Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1895-12-13

. r. SXN4Q ~ the latitude, LulS
ND NJ sermon is sooner or
later as appropriate
everywhere as 1t Is in Washington. The
text selected will be found in Titus 8:
II, II have determined there to winter"
Paul was not Independent of the sea-
sons. He sent for his overcoat to Troas
on memorable occasion. And now in
the text he Is making arrangements for
the approaching cold weather. and makes
an appointment with Titus to meet him
at Necopolis, saying: 81 have deter
mined there to winter" Well this Is
the eighth day of December and the
second Sabbath of winter. We have
had few shrill, sharp blasts already,
forerunners Of whole regiments of
storms and tempests. No one here needs
to be told that We are in the opening
gates Of the winter. This season is not
only test of ones physical endurance,
but in our great cities Is test of moral
character. A vast number of people
have by one winter of dissipation been
destroyed, and forever. Seated in our
homes on some stormy night, the winds
bowling outside, we imagine the ship
ping helplessly driven on the coast, but
any winter night, if our ears were good
enough, we could hear the crash Of a
thousand moral shipwrecks. There are
many people who came to the cities on
the first of September who will he blast
ed by the first of March. At this season
IF tho fap ntafi
rampant. Now that the long winter
evenings have come, there are many
who will employ them in high pur-
suits, in intelligent socialities, in Chris
tian work, in the strengthening and en-
nobling of moral character, and this
winter to many Of you will be the bright
est and the best of all your lives, and in
anticipation l congratulate you. But
to others it may not have such effect.
and l charge you, my beloved, look out
where you spend your winter nights.
In the first place, have to remark
that at this season of the year evil al
lurements are especially busy. There
is not very much temptation for a man
to plunge in on a hot night amid blaz-
ing gaslights, and to breathe the fetid
air Of an assemblage, but in the cold
nights Satan gathers a great harvest.
At such times the casinos are in full
blast. At such time, the grogshops in
one night make more than in four or
five nights in summer. At such times
the play-bills OF low places of enter
tainment seem especially attractive.
and the acting is especially impressive.
and the applause especially bewitching.
Many man who has kept right all the
rest of the year will be capsized now,
and though last autumn he came from
the country and there was lustre in the
eye and there were roses in the cheek
and elasticity in the step, by the time
the spring hour has come you will pass
him in the street and say to your friend:
whats the matter with that man?
How differently he looks from what he
looked last September" Slain of one
winters dissipation. At this time of
the year there are many entertain
ments. If we rightly employ them, and
they are of the right kind, they enlarge
wi oOIidiitACS, dlioW 10 " mani
tant acquaintance, build us up in our
morals, and help us in a thousand ways.
can scarcely think Of anything better
than good neighborhood. But there are
those entertainments from which others
will come besoiled in character. There
are those who by the springtime will
be broken down in health, and though
at the opening of the season their pros
poets were bright, at the close of the
season they will be in the hands of the
doctors, or sleeping in the cemetery.
The certificate Of death will be made
out, and the physician, to save the feel
ings of the family, will call the disease
by Latin name. But the doctor knows
and everybody else knows, they died
Of too many levees. Away with all
these drinking convivialities.
How dare you, the father of a family.
tempt the appetites of the young peo-
PIE? Perhaps at the entertainment. to
save the feelings of the minister or
some other weak temperance man, you
leave the decanter in a side room, and
only few people are invited there to
partake; but 1t is easy enough to know
when you come out, by the glare of your
eye and the stencil Of your breath, that
you have been serving the devil.
Men sometimes excuse themselves and
say, after late suppers it is necessary
to take some sort of 'stimulant to aid
digestion. My plain opinion is that If
you have no more self-control than to
stuff yourself until your digestive or
gans refuse their Office, you had better
not call yourself man, but class your
self among the beasts that perish. At
this season Of the year the Young Mems
Christian associations of the land send
out circulars asking the pastors to
speak word on this subject, and so
! sound In your ear the words of the
Lord God Almighty: Woe unto him
that putteth the bottle to his neighbours
lips" Rejoice that you have come to
the glad winter months that remind
you of the times when in your child
hood you were shone on by the face
Of father, mother, brothers, sisters,
some of them, alas! no more to meet
you with Happy New Year." or a
Merry Christmas" But again and