The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-05-08

be detained for lack OF postage stamps
through tie forgetfulness Of the senders,
and that it is possible to tell just how many
people viii fall in the streets by slipping on
an orange peel. In other words, there are
no accidents. The most Insignificant event
you ever heard os is the link between two
eterrtries-the eternity Of the past and the
eternity Of the future. Head the right way,
young man and you will come out at the
right goal.
Bring me young man and tell me what
his physical health is and what his mental
csliber, and what his habits, and l will tell
-sou what will be his destiny for this world,
, and his destiny for the world to como, and
will not make five inaccurate prophecies
out of the five hundred. All this makes me
solicitous in regard to young R'en. and
want to make them nervous in regard to the
contraction Of unpayabie debts. give you
paragraph from my own experience.
Ny first settlement as pastor was in a
village. Ny salary ives 500 and psrson-
age. The amount seemed enormous to me.
said to myself, What! all this for one
yearl" I was afraid OF getting worldly
under so much prosperity! resolved to in
rite all the congregation TO my house IN
groups of twenty-five each. We began, and
as they were the best congregation in all
the world, and we felt nothing was too good
for them, we piled all the Injuries on the
table. never completed the undertaking.
At the end Of six months l was in financial
despair I found what every young man
learns in time to save himself, or too late,
that you must measure the size OF mans
bndy before you begin to cut the cloth for
his coat.
When a young man wilfully and Of cnoice,
having the comfort; 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 jim
gle his doorbell before he gets up in the
moruirg; :hey jingle his do-rbell after he
has gone to bed at night. They ymeet him as
he comes of his front steps. They send hin,
a postal card, or letter in curtest style,
telling him to pay mp. They attach his
goods They want cash, or note at thirty
days, or q 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 to him
from this side, and from that side, and
from before. and from behind, and from
above, and from beneath, and he is in
suited and gibbetad. and sued, and dunned,
and sworn at, until he gets the nervous
dyspepsia, gets neuralgia, gets liver COM
plant, gets heart disease. gets conyulslve
disorder. gets consumption.
Now he is dead, and you say: 'Of course
they viii let him alone" 0, no! 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 sur
plus plait on the shroud, to see whether the
hearse 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
uame the deed to the grave is made out.
Then they ransack the berefs household, the
books the pictures the carpets. the chairs.
the sofa, the piano, the mattresses, the pill
low 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.
Second-Sut think more young men are
slaughtered through irreligion. Take away
a young mans religion and yon 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
morals take this Bible away. How Will you
do that2 Well, you will caricature his rev
erence for the Scriptures, you will take
those incidents Of the Bible which can be
made mirth of-Jonah's whale, Samson's
foxes, Adams rib-then you will earicature
eccentric Christians or inconsistent Chris
tians, then you will pass off as your own all
those hackpeyed arguments against Chris
tianity 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 war is comparatively
clear, and all the gates Of his soul are set
open in invitation to the sias OF earth and
the sorrows OF death. that they may come
in and drive the stake fer their encaulp-
ment.
A steamer fifteen hGndred miles from
shore with broken ruddor and lost compass.
and hulk leaking fifty gallons the hour. is
better of than young maa when you have
robbed him Of his Rible. Have you ever
noticed how despicahiy mean it is to take
substituted 1t is meaner tSan to come to a
sick man and steal his nediciue, meaner
than to come to y Grippe and steal his
crutch, meaner than to come to pauper aud
steal his crust, meaner than to come to a
poor man and burn his house down. It is
the worst of all larcenies t,' steal the Bible.
which has been the crutch and medicine and
TODD and eternal home to 30 many! What
a generous and magnanimors business in
fidelity has gone into This splitting up Of
life boats, and taking awaI' of fire escapes,
and extinguishing of lighthouses!
I come out and I say 20 such people:
What are you doing all this fora" CO."
they say, '.just for fun" It is such fun to
see Christians tryto hold ON to their Bibles! !!
Many Of them have lost loved ones, and have
been told that there is a resurrection, and
it is such fun to tell them there will be no
re direction! Many Of 1hcm 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 savior. Think Of the meanest
thing you ever heard Of; then 20 down
thousand feet underneath 1t and ycu will
find yourself at the top Of stairs hundred
miles long go to the hnttom Of the stairs. and
you will find a ladder thousand miles long;
then 20 to the foot of the ladder and look
of precipice half as far as from here TO
China, and you will find the headquarters Of
the meauness that would rob this world of
it's only comfort in life its only peace in
death, and its only hope for immortality.
Slaughter young mans fn;th 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,