The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-10-13
DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
1.-TWO YOUNG MEN WHO CAME TO
LIVE IN THE CITY"

LIVE IN The ClII."
Aext: Ponder the path Of thy feet. PROV
.rbs iv., 26.
1t was Monday, September 20, ata country
depot. Two young men are to take the cars
to the city. Father brought them in wagon
with two trunks. The evening before at the
old home was rather sad time. The neigh
bors had gathered i'll to say good.bye In.
deed, all the Sunday afternoon there had
been q strolling that way from adjoining
farms for it was generally known that the
two boys the next morning were going to the
city to live and the whole neighborhood was
interested, some hoping they would do well
and others, without saying anything, hoping
for them city failure. Sitting on the fence
talking over the matter, the neghbors would
interlard their conversation about the wheat
cropof last summer and the apple crop yet to
be gathered with remarks about the city pros
poets Of Edward and Nicholas, for these
were the names Of the two young men; Ed
ward, seventeen, and Nlcho.aS, nineteen, ouG
Edward, although two years younger, being
quicker to learn, knew as much as Nicholas.
They were both brown-faced and hearty and
had gone through all the curriculum OF coun.
try sports by which muscle is developed and
the chest filed out.
Father and mother on Monday morning
had both resolved to 60 to the depot with the
bows, but the mother at the last moment
fe.t quite weak that morning, and had no
appetite for day or two, and so concluded
to say goodbye at the front door OF the old
place. Where she went and what she did
after the wagon left leave other mothers TO
guess. The breakfast things stood almost
till noon before they were cleared away. But
little was said on the way to the railroad sta
ton. As the locomotive whistle was heard
coming around the curve the father put out
his hand, somewhat knotted at the knuckles
and one Of the joints stitfened years ago oy
q wound from scythe, and said: 'Good-bye
Edward, goodbye, Nicholas! Take good
care OF yourselves and write as soon as you
get there and let us know how they treat you.
Your mother will be anxious to hear"
Landed in the city they sought out with
considerable inquiry of policemen on street
corners and questioning of car-drivers the
two commercial establishments to which they
were destined, so far apart that thereafter
they seldom saw each other, for it is aston
ishing how far apart two persons can be in
q large. city, especially if their habits are
Bowling Green to Canal street or from At
lantic avenue to Fulton.
Edward, b.ing the youngest, we must look
after him first. He never was in so large q
store in all his life. Sub interminable
shelves, such skillful imitation of real men
and women to display goods on, such agility
Of cash boys, such immense stock OF goods
and whole community Of employees. His
head is confused as he seems dropped like a
peGbie in the great ocean OF business life.
''Have you seen that greenhorn from the
country" whispers young man to young
man. HE is in such and department.. We
will have to break him in some night" Ed
ward stands at his new place all day so home
sick that any moment he could have cried
aloud if his pride had not suppressed every
thing. Here and there tear he carelessly
dashed off as though it were from influenza
or cold in the head. But some Of you know
how q young man feels when set down in a
city of strangers thereafter to fight his own
battles and no one near by seeming to care
whether he lives or dies The centre Of q
desert, a months journey to the first settle
ment. is not much more solitary.
But that evening as the hour for closing
has come, there are two or three young men
who sidle up to Edward and ask him how he
likes the city and where he expects to go that
night, aud il he would like them to show him
the sights. He thanks them, and says he shall
have to take some evenings for unpacking
and making arrangements, as he has just ar
rived, but says that after while he will be
glad to accept their company. After spend
ing two or three evenings in his boarding
house room, walking up aud down, looking
at the bare wall or an old chrome hung there
at the time that religious newspapers, by such
prizes advanced their subscription lists, aud
after toying an hour with the match box land
ever and anon examining his watch to see II
it is time to retire, and it seems that ten
O'Clock at night, or even nine o'clock, will
never come, be resolves thereafter to accept
the chaperoning Of his new friends at the
store.
Soon the night comes when they are all
out together. Although his salary is not
large he is quite flush with pocket money
which the old folks gave him after saving up
for some time. He cannot be mean and these
friends are doing all this for his pleasure and
so he pays the bills At the door Of places
change or they accidentally fall behind just
as the ticket Office is approached, or they say
they will make it all right and will them
selves lay the next time Edward, accus-
toned to farm life or village life, is dazed
and enchanted with the glitter of spectacular
sin. Plain and blunt iniquity Edward would
have Immediately repulsed, but sin accom-.
panied by bewitching orchestra, sin amid
gilded pillars and gorgeous upholstery, sin
arrayed in oil the attractions that the powers
of darkness in combination can arrange to
magnetic young man, is very different
from sin in its loathsoIne and disgusting
shape.
But after a few nights, being very late out,
he says: "1must stop, my purse won't stand
this. Ny health won't stand this My repu-
tation won't stand this" Indeed one Of the
in which he applauded a play in which atti-
tudes and phraseology occurred which. it
taken or uttered in his own parlor, would
have caused bim to shoot or stab the actor on
the spot,-frou this hi2h-priced box sees in
q cheaper place the new clerk of his store,
and is led to ask questions about his habits
and wonders how, on the salary the house
pays him, he can do as he does. Edward, to
recover his hysical vigor and his finances,
stops while and spends few moro even
ings examining the chromos on the wall and
counting the matches in the match box, or
goes down in the boarding house parlor to
hear the gossip about the other boarders or
dis course on the insu1iciency of the table
fare, considering the price pa;d-tne criti-
cism severe in proportion as the fault-finder
pays little or is resolved to leave unceremoni-
ouSly and pay nothing at all.
"Ccnfound it!'' cries the young man, 81
cannot stand this life any longer, and l must
go out and see the world" The same young
men and others of now larger acquaintance
are ready to escort him. There is never any
lack of such guidance. If man wants to
go the whole round of sin he can find plenty
to take him, whole regiment who know the
way. But after awhile Edwards money is
all gone. He has received his salary again
aud again. bat it was spent before he got it,
borrowing a little here and little there.
What shall he do now! Why. he has seen in
his rounds of the gambling tables men who
put down dollar and took up ten. put down
q hundred aud took up thousand. Why
not he! To re 'onstruct his finances he takes
a hand und wins: is so pleased be takes an
other hand and wins is in phranzy Of delight
tol, opothar hand and 1OSec oil
When he first came to this city Edward
xyac disnose,, RI Eean Sunday in ouietnesS