The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-04-24

postal card, or letter, in eurtest style, tell
ing him to pay up They attach his goods.
They want cash. or note at thirty days. or
o note on demand. They call him q naye.
db ned diay as he the lies cRnah Rhah want TbeR him a
him turned out of the bank. They
come at him from this side, and from that
side, and from before and from behind, and
from above and from beneath, and he is in
suited and gibbeted, and sued, and dunned,
and sworn at, until he gets the nervous dys-
pepsia, gets neuralgia, gets liver complaint,
gets heart disease, gets convulsiVe disorder,
gets consumption.
Now he is dead, and you say: "Of
course they will let him alone" Oh, no!
Now they are watchful to see whether there
are any unnecessary expenses at the
obsequies, to see whether there is any useless
handle on the casket, to sec whether there is
any surplus plait on the shroud, to see
whether the hearse is costly or cheap to see
whether the flowers sent to tho caSket havo
been bought by the family or, donated, to see
grave is made out. Then they
ransack the bereft household, the books,
the pictures, the carpets, the chairs the sofa,
the piano, the mattresses, the pillow on which
he dies Cursed be debt! For the sake of your
own happiness, for the sake of your good
morals, for tho sake Of your immortal soul,
for Gods sake, young man, as far as possible,
keep out of it.
II. But 1 think more young men are slaugh-
mans religion and you make him the prey Of
evil. We oil know that the Bible is the
only perfect system of morals. Now If you
want to destroy the young mans morals take
his Bible away. How will you do that? Well,
you will caricature his reverence for the
Scriptures, you will take all those incidents Of
the Bible which can be made mirth Of
Jonah's whale, Samson's foxes, Adams
rib-then you will caricature eccentric
then you will pass off as your own
all those haclneyed arguments against
Christianity which are as old as Tom Paine,
as old as Voltaire, as old as sin. Now you
have captured his Bible, and you have taken
his strongest fortress; the way is COM
paratively clear, and all the gates Of his soul
are set open in invitation to the sins Of earth
and the sorrows of death, that they may
come in and drive the stake for their en-
campment
A steamer 1900 miles from shore with
broken rudder and lost compass, and hulk
leaking fifty gallons the hour, is better OFF
than young man when you have robbed
him of his Bible. Have you ever noticed how
despicably mean it is to take away the worlds
Bible without proposing q substitute? II is
meaner than to come to sick man and steal
his medicine, meaner than to come to
cripple and steal his crutch, meaner than to
come to pauper and steal his crust, meaner
than to come to poor man and burn his bouse
down. 1t is the worst of all larcenies to Steal
the Bible, which has been the crutch and
medicine and food and eternal home to so
manyl What generous and magnanlmous
business infdelity has gone into? This split
ting up of life boats and taking away of fire
escapes and extinguishing of lighthouses.
I come out and l say to such people: what
are you doing all this forT' "Oh," they say,
''just for fun" 1t is such fun to see
Christians try to hold on to their Bibles
Many of them have lost loved ones, and have
been told that there is a resurrection, and it
is such fun to tell them there will be
no resurrection! Many of them have
believed that Christ came to carry the
burdens and to heal the wounds of the world,
and it is such fun to tell them they will have
to be their own saviour! Think of the
meanest thing you ever heard of; then go
down a thousand feet underneath it, and you
will find yourself at the top Of stairs hun
dred miles long; go to the bottom of the
stsairs and you will will find lind 90 Ladder ID +ha
foot Of the ladder and look off preci-
pice half as far as from here to China, and
you will find the headquarters of the mean
ness that would rob this world G its only
comfort in life, its only peace in death and
its only hope for immortality. Slaughter a
young mans faith in God, and there is not
much more left to slaughter.
Now, what has become Of the slaughtered?
Well, some Of them are in their fathers OF
mothers house broken down in health, wait
ing to die; others are in the hospital; others
are in Greenwood, or, rather, their bodies are,
for their souls have gone on to retributlon. Not
much prospect for young man who started
life with good health, and good education,
and Christian example set him, and oppor-
tunity of usefulness, who gathered all his
treasures and put them in one box and then
dropped it into the sea.
Now, how is this wholesale slaughter to be
stopped? There is not person in the house
but is interested in that question. Young
man, arm yourself The object of my SER
mon is to put O weapon in each of your hands
for your own defense Wait not for Young
Mems Christian Associations to protect you,
or churches to protect you. Appealing to
God for help, take care Of yourself.
call your own. Whether it be the back par
lor Of O fashionable boarding house, or q
room in the fourth story Of cheap lodging,
care not. Only have that one room your
fortress. Let not the dissipator or unclean
step over the threshold. If they come
up the long flight Of stairs and
knock at tho door, meet them face to face
and kindly yet firmly refuse them admit
tance. Have few family portraits on the
wall, if you brought them with you from
your country home Have Bible on the
stand. If you can afford it and you play on
one, have an instrument of music-harp or
flute or cornet, or m,lodeon, or violin,
or piano. Every morning before you
leave that room, pray. Every night after
you come home in that room, pray. Make
that room your Gibraltar, your Sebastapol,
your Mount Zion. Let no bad book or news
paper come into that room, any more than
you would allow cobra to coil on your table.
Take care Of yourself. Nobody else will take
care of you. Your help will not come up two
or three or four flights of stairs; your help
will como through the roof, down from
heaven, from that God who in the six thou
sand years of the worlds history never
betrayed young man who tried to be
good and Christian. Let me say in regard
to your adverse worldly circumstances, in
passing, that you are Oh level now with
those who are finally to succeed. Mark my
words, young man, and think of it thirty
years from now. You will find that those
who thirty years from now are the million
aires Of this country, who are the orators of
the country, who are the poets of the coun-
try, who are the strong merchants of the
country, who arc the great philanthropists of
the country-mightest in church and State
are this morning on level with you, not an
inch above, and you in straitened circun-
stances now.
Herschel earned his living by playing a
violin at parties, and in the interstices Of the
play he would 60 out and look up at the mid
night heavens the fields of his immortal
conquests. George Stephenson rose from
being the foreman in O colliery to be the
most renowned of the worlds engineers. No
outfit, 40 capital to start with Young man,