity — Homesickness — The Blacksmith — A Bereaved Mother > — A Parlor in Philadelphia — Never Give Up — Our Refuge 241

CONTENTS.

Chapter I

Wild Pigeons — Call Bird — Two Classes of Temptation — Superficial and Subterraneous — Generous Young Men — Stingy and Mean Young Men — The Skeptic — Jonah — Progress, Sir !■ — Light of Nature — Burke — Raphael — Mozart — Milton — Hold on to It — Dishonest Employers — Terrible and Crushing Fact — Eight Lies — Drug Clerk — The Moral — The Dissolute — Self Righteous — Trumpet of Warning —The World's Bridal . 23

Chapter II. Strangers Warned

Solomon Recognizing Strangers — Great Immigration — Hotels of this Country — "I Must Join that Procession" — To the Academy — The Picture Gallery — The Young Men's Christian Association Rooms — Up Broadway — A Gettysburg — Underground Life — Country Customer and City Merchant — "Drummers" — Mt. Washington — Seven Apples — "Slicing off Pieces" — French Sabbaths — Only an Explorer — Sharp Business Man — Strangers Welcome — Edward Stanley . . . 3§

Chapter III. People To Be Feared

Breaking in upon God's Heritage — Uprooting and Devouring Classes of Society — Public Criminals — Their Immense Cost — Conflagration of Morals — "Stop Thief!" — Society has a Grudge against Criminals — Punishment Hardens Them — More Potential Influences Needed — Raymond Street Jail — Black Hole of Calcutta — Old and Hardened Offenders — Young Men Who Have Committed their First Crime — Sir William Blackstone — Unworthy Officials — "Whisky Ring ' ' — "Tammany Ring" — "Erie Ring" — Fenses — Skinners — Confidence Men — The Idle Classes — Useless and Dangerous — Oppressed Poor — Army of Honest Poor — Children's Aid Society — Dorcas Society 45

Chapter IV. The Worship Of The Golden Calf

A God of Some Kind — Aaron and the Golden Calf — Moses' Return — When a Man Gets Mad He is Apt to Break All the Ten Com-

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CONTENTS.

mandments — Modern Idolatry — Wall Street — Bank of England — Michigan Wheat — -Maryland Peaches — Immensity of its Temple — Every God its Temple and its Sacrifice — Its Victims — Solomon's Sacrifice — Clinking Gold and Silver — Destruction of the Golden Calf Certain — The Golden Calf Made of Borrowed Gold — Borrowing, the Ruin of the American People — Nothing Heavier Than the Spirit Crosses the Jordan — Fool! Fool! Fool! — Change Your Temples. .61

Chapter V. Dry Goods Religion

First Wardrobe — The Prodigal — Goddess of Fashion — Men as Idolators — Tobacco — Animated Checkerboards — Benedict Arnold — Sell His Country to Clothe His Wife — Expensive Establishments the Business Man's Ruin — Extravagance of Clerks — Tragedy of Human Clothes— Fashion the Foe of all Christian Almsgiving — Ninety Cents on the Dollar — Theft of Ten Per Cent. — "What a Love of a Bonnet!"— "What a Perfect Fright ! "—Fashion Belittles the Intellect — French Roof on the "House of Many Mansions" — Countess of Huntington — Beau Brummel — Vashti 72

Chapter VI. The Reservoirs Salted

Good Water — Jericho — Municipal Corruption — Cleansing Our Cities — Work for Broom and Shovel — Character Illustrated by the Purity or Filth of Surroundings — First Thing a Converted Man Does — Power of a Christian Printing Press — Publisher and Bookseller — Our Common Schools — Ignorance the Mother of Hydra-Headed Crime — Ignorance in New England — Pennsylvania — New York — The United States — Reformatory Societies Important Elements — Antietam — The Greatest Remedial Influence — Homeless Children — "The Perlice, Sir" — Inebriates' Children — Neglected Children — Their Faces — Five Points — The Merchant — "Lend Me Five Dollars" — Mary Lost — Mary Found 83

Chapter VII. The Battle For Bread

The Ornithology of the Bible— Elijah— The Ravens— The Great Conflict To-Day — The Great Question with a Vast Majority of People — A Morning Hunt for Ravens — Supply Immeasurable — Be Content — Recourses Infinite — Rochelle — Drought in Connecticut — Biography of a Life— Relief by an Unexpected Conveyance — White Providence — Black Providence — White Angel — One of Three Scourges — Dark Shadow on the Nursery — Mrs. Jane Pithey — The Two Lives 95

Chapter VIII

The Insect World — The Persians — Hittites — Great Behemoths of Trouble — The Insectile Annoyances of Life — "Only a Little Nervous" — The Wheel Must Keep Going Round — Friends Always Saying Disagreeable Things — Harvest Field of Discouragement — Local

CONTENTS.

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Physical Trouble — Domestic Irritation — Business Annoyances — The Family of Wasps — Nest of "Yellow Jackets"— The Gymnasium — Homeopathic Doses — Knock-Down Doses — Hamelin — Painting of Cotopaxi — Fools and Sluggards — Poly carp — "All Things Work Together for Good." 108

Chapter IX

No Monopoly — Apple-Orchard — Severe Guards — Other Sheep — MacDonald — Non-Church Goers — Safe Side — Complete Armor— Wreck of the Atlantic — Launch the Boat ! — Saved !— Fishing — Positive Rejectors — An Insufficient Portion — An Experiment — Try It- Newton — Boyle — Doubting — Hope — Peace — Love — Evil Habit — Good Templars — Rebuld Your Home — No Hope — Early Days — The Bars Down 118

Chapter X. The Acids Of This Life

The Brigands of Jerusalem — Years of Maltreatment — Thirst — Vinegar — Wine — Life in Sunshine — Acid in Lives of Prominent People — No Sympathy Expected — Betrayal of Friends — Sourness of Pain — The Ashes — Compressed in One Sour Cup — Sourness of Poverty — Wilkie — Glorious Company — Privation — Sourness of Bereavement — Charmed Circle Broken — Jesus Wept — Vacant Chair — Sourness of the Death Hour — Curiosity — Clean the Lens — Vessel Without Water — "Dip Your Buckets'" — Fighting Their Own Battles — Nana Sahib — Gem of Great Value — Break the Infatuation 131

CHAPTER XL

THE DIVISION OF SPOILS.

Allegory — Metaphor — The Hunters' Return — The Fascinating Life of a Hunter — Hunting in England — India — Western Plains — Hunting the World — Edgar A. Poe— ^World's Plaudits — A Change — Financial Success — Dollar Hunt — Northern Pacific Bonds — Ralston — Higher Treasures — Heartfelt Satisfaction — Glorious Divisions of Spoils— Folly of Worldly Hunt— A Bare Hand— Census of Old People — No Division of Spoils — Death in the Chase — Sudden and Radical Change — Instantaneous — One Touch of Electricity — What is Religion? 142

Chapter XII. The Blacksmith's Captivity

A Scalding Subjugation — Mines of Iron and Brass — Only Two Swords Left — Weaponless People — Reduced to a File — Keep Weapons Out of the Hands of Your Enemies— The World has Gobbled up Everything — Infidelity — Capture Science — Capture Scholarship — Capture Philosophy — A Learned Clergy — Recapture Your Weapxri

CONTENTS.

ons — Resources Hidden and Undeveloped — "Forward, the Whole Line!" — Take Advantage of the World's Sharpening Instruments — Get the Best Grindstones — Small Allowance Iniquity Puts a Man — Bitter Cup— Dark Night — Deep Pangs — Terrible End — Warning Bell on Inchcape Rock — A Sad Loss — Going to Vindicate the Truth — No Newspaper Assaults for Six Weeks — Go Ahead — Clap Your Hands 153

Chapter XIII. The Diet Of Ashes

A Great Feast — Guests Sit Down Amid Outbursts of Hilarity — Ashes — Testimony of Those Who Have Been Magnificently Successful — Testimony of Kings — Commercial Adepts — Come Up, Ye Millionaires — Sinful Pleasurists — A Troop of Infidels — Placid Skeptic — Lord Chesterfield — What Now of All Your Sarcasm? — Hungry — Where Found — The Antwerp Merchant and Charles V. — Mortgage — Only One Word — Take Bread — Great Fire — Echo and Re-Echo — Departure Sudden — The Spaniard and the Moor — The Swiftest Horse— Escape— Fly ! Fly ! 1 64

Chapter XIV. Keeping Bad Company

No One Goes to Ruin Alone — A Convicted Criminal's Words — Bad Company — Olden Times — Places of Business — A Challenge — A Reward Offered — New Clerk — Show Him the City — Forgotten His Pocket-Book — Familiarity — Broken In — Beware — Glance of Purity — Shun the Skeptic — "Explain That" — Take them All — He Has Gone! — Shun Idlers — His Touch is Death — "I want you, Sir!" — Self Improvement — The Harvest Gathered in Old Age — Avoid Perpetual Pleasure-Seekers — Life Occupation to Sport — A Beauty in Sports — Declaration of Brummell — Review — Always be Polite — A Beautiful Daughter 173