The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-04-17

/ sible to calculate Just how many letters
will be detained for lack of postage stamps
through the forgetfulness OF the senders,
/ and that it is possible to tell just how
many people will fall IN the streets by
slipping, on an orange peel. In other
words, there are no accidents. The most
insignificant event you ever heard of is
| the link between two eternities-the eter-
! nifty of the past md the eternity of the
! future. Head the right way, young man,
and you will GENE out al. the right goal.
I Bring me a young man and tell me
! what his physical health is and what his
| mental ealiber and what his habits and |
| will tell you what will he his destiny for
/ this world and his destiny for the world
to come, and / will not make five mac
curate prophecies out of the 500. All this
makes me solicitous in regard to young
men, and | want to make them nervous
in regard to the contraction of unpayable
debts. / give you a paragraph from my
own experience.
My first settlement as pastor was in a
village. My salary was $500 and a parson-
age. The amount seemed enormous to
me. ] said to myself: What all this for
one year," was afraid of getting world
ly under so much prosperity! | resolved
to invite ali the congregation to my house
in groups OF twenty-five each. We began,
and as they were the best congregation In
| all the world and we felt nothing was too
good for them, we piled all the luxurles on
| the table. never completed the under
] taking. At the end of six months 1 was
in financial despair. | found what every
| young man learns in time TO save himself,
or too late, that you must measure the
size of mans body before you begin to
c1t the cloth for his coat
When a young man willfully and OF
choice, having the comforts OF life, goes
into the contraction of unpayable debts he
knows not into what he goes. The cred
itors get after the debtor, the pack OF
hounds in full cry, and, alas for the rein
deer. They Jingle his door-ben before he
gets up in the morning, they jingle his
doOr-bell after he has gone TO bed at night.
! They meet him as he comes off his front
steps. They send him a postal card or
letter, in current style, telling him to pay
up. They attach his goods. They want
cash. or a note at thirty DAYS, or a note on
demand. They call him knave. They
say he lies They want him disciplined
at the church. They want him turned
out Of the bank. They come at him from
this side, and from that side, and from be-
fore, and from behind, and he Is insulted
and gibbeted, and sued, and dunned, and
sworn at. until he gets the nervous dys-
pepsia, gets neuralgia, gets liver com
plant, gets heart disease, gets conyuislve
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 surplus plat
on the shroud, to see whether the hearse
Is costly or cheap, to see whether the
flowers sent to the casket have been
bought by the family or donated, to see in
whose name the deed to the grave is made
out. Then they ransack the bereft house
hold, the books, the pictures, the carpets,
the chairs, the sofa, the piano, the mat
tresses, the pillow on which he dies.
Cursed be debit For the sake of your
own happiness, for the sake of your good
morals for the sake of your immortal
soul. for Gods sake, young man, as far as
possible, keep out of it.
>. But 1 think more young men are
slaughtered through irreligion. Take
away a young mans religion and you
make him the prey of evil. We all 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 Christians or
inconsistent Christians, then you will pass
offas YOUR own all those hackneyed ar
gnments 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 comparatively 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 encampment.
A steamer / 800 miles from shore, with
! broken rudder and lost compass, and hulk
leaking 80 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 a substi-
tute? 1t is meaner than to come to sick
man and steal his medicine, meaner than
TO come to a cripple and steal his crutch,
meaner than tocone to a pauperand steal
his crust, meanef than to come TO a poor
man and burn his house down, 1t is the
worst of all lareenies to steal the bible,
which has been the crutch and medicine
and food and eternal home to so manyi
| What generous and magnanimous bust
ness infidelitv has gone intol This split
ting up of life-boats and taking away of
| fire-escapes and extinguishing of light
houses.
! i come out and I say to such people,
"What are you doing all this for?" "Oh, T"
they say, "just for fun" 1t is such fun to
see Christians try to hold on to their BIZ
| bles Many of them have lost loved ones,
and have been told that there is resur-
! rection, and it is such fun to tell them
/ there viii 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
savior Think of the meanest thing YOU
ever heard of; then 60 down 1000 feet
underneath it, and you will find yourself
at the top OF a stairs 100 miles long; 90 to
the bottom of the stairs and you will find
ladder 200 miles long; then go TO the
foot of the ladder and look off precipice
half as far as from here to China, and you
will find the headquarters of the mean
ness that would rob this world of its only
comfort in life, its only peace in death,
| and it's only hope for immortality. Slaugh-
| ter a young mans faith in God, ana there
| is not much more left to slaughter.
Now, what has become of the slaugh-
tered? Well, some of them are in their