The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1889-04-12

A Loss THAT CANNOT BE REPLActI,f
A steamer fifteen hundred nhks
from shore with broken rudder Nnd
lost compass, and hulk leaking fifty
gallons the hour, is better Off than q
young man when you have robbed
| him Of his Bible. Have you ever no
ticed how despicabiy mean it is 10 take
away the worlds Bible without pro
posing substituted II is meaner than
TO come TO 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 moaner than to come to poor
man and burn his house down. It is
the worst of all larcenies to steal the
Bible, which has been the crutch and
medicine and food and eternal home to
so many What generous and mag.
unanimous business infidelity has gone
into! This splitting up of life boats
and taking away Of fire escapes and
extinguishing of light houses.
leone out and say to such people,
what are you doing all this forg'
ooh" they say. ''just for fun" II 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 resurrection, and it
is such fun to tell them there will be
no resurrection Many of them have
believed that Christ came to carry the
burdens 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 90 down a thousand
feet underneath it, and you will find
yourself at the top of a stairs a hun,
bred 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 preci-
pice half as far as. from here to China,
and you will find the headquarters of
the meanness that would rob this
world of it's only comfort in life, it's
only peace in death and its only hope
for Immortality. Slaughter young
mans faith in God, and there is not
much more left to slaughter.
Now, what has become of the
slaughtered? Well, some of them are
in their fathers 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
Christian example set him, and oppor-
tunity of usefulness, 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 stopped9 There is noth per-
son in the house but is interested in
that question. Young man, arm your
self. The object Of my sermon is to
put 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 room somewhere that !
you can call your own. Whether it |
be the back parlor of fashionable |
boarding house, or room in tha fourth |
story Of cheap lodging, e. not.
Only have that one ROW. w for
tress. Let not the dissi Patof0 oil uri1 I
clean stop over the threshold. If they
come up the long fight of stairs and
knock at the door, meet them face to
face and kindly yet firmly refuse them
Have few family por-
traits on the wall, if you brought them
with you from your country home.
Have Bible on the stand If you can
afford it and you can play on one,
have an instrument of music-harp or
lutte, or cornet, rmelodeon, or violin,
Dr. piano. Every morning before you
cave that room, pray. Every night
after you come home in that room,
,ray. Make that room your Gibral-
ar, your Sebastopol, your Mount
Zion. Let no bad book or newspaper
come into that room, any more than
you would allow a cobra to coil on
your table.
Take care of yourself. Nobody else
will take care of you. Your help will
lot come up two or three or four
lights of stairs; your help will come
trough the roof, down from heaven,
rom that God who in the six thousand
,ears of the worlds history never be-
rayed young man who tried to be
.ood and a Christian. Let me say in
egard to your adverse worldly circum.
tances, in passing, that you are on 1
evel now with those who are finally I
0 succeed. Mark my words, young .
nan, and think Of it thirty years from
low. You will find that those who
hirty years from now are the million. {
Tres of this country, who are the ora !
DIS Of the country. who are the poets {
f the country, who are the strong j
1erchants of the country, who are the {
reat philanthropists of the country {
lightiest in church and state-are this
lorning on level with you, not an
lch above, and you in straitened cir t
umstances now. c
VERY MAN HAS A NATURAL EQUIPMENT.
Herschel earned his living by play
lg violin at parties, and in the in, 5
,rstices of the play he would 60 out I
nd look up at the midnight heavens, j,
le fields of his immortal conquests. I
gorge Stephenson rose from being the 1
brennan in a colliery to be the most =
of the worlds engineers. No t
utfit, no capital to start with Young 7
ian, go down to the Mercantile Ii, I
4 <.,+ co.~,o n