The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1895-12-20
THE OPENING WINTER.
Rev. DIR. Talmage Delivers Few
Words Of Warning
Against the Temptations and Allurements
That Reset the Paths Of Young
Men During tho Long
Winter Evenings.

sp Inc 1OllOWlng DISCOURSE on II
Opening Winter" was delivered b
Rev. T. De Witt Talmage before hi
Washington congregation, being espe
cially addressed to the young men Q
his flock. 1t is based on the text:
have determined there to winter.-Titu.
ILL.,, 10.
Paul was not independent of the sea
sons. He sent for his cvercoat t.
Troas on a memorable occasion. AM
now in the text he is making arrange
ments for the approaching cold wealth
er, and makes an appointment will
Titus to meet him at Nicopolis, saying
II have determined there to winter.
Well, this is the eighth day of Decem
Der and the second Sabbath of the
winter. We have had few shrill
sharp blasts already, forerunners Of
whole regiments of storms and tenn
pests. 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 charac-
ter. 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 shipping helplessly driven on the
coast, but any winter night, if our ears
were good enough, we could hear the
crash of thousand moral shipwrecks.
There are many people who came to
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 in
telligent socialities, in Christian work,
in the strengthening and ennobling of
moral character, and this winter to
many of you will be the brightest and
the best of all your lives, and in antici-
patton | congratulate you. But to
others it may not have such effect, and
] 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 plunge in on 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 times 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
luster in the eye and there
we're roses in the cheek and elasticity
u the step, by the time the spring hour
has come you will pass him il the
street and say to your friend: "What's
the matter with that man? How diff
he looks from what he looked
last September. Slain from one win
ters dissipation. At this time OF the
year there are many entertainments.
II 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 NOR
ads, and help us in thousand wayG l !
can scarcely think of anything better
than good neighborhood. But there
are those entertainments from which
others will come bespoiled in charac-
ter. There are those who by the
springtime will be broken down in
health, and though at the opening of ,
the season their prospects were bright,
1T the close of the season they will be in !;
,he hands of the doctors, or sleeping in
The cemetery. The certificate of death
will be made out, and the physician, to {
ave the feelings of the family, will /,
all the disease by Latin name. But {
he doctor knows, and everybody else {
Znows, they died of two many levees. =,
Away with all these wine-drinking 9
How dare you, the ia !
her of family, tempt the appetites OF I
he young people? Perhaps at the en-. I
ertainment, to save the feelings of the i
Minister or some other weak temper
noe man, you leave the decanter in a {
ide room, and only few people are d
invited there to partake; but IL is easy 7
nough to know when you come out, q
he glare of your eye and the stencil of v
our breath, thatyou have been serv- t
ng the devil. .
Men sometimes excuse themselves h
nd say, after late suppers it is neces- d
airy to take some stimulant o.aid di- n
estion. Ny plain opinion is that IL s
on have no more self-control than to a
tuff yourself until your digestive or I
ans refuse their Office, you had better II
OF call yourself a man, but class your I