Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-11-17

corning it? Do all want to see vnH WIZ on
you to call? Does all the world know half oe
mucn as IL pretends TO know? Is there not
many wretched stock of goods with a bril-
liant store window? Passing up and down
these streets to your business and your work
are you not impressed with the fact that soci-
ETY. is hollow, and that there are
subterfuges and pretensions? Oh, how
many there are who swagger and strut, and
how few people who are natural and walk
While fops simper and fools chuckle and
slmpletons giggle, how few people are
natural and laugh; the courtesan and the
lOertlne go down the street in beautiful
apparel. while within the heart there are
volcanoes OF passion consuming their life
away. L say these things not to create in
you lncredullty or misauthrOpy, nor do |
forget there are thousands of people a great
deal better than they seem; but do not think
any man so prepared for the conflict of this
life until he knows this particular peril.
Ehud comes pretending to pay his tax to
hlng EglOn, and, while he stands in front of
the hlng, stabs him through with dagger
until the haft went in after the blade. Judas
IscarlOt kissed Christ.
Again, in all these cities l am impressed
with the fact that there is a great field for
CHRISTIAN cnarlty. There are hunger and sur
fering and want and Wretchedness in the
country; but these evils chiefly congregate in
our great cities. On every street crime prowls,
ana drunkenness staggers, and shame winks.
and pauperlsm thrusts out Its hand asking for
aims. Here want is more squalid and hunger
Is most lean. A Christian man going along a
street in New York saw a poor lad and he
stopped and said: "My boy, do you know how
to read and write?'' The boy made no an
swer. The man asked the question twice and
thrice: "Can you read and writer" And
then the boy answered with a tear flashing on
Ine Dack OF his hand. He said in defiance:
mo, SIR; can't read, nor write neither. God,
sir, don't want me to read and write. Didn't
ne take away my father so long ago l never
remember to have seen him? And haven't |
had to go along the streets to get something to
fetch home to eat for the folks? And didn't
l as soon as l could carry a basket, have to go
out and pick up cinders and never had no
schooling, sur? God don't want me to read,
sir. can't read nor write neither"
Oh, these poor wanderers! They have no
chance. Born in degradation, as they get up
from their hands and knees to walk, they
take their first step on the road to despair
Let us go forth in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ TO rescue them. Let us ministers not
be afraid of soiling our black clothes while we
go down on that mission. While we are tying
an elaborate knot in our cravat, or while we
are in the study rounding Off some period
rhetorically, we might be saving a soul from
death and hiding multitude of sins: oh,
Christian laymen, go out on this work If you
are not willing to go forth yourself, then give
OF your means, and il you are too lazy 10 go
and II you are too stingy to help, then get out
OF the way and hide yourself in the dens and
caves of the earth.
In all the cities, East, West, North and
South, notice great temptations to CONNER
cial fraud. Here is a man who starts in
business. He SAYS: ''I'm going to be honest"
But on the same street, on the same block In
the same business are Shylocks. Those men,
to get the patronage of any one, will break all
Understandings with other merchants, and
Will sell at ruinous cost, putting their neigh
bors at great disadvantage, expecting to make
up their deficits in something else. II an honest
principle could creep into that mans soul it
would die of sheer loneliness! The man twists
about, trying to escape the penalty of the law,
and despises God while he is Just a little
anxious about the Sheriff. The honest man
all fI,f
rivalry Is awful. Perhaps l am
more scrupulOus than l need be. This little
bargain am about to enter is a little doubt
full; but, then, shall only do as the rest"
And so had a friend who started in CONNER
clal life as book merchant. with a high re-
solve. He said: 'In my store there shall be
no books that L would not have my family
read" Time passed on and one day went
into his store and found some iniquitOus books
on the shelf. and said to him: "How Is 1t
possible that you can consent to sell such
got over those puritanical notions. man
cannot do business in this day unless he does
it in the way other people do it."
One of the mightiest temptations in COM
mercial life IN ali our cities to-day is the fact
that many prOfessed lChristian men are not
square in their bargains. Such men are in
Baptist, Methodist and Congregational
churches, and our own denomination is a
largely represented as any of them. Our good
merchants are foremost in Christian enter
prises; they are patrOniZers of art, philan-
JnTOplC anu pdJrlOJlC. Goa Will attend
to them in the day Of His coronation.
am not speaking OF them, but of those in
commercial life who are setting a ruinous
example to our young merchants. Go through
all the stores and offices in our cities and tell
me in how many of those stores and offices are
the principles of Christ's religion dominant.
In three e-fourths of them? No. In half of
them2 No. In one tenth Of them? Decide
abroad somehow that charity can
cOnsecrate iniquitous gains, and that if man
give to God portion Of an unrighteous bar
gain then the Lord will forgive him the rest
The secretary of a benevolent society came
to me and said: "Mr. So-and- so has given a
large amount of money to the missionary
cause" mentioning the sum. 1 said: 81 can't
believe it," He said: ''It is So" Well, |
went home, staggered and cOnfounded. l
never knew the man to give anything But
after awhile found out that he had been en-
gagged in the most Infamous kind of a swindle
aud then he promised to compromise the
matter with the Lord saving, "NOw, here is
so much for thee, LOrdl Please to let me off"
l want to tell you that the church of God is
not shop for receiving stolen goods, and that
if you have taken anything from your fello VS.
you had better return it to the man to whom
il belongs. In drug store in Philadelphia
young man was told that he must sell black
ing on the Lords day. He said to the head
man of the firm: 81 can't possibly do that. l
am willing to sell medicines on the Lords
day, for think that is right and necessary
but can't sell this patent blacking." He was
discharged from the place. A Christian man
hearing of it, took him into his employ, and he
went on from one success to another, until he
was known all over the land for his faith in
God and his good works as for his worldly
success. When a man has sacrificed any tenn
pOral, financial good for the sake of his spir-
ltual interests, the Lord is on his side, and
one with God is majority.
But if you have been much among the cities
you have also noticed that they are full of
temptations Of political character. 1t is not |
so more in one city than in all cities. Hun
dredS of men are going down in Our pitiaa
ev cry year through the pressure Of politics.
Once in while man will come out in a sort
OF missionary spirit and say: 81 am going
into politics now to reform them, and / am
going to reform the ballot box, and am going
to reform all the people l come in contact
with" That man, in the fear and love of
God, goes into politics with that idea, and
with a resolution that he will come out un-
contaminated and as good as when he went
in. But generally the case is when a man
steps into politics many of the neWsDaners
his past history, and after little while has
gone by, instead of considering himself an
citizen, he is lost in Contemplation |
and admiration of the fact that he has so long |
been kept out of Jail!
Then look around and see the allurements
to dissipated life. Bad books, unknown to
father and mother, creeping into some of the |
best families of the community; and BOYS read |
them while the teacher is looking the other |
way or at recess or on the corner OF the street |
when the groups are gathered. These books |
smooth plank on which he can slide down into |
perdltlon some Of your sons and daughters.
Reading bad books, one never gets over it. /
The books may be burned, but there is not |
enough power IN all the apOthecary's prepar- |
atiOns to wash out the stain from the soul
Fathers hands, mothers hands, sisters hands |
will not wash it out; none but the hand of the |
Lord can wash 1t out, All, the most dreadful /
part OF the whole thing is that there are per- |
sons abroad whose whole business it is to de- |
spoil the young.
As the door opens to receive him thousands of |
voices will cry out: ''See, here is what Won
have done;" and the wretch will wrap him. |
self with Aercer flame and leap into deeper /
darkness, and the multitude he has DESTROYED /
will pursue him and hurl at him the long. |
bitter, relentless, everlasting curse OF their /
own anguish. If there be one cup Of eternal |
darkness more bitter than another, thew will |
have to drink it to the dregs. II in afl the /
ocean of the lost world that comes blllowing /
up there be one wave more fierce than |
another 1t will dash over them
stood one day at Niagara Falls and saw /
what you may nave seen there six rainboWs /
bending over that tremendous plunge never
saw anything like it before or since. six /
act! And so, over the rapids and argrr |
precipices of sin, where SO many Lora heea55 |
dashed down, Gods beautifrii -admoDit;ons pon
hover, warning archlEg each peril-six of |
IheIn; my ol euep1a a thousand OF them Re-
ware! Beware! Beware!
A"~ng men, after you go home, while you |
nave time to reflect upon these things, and |
before the duties Of the office and the store
and the shop come upon you again, look over
this whole subject, and after the day has
passed, and you hear in the night the voices
and footsteps of the city dying from your ear,
and 1t gets so silent that you can hear dis
tlnetly your watch under your pillow going
'tick, tick" then open your eyes and look out
upon the darkness, and see two pillars of
light, one horizontal, the other perpendicular.
but changing their direction until they come
together, and your enraptured vision beholds |