Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-12-17

church, blames everything, rushes per-
haps to the Intoxicating cup to drown his
trouble, but instead Of drowning his
trouble browns his body and browns his
soul.
But here is Christian young man
Trouble comes to him. Does he give
up? No. He throws himself back on
the resources of heaven. He says:
''God is my father. Out of all these dis
asters l shall pluck advantage for my
soul. All the promises are mine, Christ Is
mine, Christian companionship is mine 4,
heaven Is mine. What though my apparel
be worn out? Christ gives me robe of
righteousness. What though my money
be gone? l have a title deed to the whole
universe III the promise, An are
yours. What though my worldly friends
fail away? Ministering angels are my
bOdyguard. What though my fare be
poor and my bread be scant? l sit at the
Kings banquet. -
Oh, what a poor, shallow stream is
worldly enjoyment compared with the
deep, broad, overflowing river of God :
peace, rolling midway III the Christian
heart! Sometimes you have gone out on
the iron-bOund beach of the sea when
there has been a storm on the ocean, and
foam at your feet. They did not do you
any harm. While there, you thought of
the chapter written by the Psalmist and
perhaps you recited it to yourself while
the storm was making commentary upon
the passage: "GOd is our refuge and
strength, a very present
HELP IN TINE OF TROUBLE.
Therefore will 1 not fear though the earth
be removed, and though the mountains
be carried into the midst of the sea !;
though the waters thereof roar and be
troubled, though the mountains shake
with the swelling thereof. Selah!'
Oh, how independent the religion of
Christ makes man OF worldly success
and worldly circumstances! Nelson, the
night before his last battle, said: ''TO-
morrow I shall either win Il peerage or 4
grave in Westminster abbey And it
does not make much difference to the
Christian whether he rises or falls in
worldly matters; he has everlasting re-
nown anyway. Other plumage may be
torn in the blast, but that soul adorned
with Christian grace is fairer than the
dove, its wings covered with silver
and its feathers with yellow gold.
You and / have found out that people
who pretend to be happy are not always
happy. Look at that young man carl
caturing the Christian religion,
soothing at everything good, going
into registering drunkenness, dashing
the champagne bottle to the floor,
rolling the glasses from the
bar-room counter, laughing, shouting,
stamping the floor, slrieking. Is he
happy? 1 will go to his midnight pillow.
1 will see him turn the gas off. I will
ask myself if the pillow on which he
sleeps is as soft as the pillow on which
that pure young man sleeps. All no.
When he opens his eyes i'll the morning,
will the world be as bright to him as to
that young man who retired at night say
ing his prayers, invoking Gods blessing
upon his own soul and the souls of his
comrades, and father and mother and
brother and sister far away. No, no.
His laughter viii ring out from the saloon
so that you can hear it rs you pass by,
but it is hollow laughter; in it is the snap
ping of heart-strings and
THE RATTLE OF PRISON GATES.
Happy. that young man happy? Let
him fill high the bowl; he cannot drown
an upbraiding conscience. Let the balls
roll through the bowling alley; the deep
rumble and the sharp crack cannot
overpOwer the voices of condemnation
Let him whirl III the dance of
sin and temptation and death All the
brilliancy of the scene cannot make him
forget the last look of his mother, as he
left home, when she said to him: " Now
my son, You Will do right, am sure You
VIII do right; you viii, won't you?''
That young man happy? Why, across
every night there fits shadows of eternal
darkness; there ladders coi!el mp in every
cup; there are yultures of despair strik-
ing their iron 5eaK into his heart; there
are skeleton iinGYrs of grief pinchiug at
his throat. l come i'll amid the clicking
of the glasses and under the flashing of
the chandeliers, and | cry: - Woe! Woe!
The way of the ungodly shall perish
There is no peace, saith my God, to the
wicked. The way of transgress0rs
is hard. - Oh, my friends,
there Is more joy in one
drop of Christian satisfaction than in
whole rivers of sinful delight. Other
wings may be drenchcd of the storm and
splashed of the tempest, but the dove
that comes in through The window of this
heavenly ark has wings like the dove
covered with silver, and her feathers
with yellow gold.
A-s+LE L EcludIIA, IcilSlOH Is an auOln-
ment i'll the style of usefulness into
which it iHducts man. Here are two
young men. The one has fine culture,
exquisite wardrobe, plenty of friends,
great worldly success, but he lives for
himself. His chief care is for his own
comfort. He lives uselessly. He dies
Here is another young man.
His apparel may not be so good, his edu-
cation may not be SO thorough. He lives
for others. His happiness is to make
Others happy. He is Us self-denying as
that dying soldier
FALLING IN THE RANKS,
when be said: "Colonel, there is no need
of those boys firing themselves by carry
ing me 10 the hospital; let me die Just
where l am. So this young man of
whom l speak loves God, wants all the
world to love Him, is not ashamed to
carry bundle of clothes up that dark
alley to the poor. Which of those young
men do you admire the better? The one
a sham, the other a prince imperial.
Oh, do you know of anything, my
nearer, that is more beautiful than to see
n young man start ont for Christ? Here
is some one falling; he lifts him up.
Here is a vagabond boy; he Introduces
him to mission school. Here is Il fam
lily freezing to death; he carries them a
scuttle of coal. There are 800 900 900
perishing in midnight heather darkness:
by all possible means he tries to send to
them the Gospel. He may be laughed