The Monitor-register., 1896-11-27
"A REs0UNDING CALL,
REV. DR.. TALMAGE ON "YouNG MEN
CHALLENGED TO NoBuiTY,,

IL l.
mage. If needed, it would be reyolu-
tionary for good. His subject is
Young Men Challenged to Nobility. )"
and the text II Kingssvi, II, "And the
Lord opened the eyes of the young man. %
One morning, in Dothan, a young
Theological student was scared by find
ing himself and Elisha the prophet,
upon whom he waited, surrounded by
whole army of enemies. But venerable
Elisha was not scared at all, because he
saw the mountains full of defense for
MIN in chariots made of fire, drawn by
norses OF hre-a supernatural appearance
that could not be seen with the natural
eye. So the old minister PRAYED that the
young minister might see them also,
ana the prayer was answered, and the
Lord opened the eyes of the young man,
and he also saw the fiery procession,
looking somewhat, 1 suppose, like the
Adlrondaoks or the Alleghanies in au-
tumnal resp1endence
many young men standing among the
most tremendous realities have their
eyes half shut or entirely closed. Nav
God grant that my sermon may omen
wide your eyes to your safety, your CD.
portunity and your destinyl
A Good Home.
A mighty defense for young man is
q 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 I'M
der the weeping willows. No barred
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 a second
dwelling place, your adopted home, that
also is sacred forever There you built
the first family altar. There your chill
dren 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 excellency of the place,
but you fail. There is only one word in
the language that can describe your
meaning. 1t is home.
Now, declare it, that young man is
comparatively safe who goes out into
the world with a charm like this upon
him. The memory of parental solicitude,
watching, planning and praying will
be to him shield and shelter. I never
knew man faithful both to his early
and adopted homes who at the same time
was given over to any gross form of dis
sipation or wickedness. He who seeks
his enjoyment chiefly from outside asso-
citation, rather than from the more quiet
and unpresuming pleasures of which I
have spoken, may be suspected to be on
the broad road to ruin. Absalom de-
spised his fathers house, and you know
his history Of sin and his death of
shame. If you seem unnecessarily iso-
lated from your kindred and former as
sociates, is there not some room that
you can call your own? Into it gather
books and pictures and harp. Have a
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, a
fathers counsel, and mothers love,
and sisters confidence, call it home.
Industrious Habits.
Another defense for a young man is
industrious 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 81, 900 a year, he
is waiting for the bank to declare its
dividend, or goes into the market ex-
pecting before night to be made rich by
the rushing up of the stocks. But luck
seemed SO dull he resolved ON some 9TH
or tack. Perhaps he borrowed from his
employers money drawer and forgets to
put it back, or for merely the purpose
Of improving his penmanship makes a
copy plate of a merchants signature.
Never mind; all is right in trade. In
some dark night there may come in his
dreams vision of the penitentiary, but
it soon vanishes. In a 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
mis- castle. This is no fancy picture. 1t
10 everyday life. / should not wonder if
tnere were some rotten beams in that
beautiful palace. 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 chill
dren should become to him living
curse, making his home pest and a
disgrace. l should not wonder if he goes
to miserable grave, and beyond it into
ungodly shall perish.
My 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 himself heavily pressed by the
enemy, sent word to his father for help.
The father, watching the battle from a
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, if
God will, I 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, it is 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 or hell.
Capacity For Work.
Do not get the fatal idea that you are
q genius, and that, therefore, there is
no need of close application. 1t is here
where multitudes fail. The curse of this
age is the geniuses-men with enormous
self oonceit and egotism, and nothing
else. I had rather be an OK than an eagle
plain and plodding and useful, rather
than high flying and good for nothing
but to pick out the eyes of caroasses. Ex-
traordinary capacity without work is ex-
traordinary failure. There is no hope
for that person who begins life resolved
to live by his wits, for the probability
is that he has not any. 1t was not safe
for Adam, even in his unfallen state, to
have nothing to do, and therefore God
commanded him to be farmer and hor-
ticulturist. He was to dress the garden
and keep it, and had he and his wife