The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1890-08-09

Of the boy hawking BOOKS throuBh tne
cars. / really believe there is moro
pestiferous trash read among the intel
Iigent classes in July and August than
in all the other ten months of the year.
Men and women who at nome would not
satisfied with a book that was not
really sensible, ! found sitting on hotel
piazzas or under the trees reading books
index of which would make them
blush il they knew that you knew what
the book was.
Would 1T not be an awful thing for you
to be struck by lightning some day
when you had in your hand one OF those
D a"per-covered romances-the hero q Pa
risian rue, the heroine an u~nprincipled
h~irt-chapters in the book that you
would not read to your children at the
rate Of 800 Il line! Throw out that stuff
from your summer baggage. Are there
not good books that are easy to read
books Of congenial history, books OF
pure fun, books of poetry ringing with
merry canto, books of fine engrnvings, :
books that will rest the mind as well a.
purify the heart and elevate the whole
life? NV hearers, there Will not be an
hour between This and the day Of your
death WneH YOU u INV hSe
book lacking in moral principle.
Another temptation lowering around
our watering places is the Intoxicating
beverage. | am told that tits becoming
more and more fashionable for women
to drink. l care not how well n woman
NAV dress, IL she has taken enough OF
WINE to lush her cheek and put glasses
on her eyes, she is intoxicated. h
NAV be handed into q 81, 500 carriage,
and have diamonds enough to confound
the Tifanys-she Is intoxicated. h
NAV be q graduate OF q great institute'
and the daughter of some man In danger
of being nominated for the Presidency
she Is drunk. You may have a larger
vocabulary than l have, and you may
say in regard to her that she Is con
y~iyial" or she is merry" or she Is "fes-
tive" or she is "e~xhilarated," but you
cannot with all your g%arlands OF verb
iage cover up the plain fact that 1t Is an
old fashioned case Of drunk.
Now, the watering places are full OF
temptations to men and women to
tipple. At the close OF the ten-pin or
billiard game they tipple. At the close
of the c~otillon they tipple. Seated on
| Jue pthLZd SOolAiB
tipple. The tinged glasses come around
with bright straws and they tipple.
First they take light wines as they
call them; but Eight wines" are heavy
enough to debase the appetite. There
is not a very long road between
paign at SIS per bottle, and whisky at
five cents per glass.
Satan has three or four grades down
which he takes men to destruction
One man he takes up and through one
spree pitches him into eternal darkness.
That Is q rare case. Very seldom, in
deed, can you find a man who will be
such a fool as that. When a man goes
down to destruction Satan brings him
ito a plane. 1t is almost a level. The
depression Is SO slight that you can
hardly see it. The man does no &C
I~ltualIy know that he is on the down
grade, and slips only a little toward
darkness-just a little.
And the first mile it is claret, and the
second mile it is sherry, and the third
mile 1t is punch, and the fourth mile II
lis ale, and the fifth mile 1t Is porter
and the sixth mile it Is brandy, and thel
it gets sleeper and sleeper and the man
gets frightened and says, 20, let INT
OFF, NO." says the conductor, "thfi
is an express train, and it does not stoI
until it gets to the grand central station
ht Smashuptown."
Ny friends, whether you taRry p
lshome-which will be quite as safe ant
perhaps quite as comfortable-or go in
to the country, arm yourself agains
temptation. The grace of God Is th'
only safe shelter, whether in town O
country. There are watering places &C
cessible to all Of US. You can not opel
q book Of the Bible without finding on
some such watering place. Fountain
open for sin and uncleanliness; wells 0
salvation, streams from Lebanon;
. Efood struck out of the rock by Moses
Mountains in the wilderness discovereI
by Hagar; water to drink n water t
. battle in; the river Of God, which Is full
OF water; water of which If a man drinI
: he shall never thirst; wells of water 1
. the valley of Baca; living fountains G
water; a pure river of water clear o
: CRYSTAL from under tho throne of God.
. These are watering places accessible
= to all of us. We do not have q labor
. GUS packing up before we start-oni
: the throwing away of our transgrsssionl
; No expensive hotel bills to pay; IL
'twitaout money and without price," N
long and dirty travel before we &c
= there; it Is only one step away. In Ca
ifornia in five minutes | walked aroun
= and saw ten fountains all bubbling VI
. and they were oil different And !
: five minutes l can go through this Bib
y parterre and find you fifty bright. sparl
!" ling fountains bubbling up into eterni
:, life.
. A chemist will go to n of these sun
. msr watering places and take the wat.
% and analyze it and tell yon it contain
so much of iron, and so much OF sod
- and SO much of lime, and so much
magnes'a Q. come to this Gospel wei
Y this living fountain and analyZe tt
~ water, and 1 find that it's ingredien
:. are peace, pardon, forgiveness, hop
% comfort, life, Heaven. 'Ho, every OF
: that thirstest, come we" to this wate
ing place.
Crowd around this Bethesda to-da
- o, you sick, you lame, you troubled, yC
% dying-crowd around this Bethesd
Step in 1t! o, step in 1t! The angel
- the covenant to-day stirs the waite
why do you not step In 1t? Some OF "
!" are too weak to take q step in that d
III r~ection. Then we take you up in Il
10 arms Of our closing prayer and plum
70 you clean under the wave, hoping tn
., the cure may be as sudden as with Ca
!. tain Naaman, who. blotched and ca
% buncled, stepped into the Jordan, al
~ after the seventh dive came up, his SIX
roseate and complexioned as the fle'
W L II - liAAlu -nLill