Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1886-10-23
;vo vouny m.n, nelirion. The one Dc.

for he was brighter and quicker and the
neighbors prop lesied greater 81 cess for him
than for Nicholas. But heholl and wonder
at the tremendous Issue. Voices come up
out Of this audience and say Did you know
these brothers. Yes, knew thsm we'll Did
you know their parents Yes, intimately.
What was the city, what the street, what the
last names OF these young men. You have
excited our curiosity, now tell US all
l will Nothing in these chara tiers is ficti-
tions except the names. Ihey are IN every
city and in every street of every city and in
every cemetery Not two Of them but ten
thousand. Aye, ayel Right before me to-
day and on either side of me and above me
they sit ami stand, the invulnerable through
religious defence and the blasted of city al
lurements. Those who shall have longevity
in beautiful homes aud others who shall have
early graves Of infamy. And am hero to-
day in the name of Almighty God 10 1--WE
YOU the choice of two characters, th5 two
hist lries, the two experiences, the two desti-
MES, the two worlds. the two etsrnities.
Standing with you at the forks Of the road
something makes me think that If to-day
set before the nenple the termn of the two
roads they will all of them take tn right one.
There are before me in this house and in the
invisible audience back of this-for journal
ism has generously given ms every week full
opportunity to address the people in all the
towns and cities of Christendom-l say, in
the visible and invisible audience there are
many who have not fully made up. their
ca.uds which road to take. "Coms with u.s."
cry Ill the voices of righteousness. "Come
with usr' cry all the voices of sin.
Now the trouble is that many make
disgraceful surrender. As we all know,
there is honorable and digni6ed sur
render, as when a small host yields
to superior numbers. 1t is no hui
initiation for thousand men to yield to
ten thousand. 1t is better than to keep on
when there can be no result except
to sin make a surrender when on their side
they have enough reserve forces to rout all
the armies of perdition whether leI on by
what demonographer calls Belial or Bee.-
zebub or Apollyon or Abaddon or Ariel. The
disgraceful thing about the surrender at
Sadan was that the French handed over Az
field guns and mitrailleuses, six thousand
horses and eighty three thousand armed men
And it is base for that man to surrender to
sin when all the ornaments of Almighti-
ness would have whesled to the front to fight
mis- battle il he hal waved one earnest signal
But mol he surrendered body, mind. soul,
reputation, home, pedigree, time and eter-
nifty, while yet all the prayers of his Christian
an ,estors were on his side and all the prof
cred aid, supernal, cherubic, seraphic, arch
angelic, deitic.
We have talked so much the last few weeks
about the abdication of Alexander, of Bull
garia, but what paltry throne was that
which the unhappy King descended com2ared
with the abdicatIon of that young man or
mi,ldle-aged man or old man who quits the
throne of his opportunity and turns his back
upon heavenly throne and tramps OF into
igDoniny and everlasting exile. That IS an
abdication enough to shock universe. In
Persia they will not have blind man on the
throne, and when reigning monarch is jeal-
-l-As L. L.
eyes extlngushed SO that he cannot possibly
ever come to GROWING. And that suggests
the difference between the way sin and di-
vine grace taxes hold of man. Tie former
blnls him so he may never reach throne,
while the latter ilumines the blind that he
NAV take coronation.
Whv this sermons I have made up my
mind that our city life is destroying too many
young men. There comes in, every Septem-
her and October, large influx OF those be-
tween sixteen and twenty-four years of age.
and New York and Brooklyn damn at least
a thousand of them every year. They are
shoveled off and down with no more COM
Function than that with which coal HEAVIER
scoops the anthracite int a dark cellar.
What with the wine-cup and the gamblers
di Q and the scarlet enchPntress, no young
man without the grace of God is safe ten
m nutes.
There is much discussion about which is
LQB WOTSU CtUN VI bu6 COuJiuSub. OOiuo
say New York, some say New Orleans,
some say Chicago, some say St Louis. What
have to say is you cannot make much COM
rarson between the inelnities and in all our
cities the temptation seems infinite Wekeep
a great many mills running day and night.
Not rice mills nor cotton lis. Not mills Of
corn or wheat, but mills for grinding IN
men. Such are ali the grog-shors icensI
or unlicensed. Such are all the gambling
saloons Such are all the houses of infamy,
and we do the work according to law AMI we
turn out a new grist every hour. and grind
up warz hearts and clear heads, and the
earth about cider mill is not more satu-
ratod with the beverage than the ground
about all these soul -des rowing institutions is
saturated with ths blood of victims. We say to
Long Island neighborhoo1s and villages:
Send us more su oply," and to Westchester
and Ulster and all the other counties of New
York: 'Send us more men and wonento put
under the wheels. Give us full chance and
we could grind up in the municipal mill five
hundred day. We have enough machinery;
we have enough men who can run them.
Give us more homes to crushl Give us mora
parental hearts to pulverizei Pat into the
hopper the wardrobes and the family Bibles
and the livelihood of wives and children.
Give us more material for these mighty mills
which are wet with tears and sulnhurous
with woe and trembling with the earthquakes
of an incensed God who will, unless our cities
repent, cover us up as quick and as deep as
in August of the year 70 Vesuvius avalanched
Herculaneum.
Oh man or woman, ponder the path Of thy
feet See which way you are going. Will
you have the distiny of Edward or Nicho-
lasl On this sacramental day when the
FURNISHED chali,es stand in the presence Of
the people, start from the foot of the cross
for usefulness and heaven. Plutarch tells US
that after Cesar was slain and his twenty
three wounds had been Displayed to the per
pie, arousing an uncomfortable excitement,
and the body of the dead conqueror, accord
ing to ancient custom. had been pltupon the
funeral pile and the flames arose. people rushed
up, took from the blazing mass torches with
which they ran through the city, crying
the glory of the assassinated and the
shame of his assassinators. On this
sncramental day when the five bleeding
wounds of Christ, your King, are shown to
you and the fires of his earthly suffering
blaze before your imagination, each one Of
YOU take a tor h and start heavenward. q
torch with light for yourself and light for
others, for the race that starts at the cross
en- DIS at the throne. While the twenty three
wounds of Caesar wrought nothing but the
CONSERVATION of the people, from the five
wounds of our Conqueror there flows q
Transforming power to make all the IN
counted millions who will accept it forever
happy and forever fires.