The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1896-12-05
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Eloquent Appeal to the Higher AS
pirations Of Young Men
Tho Youth of the Country Challenged to
Nobility of thought and Purpose
Lot High Aims be tho Gov
erning Principle.

before his Washington congregation
taking for his text:
And tho Lord opened the eyes Of the youni
nan.-u. Kings, W., H.
One morning, in Dothan a young
theological student was scared by
finding himself and Elisha the prophet,
upon whom he matted, surrounded by
whole army of enemies. But veneer
cable Elisha vas not scared at all,
because he saw the mountains full of
defense for him, in chariots made of
fire, drawn by horses of fre-a super
natural appearance that could not be
seen with the natural eye. So the old
minister prayed that the young minis
ter might see 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, l suppose, like the
Adirondack 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,
youi youi uSobihJA
A mighty defense for young man
is n 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 ar
Dor of trees planted on fashion
able country seat so attrctive as the
plain brook that ran in front of the
old farm house and sang under the
weeping willows. No barred gate
way, adorned with statue of bronze,
and swung open by obsequious porter
In full dress, has half the glory of the
DID swing gate. Many Of you have a
second dwelling place, your adopted
home, that also is sacred forever.
There your built the first family altar
There your children were born. All
those trees you planted. That room is
solemn, because once in 1t, over the
hot pillow, tapped the wing of death.
Under that roof you expect, when
your work is done, to lie down aud
die. You try with many words to tell
the exccllency of the place, but you
fail. There is only one word in the
language that can describe your mean.
ing. 1t is home.
Now, declare it, that young man is
comparatively safe who goes out into
the world with charm like this upon
him. The memory of parental solicit
tudc, watching, planning and praying,
will be to him shield and shelter.
] never knew man faithful both to
his early and adopted homo, who at
the same time was given over to any
gross form of dissipation or wicked
ness. lie who seeks his enjoyment
chiefly from outside association,
rather than from the more quiet
and unpresuming pleasures OF which
! have spoken, may be suspected to
be on the broad road to ruin. Absa-
lon despised his fathers house, and
you know his history of sin and his
death of shame. If you seem unneces-
sarily isolated from your kindred and
former associates, is there not some
room that you can call your own? In
to it gather books and pictures. Have
a portrait over the Inantel. Make un-
cody mirth stand back from the
threshold. Consecrate some spot with
the knee of prayer. BY the memory
of other days, a fathers counsel, and a
mothers love and a sisters confidence,
call it home.
Another defense for young man is
Industrious habits. Many young men,
in starting upon life in this age, ex-
poet 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 $1,000 Il year, he is waiting
for the bank TO declare its dividend,
or goes into the market expecting
before night to lie made rich by the
rushing up of the stocks. But luck
seemed SO dull he resolved on
some other tack. Perhaps he bor-
rowed from his employers money
drawer, and forgot to put it back, or,
for merely the purpose of improving
his penmanship, makes n copy plate OF
a merchants signature. Never mind;
all is right in trade. In some dark
night there may come il his dreams II
vision of the penitentiary; but it soon
vauishcs. In short time he will be
ready to retire frcn the busy world,
and amid his folks and herds Guilt
vete the domestic virtues. Then those
young men who were his schoolmates,
and knew no better than to engage in
honess work, will come with their OK
teams TO draw him logs, and with
their .iard hands to help heave up his
castle, This is no fancy picture. 1t is
everyday life. l should not wonder
IL there were some rotten beams in
that beautiful palace, should not
wonder :. dire sickness should smite
through the youps MAN, or If God
should Jour into his cup of life
drauPht that woul{ thrill him with
unbearable agony; I his children
should become TO him living curse,
making his home a Jest and u dis
grace. l should not wonder II he goes