The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1893-04-15

dead march of a thousand souls. In
one year in the city Of New York there
were 81, 200, 600 sacrificed at the gaming
table. Perhaps some of your friends
nave been smitten of this sin. Pcrhans
some of you nave been smitten by IL.
Perhaps there may be n stranger
IN the house this morning come
nom some of the hotels. Look
out for those agents of ~iniquity who
tarry around about the hotels, and ask
you: Would you like to see the city?"
Yes. Have you ever seen that SPLEEN
did building uptown" No. Then the
villain will undertake to show you what
he calls the Lions" and the elephants"
and after a young man, through NOR
bid curiosity or through badness of soul,
has seen the lions and the ''ele-
phants," he will be on enchanted
ground. Look out for these men who
move around II hotels with sleek hats
always sleek hats-and p%atronizing
air, and unaccountable interest about
your welfare and entertainment. You
are a fool if you cannot see through it.
They want your money.
In the midnight hour, also, drunken
ness also does its worst. The drinking
will be respectable at s o'clock in the
eyening, IA little flushed at o, talkative
and garrulous at 10, at II blasphemous,
at II the hat falls off and the man falls
to the floor asking for more drink.
Strewn through the drinking saloons
of the city, fathers, brothers, husbands,
sons, as good as you are by nature, per-
haps better.
In the high circles of society it is
hushed up. A merchant prince, if he
\ gets noisy and uncomfortable, is taken
by his fellow-reyelers, who try to get
him to bed or take him home, where he
falls fiat in the entry. Do not wake up
the children. They have had disgrace
Eenough. Do not let them know it.
Hush it up. But sometimes it cannot
be hushed up, when the rum touches
the brain and the man becomes thor
oughly frenzied.
Oh, if the run touches the brain, you
cannot hush it up. You do not see the
worst. In the midnight meetings a
great multitude have been saved. We
want a few hundred Christian men and
women to come down from the highest
circles of society to toll amid these
wandering and destitute ones, and kim
die up u light in the dark alley, even
the gladness of Heaven.
| Do not go from your well-flled tables
with the idea hat pious talk is going
to stop the cravings of an empty
stomach or to warm stockingless feet.
Take bread, take raimant, take medi-
cine as well as take prayers. There is
O great deal of common sense in what
the poor woman said to the city mis-
sionary when he was telling her how
she ought to love God and serve him.
s"Oh!' said she, IF you were as poor and
cold as am, and as hungry, you could
think of nothing else"
A great deal of what is called Christ
ian work goes for nothing for the sim
Eple reason it is not practical. As after
the battle of Antietam Il man got out
of an ambulance with a bag of tracts, and
he went distributing the tracts, and
George Stuart, one of the best Christian
in this country, said to him, "What
are you distributing tracts for now?
There are 5000 men bleeding to death.
Bind up their wounds, and then dis
tribute the tracts" We want more
common sense in Christian work, talk
ing the bread of this life in one hand,
and the bread of the next life in the
other hand,
There is a place in Switzerland, |
have been told, where the utterance of
one word will bring back "a score of
echoes; and ! have to tell you this
morning that a sympathetic word, q
kind word, a generous word, a helpful
word uttered in the dark places of the
town will bring back ten thousand
echoes from all the thrones in Heaven.
Are there in this assemblage this
morning those who now by experience
the tragedies of midnight in town? |
am not here to thrust you back with
n hard word. Take the bandage from
your bruised soul and put on the sooth-
ing salve of Christ's gospel and of Gods
compassion. Many have come. | see
Others coming to God this morning
tired of the sinful life. Cry up the
news to Heaven Set all the bells ring
ing. Spread the banquet under the
arches. Let the crowned heads come
down and sit at the jubilee. l tell you
there is more delight in Heaven over
one man that gets reformed by the
grace of God than over ninety and nine
that never got off the track.
l could give you the history in a min
ute of n of the best friends | ever
had. He welcomed me to my home at
the west. He was of splendid personal
appearance and he had an ardor of soul
and a warmth of affection that made
me love him like a brother. l saw men
coming out of the saloons and gambling
hells, and they surrounded my friend,
and fhaU tool hin, ~ tL, -.
his social nature, and / saw him going
down and had a fair talk with him. |
said to him, why don't you give up
your bad habits and become q Chris
tian?" remember now just how he
looked, leaning over his counter, as he
replied: Il wish ! could. Oh! sir, /
should like to be Il Christian, but / have
gone so far astray l can't get back"
SO the time went on. After awhile
the day of sickness came. | was sum-
moned to his sick-bed. / fastened. 1t
o me but a few moments to get
there. l was surprised as | went in. |
him in his ordinary clothes, fully
dressed, lying on the top of the bed. |
a v him my hand, and he seized it
,onvulsively and said: 'Oh! how glad |
am to see you. Sit down there" | sat i
and he said: Mr.. Talmage, lust {
where you sit now my mother sat last
hight. She has beer dead twenty /
ears. Now, | don't want you to think I
am out of my mind, or that | am SUI I
oerstltlouS; but, sir, she sat there last c
light just as certainly as you sit |
here now-the same cap, and apron, c
md spectacles. 1t was my old mother c
Tshe sat there" Then he turned to
us wife and said: Il wish Won c
would take these strings off the bed; v
omebody is wrapping strings around
ne all the time. l wish you would stop '
hat annoyance" She said: '.There is i
here" Then | saw it wa de- II
He said: Just where YOU sit t
my mother sat, and she said, 'Ros- a
yell, | wish you would do better-I
ash You would do better said: p
Mother, | wish | could do better. Il
~ to dc better, but | can't. Mother, n
used to help me-; why can't you n
clip me now?' And, sir, | got ont of "
for it was reality, and | went to a
and threw my arms around her b
and | said: Mother, | will do S,
but you must help; | can't do a
his alone!'" l knelt down and praved. s.
hat night his soul went to the Lord W
lat made it. W
Arrangements were made for the OBJ j
'quies. The question was raised CO
neither they should bring him to II
lurch. Somebody said: You can't "