Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-08-01

Healing for all your wounds. Pardon for
all your guilt Comfort for all your
troubles
Then, also, / counsel you, il you want
to get back, to quit all your bad associa-
tons. One unholy intimacy will ill your
soul with moral distemper. In all ages OF
the Church there has not been an instance
where q man kept one evil associate and
was reformed Among the fourteen hum
dred million Of the race not one instance.
Go home to-day, open your desk, take out
letter paper, stamp and envelope, and
then write letter something like this:
MY old companions: / start this day for
Heaven. Until am persuaded you will
Join me in this, farewell"
Then sign your name and send the Lett
ter with the first post Give mp your bad
companions, or give up Heaven. 1t is not
ten bad companions that destroyed
man, nor five bad companions, nor three
bad companions but one. What chance
is there for that young man saw along
the street four or FIVE men with him,
halting in front of a grog shop, urging
him 70 go in, he resisting, until after q
while they forced him to go in! II was .
summer night and the doors were left
open. and 1 saw the process. They held
him fast, and they put the cup to his lips
and they forced down the strong drink.
What chance is there for such q young
man?
counsel you also seek Christian ad-
vice. Every Christian man is bound to
help you. First Of all seek God; then
seek Christian counsel Gather up all the
energies of body. mind and soul, and, ap-
pealing to God for success declare this
day everlasting war against all drinking
habits, all gambling practices all houses
Of sin. Half-and-half work will amount
to nothing; it must be q Waterloo. Shrink
back now and you are lost Push on and
you are saved. A Spartan General fell at
the very moment of victory, but he dipped
his finger in his own blood and wrote on a
rock near which he was dying: "Spar.a
has conquered" Though your struggle
| to get rid OF sin may seem 20 be almost 8
death struggle you can dip your finger in
your own blood and write on the Rock Of
Ages: Victory through our Lord, Jesus
| Christ"
o, what glorious news it would be for
some Of these young men to send home to
their parents They go to the post-office
every day or two to see il there are any
letters from you. How anxious they are
| to hear.
Some one said toia Grecian General,
"What was the proudest moment in your
| lifeH He thought a moment and said:
The proudest moment in my life was
when l sent word home to my parents
that had gained the victory" And the
proudest and most brilliant moment in
your life will be the moment when you
| can send word to your parents that you
| have conquered your evil habits by the
grace OF God and become eternal victor.
| o, despise not parental anxiety The
time will come when you will have neither
father nor mother, and you will 90 around
the place where they used to watch you
and find them gone from the field, and
gone from the neighbour ood. Cry as
loud for forgiveness as you may over
the mound in the churchyard, they
will not answer. Dead! DeadI
And then you will take out the
white lock of hair that was cut from
your mothers brow just before they
buried her, and you will take the cane
with which your father used to walk, and
you will think and think and wish that
you had done just as they wanted you to.
and would give the world il you had never
| thrust a pang through their dear old
hearts. God pity the poor young man
who has brought disgrace on his fathers
namei God pity the poor young man who
has broken his mothers heart! Better if
he had never been born-better il in ths
| first hour of his life instead Of being
laid against the warm bosom of maternal
| tenderness he had been coffined
and sepulchered. There is no balm power
| full enough to heal the heart OF one who
has brought parents to a sorrowful grave
and who wanders about through the dis
NAL cemetery, rending the hair and wiring
ing the hands and crying: ''MotherI
mother" o, that to-day by all the mem
cries of the past and by all the hopes Of
the future, you would yield your heart to
God. Nav your fathers God and your
mothers God be your God forever"