The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-04-13

pepsia, gets neuralgia, gets liver COM
plant, gets heart disease, gets convulsive
disorder, gets consumption.
S~econd-But / 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 Bib is III, only perfect system
of morals. Now if you want to destroy
the young mans morals take the Bible
away. How will you do that? Well, you
will c~aricature his reverence for the
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-then you will caricature &C.
centric Christians or inconsistent Chris
tains, then you will pass off as your own
all those ~hackneyed arguments against
Christianity which are as old as Tom
Paine, as old as Voltaire, 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 sorrow of death, that
they may come in and drive the stake for
their e~ncampment
A steamer fifteen hundred miles from
shore, with q broken rudder and lost COM
pass, and hulk leaking fifty gallons an
hour is better off than a 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 substitute? 1t is meaner than
to come to a sick man and steal his me liz
cine, meaner han to come to a cripple
and steal his crutch, meaner thar to come
to q pauper and steal his crust, meaner
than to come to a poor man and burn his
house down. 1t is the worst of all lar
cenies to steal the Bible, which has been
the crutch and medicine and food to so
many. What a generous and magnani-
nous business infidelity has gone intol
This splitting up Of lifeboats II taking
away of fire escapes and ~extinguishing of
light houses.
/ come out and say to such people,
"What are you doing all this for?" 60"
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 n
resurrection, and it Is such fun to tell them
there will be no resurrection Many be-
lieve that Christ came to carry the bur-
dens and heal the rounds of the world,
and 1t Is such fun to tell them they will
nave to be their own savior! Think of
the meancst being you ever heard of; then
go down q thousand feet underneath it
and you will find yourself at he top of q
flight of stairs n hundred miles long;
go to the bottom of the stairs and
you will find a ladder a thou
sand miles long; tlen go to the
foot OF the ladder AMI look Off a preci-
pice half as far as from here to China and
you will find the headquarters of the
that would rob this world OF its
al .@n,fN.k - ltfA 70, 4nIry $4,000 t.
death and its only hope for immortality.
Slaughter n young mans faith in God and
there is not much more left to slaughter.
Now, what has become of the slaugh-
tered? Well, some of them are in their
ather's or Mothers louise broken down in
health, waiting to die; Others are in the
hospital; others are in Greenwood, or
rather their bodies are, for their souls
have gone on to ~retribution. Not much
prospect for a young man who started life
with good health and good education, and
q Christian exam ID set him, and oppor-
tunities of usefulness, who gathered all
his treasures and put them in one box aud
then dropped it into the sea.
Now, how is thisw wholesale slaughter to
be stopped? There is not a person in the
house but is interested in that question.
Young man, arm yourself. The object of
my sermon is to put a 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.
First, have a room somewhere that you
can call your own. Whether it b. the
back pnrlor of a fashionable boarding
house, or a room in the fourth story of a
cheap lodging. l care not. Only have that
| one room your fortress. Let not the dis
sipator or unclean step over the threshold.
II they come up the long flight of 81 airs
and knock at the door, meet them face to
| face and kindly yet firmly refuse them
a~dmittance. Have a few family portraits
on the wall, If you brought them with you
from your country home. Have a Bible
on the stand. If you can afford it and you
can play on one, have al instrument of
music-harp or flute, or cornet, or melo-
deon, 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 Sebastopol, your Mount Zion. Let
no bad book or newspaper come into that
room. any more than you would allow q
cobra to coil oil you 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 come through the roof.
down from Heaven, from that God who
has in the six thousand years of the
worlds history never betrayed a young
man who tried to be good and u Christian.
Let me say in regard to your adverse
worldly circumstances. in passing, that
you are on a level now with those who are
1 nn1lu IN unnnAal Marhr NAV -yzrr.
young man, and think of it thirty years
from now. You will find that those who
thirty years from now are m~illionaires of
this country. who are the orators of the
country, who are the poets Of the country,
who are the strong merchants of the
country, who are the great philanthro-
pists OF the country-mighties It in Church
and State-are this morning on a level
with you, not an incn above you, and in
Strengthened circumstances now.
Herschel earned his living by playing a
violin at parties aud in the interstices OF
the play he would go out and look up at
the midnight heavens. the fields of his inn
mortal ~conquests. George Stephenson
rose from being the foreman in a ~colliery
to be the most renowned of the worlds
engineers. No outfit, no capital to start
With Young man, go down to the Mer-
camille Library and get some books and
read OF what wonderful mechanism God
gave you in your hand, In your foot, in
your eye, in your ear, and then ask SOM
doctor to take you into the dissecting room
and illustrate to you what you have read
about and never again commit the bias
phemy OF saying you have no capital tc
start with. Equipped Why, the poorest
young man in this house is equipped as
only the God of the whole universe could
afford to equip him. Then his body-a
very poor affair compared to his wonder.
full soul-O, that is what makes me solici.
tous. i am not so anxious about you,
young man, because you nave so little tc
do with, as l am anxiou alb ut you because
you have so much to risk and lose or gain.
There is no class of persons that SO stir
my %sympathies as young men in great
cities. Not quite enough salary to live on,
and all the temptations that come from
that deficit. Invited on all hands to drink,
and their exhausted v system SEEM
ing to demand stimulus. Their religion
caricatured by the most of the clerks in
the store and most ofthe operatives in the
factory. The rapids of temptation and
death rushing against that young man
forty miles an hour, and he in q frail boat
headed up stream, with nothing but a
broken oar to work with. Unless Almighty
God help them they will go under.
Ali when l told o to take care of
yourself you misunderstood me lie you
thought l meant you are to depend upon
human resolution, which may be dissolved
in the foam OF the wine cup, or may be
blown out with the first gust of tempta-
i ftnn Ha.a - A.. -