Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1891-12-17
"CHEATED INTO SIM
Or. TALMAGE breaches in THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN.
The Drag Nets OF EVIL and Crime Al
ways Exposed" Young Man Hold
Onto the Bible; It's the Best Book
You Ever Owned"

You Ever Owned"
ANN ARBoR, Mich, Dec 10, s9i.--Our citizens
In large numbers have ayailed themselves OF
the opportunity OF hearing DIR. Talmage, who
is visiting the city by invitation OF the students
OF the university Last night vast audience
greeted the famous Brooklyn preacher at his
lecture, and this evening, when he was an
nounced TO preach special sermon TO young
men, there was no building In the city that
would accommodate all who wanted to hear
him. His text was Proverbs l:i7. "Surely in
vain the net is spread in the sight OF any bird
Early In the morning / went out with a
fowler 10 catch wild pigeons. We FASTENED
through the mountain gorge and into the Tor
est. We spread out the net and covered up
the edges Of it as well as we could. We ar
ranged the call-bird, its feet FAST and It's wings
Tapping in invitation to ali fowis OF heaven Il
settle down there. We retired into o booth Of
branches and leaves and waited. After a
while looking out OF the door OF the booth, we
saw flock of birds In the sky. They came
nearer and nearer and after while were about
to swoop into the net, when suddenly they
darted away. Again we waited. After a while
we s. " another flock of birds They came nearer
and nearer until just at the moment when they
were about TO swoop they darted away. The
fowler was very much disappointed as well as
myself. We said to each other, What il the
matter?' and "Why were not these birds
caught?' We went out and examined the net,
and by flutter of branch of q tree part OF the
net had been conspicuously exposed, and the
birds coming very near had seen their peril and
darted away. When / saw that, said to the
old fowler, THAT reminds me Of q passage Of
Scripture: Surely in vain is the net spread in
the sight of any bird" Now the net in my
text stands for temptation.
! The call bird OF sin tempts men on from point
to point and from branch 10 branch until they
! are about to drop into the net. IL a man finds
out in time that 1t is the temptation Of the
! devil, or that evil men are attempting to cap
| ture his soul for time and for eternity, the man
| steps back. He says II am not 10 be caught
| in that way: see what you are about: surely
/ in vain ID the net spread In the sight Oh any
! bird"
! There are two classes OF temptations su;
! perficial and the subterraneous-those above
/ ground, those under ground II man could
see sin as ii Is; he would no more embrace it
| than ne would embrace leper. Sin Is q
daughter of hell, yet she is garlanded and
| ROBBED and trinketed. Her voice is o MARBLE
! Her cheek is the setting sun Her forehead is
| an aurora She says to men: Come, walk this
! path with me; it is thymed and primrosed, and
| the air is bewitched with the odors of the hang
| ing gardens of heaven the rivers are rivers Of
| wine, and all you have TO do is to drink them
! Up in chalices that sparkle with diamond and
/ amethyst and chrysoprasus. Seel 1t is all
! bloom and roseate cloud and heaven" Oh! my
! friends, II for one moment the choiring of all
| these concerted voices Of sin could be hushed
! we should see the orchestra Of the pit with hot
! breath blowing through fiery flute and the
| skeleton arms on drums of thunder and dark
ness beating the chorus: "The end thereof Is
! death"
! want to point out the insidious temptations
that are assailing more especially our young
men, The only kind Of nature comparatively
fgE tatHar fG
the cold, hard, stingy mean temperament
| What would Satan do with such man IL he
/ got him? Satan is not anxious 10 get man
! who, after while, may dispute with him the
realm of everlasting meanness. 1t is the gen
erous young man, the ardent young man, the
| warm-hearted young man, the social young
| man. that is in especial peril. pirate goes
out on the sea, and one bright morning he puts
! the glass TO his eye and looks of, and sees m
| empty vessel floating from port to port He
says: "Neyer mind that's no prize for US, I"
! But the same morning he puts the glass to his
| eye, and he secs a vessel coming from Australia
| laden with gold, or vessel from the Indies
| laden with spices He says: chats DER
prize; bear down on it," Across that unfortunate
/ ship the grappling-hooks are thrown. The
! crew are blindfolded and are compelled TO walk
! the plank. 1t is not the empty vessel but the
| laden merchantmen that is the temptation to
/ the pirate. And young man empty of head,
| empty OF heart, empty of lfe--you want no
! Young Mems Christian association to keep him
! safe he is safe He will not gamble unless IL
/ is with somebody else's stakes He will hot
! freak the Sabbath unless somebody else pays
/ the horse hire He will not drink unless
| some one else treats him He will hang around
| the bar, hour after hour, waiting for some gen
/ CTOus young man 10 come in. The generous
/ young man comes in and accosts him and says,
| We'll, will you have a drink with me today"
| The man. as though it a sudden thing for
him, says, "Well, well, il you insist on it l
| WILL will"
Too mean to go to perdition unless somebody
else pays his expenses. For such young men
| we will not fight We would no more contend
/ for them than Tartary and Ethiopia would fight
| as to who should have the great Sahara Desert:
| but for those young men who are buoyant and
! enthusiastic, those who are determined to do
something for time and for eternity-for them
we will fight, and we now declare everlasting
war against all the influences that assail them,
and we ask all good men and philanthropists TO
wheel into line, and all the armies of heaven to
| bear down upon the foe, and we pray Almighty
God that with the thunderbolts OF his wrath he
will strike down and consume all these influ-
euces that are attempting to destroy the young
men for whom Christ died.
The first class of temptations that assaults
young man is led on by the seeptic. He will not
admit that he Is an inidel or ATHEIST. Oh, no!
he is a "free-thinker;" he Is one OF your
liberal men, ne IS Tree ana easy Ill feilglOn.
O, how liberal he is: he Is so liberal that he
will give away his bible; he is so liberal" that
he will give away the throne OF eternal justice;
he is so liberal" that he would be willing to
give God out of the universe; he is so liberal
that he would give up his own soul and the
souls Of all his friends Now, what more could
you ask in the way of liborality? The victim
of the sceptic has probably just come
from the country. Through the inter
vent.on of friends he has been placed in q shop.
On Saturday the sceptc says TO him, "Well,
what are you going TO do tomorrow He says,
81 am going 10 church" us 1t possibe?" says
the sceptic. "Well, / used TO do those things:
was brought up, suppose, as you were, in a
religious family, and believed all those things,
but got over it: the fact is, since 1 came to
town have read great deal, and have found
that there are great many things in the bible
that are ridiculous. Now, for instance, all that
about the serpent being cursed to crawl in the
garden of Eden because IL had tempted our first
parents; why, you see how absurd IL Isl you
can tell from the very organization OF the SER
pent that il had TO crawl; 1t crawled before 1t
was cursed just as well as it crawled afterwards:
you can tell from its organization that IL crawled
Then, all that story about the whale swallow
ing Jonah, Jonah swallowing the whale,
which was 1t? 1t don't make any difference,
the thing is absurd; IL is ridiculous to suppose
that a man could have gone down through the
jaws of sea-monster and yet kept his life;
why his respiration would have been hlndered;
he would have been digested; the gastric Juice
would have dissolved the fibrine and coagulated
albumen, and Jonah would have been changed
from prophet into chyle. Then all that story
about the miraculous conception-why, it is
perfectly disgraceful o. sir, l believe In the
light OF nature. This is the nineteenth century.
Progress, sir, progress. 1 don't blame you, but
after you have been in town as long as have,
you will think just as do
Thousands OF young men are going down UNI
der that process day by day, and there is only
here and there young man who can endure
this artillery of scorn. They giving up
their bibles. The light Of naturel They have
the light OF nature in China; they have II in
IIindoostan; they have IL in Ceylon. Flowers
there, stars there, waters there, winds there,
but no civilization, no homes, no happiness.
Lancets TO cut, and Juggernauts to fall under,
and hooks to swing on, but no happiness,
tell you, my young brother, we have TO take a
religion OF some kind. We have to choose be-
tween four or five. Shall ii be the Koran OF
the Mohammedan, or the Shaster OF the Hin
doc or the Zendavesta OF the Persian, or
the Confucius writings OF the Chinese, or the
Holy Scriptures; Take what you will; God
helping me, will take the bible Light for
all darkness; rock for all foundation; balm for
all wounds glory that lifts its pillars OF fire