Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-04-13

kOOO, KOlL4& IuLU EOkSt6ElUZ
dashtnR the champagne bottle to the floor,
rolling the glasses from the barroom coun-
ter, laughing, shouting, stamping the floor.
Is ne nappy? L Will go TO his midnight pill
low. will see him turnathe gas off. will
ask myself - the pillow on which he sleeps
is as soft as the pillow on which that pure
young man sleeps.
All, not When he opens his eyes in the
morning, will the world be as bright to him
as to that young man VINO retired at night
saying his prayers, invoking Gods blessing
upon his own soul and the souls OF his com
rades and father and mother and brothers
AMI sisters far away2 No, no! His laugh
will ring out from the saloon 50 that you
hear it rs you pass by, but 1t is hollow
laughter. In it is the swapping of heart
strings and the rattle of prison gates. Happy
that young man happy?
Let him fill hign the bowl; he cannot
drown an upbraiding conscience. Let the
balls roll through the bowling alley the deep
rumble and the sharp crack cannot over
power the voices of condemnation. Let him
Whrl in the dance Of sin and temptation and
death all the brilliancy of the scone cannot
make him forget the last look of his mother
when he left home, when she said to him
''NOw, my son, you will do right am sure
you will do right. You will, won't you?"
That young man happyP Why, across every
night there fit shadows of eternal darkness ;
there are adders co11ed up in every cup there
are vultures of despair striking their iron
beaks into his heart there are skeleton
fingers Of grief pinching at the throat.
[ come in amid the clicking of the glasses
and under the flashing of the chandeliers,
and [ cry: "WOe! Woo! The way of the
ungodIy shall perish. There is no peace,
saith my God to the wicked. The way of
transgressor is hard" Oh, my friends
there is moro joy in one drop of Christian
satisfaction than in whOlo rivers OF sinful de-
light. Other wings may be drenched of tho
nd aTIa nf the fnmnaGt h1t
dove that comes in through the window of
this heavenly ark has wings like the dove
covered with silver and her feathers with
yellow gold.
Again, I remark, religion is an adornment
in the style of usefulness into which 1t in
ducts a man. Here are two young men. The
one has fine culture, exquisite wardrobe,
plenty of friends, great worldly success, but
he lives for himself. His chief care is for
his own comfort. He lives uselessiy. He dies
uDregrettod. Here Is another young man.
His apparel may not be so good his educa-
ton may not be 80 thorough. He lives for
others. His happiness is to mako others
happy. He is as self denying that dying
soldier falling in the ranks, when he said
"ColOnel, there is no need of those boys tir-
ing themselves by carrying me to the hos
pital. Let me die just where 1 am SO
this young man of whom speak loves God.
wants all the world to love him, is not
ashamed to carry a bundle of clothes up that
dark alley to the poor. Which oftho5e young
men do you admire the better? The Que
sham, the other prince imperial.
Oh, do you know of anything. my hearer,
that ia moro beautiful than to see a young
man start out for Christ? Here is some one
falling he lifts him up. Here is q vagabOnd
boy; he introduces him to a mission school.
Here is a family freezing to death ;he carries
them a scuttlo of coal. There are 800 .000,
000perishing in midnight heather darkness.
By all possible means he tries to send them
the gospel. He may be laughed at, and
he may be sneered at, and he may be carl
catured, but he is not ashamed to go every
where saying II am not ashamed OF tho
gospel of Christ. 1t is the power of God
and the wisdom of God unto salvation
Such young man can go through every
thing. There is no force on earth or in hell
that can resist him. l show you three spec
tacleS
Spectacle tho First-Napoleon passed by
with the host that went down with him to
Egypt and up with him through Russia and
crossed the continent on the bleeding heart
of which he set his iron heel, and across the
quivering flesh of which he went grinding
the wheels of his gun carrlages-in his dying
moment asking his attendants to put on his
military boots for him.
Spectacle the Second-Voltaire, bright
ana learned and witty and eloquent with
tongue and voice and strateSem Internal,
warning against God and poisoning whole
kingdoms with his fidelity, yet applauded
by the clapping hands Oh thrones and en-
pirG5 and cOntinentS-hiS last words, in
delirium supposing Christ standing by tho
bedside-his last words, "Crush that
wretch "
Spectacle the Third-Paul-Paul, insight
f1cant in person, thrust out from all refined
association, scourged, spat on, bounded like
n wild beast from city to city, yet trying to
make the world good and heaven full {; an
nouncing resurrection to those who mourned
at the barred gates Of the dead speaking
cOnsolatiors which light up tho eyes OF
widOwhOod and orphanage and want with
glow of certain and eternal release; IN
daunted before those who could take his
life, his cheek flushed with transport and
his eye on heaven with ono hand shaking
defiance at all the foes Of earth and al tho
principaities of hell, and with the other
hand beckoning messenger angels to come
and bear him away as he says: 81 am now
ready to be offered, and the time of my de
parture is at hand. l have fought the good
fight have finished my course; 1 have
kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up
for me crown of righteousness, which the
Lord, the righteous Judge, will give mo"
Which of the three spectacles do you most
admire? When the wind of death struck the
Conqueror and the tnfidel, they were tossed
like sea gulls in a tempest, drenched of tho
wave and torn of the hurricane, their dismal
voices heard through the everlasting storm,
but when the wave and the wind of death
struck Paul, like an albatross, he mado u
throne Of the tempest and one day floated
away into the calm, clear summer Of heaven,
brighter than the dove, its wings covered
with silver, and its feathers with yellow
cold. Oh, are YOU not in love with such o
religion religion that can do so much for
a man while he lives and so much for man
when he comes to die?
l suppose you may have noticed the con-
trast between the departure of Christian
Al, ira 81 foIn
dying in chagrin because he could not com
pose a joke equal to the joke uttered at the
other end of the table Zeuxis, dying in a fit
of laughter at the sketch of an aged woman
a sketch made by his own hand; Mazarin,
dying playing cards, his friend holding his
hands because he was unable to hold them
himself.
All that on one side, compared with the
departure of the Scotch Minister, who said
to his friends: 81 have no interest as to
whether 1 live or die. If l die I shall be
with the Lord, and if live the Lord Will be
with me-" Or the last words of Washington,
cit is WE'LL" Or the last word of Mcintosh,
the learned and the great, Happy Or the
last words of Hannah More, the Christian
poetess, "Joyr Or those thousands of
Jesus, receive my spirit Come, Lord Jesus,
sting? o grave, where is thy victory?"
Behold the contrast. Behold the charm
Of the one, behold the darkness of the other.
Now 1 know it is very popular in this day
for young men to think there is something
more charming il skepticism than in religion.
They are ashamed of the old-fashioned re-
igion of the cross, and they pride themselves
on their free thinking on all these subjects.
My young friends, want to tell you what
know from obserVation-that while skeptic'
Ism is beautiful land at the start, it is a
great Sahara desert at the last.
Years ago a minister's son went off from
home to college. At college he formed the
acquaintance of young man whom shall
call Ellison. Ellison was an inf1del. Ellison
scoffed at religion, and the minister's son
soon learned from him the infidelity, and
when he went home on his vacation broke
his fathers heart by his denunciations of
Christianity. Time passed on, and vacation