The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1889-06-21

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.
II. But think more young men are slaugh-
tered through irreligion. Take away young
mans religion and you 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
his Bible away. How viii you do that Well,
you will caricature his reverence for the
Scriptures, you will take all those incidents OF
| the Bible which can be made mlrth Or
Jonah's whale, Samson's foxes, Adam S
| rib-then you will caricature eccentric
Christians or inconsistent Christians,
then you will pass off as your own
all those haekneyed arguments against
Christianity which are as old as Tom PANE,
| as old as Voltaire as old as sin. Now you
have captured his Bible, and you have taken
his strongest fortress; the way IS com,
paradvely clear, and all the gates Of his soul
are set open in invitation to the sins OF earth
and the aorrows of death, that they may
come in and drive the stake for their en-
campment.
A steamer 1900 miles from shore with
broken rudder and lost compass, and hulk
leaking fifty gallons the hour, is better of
than a young man when you have robbed
| him of his Bible. Have you ever noticed how
/ Bible without proposing a substitute: 1t Is
Ineaner than to come tc a sick man and steal
his medicine, meaner than to come TO
| cripple and steal his crutch, meaner than TO
come to pauper and seal his crust, meaner
than to come to a 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 50
i many! What a generous and magnanimous
business intidelity has gone into2 This split
ting up Of life boats and taking away of liz
escapes AMI extinguishing Of lghthouses-
| come out and say to such people: 'Wba-'
| are you doing all this forgn ''Oh,n they say,
Just for fun" 1t Is such fun to see
/ Christians try to hold on to their Biblesi
Many of them have lost loved ones, and have
I been told that there is q resurrection, and it
] is such fun to tell them there viii 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 viii have
10 be their own saviourl Think of the
meanest thing you ever heard of; then go
down a thousand feet underneath it, and YOU
viii find yourself at the top Of stairs hun
dred miles long; go to the bottom of the
stairs, and you VIII find a ladder a
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 viii find the headquarters of the mean
comfort in life, its 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 wait
ing 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 n 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.
Nov, how is this wholesale slaughter to be |
stopped? There is not person in the house |
but is interested in that question. Young |
man, arm yourself. The object Of my SER
mon is to put a weapon in each of your hands |
for your own defense Wait not for Young |
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 par
Tor Of q fashionable boarding house, or a |
room in the fourth story Of a cheap lodging, |
care not. Only have that one room your
fortress. Let not the dissipator or unclean |
step over the threshold. If they come |
up the long flight of stairs and |
knock at the door, meet them face to face |
and kindly yet firmly refuse them admit |
lance. Have few family portraits on the |
wall, if you brought them with you from |
your country home. Have a Bible ON the /
stand. If Won can afford it and you play on !
one, have an instrument Of music-harp or |
flute, or cornet, or melOdeon, or violin, |
or piano. Every morning before YOU |
leave that room, pray. Every night after |
you come home in that room, pray, Make
int zrr f4ilraffar vssIII. Sdbeera1zsl |
your Mount Zion. Let no bad book or news
paper come into that room, any more than |
you would allow cobra to coil on your table. |
Take care Of yourself. Nobody else viii take |
care of you. Your help viii not come up two |
or three or four flights of stairs; your help |
Will come through the roof, down from |
heaven, from that God who in the six thou
sand years Of the worlds history never /
betrayed a young man who tried to be 4
good and Christian. Let me say in regard |
to your adverse worldly circumstances, in |
passing, that you are on a level now with |
those who are finally to succeed. Mark my
words, young man, and think of it thirty |
years from now. You will find that those
who thirty years from now are the million
aires of this country, who are the orators of
the country, who are the poets Of the coun-
try, who are the strong merchants of the /
country, who are the great philanthropists Of
the country mightest in church and State
are this morning on a level with You not an
Inch above, and you In straitened eircuIn-
stances now.
Herschel earned his living by playing a
violin at parties and in the interstices Of the !
play he would go out and look up at the mid
night heavens, the fields Of his immortal
cOnquests. George Stephenson rose from
being the foreman in colliery to be the
most renowned Of the worlds engineers. No
outfit no capital TO start with Young man.
go down to the Mercantile Library and get
some books and read of what wonderful mech
anism God gave you in your hand, in your
foot, in your eye in your ear, and then ask
some doctor to take you into the dis
secting room and Illustrate to you what
you have read about, and never
again commit the blasphemy Of saying you
have no capital TO start with. Equipped
Why, the poorest young man in this house is
equipped as only the God Of the whole uni
verse could afford to equip him. Then his
body-a very poor affair compared with his
makes me solicitors. 1 am not so much
anxious about you, young man, because you
have so little to do with, as l am anxious
about you because you have much to risk
and lose or gain.
mere IS no class or persons that so sur my
as young men in great cities Not
luite enough salary TO live on, and all the
emptations that come from that deficit.
invited on all hands TO drink, and their
/
nand stimulus Their religion caTicatured
" the most Of the clerks in the store
md most Of the operatives in the factory.
The rapids Of temptation and death rushing
Igainst that young man forty miles the hour,
md he in a frail boat headed up stream,
With nothing but broken oar to work with
Unless Almighty God help them they viii. !
70 under. ~ -
All when / told you TO take care of your
elf you misunderstood me if yea thought /
meant you are to depend upon human resolu- {
1tion, which may be dissolved in the foam
f the wine cup, or may be blown out with
he first gust of temptation. Here is the
helmet, the sword of Lord God Al
mighty. Clothe yourself in that panOply and |
'Ou shall not be put to confusion. Sin pays
veil neither in this world nor the next, but
light thinking and right believing and right :
citing will take you in safety through this
ife and in transport through the next /
L never shall forget prayer 1 heard a
'oung man make some fifteen years ago. 1t |
vas very short prayer, but it was tremend>
ms prayer: "Oh Lord help US. We find it I
o very easy to do wrong and 50 hard TO do Z
light. Lord, helpus" That prayer, warrant
,ou, reached the ear Of God, and reached '
lis heart. And there are in this house
hundred men who have found out-a thori-