The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1886-02-26
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Discourse on winter, and How
to Meet It."

The Designations Incident to the Season
Forcibly Presented and Illustrated
i A Plea for Abstinence On the
Natal Day or the New Year.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talma2e, on his recen
return to Brooklyn from his Western lee
ture tour, chose the above timely topic fol
his first Sunday evening discourse, taking
| for his text:
| Pray ye that your flight be not in the win.
eer.-Mathew xxiv,2 20.
The inhabitants of the old cities were
here told that they would have to fly fol
their lives. Such flight would be painful
even in the flush OF spring time, but super
latively aggravating il in cold weather;
therefore they were told to pray that Their
fight be not in the winter. There is some
thing in the winter season that not only
tests our physical endurance but, especial
ly in the city, tries our moral character.
1t is the winter months that ruin morally
and forever many Of our young men. We
sit in the house on q winters night, and
hear the storm raging on the outside and
coast, but il our ears were only good
enough, we could on any winter night
hear the crash of 100 moral shipwrecks.
Many who came last September to town,
by the first of March will have been blast
ed. 1t only takes one winter to ruin q
young man. When the long winter even
ings have come many Of our young men
will improve them in forming more inti-
mate acquaintance with books, contract
ting higher social friendships and strength
ening and ennobling characters. But not
so with all. / will show you before get
through that at this season of the year
temptations are especially rampant, and
my counsel is, look out how You spend your
winter nights!
remark, first, that there is no season of
the year in which vicious allurements are
so active. In warm weather places of dis
sipation win their tamest triumphs. Peo-
pie do not feel like going in the hot nights
OF summer among the blazing gaslights or
breathing the fetid air Of assemhlages.
The receipts Of most grog shops in q De-
cember night are three times what they
are in any night in July or August. I
doubt not there are larger audiences in the
Casinos in winter than in the summer
weather. Iniquity plies more profitable
trade. December, January and Feb uary
are harvest months for the devil. The
playbills of the low entertainments then
are more charming, the acting is more ex-
quisite, the enthusiasm of the spectators
more bewitching. Many young man
who makes out to keep right the rest OF the
year, capsizes now. When he came to
town in the autumn his eye was bright,
his cheek rosy, his step elastic; but before
spring, as you pass him you viii say to
your friend: "What is the matter with
that young mani" The fact is that one
winter Of dissipation has done the work Of
ruin.
This is the season for parties, and il they
are OF the right kind, our social nature is
improved and our spirits are cheered up.
But many OF them are not of the right
kind, and our young people night after
night are keptin the whirl of unhealthv&x-
element, until their strength fails, and
their spirits are broken down, and their
Taste for ordinary life corrupted; and by
The time the spring weather comes they are |
IN the doctors hands or sleeping in the |
cemetery. The certificate of their death is |
made out, and the physician, out of regard !
or the family, calls tn edisease by some |
Latin name, when the truth is that they
Lied Of too many parties.
Away with these wine-drinking convivi- |
liities. How dare you, the father Of a
household, triie with the appetites of our
1oung people! Perhaps out Of regard for
he minister or some other weak temper
Ince man, you have the decanser in side
DOM, where, after refreshments, only a
elect few are invited; and you come back
nth glare in your eye and stencil in
Tour breath that show that you have been
mt serving the devil.
The excuse which Christian men often
i've for this is that it is necessary, after
uch late eating, by some sort of stimulant
Q help digestion. Ny plain opinion is
nat II . man have no more control over
10 appetite than to stuff himself until his
digestive organs refuse to do their Office,
e ought not to call himself a man, but
ather TO class himself among the beasts
bat perish. take the words Of the Lord
lmighty, and cry: "Woe to him that
utteth the bottle to his neighbours lips.n
Young men, take it as the counsel of a
riend when bid you be cautious where
on spend your winter evenings. Thank
|od that you have lived to see the glad
inter days in which your childhood was
lade cheerful by the face Of fathers and
lothers brothers and sisters, some of
HON, alasl win never again wish you a
Happy New Year" or .Merry Christ
Ias."
Let no one tempt you ont Of your So
riety. ! have seen respectable young
len OF tbs best families drunk. on
ew Years Day. The excuse they .
ave for the inebriation was that the
dies insisted ON their taking it. There !
I've been instances where the delicate
and Of woman hath kindled q Young
ans taste for strong drink, who, after
any years, when the attractions of that y
'liday scene wereNll forgotten, crouched
her rags AMI her desoIation and her
oe, under the uplifted hand OF the drunk !
monster who, on that Christmas morn
3 so long ago, took the glass from her
md. And 80 the woman stands on the
'ufment Of the bridge on the moonlit
ght wondering II down under the water 7
ere Is mot some quiet ulncA fnr N f.rok.n