The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1896-12-04
TALMAGE's SERMON.
Eloquent Appeal to the Higher As
pirations Of Young Men.
The Youth OF the Country Challenged to
Nobility OF thought and Purpose
Let High Aims be the Gov
erning Principle.


Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage delivered
the following sermon on the subject:
Young Men Challenged to Nobility"
before his Washington congregation,
taking for his text;
And the Lord opened the eyes OF the young
| msn.-II. Kings, VI, II.
One morning, in Dothan a young
theological student was scared by
finding himself and Elisha the prophet,
upon whom he matted, surrounded by
a whole army of enemies. But vener-
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 fire-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,
:.nd be also saw the fiery procession,
looking somewhat, 1 suppose, like the
Adirondack or the Alleghanies in au-
tumnal resplendence.
Many young men, standing among
| their eyes half shut or entirely closed.
May GOD grant that my sermon may
open wide your eyes to your safety,
eour opportunity, and your destinyl
| A mighty defense for a young man
is 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 1t. But all
the freseo on princely walls never
looked SO enticiDg to you as those
rough-hewn ratters. You can
think of no park or ar
Dor of trees planted on fashion
able country SCAT 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
pld swing gate Many of you have
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 it, over the
hot pillow, tapped the wing of death.
| Under that roof you expect, when
your work is done, to lie down ana
| 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 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 solici-
| tude, watching, planning and praying,
will be to him shield and shelter.
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 wicked
ness. He 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-
| Iom 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
3 portrait over the mantel. Make un-
Todlv mirth stand back from the
threshold. Consecrate some spot with
the knee of prayer. By the memory
Of other days, fathers counsel, and
mothers love,a sisters confidence,
sall it home.
Another defense for young man is
Industrious habits. Many young men,
in starting upon life in this age, ex-
pect 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, ,0O0 a year, he Is waiting
for the bank to declare it's 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 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 copy plate of
merchants signature. Never mind;
all is right In trade. In soms dark
night there may come in his dreams
vision of the penitentiary; but it soon
vanishes. In q short time he will be
ready to retire from the busy world,
and amid his focks and herds cultis
vete the domestic virtues. Then those
young men who were his sgheolmatss,
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 picture. 1t is
everyday life. l should not wonder
| If there were some rotten beams In
| that beautiful palace. / should not
| wonder If dire sickness should smite
through the young man, or IL God
should pour into his cup of life a
draught that would thrill him with
unbearable agony; il his children
should become TO him a living curse,
making his home a pest and a dis
grace I should not wonder if he goes
to a miserable grave, and beyond 1t
into the gashing OF teeth. The way
of the 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 1886, the prince OF
Wales. finding himself heavily pressed
by the enemy, sent word to his father
ha {aF fobsrn tina