The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1897-08-20

better OH Unan young man when you
have robbed him of his Bible. Have
YOU ever noticed how despicably mean
it is to take away the worlds Bible
without proposing substituted 1t is
meaner than to come to sick man and
steal his medicine, meaner than to come
to cripple and steal his crutch, meaner
than to come to pauper and steal his
crust, meaner than to come to poor
man and burn his house down. 1t is the
worst of all larcenies to steal the Bible
which has been crutch and medicine
and food and eternal home to so many.
What generous and magnanimous
business infdelity has gone into-this
splitting up of lifeboats and taking
away of fire escapes and extinguishing
of lighthouses I come out and say to
such people, "What are you doing all
this for?" "Oh," they say, "just for
fun" 1t is such fun to see Christians
try to hold on to their Bibles! Many of
them have lost loved ones and have
been told that there is resurrection,
and it is such fun to tell them there
will be no resurrection Many of them
have believed that Christ came to carry
the burdens and to heal the wounds of
the world, and it is such fun to tell
them they will have to be their own
saviori Think of the meanest thing
you ever heard of, then 60 down /, 900
feet underneath it, and you will find
yourself at the top of stairs 100 miles
long; go to the bottom of the stairs,
and you will find ladder 1000 miles
long; then go to the foot of the ladder
and look off a preoipice half as far as
from here to China, and yon will find
the headquarters of the meanness that
would rob this world of it's only COM
fort in life, it's only peace in death and
its only hope for immortality. Slaugh-
ter young mans faith in God, and
there is not much more left to slaughter.
Physical and Moral Wrecks.
Now what has become of the slaugh-
tered? Well, some of them are in their
fathers or mothers house, broken down
in health, waiting to die; others are in
the hospital, others are in the cemetery,
or, rather, their bodies are, for their
souls have gone on to retribution. Not
much prospect for young man who
started life with good health and good
education and Christian example set
him, and opportunity of usefulness,
who gathered all his treasures and put
them in one box and then dropped it
into the sea.
Now, how is this wholesale slaughter
to be stopped? There is not a person
who is not interested in that question.
The object of my sermon is to put a
weapon in each of your hands for your
own defense. Wait not for Young Mems
Christian associations to protect you or
churches to protect you. Appealing to
God for help, take care of yourself
First, have a room somewhere that
you can call your own. Whether it be
the back parlor of a fashionable board
ing house or room in the fourth story
of cheap lodging | care not Only
have that one room your fortress. Let
not the dissipater or unclean step over
the threshold. If they come up the long
flight of stairs and knock at the door.
meet them face to face and kindly yet
firmly refuse them admittance. Have
few family portraits on the wall, if you
brought them with you from your ooun-
try home. Have Bible on the stand.
If you can afford it and can play on one,
have an instrument of music-harp or
flute or cornet or melodeon or violin or
piano Every morning before you leave
that room pray Every night after you
come home in that room pray. Make
that room your Gibraltar, your Sevas-
topol, your Mount Zion. Let no bad
book or newspaper come into that room
any more than you would allow cobra
to coil on your table.
Take care of yourself. Nobody else
will take care of you. Your nelp will
not come up two or three or four flights
of stairs; your help will come through
the roof, down from heaven, from that
God who i'll the 5000 years of the
worlds history never betrayed young
man who tried to be good and Chris
tian. Let me say i'll regard to your adj
verse worldly circumstances, in passing,
that you are on a level now with those
who are finally to succeed Mark my
words, young man, and think of it 80
years from now. You will find that
those who 80 years from now are the
of this country, who are the
orators of the country, who are the poets
Of the country, who are the strong mer-
chants of the country, who are the great
philanthropists of the country-mighti
est in church and state-are this morn
ing on a level with you, not an inch
above, and you in straitened circum
stances now.
Herschel earned his living by playing
a violin at parties, and in the inter
stices of the play he would go out and
Iook up at the midnight heavens, the
fields of his immortal conquests. George
rose from being the foreman
in a colliery 10 be the most renowned
If the worlds engineers. No outfit, no
capital to start With Young man, go
down to the library and get some books
and read of what wonderful mechanism
God gave you i'll your hand, in your
loot, in your eye, in your ear, and then
ask some doctor to take you into the
lissecting room and illustrate to you
what you have read about, and never