The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-04-08

| village. My salary was $500 and parson-
age. The amount seemed enormous to me.
L said to myself, 'What all this for one
yea" | was afraid of getting worldly
under so much prosperity resolved to in
vlte all the congreg ton to nv house in
| groups or twenty-five each. We began,
and as they were the best congre-
| cation in all the world, and We
felt nothing was too good for them, we
piled all the luxuries on the table. l 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 mans body be-
fore you begin to cut the cloth for his coat.
When young man willfully aud of
choice, having the 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 alasl for the reindeer. 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.
letter, in curtest style, telling him to pay
up. They attach his goods. They want
cash, or note at thirty days, or 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 ard from before
and from behind, and from above, and
| fro n be cath, and he is insulted d glib
| beted, and sued, and dunned, and sworn at
until he gets the nervous dyspepsia, gets
the neuralgia, gets liver complaint, gets
cart disease, gets convulsive disorder, gets
| consumption.
Now he is dead and you say: "Of course
| they will let him alone.n Ga, MOI 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 see whether there is any
| surplus plat on the shrnud, to see whether
| the he .rse 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 rausack
the bereft household, the books, the pictures,
| the carpets, the chairs, the sofa, the pi ino,
the mattresses, the pillo1 on which he dies.
Cursed be debt 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.
III. But | think more young men are
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
| LuOTdlS. NOW IL you want 10 Q0 Troy Jl0
| young mans morals take his Bible away.
How will you do that? Well, you will
caricaturs 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
| rlb-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 sim Now you have
captured his Bible, and you have taken bis
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 encamp-
| ment.
A steamer 1900 miles from shore with
| broken rudder and st compass, and hulk
| leak ng fifty gallons the hour, is better OF
than young ma1 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 substi-
tutea 1t is meaner than to come
to a sick man and steal his medi-
| cine, meaner than to come TO
cripple and steal his crutch, meauer than to
come to 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
the crutch and medicine and food and eter-
nal homo to so many! What a generous
| and magnanimous business inf ielity has
gone intol This splitting up of lfeboats
and taking away of fire escapes aid extin-
| gushing of lighthouses.
| l come out and I say to such people,
"What are you doing all this forr' ooh"
they say, lust 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 10 is such fun to tell them there will be
no resurrection. Many of them have be-
lieved that Cnrist came to carry the bur-
dens 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 thousand feet un-
| derneath it, and you will find yourself at
| the top of a stairs a hundred miles long;
| go to the bottom of the stairs, and you will
find ladder thousand miles long; then
| go to the foot of the ladder and look off a
precipice half as far as as from here to
China, and you will find the be idquarters
of the meanness that would rob this world
of its only comfort in life, its only peace
| in death and its only hope for Immortality
| Slaughter young mans faith in G. ID and
there is not much more left to slaughter
Now, what has become of the sIaughtereds
| w ell, some Oh G0etu are III UQelr 1aCnGr'S or
mothers house 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 a christian
example set him, and opportunity of USE
fulness, who gathered all his treasures and
put them in one box, and then dropped it
| into the sea.
Now, how is this wholesale slaugh-
ter to be stopped! There is not a per-
son in the house but is interested in
that question. Young man, arm your
SELF The object of my sermon is to put a
weapon in each OF your hands for your
own defense. Wait not for Young Mons
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 be the back
| parlor of a fashionable boarding house, or a
room in the fourth story Of a cheap lodg-
| ing, care not. Only have that one room
your fortress. Let not the dissipator or
| unclean step over the threshold. IL they
come up the long flight of stairs and
knock at the door, meet them face to
face and Xxi ndly yet firmly refuse them
a1mittance. Have a few family por-
traits on the wall, ifi.you brought them
with you from your country home. Have