The Bossier banner., 1892-02-18

rule that will not work both ways.
You must never steal unless you can do
it well. He did it well. | am not talk
ing an abstraction; am talking a ter
rible and crushing fact
Now here is young man. Look at
him to-day. Look at him five years
trial in such an establishment. Here
he stands in the shop to-day, his checks
ruddy with the breath of the hills. He
unrolls the goods on the counter in gem
tlelnanly style. He commends them to
the purchaser. He points out all the
good points in the fabric. He effects
the sale. The goods are wrapped up,
and he dismisses the customer with u
cheerful good morning." and the
country merchant departs so impressed
with the aight-forwardnes of that
young man that he will come again and
again, every spring and every autumn
unless interfered with. The young man
has been now in that establishment
five years >unrolls the goods on the
counter He says to the customer,
Now, those are the best goods we
better on the next shelf He saws:
1--WE are selling these goods less than
COST they are'making twenty per cent.
He says: There is nothing like them
in all the. city, there are fifty shops
where they want to sell the same
thing. He says: Now, that is a dura-
bic article, it will wash;" yes, it will
wash out. The sale is made, the goods
are wrapped up, the country merchant
goes off feeling that he has all equiva-
lent for his money. and the sharp
clerk goes into the private room of the
counting house, and he says: "Weu,
got rid of those goods at last; l really
thought we would never sell them; |
told him we were selling them less
than cost; and he thought he was get
ting a good bargain; got rid of them at
last" And the head of the firm
says: THAT'S well done, splendid
ly done?" Meanwhile, God had record
cd eight lies-four lies against the
young mar, four lies against his en-
ployer; for undertake to say that the
employer is responsible for all the iniq-
uities of his clerks, and all the iniquities
of those who are clerks of those clerks,
down to the tenth generation, if those
employers inculcated iniquitious and
damning principles.
There is mistake we make about
young men. We put them in two
classes-the one class is moral, the
other is dissolute. The moral are safe.
The dissolute can not be reclaimed l
deny both propositions. The moral are
not safe unless they have laid hold of
God, and the dissolute may be re-
claimed. l suppose there are self
righteous men in this house who feel
no need of God, and will not seek after
him, and they will go out in the world
and they will be tempted, and they will
be flung down by misfortune, and they
will go down. down, down, until some
night you will see them going home
hooting, raving, shouting blasphemy-
going home to their mother, going
home to their sister, going home to
the young companion to whom, only
little while ago, in the presence of a
brilliant assemblage, flashing lights
and orange blossoms. and censers swing
ing in the air, they promised fidelity
and purity and kindness perpetual AS
that man reaches the door she will
open it, not with an outcry, but she
will stagger back from the door as he
comes in, and in her look there will be
the prophecy of woes that are coming;
want that will shiver in need of five,
hunger that will cry in vain for bread,
crnelties that will not leave the heart
when they have crushed it, but pinch
1t again and again, and stab it again,
until some night she will open
the door of the place where her com
panion was ruined. and she will fling
out her arm from under her ragged
shawl and say, with almost omnipotent
elequence: Give me back my husband!
Give me back my protector! Give me
back my all! Him of the kind heart
and gentle words, and the manly brow
give him back TO mer' And then the
wretches, obese and filthy, will push
back their matted locks, and they will
say: Put her out! Put her out!' Oh!
self-righteous man, without God YOU
are in peril Seek after Him to-day.
Amid the ten thousand temptations OF
life there is no safety for a man with
out God.
But may be addressing some who
have gone astray, and so assault that
other proposition that the dissolute can
not be reclaimed. Perhaps you have
only gone little astrav. While speak
are you troubled? Is there a voice
within you saying: "What did you do
that for? Why did you go there? What
did you mean by that?' Is there a
memory in your soul that makes you
tremble? God only knows all our
hearts. Yea, if you have gone so far as
to commit iniquities. and have gone
through the whole catalogue, in
vite you back this hour. The
Lord waits for you. "Rejoice! o,
young man in thy youth. and let
thy heart cheer thee in the days OF
thy youth; but know thou that for all
these things God will bring thee into
Judgment" Come home, young man,
to your fathers God O! | wish that
all the batteries of the Gospel could to-
day be unlimbered against all those in
fuences which are taking down so many
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