The Penn's Grove record., 1894-04-06

dashing the champagne bottle to the hoor,
rolling the glasses from the barroom coun-
ter, laughing, shouting, stamping the noor.
Is he happy2 1 wilfgo to his midnight pill
low. 1 will see him turn the gas on. VIII
ask myself If the pillow on which ne Sleeps
is as soft as the pillow on which that pure
young man sleeps.
All, no! When he opens his eyes In the
morning, will the world be as bright to MN
as to that young man who retired az nign'
saying his prayers, invoking Gods blessing
upon his Own soul and the souls OF MS COM
rades and father and mother and brothers
and sisters far away No, no! HIS laugh
will ring out from the saloon so that you
hear 1t as you pass by, but 1t ID honoW
laughter. In it Is the swapping OF heart-
strings and the rattle of prison gates. Happy
that young man happy?
Let him fill high the bow de cannon
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
whiri in the dance OF sin and temptation and
death all the brilliancy of the scene cannot
make him forget the last look of his mother
when he left home, when she said to MIN
Nov, my son, you will do right :; ] am sure
you will do right. You will. won't your
That young man happy? Why. across every
night there fit shadows OF eternal darkness
there are adders coiled 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.
l come in amid the clicking OF the glasses
and under the flashing of the chandeliers,
and l cry "Woe! Woel The way oil the
ungodly shall perish. There is no peace,
saith my God, to the wicked. The way o.
~transgressor is hard" Oh, my friends
there is more joy in one drop of Christian
satisfaction than in whole rivers Of sinful de-
light. Other wings may be drenched OF the
storm and splashed of the tempest. but the
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 IN aiornnent
in the style Of usefulness into which it in
iiucts a man. Here are two young men. The
bne has fine culture, exquisite wardrobe,
plenty of friends, great worldly success, but
he lives for himself. His chief care is for
his OWE comfort. He lives uselessly. he dies
~tlnregretted. Here is another young man.
His apparel may not he so good bis educa.
ton may not be so thorough. He lives for
others. His happiness is to make Others
happy. He is as self denying rs that dying
loldier falling in the ranks, when he said
f'Colonel, there is no need Of those boys tir-
ing themselves by carrying me TO the hos
bttal. Let me die just where | am SO
this young man of whom I speak loves God,
wants all the world to love him, is not
ashamed to carry a bunNe of clothes up that
dark alley to the poor. Which Of o young
men do you admire the better? The one a
sham, the other a prince Imperial.
Oh, do you know Of anything, my nearer,
that is more beautiful than to ses a young
man start out for Christ? Here is some one
falling. ha lifts him mr. HaFa il a va RnhnDH
boy he introduces him to a mission school.
Here is a family freezing to death he carries
them a scuttle of coal. There are 800 coo,
900 perishing 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 the
gospel of Christ. It is the power of God
and the wisdom of God unto salvation"
Such a young man can go through every
thing. There is no force on earth or in hell
that can resist him. show you three spec
taeles
Spectacle the First-Napoleon passed by
with the host that went down witt 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
tine wheels Oh his gun cutfldSea- hs uSlhS
moment asking his attendants to put on his
military boots for him.
Spectacle the Second-Voltaire, bright
and learned and witty and eloquent, with
tongue and voice and strategem Internal,
warning against God and poisoning whole
kingdoms with his infidelity, yet applauded
by the clapping hands OF thrones and en-
pires and continents-his last words, in
delirium ~supposing Christ standing by the
bedside-his last words, Crush that
wretch"
Spectacle the Third-Paul-Paul, insight
icant in person, thrust out from all refined
association, scourged, spat on, bounded like
a 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
consultations which light up the 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 one hand shaking
defiance at all the foes OF earth and all he
p~rincipalitias Of hell, and with the other
hand reckoning messenger angels to come
and bear him away as he says. ST am now
ready to be offered, and the time Of my de-
parture Is at hand. l have fought the good
fight I have finished my course; I have
kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up
for me a crown of righteousness, which the
Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me-"
Which OF the three spectaeles do you most
admire? When the wind of death struck the
conqueror and the inddel, they were tossed
like sea gulls in a tempest, drenched of the
wave and torn Of the hurricane, their dismal
voices heard through the everlasting storm,
when the wave and the wind OF death
struck Paul, like an albatross, he made a
throne of the tempest and one day ioated
away into the calm, clear summer Of heaven,
brighter than the dove, its wings covered
with silver, and Its feathers with yellow
gold. Oh, are you not In love with such a
religions religion that can do so much for
a man while he lives and so much for a mar
when he comes to die?
I suppose YOU may have noticed the con-
trast between the departure Of a Christian
and the departure Of an int1del Diodorus,
diving 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
laughter at the sketch OF an aged woman
sketch made by his own hand Mazarln,
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 I live or die. If l die l shall be
with the Lord, and if ! live the Lord will be
with me-" Or the last words of Washington,
at is WE'LL" Or the last word of Mcintosh,
the learned and the great, 'Happyr' Or the
last words of Hannah More, the Christian
poetess, "Joy!' Or those thousands of
Christians who have gone saying: 'Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit Come, Lord Jesus.
come ~auickly!' 10 death, where is thy
sting? o grave, where is thy ~victory?"
Behold the contrast. Behold the charm
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 in skepticism than in religion.
They are ashamed of the old-fashioned re-
ligion of the cross, and they prldethemselyes
on their free thinking on all these subjects:
NV Young friends, 1 want TO tell you what l
know from observation-that while skeptlc.
SIN Is n beautiful land at the start, II 10 q
great Sahara desert at the last,
Years ago a minister's son went on from
lome to college. At college he formed the
lcauaintance OF a young man whom | shall
,ali Ellison. Ellison was an infdel. Ellison
at religion, and the minister's son
learned from him the infldelity, and
when he vent home on his vacation broke
ais fathers heart by his denunciations of
Christianity. Time passed on, and vacation
came. and the minister's son went of to