The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1889-04-11

DfTNti SOlt W t1OSo WHO nave OD'
served that it is possible to calculate
Just how many letters will be sent to
the Dead Letter office every year
through nlisdirection; that it is possi-
bic to calculate just how many letters
VIII be detained for lack of postage
stamps through the forgetfu1ness 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 be-
tween two eternities-the eternity of
the past and the eternity of the future.
Head the right way, young man, and
you will como out at the right goal
Bring me young man and tell me
what his physical health is, and what
his mental caliber, and what his habits,
and will tell you what will be his
destiny for this world, and his destiny
for the world to come, and | will not
make five inaccurate prophecies out of
the five hundred. Ali this makes me
solicltous in regard to young men,
and | want TO make them nervous in
regard TO the contraction of unpayable
debts. L give you paragraph from
my own experience.
DR.. TALMAGE HAS BEEN THERE HIMSELF.
My first settlement as pastor was in
village. Ny salary was $500 and a
parsonage. Tho amount seemed enor-
nous to me. | said to myself, WHAT
all this for one ycar2" I was afraid
OF getting worldly under SO much
prosperity! | resolved to invite all
the congregation to my house in
groups Of twenty-five each. We be-
gan, and as they were the best CON
gregatlon lii all the world, and we
felt nothing was too good for them,
we piled all the luxuries on the table.
never completed the undertaking.
At the end of six months / 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 q mans body be-
fore you begin to cut the cloth for his
coat.
When young man willfully and of
choice, having tho comforts of life,
goes into the contraction of unpayable
debts he knows not into what he goes
The creditors get after the debtor, the
pack of hounds in full cry, and alas
for the reindeer. They jingle his door
bell before he gets up in the morning,
they jingle his doorbell after he has
gone TO bed ct night. They meet him
as he comes off his front steps. They
send him q postal card, or letter, in
curtost style, telling him to pay up.
They attach his goods. They want
cash, or n note at thirty days, or anote
on demand They call him a l1nave.
They say he lies They want him dis
ciplined at tho church They want
him turned out of the bank. They
como at him from this side, and from
/ that side, and from before, and from
behind, and from above, and from be-
meath, 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 dis
order, gets consumption.
Now he is dead, and you say: "Of
course they will let him alone" Oh,
mol Now they are watchful to see
! whether there are any unnecessary ex-
penses at the obsequies, to see whether
there is any useless handle on tho cas-
ket, to see whether there is any sur
plus plait on the shroud, to see wheth-
or the hearse is costly or cheap, to see
whether tho 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 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 yoar
good morals for the sake of your i'm
mortal soul, for Gods sake, young
man, rs far as possible, keep out of it.
/ III. But | think more young men
arc slaughtered through irreligion
Take away 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 NOR
ais take his Bible away. How will
YOU do that2 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 is whale, Samson's foxes, Adams
rib-then you will caricature eccentric
Christians or inconsistent Christians,
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, 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 en-
campment
A LOSS THAT CANNOT BE REPLACED.
A steamer fifteen hundred miles
from shore with broken rudder and
lost compass, and hulk leaking fifty
gallons the hour, is better off than a
young man when you have robbed
him of his Bible. Have you ever mo-
ticed how despicably mean it is to take
away tho worlds Bible without pro
posing a substituted 1t is meaner than
to come to a sick man and steal his
medicine, meaner than to come to a
cripple and steal his crutch, meaner
than TO come to pauper and steal his
crust. mcaner than to come to poor
man and burn his house 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 mag
nanimous business iniidelity has gone
intol This splitting up of life boats
and taking away of fire escapes and
extinguishing of light houses
leone out and say 10 such people,
What are you doing all this for2'
"Oh, they say, lust for fun. 1t is
such fun 20 sec Christians try to hold
on to their Bibles Many of them
have lost loved ones, and have been
told that there is resurrection, and II
is such fun TO tell them there will be
no resarrectioni Many of them have
believed that Christ came 10 carry the
burdens and TO heal the wounds of the
world. and il is such fun TO tell them
they will have to be their own saviourl
Think of the meanest thing you ever
beard of; then go down thousand
feet uaierpeath it, and you will find
yourself at the top Of 9 stairs hun
dred miles long; go TO the bottom of
the stairs, and you will find a ladder q
thousand miles long; then go to the
foot of the ladder and look off preci
,.ice half rs far as from here to China,
and YOU " III find the headquarters oi
the meanness that would rob this
world of its only comfort in life, lis
only peace in death and its ouly hope
for immortality. Slaughter a young
mans faith in God, and there Is no
much more left to slaughter.
i Now, What has become of the
slaughtered4 Well, some of them arr
in their fathers or mothers hous'
broken down in health, waiting 10 die