Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-02-26
THE PULPIT.
to Young Men.

Rev. T. A. Hoyt, pastor of the FRS
Presbyterian Church, preached on last Sun
day evening, the first of a series of dis
courses addressed to young men, his sub
iect being "Weakness of Character"
He took for bis text the 10Th verse of the
9th chapter of Mark: nAnd the King was
exceeding sorry; yet for bis osth's sake
and for their sakes which sat with him, be
would not reject her,"
We are struck with the extreme smooth.
ness with which this story of the beheading
of John the Baptist is told. There is no
utterance given of a1y expression of hor
ror, hatred, or contempt. What
ever is thrown in incidentally,
is rather in favor of Herod than against
him. This is true of all the narratives we
have in the Scriptures, and we are less liza
BILE to be impressed by the reading of the
Scriptures on this account. We read so
much of the exciting stories Of the day,
that when we come to read the narratives
of the Bible, they seem stale and unproft-
able. But this is one of the strongest ev-
licences of their divine origin, for no mere
man could so write.
Herod does not appear before US blood
thirsty tyrant, but as man of naturally
good impulses man who came nearer
the Kingdom Of God, perhaps, than many
of us assembled here to-nisht. The
Evangelist tells Us he was the friend of
John the Baptist.
The first great lesson would draw from
this story of Herod is that weakness IN.
sensibly glides into sinfulness. He was a
weak, irresolute man; t at was the cause
of his trouble and bis crime. He put John
in prison that he might protect him, and
then, in q weak moment, the soul of this
man was found to be utterly void of any
good.
Another great instance Of this weakness
is found IN the history of PLATE. He was
not blood thirsty man. He was exceed
ingly anxious ito save Jesus, yet Plate
stands in all history as the executioner of
Christ. The ancient creed which comes
down 10 us says suffered under Pontius
Plate" Is not this lesson for you, young
man? You yield to soft influences which
beguile into sin.
You do not intend to 60 very far, but one
step leads to another. Take a young man
who comes from the country into the city.
No longer does he meet father, mother,
sister and brother at the family altar, but
In comparative solitude he spends his leis
ure time. A sense of loneliness is in his
heart. He yearns for companionship.
Christian people do not 60 out of the way
to hunt him up, but the emisssries Of Satan
never neglect their duty. They will be
swift to find him and lead him to some
place as q place of innocent amusement.
The flush of pleasure is kindled in his
heart. Thus he may insensibly drop into
the soft arms of sin. 1t becomes us to be
strong-to "quit ourselves like men," To
be weak is to be wrong.
In this story of Herod, we see an Illus
tration of the alleged necessity of sin. He
felt that afor his osths sake, and for the
sake of those who sat with him." he must
keep bis promise. He had sworn, and be
must keep his oath. This man imagined
that he was trapped and that he could not
escape. We often imagine we are placed
80 that we must sin. The circle of society
in which we move has its custom, and we
do not like to be strange. Then there are
exigencies of business; as men imagine
they must travel, or labor on the holy
Sabbath day, in carrying out
their plans and purposes, in which there is
not perfect rectitude of purpose nor perfect
transparency of thought. l submit it to
any of you who are in the daily avocations
Of life, if you do not too much keep back
that which is unfovorsble in your business
transactions and keep prominent that
which you wish to be considered. In the
regulations of business is not there much
of it done on principles which we can only
reconcile to our consciences by saying we
are very sorry it is so, but we cannot help
ourselves
This was the position of Herod. My
brethren, we must have high standard of
duty, and keep up to it. There is an absolute
necessity laid upon us to obey God, st the
peril of our souls.
"The King was exceeding sorry" have