The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-06-03
BAD COMPANY RUIN0US.
TALMAGE SOUNDS AN OFT-RE-
PEATED WARNING.

Lessen Applied to Young Men in the
Business Walks OF To-Day.
BROOKLYN, June 2-The Rev. T. De-
Witt Talmage, D. D., preached at the
Tabernacle to-day. After expouuding the
Scriptures, he gave out that popular hymn
by A. NJ. Tonlady, beginning:
Your harps, We trembling saints,
Down from the willows take.
He took for his text Proverbs xiii, 20:
"a COMPANION of fools shall be destroyed E"
Following is a verbatim report Of the
sermon:
ssMay it please the court" said a con-
victed criminal, when asked if he rad any,
thing to say before sentence of death was
passed upon him, may it please the court.
bad company has been nv ruin. received
the blessings of good parents and, in retu n
promised to avoid Il evil associations. Had
/ kept my promise I should have been
saved this shame ana been free from the
load of guilt that hangs round me like a
vulture, threatening to drag me TO justice
for crimes vet unrevealed. /, who once
moved in the first circles of society, and
have been the guest of distinguished pub
lie men. am lost, aud all through bad
company"
This is but one of the thousand proofs
that the companion of fools shall bs de-
stroved. Il is the invariable rule There is
a well man in the wards Of a hospital
where there are a hundred people sick with
ship fever, and he will not b. so apt to take
the disease as a good man would be apt to
be smitten with moral distemper, if shut
up with iniQuitous companions.
In olden times prisoners were herded
together in the same Cell. but each one
learned the vices of all the culprits, so that,
instead of being reformed by incarceration,
the day of Liberation turned them out upon
society beasts not men.
We NAV, in our places Of business, be
compelled to talk 10 and mingle with bad
men; but he who deliberately chooses to
associate himself with vicious people is
engaged in carrying on courtship with a
Delilah, whose shears will clip Off all the
locks of his strength, and he will be tripped
into perdition. Sin is catching, is infec-
tious, is epidemic. | will let you look
over the millions of people now in
habiting the earth, and l challenge
you TO show me a good man. who, after
one year, has made choice and CON
sorted with the wicked. A thousand dol
lars reward for one such instance. l care
not how strong your character may be.
Associate with gamblers, you win become
a gambler. Clan with burglars and YOU
will become a burglar. Go among the I'M
clean, and you will become unclean. Not
approaching the truth of my text, many
young man has been destroyed He wakes
I'D some morning in the great city, and
knows no one except the persons into whose
employ he has entered.
AS he goes into the store all the clerks
mark him, measure him and discuss him.
The upright young men of the store wish
him vol, but perhaps wait for formal in
PRODUCTION, and even then have some deli
cacy about inviting him into their ass )cia-
tons. But the bad young men of the st re
at the first opportunity approach and offer
their services. They patronize him. they
profess to know all about the town. They
will take him anywhere that he wishes to 90
IF he viii pay the expenses. For if a good
young man and a bad young man 90
TO some place where they ought not. the
good young man has invariably to pay the
charges. At the moment the ticket is to be
paid for, or the champagne settled for, the
bad young man feels around is his pockets
and saws: 81 have forgotten nv pocket
book" In forty-eight hours after the Young
man has entered the store the bad fellows
of the establishment slap him on tue
shoulder Familiarity, and, at his stupidity in
taking certain illusions, say: ''My
young friend, you will have to be
broken In" and they Immediately
proceed to break him in. Young man.
In the name Of God / warn YOU to be-
with you. If such an one slap you on the
shoulder Familiarity turn and give him A
whitening look until the wretch crouches in
your presence. There is no monstros.ty of
wickedn IS that can stand unabashed under
the glance Of purity and honor. God keeps
the lightnlngs of heaven in his own scap-
bard, and no human arm can WELD them:
but God gives to every youag man a light
ming that he may use, and that is the light
hgnASr who bo,
been close Observers will not wonder why
give warning to young men. and say, "Be-
ware of bad company"
First, warn you to shun the skeptic-
the young man who puts his fingers Ia his
vest and laughs at your old-fashioued re-
1igion and turns over to some mystery of
the Bible and says: Explain that. NV
pious friend; explain that. - And who saws:
A'Nobody shall scare me; am not afraid of
the future; / used to believe in such things
and so did my father and mother, but
have got over it," Yes, he has got over it !;
and if you sit i'll his company a little longer,
you viii get over it too Without present.
ing one argument against the christian
religion, such men WILL by their isers
and SCOTS and caricatures, destroy your re-
spect for that religion which was the
strength of your father in his declining
years, and the pillow of your old mother
when she lay a-dying. Alasl a time will
come when that clustering young infidel
will have to die, and then his diamond rlnp
will flash no splendor in the eyes of death,
as he stands over the couch, waiting for his
soul. Those beautiful locks will be
uncombed upon the pillow, and
tho dying man win say: 81 can
not die-I cannot dien Death
standing ready beside the couch. saws:
"You must die; you have only half a min
ute to live; letme have it right away-your
souln ''No." says the young infidel, there
are my gold rings and these pictures; take
them all" "No," says Death, what do |
care for pictures !-your soulln "Stand
back, saws the dying infidel II will not
stand back" says Death, ''for you have
only ten seconds now to live; | want
your souln Don't breathe that
cold air into my face. You crowd
me too hard. 1t is getting dark
in the room. o Godm ''Hush,n saws
Death; "you said there was no Cod
pray for me-" exclaims the expiring inf
del TOO late to pras," says Death; ''but
three more seconds to live, and will count
them off-one-uwo-three" He has gonel
Where2 Where? Carry him out-out, and
bury him beside his father and mother, who
died while holding fast the christian
religion. They died singing; but the
young infdel only said: Don't breathe
that cold air into my face. You crowd
me too hard. 1t is getting dark in the
room"
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