The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1895-07-10

terrible destruction. Have you ever
seen the fashion plate of the city of
Tyre! l will show it to you:
Moreover, the Lord saith, because
the daughters of Zion are naughty and
walk with stretched forth necks and
! wanton eyes, walking and mincing as
they 60, and making a tinkling with
their feet, in that day the Lord will
take away the bravery of their tink-
ling ornaments about their feet. and
their cauls, and their round tires like
the moon, the rings and nose jewels,
the changeable suits of apparel, and
the mantles, and the wimples, and the
crisping pins.
That is the fashion plate OF ancient
! Tyre And do you wonder that the
Lord God in his Indignation blotted
out the city, so that fishermen today
spread their nets where that city once
stood.
Gate the Fourth. th.-Alcoholic bever-
age. Oh. the wine cup is the patron
of impurity. The officers of the law
tell us that nearly all the men who go
into the shambles of death 60 in intox
icated, the mental and the spiritual
abolished, that the brute may triumph.
| Tell me that young man drinks, and
| know the whole story. If he be-
comes captive Of the wine cup, he
will become a captive of all other
vices. Only give him time No one
ever runs drunkenness alone. That is
a carrion crow that goes in a flock, and
when you see that teak ahead you
may know the other beaks are coming.
In other words, the wine cup unbal-
ances and dethrones ones better judg-
nent, and leaves one the prey of all
the evil appetites that may choose to
alight upon his soul. There is not
place of any kind of sin in the United
States today that does not find It's
chief abettor in the chalice of inebrie
tv. There is either a drinking bar
before, or one behind, or one above, or
one underneath. These people escape
legal penalty because they are all IL
censed to sell liquor The courts that
license the sale of strong drink license
gambling houses, license ibertinism,
license disease, license death, license
all sufferings, all crimes, all despolia-
tons, all disasters, al murders, all
woe. 1t is the courts and the legisla-
ture that are swinging wide open this
grinding, creaky, stupendous gate OF
the lost
But you say: You have described
these gates of hell and shown US how
they swing in to allow the entrance to
the doomed. VIII you not, please,
before you get through the sermon,
tell us how these gates of hell may
swing out to allow the escape of the
penitent?" Ireply, but very few es-
cape. Of the thousand that 60 in 999
perish. Suppose one of these wander
ers should knock at your door.
Would you admit herr Suppose you
knew where she came from. Would
you ask her to sit down at your din
ing table? Would you ask her to be-
come the governess OF your children?
Would you introduce her among your
acquaintanceships2 Would you take
the responsibility of pulling on the out
side of the gate of hell while the push
er on the inside of the gate is trying to
get out: You would not. Not one Of
thousand of you would dare to do so.
You would write beautiful poetry over
her sorrows and weep over her mis-
fortunes, but give her practical help
you never will But you say, Are
there no ways by which the wanderer
may escape!" Oh yes. Three or four.
The one way is the sewing girls gar
ret, dingy, cold, hunger blasted. But,
you say, SIS there no other way for
her to escape:' Oh, yes. Another
way is the street that leacs to the
river at midnight, the end of the city
dock, the moon shining down on the
water making it look so smooth she
wonders if it is deep enough. 1t is.
No boatman near enough to hear the
| plunge. No watchman near enough
to pick her out before she sinks the
third time. No other way; Yes, by
the curve of the railroad at the point
where the engineer of the lightning
express train cannot see a hundred
yards ahead to the form that lies
across the track. He may whistle
down brakes" but not soon enough
to disappoint the one who seeks her
death. But, you say, Isn't God good,
and won't he forgiven" Yes, but man
will not. woman will not, society will
not The church of God says it will,
but it will not. Our work, then, must
be prevention rather than cure.
Those gates of hell are to be pros
trated just as certainly as God and the
Bible are true, but it will not be done
until Christian men and women, quit
ting tneir prudery and squeamishness
in this matter, rally the whole Chris
tian sentiment of the church and as
sail these great evils Of society. The
Bible utters its denunciation in this
direction again and again and yet the
piety of the day is such a namby pam
by sort of thing that you cannot even
quote Scripture without making some
body restless. AS long as this holy
imbecilitv reigns in the church of
God, sin will laugh you to scorn. l
do not know but that before the church
wakes up matters will get wor:e and
worse, and that there will have TO be
one lamb sacrificed from each of the
most carefully guarded folds, and the
| wave of uncleanness dash t. the spire
of the village church and The top of
the cathedral tower.
Prophets and patriarchs and apostles
and evangelists and Christ himself
have thundered against these sins as
against no other, and yet there are
those who think We ought to take,
! when we speak OF these subjects, a
tone apologize. put my foot on all
the conventional rhetoric on this sub
iect. and tell you plainly that I'm.
less you give up that sin your doom is
sealed, and world without end you
will be chased by the anathemas of an
incensed God. I rally you you to a besiege
IL l>e+