Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1896-11-26
ACALLTO YOUNG MEN
THEIR OPPORTUNITY, SAFETY, QE-
FENsE AND DESTINY.

Mighty Defense, and So Are Industrious
Habits, but He Insists That Religion Is
the Strongest of All.
WASHINGTON, Nov. ga resounding
lall goes out In this sermon of DR.. Tai
mage. II needed, 1t would be revolution
Hry for good. His subject is Young Men
Challenged to Nobility" and the text II
Kings vi, IL, "And the Lord opened the
eyes Of the young man."
One morning In Dothan young theo-
logical student was scared by finding him
self and Elisha the prophet, upon whom
he waited, surrounded by a whole army Of
enemies But venerable Elisha was not
scared at all because he saw the mountains
full of defense for him in chariots made of
fire, drawn by horses of flre-a supernat-
ural appearance that could not be seen
with the natural eye. So the old minister
prayed that the young minister might SEQ
them also, and the prayer was answered,
and the Lord opened the eyes of the young
man, and he also saw the fiery procession,
looking somewhat, suppose, like the
Adirondacks or the Alleghanies in au-
tumnal resplendence.
Many young men, standing among the
most tremendous realities, have their eyes
half shut or entirely closed. May God
grant that my sermon may open wide your
eyes to your safety, your opportunity and
your destinyl
The Charm of Home.
A mighty defense for young man is a
good home Some of my hearers look back
with tender satisfaction to their early
home. 1t may have been rude and rustic,
hidden among the hills, and architect or
upholsterer never planned or adorned it
But all the fresco on princely walls never
looked SO enticing to you as those rough
hewn rafters. You can think of no park
or arbor of trees planted on fashionable
country seat so attractive as the plain brook
that ran In front Of the old farmhouse and
sang under the weeping willows. No bar
red gateway adorned with statue of bronze
and swung open by obsequious porter in
full dress has half the glory of the old
swing gate. Many of you have q second
dwelling place-your adopted home-that
also is sacred forever. There you built the
first family altar There your children
were born. All those trees you planted.
That room Is solemn because once in it,
over the hot pillow, tapped the wing of
death. Under that roof you expect when
your work is done to lie down and die
You try with many words to tell the ex-
cellency of the place, but you fail. There
Is only one word in the language that can
describe your meaning. 1t is home
hak a..
comparatively safe who goes out into the
world with charm like this upon him.
The memory of parental solicitude watch
ing, planning and praying will be to him
a shield and a shelter. I never knew a
man faithful both to his early and adopted
home who at the same time was given
over to any gross form of dissipation or
wickedness. He who seeks his enjoyment
chiefly from outside association rather
than from the more quiet and unpresum-
ing pleasures Of which I have spoken may
be suspected to be on the broad road to
ruin. Absalom despised his fathers house,
and you know his history Of sin and his
death of shame. II you seem unnecessarily
isolated from your kindred and former as
sociates, is there not some room that you
can call your ownP Into 1t gather books
and pictures and harp. Have portrait
over the mantel. Make ungodly mirth
stand back from the threshold. Consecrate
some spot with the knee of prayer. By the
memory of other days, fathers counsel,
and q mothers love, and a sisters conf
dence, call it home.
Another defense for young man Is in
dustrious habits. Many young men in
starting upon life in this age expect to
make their way through the world by the
use of their wits rather than the toll OF
their hands. A boy now goes to the city
and fails twice before he is as old as his
father was when he first saw the spires of
the great town. Sitting in some office,
rented at 1000 year, he is waiting for
the bank to declare its dividend, or goes
into the market expecting before night to
be made rich by the rushing up Of the
stocks. But luck seemed so dull he re-
solved on some other tack. Perhaps be bor-
rowed from his employers money drawer
and forgets to put it back, or for merely
the purpose of improving his penmanship
makes copy plate of a merchants sigma
ture. Never mind. All is right in trade
In some dark night there may come in his
dreams vision of the penitentiary, but 1t
soon vanishes. In short time he will be
ready to retire from the busy world, and
amid his flocks and herds cultivate the
domestic virtues Then those young men
who once were his schoolmates and knew
no better than to engage In honest work
will come with their OK teams to draw him
logs and with their hard hands to help
heave up his castle. This Is no fancy pic
ture. 1t Is everyday life. should not
wonder If there were some rotten beams
in that beautiful palace. I should not
wonder If dire sickness should smite
through the young man, or If God should
pour into his cup of life draft that would
thrill him with unbearable agony; If his
children should become to him living
curse, making his home pest and dis
grace. I should not wonder If he goes to
a miserable grave and beyond 1t into the
gnashing of teeth. The way Of the ungod-
ly shall perish.
A Great Battle.
Ny young friends, there is no way to
genuine success except through toll either
Of head or hand. At the battle Of Crecy
In 1346 the Prince Of Wales, finding him.
self heavily pressed by the enemy, sent
word to his father for help. The father,
watching the battle from windmill, and
seeing his son was not wounded and could
gain the day If he would, sent word: "No,
I will not come. Let the boy win his
spurs, for, II God will, desire that this
day be his with all it's honors" Young
man, fight your own battle all through
and you shall have the victory. Oh, ii is
a battle worth fghtingl Two monarchs
Of old fought duel, Charles V and
Francis, and the stakes were kingdoms,
Milan and Burgundy. You fight with sin
and the stake is heaven OF hell
Do not get the fatal idea that you are a
genius and that, therefore, there is no need
of close application. 1t is here where null
titudes fail. The curse of this age Is the
geniuses- with enormous self conceit
and egotism and nothing else I had
rather be an OK than an eagle; plain and
plodding and useful rather than high fly
ing and good for nothing but to pick out
the eyes Of caroasses. Extraordinary ca
Il,