The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-12-09
DANGER IN WINTER NIGHTS.
TALMAGE breaches ON 4 SEA-
SONABLE TOPIC.

Evil AIIurements Especially Busy ut
This Season Of the Year-Wine
Drinking After Late Suppers
wholly Accommodation Enter
tainments and brilliantly Lighted
Grog shops Particularly AIIuring
TO the Unwary at This season.
Washington. Dec S.-To-day DR.. Tai
mage chose as the subject of his ser
mon 'The Opening Winter" Although
the cold comes earlier or later. according
TO the latitude. this sermon is sooner or
later as appropriate everywhere as it is
in Washington. The text selected VIII
be found in Titus 3.12: Il have determin-
ed there TO winter"
Paul was not independent Of the sea-
sons. He sent for his overcoat TO Troas
on a 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 NecopoIis, saying: 4 have determined
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 a test to ones
physical endurance, but in our great
cities is a test of moral character. 4
vast number of people have by one win
ter Of dissipation been destroyed, and
forever. Seated in our homes on some
stormy night. the winds bowling outside,
we imagine the shipping helplessly driven
on the coast, but any winter night II
our ears were good enough, we could hear
4he crash of a thousand moral ship
wrecks. There are many people who came
10 the cities on the first of September
who will be blasted by the first of March.
At this season Of the year temptations
are especially rampant. Now that the
long winter evenings have come, there
are many who will employ them in high
pursuits. in intelligent socialities, in Chris
tian work, in the strengthening and en-
nobling of moral character, and this win
Ter to many of you will be the brightest
and the best of all your lives, ana IN
authorization ] congratulate you. But 10
others it may not have such euecI, anu
] charge you, my beloved, looh out WheIe
YOU spend your winter nights.
In the first place, / have to remark that
at this season of the year SNll dllu re-
4nents are especially busy. There is not
very much temptation Tor man 10
nlunge in on hot night amid blazing gas
assemblage. but in the cola nights satan
gathers a great harvest. At such tunes
the casinos are in full blast. Al suCh
time the grogshOps in one night make
more than i'm four or five nights in sum
mer At such times the playbllls OF low
places of entertainment seem especially
impressive, and the applause especially
attractive, and the acting IS especiaAy
bewitching Many a man who has kept
right all the rest Of the year VIII be cap
sized now, and though last autumn ne
MI
1ustre in the eve 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 ana say 70
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
entertainments If we rightly employ
Them and they are of the right kind, they
enlarge our socialities. allow us TO
make important acquaintance, build
us up in our morals, and help rs IN a
thousand ways. l can scarcely thlnk OF
anything better than good neighborhood.
But there are those entertainments from
which others will come besoiled in char
acter There are those who, by the
springtime viii be broken down in health,
and though at the opening of the season
their prospects 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 feelings 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 wine
drinking convivialities. How dare you,
the father of a family, tempt the appe-
the entertainment, to save the feelings
of the minister or some other weak tenn
perance man, you leave the decanter In a
side ROOM and only few people are in
Vited there to partake; but it is easy
enough to know when you come out, by
the glare Of your eye and the stencil OF
l,,.,. hot how IN o.
the devil.
Men sometimes excuse themselves and
say, after late suppers, it is necessary to
take some sort of stimulant to aid diges-
tion. My plain opinion is that If you
have no more self-cOntrOl than to stuff
yourself until your digestive organs re-
fuse their office, you had better not call
yourself a man, but class yourself among
the beasts that perish. AT this season of
the year the Young Mems Christian As
sociations of the land send out circulars
asking the pastors to speak a word on
this subject and SO 1 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
childhood you were shone on 10y the face
of father mother, brothers, sisters some
of them alas! no more TO meet you with
Happy New Aear, 'or a Merry
Christmas" But again and again have
we seen on New Years Day the sons OF
some of the fest families drunk, and young
men have excused themselves by the fact
that the wine cup has been offered by the
ladies; and again and again it has beer
found out that a ladys hand has kindled
the young mans thirst for strong drink
and long after all the attractions of the
holiday have passed that same woman
crouches in her rags, and her desolation
and her woe under the uplifted hand OF
the drunken monster to whom she hat
passed the fascinating cup on New Year.
day. If we want TO go TO ruin. let us 81
alone. and not take others with us. Car
we not sacrifice our feelings if need be
When the good ship London went dowI
the captain was told that he might es
cape in one of the lifeboats. NO" h,
replied "I'n go down with the passen
gers" All the world applauded his hero
ism. And can we not sacrifice our taste
and our appetites for the rescue of 9th
ers? Surely it is not a very great sacri
nee Oh, mix not with the innocent bev
erage of the holiday the poison of ad
ders Mix not with the white sugar o
the cup the snow of this awful leprosy
Mar not the clatter of the cutlery of tn
festal occasion with the clank OF a mad
mans chain. Pass down the street an
look into the paWnbrokers window. Ele
CANT watch, elegant furs, elegant flute
elegant shoes, elegant scarf, elegan
books, elegant mementoes. You some