Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-08

sued and duaned, and sworn at, until he gets
the nervous dyspepsia, gets neuralgia, gets
liver complaint, gets heart disease, gets con-
vulsive disorder, gets consumption.
Now he is dead and you say: "Of course
they will let him alone" oh, no! Now they
are watchful tc see whether there are any un-
necessary expenses at the obsequles to see
whether there is any useless handle on the
casket, to see whether there is any surplus
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 name the
deed to the grave is made out Then they ran
sack the bereft household, the books, the pict-
ures, the carpets the chairs, the sofa. the
piano, the mattresses, the pillow 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
IL. But think more young men are slaught-
cred 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 will 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 mirth ot-Jonah's whale, Sam
sons foxes, Adams rib-then you will carica-
ture eccentric Christians or inconsistent
Christians, then you will pass off as your own
all those hackneyed arguments against Christ
ianity 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 way is comparatively clear, and
all the gates of his soul are set open in invita-
tion to the sins of earth and the sorrows of
death, that they may come in and drive the
stake for their encampment.
A steamer 1900 miles from shore with
broken rudder and lost compass, and hulk
leaking so gallons the hour, is better off than
young man when you have robbed him of his
Bible. Have you ever noticed how despicably
mean it is to take away the worlds Bible with
out proposing a substitute? 1t 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 meaner than to come to poor
man and burn his house down. 1t 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 a generous
and magnanImous business infidelity has gone
into! This splitting up of lifeboats and taking
away of fire escapes and extinguishing of light
houses.
FATAL FUN.
come out and say to such people, "What
are you doing all this for?" "Oh," they say,
lust for fun 1t rs such fun to see Christians
try to hold on to their BiblesI Many of them
have lost loved ones and have been told that
Is d
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 savior! Think of the
meanest thing you ever heard of; then go down
1000 feet underneath it, and you will find your
self at the top of a stair 100 miles long; go to
ladder 900 miles long; then 60 the foot of the
ladder and look off precipice hall as far as
from here to China, and you will hnd the head
quarters OF the meanness that would rob this
world of its only comfort in life, its only peace
in death and its only hope for immortality.
Slaughter young mans faith in God, and
there is notmuch 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 reJribution. Not
much prospect for young man who started
life with good health and good education and
Christian example set him, and opportunity of
usefulness, who gathered all his treasures and
put them in one box, and then dropped 1t into
the sea.
Now. 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 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
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 a room in
the fourth story of cheap lodging, care not.
Only have that one room your fortress. Let
not the dissipator or the unclean step 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 admit
tance. Have few family portraits on the
wall if you brought them with you from your
country home. Have Bible on the stand. If
you can afford it and can play on one have an
instrument of music-harp or flute, or cornet
or melodeon. OF violin, or piano. Every morn
ing before you leave that room, pray. Every
night after you come home in that room, pray
Make that room your Gibraltar, your Sebasto-
pol, your Mount Zion. Let no bad book or
newspaper come into that room, any more than
you would allow cobra to coil on your table
Take care of yourself. Nobody else will tax e
care OF you. Your help will 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 5000 years of the
worlds history never betrayed a young man
who tried to be good and a Christian. Let me
say in regard to your adverse worldly circum-
stances, 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 &c years
from now. You will find that those who 30
years from now are the millionaires of this
country, who are the orators of the country,
who are the poets of the country, who are the
strong merchants of the country, who are the
great philanthrophists of the country
mightiest in church and state-are this morn
ing on a level with you, not an inch above, and
you in straitened circumstances now.
Herschel earned his living by playing violin
at parties, and in thNinterstices of the play he
would go out and look up at the midnight
heavens, the fields of his immortal conQuests
George Stephenson rose from being the fore
man in a colliery to be the most renowned of
the worlds engineers. No outfit,
NO CAPITAL TO START WITH!
Young man, go down to the Mercantile Lii
brary and get some books and read of what
wonderful mechanism God gave you in your
hand. in youl 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 universe could affor to
equip him. Then his body-a very Door affair
compared with his wonderful soul-oh, that is
what makes me solicitous. l am not so much
anxious about you, young man, because you
have so little to do with, as am anxious about
you because SO have much to risk and lose or
gain.
There is no class of persons that SO stir my
sympathies as young men in great cities. Not
quite enough salary to live on, and all the
temptations that come from that deficit In
vited on all hands to drink, and their exhausted
nervous system seeming to demand stimulus.
Their religion caricatured by the most of the
clerks in the store and most of the operatives
in the factory. The rapids of temptation and
death rushing against that young man 40 miles
the hour, and he in a frail boat headed up
stream, with nothing but a broken oar to work
with. Unless Almighty God help them they will
90 under.
Ali when told you to take care of yourself
you misunderstood me if you thought meant