The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1889-04-13

l will tell you what will be his destiny
for this world, and his destiny for the
world to come, and l will not make five
inaccurate prophesieS out Of the tve nun
dred. 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 para
graph from my own experience.
Ny first settlement a. pastor was in
village. Ny salary was eight hundred
dollars and a parsonage. The amount
seemed enormous to me. said to my
self: "What. all this for one year," l
was afraid Of getting worldly under 80
much prosperity! | resolved to invite all
the congregation to my house in groups
OF twenty-five each. We began, and as
they were the best congregation in the
world, and We felt nothing was too good
for them, we piled all the Injuries on the
table. | never completed the undertake
ing. At the end Of six months | was IN
financial despair. | found what every
young man learns in time to save him.
self, or too late, that you must measure
the size OF mans body before yoa begin
to cut the cloth for his coat.
When n young man wilfully and OF
choice, having the comforts OF life, goes
into the contraction OF unpayab g 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 bell 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 postal card,
or letter, in curtest 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 dis
ciplined at the church. They want him
turned out OF the bank. They come al
! him from this side, and from that side.
and from before, and from behind, and
from above, and from beneath, and he Is
| insulted and gibbeted, and sued, and
| dunned, and sworn at, until he gets the
nervous dyspepsia, 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 al
| the obsequies, to see whether there Is any
| useless handle on the casket, to see
whether there is any surplus plat on the
shroud, to see whether the hearse is cost
| ~ 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 household
the books, the pictures, the carpets, The
chairs, the piano, the mattresses, the pill
low on which he dies. Cursed be debt
For the sake Of yqhr own happiness, fol
the sake of your good morals, for the SAX;
of your immortal soul, for Gods sake
young man, as far as possible, keep GU
of it.
2. But I 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 il you want 10 destroy
the young mans morals take his Bible
away. How will you do that: Well, yor
will caricature his reverence for tht
Scriptures, you will take all those incl
dents of the Bible which can be made
mirth of-Jonah's whale, Samson's foxes
Adams rib-tien you will caricatare &c
centric Christians or inconsistent Chris
tians, then you will pass off as your owl
all those hackneyed arguments agains
Christianity winch are as old as Ton
Paine, as old as VOltaire, as old as sin
Now you have captured his Bible, and yOl
have taken his strongest fortress; tn
way is comparatively clear, and all tn,
gates of his soul are set open in invitation
to the sins OF earth and the sorrows o
death that they may come in and driv
the stake for their encampment.
A steamer fifteen hundred miles from
shore with broken rudder and lost com
pass, and hulk leaking fifty gallons tn
hour, is better off than young man whe
you have robbed him of his Ri BILE. Hav
you ever noticed how dcsp icably men ii /
to take away the worlds Bible withou
! proposing a substituted 1t is meane
than to come to sick man and steal hi
, medicine, meaner than to come to Grip
| pie and steal ms crutch, meaner tina
, come to a pauper and steal his crus
| meaner than to come to poor man an
burn his house down. 1t is the worse
all larcenies to steal the Bible, which Ina
been the crutch and medicine and foo
and eternal home to so many! What
generous and magnanimOus business in
fidelity has gone into. This splitting u
of lise-boats and taking away Of fire es
!, capes and extinguishing light houses.
come out aud say to such people
!, "What are you doing all this for:" ''Oh,
they say, lust for fun" IL is such fun
see Christians try To hold on to the
Bibles! Many OF them have lost love
ones, and have been told that there is
I, resurrection. and it is such fun to te
r them there will be no resurrection! Man
1 OF them have believed that Christ came
r carry the burdens and to heal the wOunt
t OF the world, and it is such fun to te
= them they will have TO be their ow
l Saviour! Think of the meanest thing yC
, ever heard of; then go down thousan
. feet underneath il, and you will find you
v self at the top OF n stairs a hundred mil,
Q long;go to the bottom OF tho stairs, and yC
will find ladder a thousand miles lon:
l., then go to the foot of the ladder and loC
4 of precipice half az far as from here
i China, and you will find the headquartel
| OF the meauness that would rob this wor
Of its only comfort ir life, its only peaC
h in death and its only hope for immortal
= ty. Slaughter a young mans faith
q God, and there is not much more left
t slaughter.
= Now, what has become Of the slaug
g tered? Well, some of them are in their f
Q theirs or mothers house broken down
L health, waiting to die; others are in Il
= hospital; others are in Greenwood,
u rather, their bodies are, for their sou
: have gone on to retribution. Not mu,
n prospect for young man who started Ii
= with good health, and good educatio
10 and Christian example set him, and o
y portunity Of usefulness, who gathered
lie his treasures and put them in one be
Is and then dropped il it into the sea.
10 Now, how is this wholesale slaughter
le he stnnneds There is not a rnrsnn in 4