Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1895-12-20
REV. DR. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Washington nivine's
Sunday Sermon.
Subject: "The Opening winter"

TEXT: VI have determined there to win
ter. Titus ill.,, IL.
?, faul was not Independent OF the seasons
he sent Tor his overcoat to Troas on n MEM
orable OCCASION. And now in the text he ia
making arrangements for the Approaching
eoiu aWeather ana makes an appointment
WITH titus 10 meet him at Necopolls. saying;
~ have determined there to winter.h Well
this is the 9Th day OF December and the SEQ
ond Sabbath of winter. We have had a 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 endur-
ance, but in our great cities is a fest of
moral character. A vast number of people
have by one winter Of dissipation been de-
stroyed, 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 come to the cities on the 1st of
September who will be blasted by the 1st Of
March. AT this season of the year tempta-
tiohs are especially rampant. Now that tbs
long winter evenings have come, thers are
many who will employ them in high pur-
SUITS Ia intelligent socialties, in Christian
work, in the strength ming 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 anticipation I congratu-
late 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. 1 have to remark at this
season OF the year evil allurements are es-
pecially busy. There Is not very much
temptation for man to plunge in on hot
night amid blazing gaslights. and to breathe
the fetid air OF an assemblage, but in the
cold nights satan gathers q 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 playbills OF low
places OF entertainment seem especially at
tract:ve, and the acting is especially impress
sive, and the applause especially bewitehing.
Many 4 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 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 and say to your friend:
"What's the matter with that man? How
differently he looks from what no looked
last September" SLAIN of one winters dis
sipation. At this time OF the year there are
many entertainments. II we rightly en-
ploy them, and they are OF the right kind,
they enlarge our socialities, allow us to
make important acquaintance, build us up
III our morals, and help us in a thousand
ways. can scarcely think of anything bet
ter 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 prospects were bright, at the
close of the season they will be in
the hands of tho 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 leveGs. Away with all these wine
drinking convivialities How dare you, the
father of family tempt the appetites OF the
young people2 Perhaps at the entertain
ment, to save the feelings of the-miuister or
some other wea's temperance man, you leave
the decanter in q side room. and only q few
people arc invited there to partake, but it 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 aud say
after late suppers 1t Is necessary TO take some
sort of stimuIalt TO aid digestion. NY plain
opinion is that if you have no more self con-
troll than to stuff yourself until your diges-
tive organs refuse their Office you had better
not call yourself a man, but class yourself
among the beasts that perish. At this season
ofthe year the Young Mems Christian Asso-
Citations 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 10 his neighbor's lips"
Rejoice chat you have come to the glad win
ter months that remind you fthe times when
in your childhood you were shone on by
the face OF father. mother, brothers, sisters,
some OF them, alasl no more to meet you
with "Happy New Year. or a merry
Christmas But again and again have we
seen on New Years Day the sons of some Of
the best 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 been found out that lady's
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 desolalion, and her
woe under the upliited hand of the drunken
monster to whom she had passed the fasein-
ating cup on New Years Day. II we want
% 90 TO ruin, let US 20 alone and not take
others with US. Can we not sacrifice our
feelings if need be2 When the good ship
London went down, the captain was told
that he might escape in one of the lfeboats.
"No," he replied, ''I'll go down with the
bo Ia1
heroism. And can we not sacrifice our tastes
and our appetiteg for the rescue Of others?
Surely it is not very great sacrifice. On,
mix not with the innocent beverage of the
holiday the poison of adderS! Mix not with
the white sugar Of the cup the snow OF this
awful leprosy! Mar not the clatter Of the
cutlery of the festal occasion with the clank
Of a madman's chain.
Pass down the street and look into the
pawnbrokers window Elegant watch ele-
CANT furs, elegant flute, elegant shoes, ele-
CANT scarf, elegant books, elegant mementos.
You sometimes see people with pleased
countenances looking into such window.
When l look into pawnbroker's window ii
socms to me as if had looked into the VIM
dow Of HE'LL To whom did that watch be-
long? To drunkard. To whom did those
furs belong? To drunkards wife. To
whom did those shoes belong2 To drunk
ards child. take the three brazen balls at
the doorway of q pawnbroker's shop and /
clank them together, sounding the knell of
the drunkard's soul. A pawnbroker shop
Is only one of the eddies in the great torrent
of municipal drunkenness "Ob," says
some one, II don't patronize such
things l have destroyed no young ms1
by such influences. 1 only take a'e, and
it will take a great amount Of ale to intoxi-
cate" Yes. but l tell you there Is not a