The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1894-04-20
Il WAS A STRANGER. +"
Dr. Talns ye Discourses on the Per-
ills Of Great City.
On Every Hand the Stranger Within the
Gates Is Beget with Dangers-sataa
Lurks in Every Form to
Entrap the Unwary.

@sntrap the UnWary.
The following discourse by Rev. T.
Dewitt Talmage, by way of warming to
those who 60 as strangers into the
great cities of the land, was delivered
In the BROOKLYN tabernacle, being based
on the text:
was a stranger and ye took me in-Mat-
heE XIV. IS.
1t is moral disaster that iocosity
has despoiled so many passages of
Scripture, and my text is one that has
suffered from irreverent aud misap-
piled quotation. It shows great pow
erty of wit and humor when people
take the sword of Divine truth for a
game at fencing, or chip off from the
KohinOOr diamond of inspiration n
sparkle to decorate a fools cap. NV
text is the salutation in the last iudp-
mcnt to be given to those who have
shown hospitality, and kindness, and
Christian helpfnlness to strangers. Ry
railroad an d Steamboat the population
of the earth are all the time in motion.
and from one years end to another, our
cities arc crowded with visitors. Ev-
cry morn ing on the tracks of the Hud-
son River, the Pennsylvania, the
Erie, the Long Island railroads
there come passenger trains more than
can number, so that all the depots
and the wharves are a-rumble and a
elang with the coming in of u great
immigration of strangers, Some of
Them come for purposes of barter,
some for mechanism, some for artistic
qualification, some for sightseeing. A
great many of them go out on the
evening tze.ins, and consequently the
city mstlSes but little impression upon
them; but there are multitudes who,
IN TIE hotels and boarding houses,
maize temporary residence. They
terry here for three or four days or
as many weeks. They spend the days
in the stores and the evenings in
sightseeing. Their temporary stay
will make or break them, not only
financially, but morally, for this
world and the world that is to come.
Multitudes of them come into our
morning and evening services. 1 am
conscious that stand in the presence
of many this moment. / desire more
especially to speak to them. May God
give me the right word and help me to
utter it in the right way.
There have glided into this house
those unknown to others, whose his
tory, if told, would be more thrilling
than the deepest tragedy, more excit-
ing than PATHS song more bright than
spring morning, more awful than a
wintry midnight. If they could stand
mp here and tell the story of their es-
capes, and their temptations, and their
bereavements, and their disasters, and
their defeats, there would be in this
house such commingling of groans
and acclamations as would make the
| place uncomfortable.
There is a man who, in infancy, lay
| in a cradle satin-lined. Out yonder is
map who was picked up, a found
/ ling, on Boston common. Here is a
man who is coolly observing this reli-
gious service, expecting no advantage
1 ond caring for no advantage for him
self; while yonder is a man who has
been for ten years in an awful con-
! fRgration of evil habits, and he is a
mere cinder of a destroyed nature, and
I lac is wondering if there shall be in
this service any escape or help for his
| once, perhaps, face to face, strike
hands with you in an earnest talk
about your present condition and your
/ eternal well-being. st. Pauls ship at
Melita went to pieces where two seas
met; but we stand to-day at a point
where a Thousand seas converge, and
eternity alone can tell the issue of the
hour.
The hotels of this country, for
| beauty and elegance, are not surpassed
! by the hotels in any other land; but
! those that are most celebrated for
! brilliancy of tapestry and mirror can
not give to the guest any costly apart
ment, unless he can afford parlor in
addition to his lodging. The stranger,
therefore, will generally find assigned
/ to him room without any pictures,
F, and perhaps any rocking chair! He
| will find a box of matches on a bureau,
and an old newspaper left by the
previous occupant, and that will be
about all the ornamentation. At z
| o'clock in the evening, after having
! taken his repast, he will look over his
! memorandum book of the days work;
he will write letter to his home, and
then a desperation will seize upon
him to get out. You hear the great
city laundering under your windows,
and you say, Il must join that process
sion," and in ten minutes you have
Joined it. Where are you going?
"Oh," you say, Il haven't made up my
mind yet" Better make up your mind
before you start. Perhaps the very
way you go now you will always go.
Twenty years ago there were two
young men who came down the Astor
house steps and started out in a
wrong direction, where they have been
going ever since.
"Well, where are you going?" says
one man. IL am going to the academy
to hear some music" Good. would
like to join you at the door. At the
tap of the orchestral baton all the
gates of harmony and beauty will open
before your soul / congratulate you.
Where are you going? "Well," you
say, 'I am going up to see some ad-
vertised pictures" Good. / should
like to go along with you and look
over the same catalogue and study
with you Kensett and Bierstadt and
Church aud Moran. Nothing more ele-
waiting than good pictures. Where are
you goingp We'll" you say, II am go
ing MP to the Young Mems Christian
association rooms" Good. You will find
I H., 4 L.