The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1891-04-24

the ''shoplifters.'' the ''pickpockets,' ~
famous all over the cities. Hundreds
of them with their faces in the
''Rogues' Gallery" yet doing nothing
for the last FIVE or ten years but de-
fraud society and escape justice. When
these people go unarrested and unpun-
ished, it is putting high premium upon
vice, and saying to the young criminals
of this country: What a safe thing it
is to be great criminal Let the law
swoop upon them. Let it be known in
this country that crime will have no
quarter, that the detectives are after it
that the police club is being brandished.
that the iron door of the prison is being
opened, that the judge is ready to call
on the case. Too great leniency to
criminals is too great severity to So
cietY.
Again: In your effort to arrest this
plague of crime, you need to consider
the idle population. Of course, 1 do
not refer to the people who are getting
old, or to the sick, or to those who can
not get work; but tell you to look out
for those athletic men and women who
will not work. When the French noble
man was asked why he kept busy when
he had so large a property, he said: 81
keep on engraving SO / may not hang
myself" / do not care who the man is,
you can not afford to be idle. 1t is from
the idle classes that the criminal classes
are madeup. Character, like water, gets
putrid if it stands still too long. Who
can wonder that in this world, where
there is so much to do, and all the hosts
of earth and Heaven and hell are plang'
| ing into the conflict, and angles are fly
| ing, and God is at work, and the uniA
verse is aquake with the marching and
counter-marching that God let's His in
dignation fall upon a man who chooses
idleness? / have watched these do-nnth-
| ings who spend their time stroking their
boards, and retouching their toilet, asd
criticising Industrious people, and
pass their days and nights i1
| bar rooms and club houses, loungin6
and smoking and chewing and card
playing. They are not only useless,
but they are dangerous. How hard it
is for them to while away the hour !
Alas for them If they do not know
how to while away an hour, what will
they do when they have all eternity on
their hands. These men for awhile
smoke the best cigars, and wear tho
best clothes, and move jn the highest
| spheres; but have noticed that very
soon they come down to the prison, the
aims house, or stop at the gallows.
There is a vast underground New
| York and Brooklyn life that is appall-
ing and shameful. 1t wallows and
steams with putrefaction. You go
down the stairs, which are wet and de-
cayed with filth, and at the bottom you
| find the poor victims on the floor. cold,
sick, three-fourths dead, sinking into a
still darker corner under the CLEAN of
the lantern of the police. There has
not been a breath of fresh air in
that room for five years, literal
ly. The broken sewer empties
its contents upon them, and they
lie at night in the swimming filth.
| There they are, men. women and chill
dren; blacks, whites; Mary MagdRlep
without her repentance, and Laza rus
without his God. These are the olives
into which the picl1poclkets and tie
thieves go, as well as great many who
would like different life, but can not
get it. These places are the sores OF
the city, which bleed perpetual cor
ruption. They are the underly-
ing volcano that threatens us with
a Caracas earthquake. 1t rolls, and
roars, and surges, and heaves, and
rocks and blasphemes and dies. And
| there are only two outlets for 1.-THE
police court and the potter's field. In
other words, they must either go to
prison or to hell. Oh, you never saw it,
you say. You never will see it until on
the day when those staggering wretches
shall come up in the light of the judg-
ment throne, and while all hearts are
being revealed God will ask you what
you did to help them.
/ have preached this sermon for four
or five practical reasons: Because l
want you to know who are the uproot-
ing classes of society. Because l want
you to be more discriminating in your
charities. Because / want your hearts
open with generosity, and your hands
open with charity. Because want yod
to be made the sworn friends of all city
evangelizatlon, and all newsboys' lodg-
| lighthouses, and all children's aid so
cieties and Dorcas societies, under the
slillful manipulation of wives and moth
ers and sisters and daughters; let the
| spare garments of your wardrobe be
fitted to the limbs of the wan and shiv-
| ering. ] should not wonder if that hat
that you give should come back jew
eled coronet, or if that garment that
you hand out from your wardrobe
should mysteriously be whitened. and
somehow wrought into the Saviour's
own robe, so in the last day He would
run His hand over it and say: 81 was
naked, and Ye clothed Me-" That
would be putting your garments to
glorious uses
But more than that, have preached
the sermon because l thought in the
contrast you would see how very kindly
God had dealt with you, and l thought
that thousands of you would go to your
comfortable homes and sit at your
well-filled tables and at the warm reg
listers, and look at the round faces Oh
your children, and then you would
burst into tears at the review OF
Gods goodness to you, and that you
would go to your room and lock
the door, and kneel down and say: 20
Lord, / have been an migrate; make me
Thy child. o Lord, there are so many
hungry and unclad and unsheltered to-
day, thank Thee that all my life Thou
hast taken such good care of me. @
| Lord, there are so many sick and
crippled children to-day, thank Thee
| mine are we'll some of them on earth,