The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1886-11-25


greasy you can hardly tell who has
tho best hand. But never mind; they
are only playing for drinks. Shuttle away
Shuttle awayl The landlord stands in his
shirt sleeves with hands on his hips watching
the game and waiting for another call to fill
up the glasses. 1t is the hot breath of eternal
woe that fiushes that young mans cheek. In
the jets OF gaslight l see the shooting out of
the fiery tongue of the worm that never
dies The clock strikes twelve; it is the toll
ing of the bell of eternity at the burial of a
soul. Two hours pass on, and they are all
sound asleep in their chairs Landlord says:
"Come, now, wake up; it's time to shut mp"
Push them out into the air. They are going
home. Let the wife crouch in the corner
and the children hide undor the bed. They
are going homel What is the history of that
young manl He began his dissipation at the
Fifth Avenue hotel, and completed the dam
nation in the worst grog shop in Navy
street.
But sin even does not stop here. 1t comes
to the door of the drawing room. There are
men Of leprous hearts that go into the very
best classes Of society. They are so fasci-
nating-they have such bewitching way Of
offering their arm. Yet the poison Of asps is
under the tongue and their heart is hell. At
a while they begin TO put forth their talons
of death. Now they begin to show really
what they are Suddenly, although you
could not have expected it, they were so
charming In their manner, so fascinating in
their address, suddenly a cloud, blaclzer than
was ever woven of midnight oT hurricane,
drops upon some domestic circle. There
is agony in the parental bosom that none but
the Lord God Almighty can measure-an ag
ony that wishes that the children of the
household had been swallowed by the grave,
when IL would be only loss of body instead
of loss of soul What Is the matter with
that householda They have not had the front
windows open in six months or year. The
mothers hair suddenly turned white; father
hollow checked and bent over prematurely,
goes down the street. There has been no
death In that family-no loss of property.
Has madness seized upon themi Mol mol A
villain, kid gloved, patent leathered, with
gold chain and graceful manner, took that
cup of domestic bliss, elevated it high in the
Dir until the sunlight struck it, and oil the
rainbows danced about the brim, and then
dashed it down Ia the deSolation and woe,
until all the harpies of darkness clapped their
hands with glee, and all the voices of hell ut
tered loud hal hal Oh, there are scores
and hundreds of homes that have been blast
eQ, ana II LQo awful COulu DC Iully
set before you, your blood would freeze into
solid cake of ice at the heart. Do you
wonder that fathers and mothers are anxious
about their children, and that they ask them
selves the question day and night; What is
to become of them3 what will be their des-
tiny?
shall devote the rest Of my remarks to al
deviation of parental anxiety. Let me say
to you, as parents, that greet deal of that
anxiety will be lifted if You will begin early
with your children. Tom Paine said: @The
first five years Of my life l became an in
fldel" A vessel goes out to sea; it has been
five days out. storm comes on it; it
springs a leak; the helm Will not work;
everything is out Of order. What is the
matter9 The ship Is not seaworthy, and
never was 1t is a poor time to find it out
now Under the fury of the storm the vessel
goes down, with 25O passengers, TO a watery
grave. The time to make the ship seaworthy
was in the dry dock before IL started. Alas
for u.s. if we wait until our children get out
into the world before we try to bring upon
them the influence Of Christ's religionl /
tell you, the dry dock of the Christian home
is the place where we are to fit them for use
fulness and for heaven. In this world, under |
the storm of vice and temptation, it will be |
too late. In the domestic circle you de-
eide whether your child shall be truthful or
false-whether it shall be generous or penuri- |
GUS You can tell by the way child divides |
an apple just what its future history will be |
You ought to oversee the process. If the |
child take nine-tenths of the apple giving the
other tenth to his sister, if he should live to
be one hundred he will be grasping and want
the biggest piece of everything. stood in |
house In one of the Long Island villages, and [
1 saw beautiful tree, and 1 said to the
owner: "That is very fine tree, but what a
curious crook there Is In itl" @Yes said he,
II planted that tree, and when IL was year
old I went to New York and worked as a |
for year or two, and when came
back found that they had allowed some
thing to stand against the tree; SO it has al
ways had TINT crook" And so I thought it
was with the influence upon children. II you
allow anything to stand in the way of moral
against child on this side or that
side, to the latest day of it's life on earth and
through all eternity it will show the pressure.
No wonder Lord Byron was bad. Do you
know his mother said to him, when she saw
him one day lmping across the floor with his
lnsound foot "Get out of my way, you
anne bratp What chance for boy like
shatl
Two young men come to the door of sin
they consult whether they will go in. The
me young man goes in and the other retreats.
Oh, you say, the last had better resolution
No, that was not 1t. The first young man
lad no carly good influence; the last had been
1iously trained, and when he stood at the
loor of sin discussing the matter he looked
around as if to see some one, and he felt an
Invisible hand ON his shoulder saying: "Don't
70 ini Don't go inl Whose hand was it, A
Mothers hand fifteen years ago gone to
lust A gentleman was telling me of the
act that some years ago there We're two
young men who stopped at the door of the
Park theatre in New York The question
vas whether they should go in. That night
here was to be a very immoral play enacted
n the Park theatre. One man went in; the
,ther stayed out. The young man who went
n went on from sin TO sin and through
crowd of iniquities, and died in the
lospital of delirium tremens The other
,oung man, who retreated, chose Christ,
vent into the Gospel, and is now one of the
most eminent ministers of Christ in thiscoun-
ry. And the man who retreated gave as his
eason for turning back from the Park the
trethat night that there was a voice
within him saying: "Don't go in; don't go
H." And for that reason, my friends, be-
ieve so much in Bible classes But there is
better than the Bible class, and
hat is the Sunday school class. 1 like it be-
ause it takes children at an earlier point;
nd the infant class I like still better, because
/ takes children before they begin to walk or
o talk straight, and puts them on the road tn
eaven. You cannot begin too early. lou
tand ON the bank of a river flowing by. You
annot stop that river, but you travel days
nd days toward the source of IL, and you
md after while where it comes down drop
ing from the rock, and with your knife you
make course in this or that direction for the
ropping to take, and you decide the course
the river You stand and see your chill
rens character rolling on with great impet-
osity and passion, and you cannot affect
hem Go up toward the source where the
haracter first starts and decide that it shall
AXE the right direction, and it will follow the
ath you give it.
But want Won 70 renemher o fntherl o |