The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-05-22
THE POISONOUS POTTAGE
OF THE cALoaoNs OF SIN AND DEATH
A Sermon of Especial Interest to Parents,
Young Men and Drunkards by the
Rev. DR.. TaImage-s'There Is
Death in the Pot"

mon was based on the story of the deadly
pottage served up for the sons of the
prophets at GiIgal. Having described the
scene with characteristic graphicness the
preacher went on to say:
so they poured out for the men to eat,
but it came to pass as they were eating of
the pottage that they cried out and said,
%, thou man of God, there is death in the
pot And they could not eat thereof. -
III Kings: iv, 20. Well, my friends, the
world has great many caldrons of sin and
poison and death. Mighty coloquintida of
temptation is pressed into them and it is
the work of every minister of the gospel, of
every we'll wisher of society, of every one
who would keep the world back of its sins
and its follies to cry OUT "POison Be
ware Stand back from the caldron Be-
ware" Sin has wrought an awful work in
the world, and it has gone all through
the nations until the whole world is pois-
oned of the body, poisoned of mind, pois-
oned of soul. But, blessed be God, there
Is an antidOte in the gospel OF the Lord
Jesus Christ, and where there is sin there
may be pardon, and where there Is suffer
ing there may be comfort, and where
there is death there may be life. Some
leniency in the criticism OF those who had
fallen, and mercy in the treatment of
those who had gone astray. | then sug-
gested what l this morning wish more
particularly to emphasize, and that IS
while you pity the sinner you must ex-
coriate the sin, and while you want
20 be helpful to the transgressor you must
be vehement against the transgression.
Sin is a jagged thing, and can not be
roughly handled. You have no right to
garland it with fine phrases or lustrous
rhetoric. You can not catch a buffalo
with a ribbon lasso. In the first place, 1
remark, that unhappy and undisciplined
homes are caldrons OF poison and sin and
death. Parents who are harsh and cruel
on the one hand, or who have wickedly
loose family government on the other, turn
out on this world generation OF vipers.
Petulance and scoiding dominant in q
home make that home a blood relation
70 the galloWs and penitentiary. Petu-
lance is a serpent that sometimes Crawls
up into a very fine home, and winds
around everything beautiful and brushes
everything. There are parents who, by
their manner, disgust their children with
the Christian religion. They scold them
because they do not love Jesus Christ
They have an eXasperating way OF doing
their duty. As Adam Clark says in one
of his commentaries: They serve the
Lord as though the devil were in
them" There are households where
the entire moral and religious
education, seems to be, Take thatp
(sapping his hands, From homes filed
with the war-whoop OF contention sons
and daughters 60 forth miserably to die.
Is there in this assemblage a Hagar lead
ing her Ishmael into the wilderness to be
smitten of thirst and pass through the
sand? In the solemn birth hour a voice
fell straight from the throne of God, say
ing, take this child and nurse it for me,
and ! will give thee thy wages" In the
evening hour, when the angels OF God hover
over your home, do they hear the chill
dren isping the name of Christ? Oh,
traveller for eternity, your little ones gath
cred under your robes, are you leading
them on the right road or on the danger
Gus winding bride paths off which their
inexperienced feet may slip and up which
comes the bowling wolf or the sound of
loosened ledge and tumbling avalanche?
Blessed is the cradle in which the Chris
tan mother rocks a Christian child.
Blessed is the altar at which the parents
teach their children to kneel. Blessed is
the mother whose every heart throb is a
prayer for her children's welfare. The
world grows old, and the stars
will cease to shine upon it
and the fountains to replenish it
and the mountains to guard it and the
heavens to span it and this long story of
sin and shame and glory and triumph
will end in ashes, but influences startedin
the early home will roll on and roll up
into the elements and bloom in all the
song and wave in all the triumph and
all ha 1Orr all AI,
darkness and all the disaster Good
homes produce good character. Bad
homes, bad character. Now, put that
down as a rule. There are executions to
u, ! know. Sometimes a son from a good
Christian home will wander of into sin.
Oh, that boy does not know how many
tears have been shed over his wavward-
ness; that boy does not know how many
prayers have been offered for his well
fare. One Sabbath morning, not long
ago, after / mad closed this service, a
gentleman, stranger whom | had never
seen, walked up to me, and, overwhelmed
with emotion, failed 70 tell me what he
was going to tell. All he could saw was,
"0h. my son, my son! - | imagined the
rest OF the story. There Is many young
man who is proud Of mis- mother, and who
would strike into the dust anyone who
insulted her, and vet who is, by his bad
habits and evil behavior, sharpening
dagger 10 be plunged through that
mothers heart. Another caldron OF in
EQUITY found in all our cities is an indo-
lent life On the Hudson River
railroad yesterday. and on the Penn
sylvania railroad, and on the Erie
railroad, and on the Long Island
railroad, and on all the railroads,
there we're young men coming to New
York and Brooklyn to start in CONNER
cial life. Some of them NAV be here
this morning. Do you know, my brother,
what is going to be one OF the great temp
tatiOns of your life? One OF the mightiest
OF all the temptations OF the city is the
behavior OF those who seem to fare
sumptuously every dav have fine apparel.
afford all STYLES OF amusement, and yet do
nothing in the way of work or earning a
livelihood. They are better dressed than
many who are industrious. They deny
themselves no luxuries. You may find
them sometimes on sunny days around
the doorways OF the great Notes.-The
Windsor, the Fifth-ave., the Gilsey, the
Brunswick the Sturtevant and ali the
other great hotels of Brooklyn as
well as New York. They did
nothing in the way OF work last year, they
are doing nothing now, and they will do
nothing next year. Plenty of money.
Where do they get money from? you say.
] DO not know. / might ask you the same