The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-09-01
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

IouHS hcH-IFiS ItCsulGhS AoiAA
Getting Into Debt-An Irre1igious Life
Always Destroys Young Mems Morals.
TEXT: Gas an OK to the Slaughter
Proverbs VIII, %.
There is nothing In the voice or manner
Of the butcher to indicate to the OK that
there Is death ahead. The OK thinks he is
going on to rich pasture field Of clover
where all day he will revel in the herb
aceous luxuriance, but after awhile the
men and the boys close in upon him with
sticks and stones and shouting and drive
him through bars and into doorway, where
he is fastened, and With we'll aimed stroke
the ak fells him. and so the anticipation of
the redolent pasture field is completely dis
appointed. So many young man has been
driven on by temptation to what he thought
would be paradisiacal enjoyment, but after
awhile influences with darker hue and
swarthier arm close in upon him, and he
finds that instead Of making an excursion
into garden he has been driven "as an OK
to the Slaughter
We are apt to blame young men for be-
Ing destroyed when we ought to blame the
influences that destroy them. Society
slaughters great many young men by the
behest: "You must keep up appearances.
Whatever be your salary, you must dress
DIS WOll do OLuClS, IOu klfO WlAO ohu
brandy to as many friends, you must
smoke as costly cigars, you must give as
expensive entertainments and you must
live in as fashionable boarding house. If
you haven't the. money, borrow. If you
can't borrow, make false entry or sub
tract here and there bill from bundle Of
bank bills. You will only have to make
the deception q little while. In q few
months or in a year or two you can make
1t all right. Nobody will be hurt by 1t, no
body will be the wiser. You yourself will
not be damaged" By that awful process
100, 900 men have been slaughtered for time
and slaughtered for eternity.
Suppose you borrow. There fs nothing
wrong about borrowing money. There is
hardly man who has not sometimes bor-
rowed.money. Vast estates have been built
on borrowed dollar. But there are two
kinds Of borrowed money, money borrowed
for the purpose Of starting or keeping up
legitimate enterprise and expense and
money, borrowed to get that which you can
do without. The first Is right, the other Is
wrong. II you have money enough Of your
own to buy a coat, however plain, and then
you borrow money for dandy's outfit, you
have taken the first revolution Of the wheel
down grade. Borrow for necessities; that
may be well. Borrow for the luxuries; that
rection.
The Bible distinctly says the borrower is
servant of the lender. 1t is bad state OF
things when you have to 60 down some
other street to escape meeting some one
whom you owe. If young men knew what
Is the despotism Of being In debt, more OF
them would keep out OF it. What did debt
do for Lord Bacon, with mind towering
above the centuries2 1t induced him to
take bribes and convict himself as Grim
inal before all ages. What did deb. do for
Walter Scott, broken hearted at Abbots-
ford? Kept him writing until his hand
gave out in paralysis to keep the sheriff
away from his pictures and statuary. Bet
ter for him II he had minded the maxim
which he had chiseled over the fireplace at
dhbotsford. Waste not. want not"
The trouble is, my friends, that people do
not understand the ethics of going in debt,
and that il YOU purchase goods with no ex-
pectation Of paying for them, or go into
debts which you cannot meet, you steal
just so much money. III so into grocer s
store and I buy sugars and coffees and
meats with no capacity to pay for them,
and no intention Of paying for them, Lam
more dishonest than If 60 into the store,
and when the grocer's face is turned the
other way 1 fill nv pockets with the art1-
cles of merchandise and carry off ham.
In the one case take the merchants time,
and take the time Of his messenger to
transfer the goods to my house, while In
the other case take none OF the time OF the
merchant, and I wait upon myself, and
transfer the goods without any trouble to
him. In other words, a sneak thief is not
80 bad as a man who contracts debts he
never expects to pay.
Yet in all our cities there are families
who move every May day to get into prox-
unity to other grocers and meatshops and
half mile Of where they now live, and next
May they will move into a. distant part OF
the city, finding q new lot Of victims.
Meanwhile you, the. honest family IN the
new house, are bothered day by day by the
knocking at the door Of disappointed bakers
and butchers and dry goods dealers and
newspaper carriers, and you are asked
where your predecessor is. You do not
know. It was arranged you should not
know. Meanwhile your predecessor has
gone to some distant part of the city, and
the people who have anything to sell have
sent their wagons and stopped there to So
licit the valuable custom Of the new
neighbor, and he, the new neighbor,
with great complacency and an air OF af1u-
ence, orders the finest steaks and the high
est priced sugars and the best of the canned
fruits and perhaps oil the newspapers. And
the debts will keep on accumulating until
he gets his goods on the 30th of next April
in the furniture cart.
No wonder that so many OF our mer-
chants fail in business. They are swindled
into bankruptcy by these wandering Arabs,
these nomads Of city life. They cheat the
grocer out Of the green apples which make
them sick, the physician who attends them
during their distress and the undertaken
who fits them out for departure from the
neighborhood where they owe everybody
when they pay the debt of nature, the only
debt they ever do pay.
Now our young men are coming up IN
this depraved state Of commercial ethics,
and am solcitous about them. l want to
warn them against being slaughtered on
the sharp edges Of debt. You want many
things you have not, my young friends.
You shall have them If you have patience
and honesty and industry. Certain lines OF
conduct always lead out to certain successes.
There is law which controls even those
things that seem haphazard. ! have been
told by those who have observed that it Is
possible to calculate just how many letters
will be sent to the dead letter office every
year through misdirection; that 1t is posi-
bic to calculate just how many letters will
be detained for lack of postage stamps
through the forgetfulness OF the senders,
and that it is possible to tell just how many
people will fall in the streets by slipping on
an orange peel. In other words, there are
no accidents. The most insignificant event
you ever heard Of is the link between two
eternities-the eternity of the past and the
eternity of the future. Head the right way,
young man, and you will come out at the
right goal.
Bring 6 me young man and tell me what
his physical health is and what his mental
caliber and what his habits, and l will tell
you what will be his destiny for this world
and his destiny for the world to come, and
I will not make five inaccurate prophecies
out of the 500. All this makes me solicitous
In regard to young men, and l want to
rnnl: thann nerrnus In REGARD to the con-