The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-12-13
WINTERS WILES.
Subject Of the Latest Sermon by
DR.. Talmage.
The Frosty Season Full of TemptatIons-It
Is Not Ony - Test of Physical En-
durance but of Moral
Character.

AnC OpcniHR was the SD De-
tect of the latest sermon preached in
Washington by Rev. 7. Dewitt Tai
mage. The text will be found in Titus
Iii, IL: II have determined there to
winter" Following is the sermon:
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
Tor the approaching cold weather, and
makes an appointment with Titus to
meet him at Necopolis, saying: 81
have determined there TO winter"
Well, this is the eighth day of Decem.
Der, and the second Sabbath of winter.
We have had few shrill, sharp blasts
. already, forerunners of whole repi-
ments of storms and tempests. No
one here needs to be told that we
are in the opening gates of the win
ter. This season is not only test
Of ones physical endurance, but
in our great cities is a test of
moral character. A vast number of
people have by one winter of dissipa-
ton been destroyed, and forever
Seated in our homes on some stormy
Z,
Imagine the shipping 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 come to the cities on the 1st of
Septem ger who will be blasted by the
list of March. At this season of the
year, temptations are especially ram
pant Now that the long winter even
ings have come, there are many who
will employ them in high pursuits in
intelligent socialities, in Christian
work, in the strengthening and en-.
nobling of moral character, and this
winter to many of you will be the
brightest and best of all your lives,
and in anticipation / congratulate you.
But to others it may not have that
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
allurements are especially busy. There
is not very much temptation for a man
to plume in on hot night amid blaz-
tnk CASH hiS anu W DEcdlIt luC l6IlNl
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 times, the grogshops in
one night make more than in four or
FIVE nights in summer. At such times
the playbills of low places of enter
tainment seem especially attractive,
and the acting is especially impress
sive, and the applause especially be-
witching. Many a 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 luster 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 differ
emily 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 So
cialities, allow us TO make important
tdHCC. buiio US up III our iltT-
ais and help us in a thousand ways. !
can scarcely think of anything better
than good neigh borhood. But there
are those entertainments from which
others will come besoiled in character
There arc those who hy the spring
time will be broken down in health.
and though at the opening of the sea-
son their prospects were bright, at the
close of the season they will be in the
hands of the doctors, or sleeping in
the cemetery.
Men sometimes excuse themselves
and say, after late suppers it is neces-
sary 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 pas
tors to speak a word on this su; ject,
and so / sound in your ear the words
of the Lord God Almighty: Woe unto
him that puttetn the oottIe 10 MS
neighbors lips" Rejoice that You
have come to the glad winter months
that remind you of the times when in
your childhood you were shOne on by
the face of father, mother, brothers,
sisters. some of them, ais. no more to
meet you with Happy New Year,
or Merry Christmas But
again and again have we seen on New
Years day the son> of the best fami-
lies drunk, and young men have ex-
cused themselves bv the fact that the
wine cup has cen offered by the
ladies: and again and again 1t has
been found out that lady's hand has
Iindled the young mans thirst for
strong drink. and long after all the at
fractions of the holiday have passed
that same woman crouches in her rags,
and her desoiation. and her woe I'M
der the uplifted hand of the drunken
monster 10 whom she had passed the
fascinating cup on New Years day.
If we want To go to ruin let us go
alone. ami not take others with US
Can we not sacr. fee our feelings If
need be?