The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1888-09-26
ALL CHAINS CAN BE BROKEN.
DIR. TALadAGE'S FERvID SERMON AT
THE BROOKLYN TABERNACI.E.

DIR. TALdAGE'S FEHvID SERMON AT
THE BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.
Gambling, Drinking, Smoking, infidelity
Uncleanliness, Avarice and Irreligior
Are All Links in the Chain Of Sin Which
shackIes the Mind and Soui.
An unusually large congregation at
tended the Brooklyn Tabernacle Sun
day. The Rev. DR.. Talmage never
preached with greater vigor. He took
for his text, Ezekiel vii, chap. %,
'''Make chain" Having spoken Of the
many uses to which chains were adapted
and its symbolic character, the golden
chains that were used as gems Of honor
in older ages, he said:
ssWhss wish to impress upon myself
and upon you is the strength IN right
and wrong directions, OF consecutive
forces, the superior power of chain OF
Influences above one influence, the great
advantage of congeries of links above
one link, and in all family government
and in sn effort to rescue others and IN
all attempt to stop iniquity, take the
suggestion of my text and make chain.
ssThat which contains the greatest I'M
:portance, that which incloses the most
tremendous opportunities, that which,
of earthly things, is most watched by
tother worlds, that which has beating
against its two sides all the eternities, Is
the cradle. The grave IS nothing in
;importsnce compared with it, for that is
only gully that We step across IN q
second; but the cradle has within 1t 8
new eternity, just born and never to
cease.
'<sWhen, three or four years ago, the
Ohio River overhowed its banks and the
wild freshets swept down with them
harvests and cities, one day was found
floating on tie bosom Of the waters q
cradle with child in it, all unhurt,
wrapped up snug and warm, and its blue
eyes looking into the blue of the open
heavens. It was mentioned as some
thing extraordinary. But every cradle
is, with its young passenger, floating on
the swift current OF the centuries, deep
calling to deep, Ohios and st. Law
rences and Mississippis of influence,
bearing it onward"
Having spoken Of and pointed out the
means Of properly educstlng and IN
.structing the young, DR.. Talmage went
,soa to show that so great we're the
temptations to which young men were
open and the social follies of young
: women that the first eighteen years of
their life should be tenderly cared for,
; he illustrated it by picturing the wan
dering of 8 young man through wild
ness and dissipation, but the molding OF
whose home life and instruction still
~cling to him.
ssWhst rough time that young man
has in doing wrong" said DR.. Tslmage,
carefully nurtured as he was! His
father and mother have been dead for
years, or they are over in Scotland, or
England or Ireland; but they have stood
in the doorway OF every dram shop that
he entered, and under the chandelier OF
every house of dissipation, saying: My
son, this is no place for you. Lave you
forgotten the old folks? Don't you
recognize these wrinkles, and this stoop
in the shoulder, and this tremulous
hand? Go home, my boy, go home!
BY the God to whom we consecrated
you, by the cradle in which We rocked
You, by the grsss-groWn graves IL the
old country chnrchysrd, by the heaven
where we hope yet to meet you, go
homel Go home, my boy, 60 home!
And some Sunday you will be surprised
to find that young man suddenly asking
for the prayers of the church. Some
Sunday you will see him at the Sscra-
ment, and, perhaps, drinking from the
same kind Of chafce that the old folks
drank out of years ago when they COM
memorsted the sufferings of the Lord.
Yes, my lad, you do not have so much
fun in sin as you seem to have. l know
what spoils your fun. You cannot shake
off the influences of those prayers long
ago offered, or Of those kind sdmoni-
tions.
cat last that young man turns through
the consecutive influences OF pious
parentage, who out of prayers and
fidelities innumerable made chain.
That is the chain that pulls nightly
this morning on five hundred OF you.
"The first chain bridge was built ID
Scotland" said the pastor, after de-
scribine weak link in the chain Of life.
"Walter Scott tells how the French
initiated it in bridge across the River
Seine. But there Was one weak point
in that chain bridge. There was mid
die bolt that was of poor material, but
they.did not know how much depended
,,, fbot roi1dle b1lt of the chain bridge
On the opening day a procession started,
led on by the builder of the bridge, and
!, when the mighty weight of the process
F., sion was fairly on it, the bridge broke
). and precipitated the multitudes. The
bridge was all right except in that mid
die bolt. So the bridge of character
may be made up Of mighty links strong
enough to hold mountain, but if there
be one weak spot, that one point un-
booked after may DE the destruction OF
everything.
.eAnd what multitudes have gone
down for all time and all eternity be-
cause in the chain bridge of their char
acter there was lacking strong middle
bolt. He had but one fault and that
was avarice; hence, forgery. He had
bus one fault and that was q burning
thirst for intoxicants; hence, his fatal
debsuch. She had but one fault and
that an inordinate fondness for dress,
and hence her own and her husbands
bankruptcy. She had but one fault and
that 8 quick temper; hence the disgrace
fnl outburst. What We all want is to
-. >,,,t oroopd no O ctrnOp chain of