The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1860-03-14
[From the New York Evening POst.l
Fast Young Men" tn the Pulpit
THE FAST YOUNG MAN OF 1000 B. C. AND THE
FAST YOUNG MAN OF 1860 D.

last Sunday afternoon the eighth OF his Sc
ries of dscourses on the "RepresentatiVe
Characters in the Old Testament" choosing
for his subject, "Absalom, the Fast Young
Man." The text was from Samuel, XIV.
and XIV. /:
"In all Israel there was none to be so
much praised as Absolom for his beauty
X And Absalom prepared him char
lots and horses and fifty men to run before
him"
After reviewing the career Of Absaom,
as recorded nthe Scri ptures, and supported
by the corroborative testimony of ancient
historians, and showing that his mode of ex-
trovogant living, his crimes, his base ingrut.
tude to his loyal father, the fact that his
death was caused by One of the personal at.
fractions of which he was SO proud, and that
he was buried in ga great pit in the WOOD"
and covered with nameess heaps OF stones,
the speaker proceeded:
"And after this review Of his career need
| say why he reached his end, or that only
too graphically he represents the methods,
tendencies and inevitable results of Fast
Young Man! Life is ever, through all
change of time or circumstance, essentially
the same. Names and dates differ; scenery,
costumes and actors change situations and
attitudes vary, but it is essentially the same
great drama that is constantly acted over
and over again on the stage of The world
Substitute Bloomingdsle road for the riding
courses of Judea-the brown stone fronts
and luxurious appointments of modern aris-
tocracy for the dwellings and furniture ofthe
Jews-or the drinking shop, the gambling
hell and the house of assignaton or prostitu-
ton of to day for the haunts Of the dissolute
in the shadow of Mount Zion-and with this
difference, the fast young man of this city
and to day, whether one of the roughs or one
of the ton, whether on the Bowery or on
Broadway, is the same in his cardinal esti-
E mate of life, in substantive aims and choruc-
ter, and in the direction and tendency OF his
/. course, as the fast young man Of two thou
+ sand eight hundred years ago. Absalom is
. dead and the great heap of stones piled
= above bis dshonored body has crumbled, and
- his burial place is forgotten but never since
he so ANONYMOUSLY ended his career havt
there failed to be those who in some wa!
were re. e.enacting his part and to day ther
are vast numbers in the world who have on
r ly to look 10 him, in the kind of life he lived
=. in the kind of character he formed, in tb
- kind of death he died, to see what essenti4ll
is their life-what the character toward
:, which they are aiming, and what, unless the.
change themselves betmes, will be the kin
. OF lite they will surely die"
In viewing Absaom as type of class
:. the speaker proceeded to refer specially t
- three things among many others:
-, I. The grief and disappointment he occt
-, stoned.
:, II. The low estimate Of life on which
acted.
" III. The speedy and dishonorable en-
which he reached.
- to the misery caused in families by the di
- soIute young men OF the present time.
the second place. our sub ject teaches thu
: looking at Absalom as the type of elias
we see the ignobe estimate of life of whi
"' "last" career is born. Absalom did n
- live he only grovelled. He recognized
=. great principles to which life should con(or
- and no lofty or generous aims by which
should be filed All its more serious e
81 ployments and soberer satislactions were
., him very dull and prosy things, altogetl
/. without feme or sparkle. He thought hi
- self only as q body, seldom or never a
soul. Life to him, therefore, was simpl
..; season to possess, to enjoy, to sport, 10 dri
- to dash and to make a display. And if 1
~. serious minded friend ever ventured to spt
ho to him of God and responsibility, and his
=, ligious needs and duties, he doubtless o
49,. laughed and turned away, saying time enol
for that, perhaps sneeringly pronounced
i, - such talk only "gammon" and "cant."
>, : And here we have the estimate of life
o,. on which every fast or vicious career
ooo ceeds. This, indeed, is the definition o
ooo "fast" young man. one who forgets that
49,; is anything more than body, or that h
in this world for any other object than m
enjoyment.
But it is time that we come to the
~, reason of our subject. Absalom, as the
suit of his fast and dishonored life, di'
'"O young man, an ignomnious and dishonc
~" death. And this as you do not need tn
should say, only illustrates the general
l'e' A "tast" life cannot be lived With impun
In this field of waste and disorder, as in
'ee" cry other, Gods violated law, however, it
o"o' be forgotten, never fails to assert and vi
- - :" cate itself. "The vicious die early" I
fade like shadows, or tumble like wrt
wy and ruins into the grave-often when c
young; almost always before forty. "Bl
% " men," says the psalmist, "shall not live
0y -; half their days )" and the remark is equ
true about "fast" men. They live unste
spend their twelve hours in six turn n
., into day, or use for carousal or dissipa
''N' time that should be used for rest an
their rush in the chase OF pleasure, gel
of sight and into the darkness while OF
l.. g.. al nlou, and 01oPv nf life. Ma