The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-08-20

JS@S
the dead letter Office every year through
misdirection; hat it is possible to cal
culate just how many letters will be-
detained for lack of postage stamps
through the forgetfulness of the send
ers, 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 Their are no
The most insignificant event you ever
heard Of is the link between two eterni-
ies-the eternity of the past and the
eternity of the future. Head the right
way, young man, n you viii come u
at the right goal.
Bring me a young man and tell me
what his physical health is and what
his mental caliber and what his habits,
and / will tell you what will be his
destiny for this world and his destiny
for the world to come, and Twill not
make five n~accura prophecies out of
the 500. All this makes me solicitous
in regard to young men, and l want to
make them v in regard to the
contraction of ~unpoyable debts. / give
you a paragraph from my own expe-
rience.
My first settlement as pastor was in a
village. My salary was $500 and a par
sOnage. The amour seemed enormous
to me. l said to myself, What, all
Lille " oilS vas "a
getting worldly under SO much pros
perity. I resolved to invite all the con-
%gregation to my house in groups of
twenty-five each. We began, and as
they were the best congregation in all
the world, and we felt nothing was too
good for them, we piled all the luxuries
on the table. I never completed the
undertakings. AT the n of six months
l was in financial dispair. I faund that
1,-n -o{ o~1v bod NOT tho c,1rp1,yc Of Inv
uries, but we had a struggle to get the
necessities, and I learned what every
young man learns, in time to say him.
self or too late, that you must meaSur
the size Of a mans body before you
begin to cut the cloth for his coat.
When a young man willfully and of
choice, having the comforts of life,
goes into the contraction of unpayable
debts, he knows not into what he goes.
The creditors get after the debtor, the
pack of rounds in full cry, n alas for
the reindeer! They jingle his doorbell
before he gets up in the morning.
has gone to bed at night. They
meet him as he comes off his from
steps. They send him a postal card or
a letter in curtest style, telling him to
pay up. They attach his goods. They
want cash or a note at thirty days de-
mand. They call him a knave. They say
he lies. They want him disciplined in
the church. They want him turned out
of the bank. They come at himfrom this
side and from that side and from be-
fore and from behind and from above
and from beneath, n he is insulted
and gibbeted and sued and dunned
and sworn at until he gets the nervous
dyspepsia, gets neuralgia, gets liver
complaint, gets heart disease, gets con
vulsive disorder, gets consumption.
Now he is dead, and you say, "Of
course they will let him alone" Oh,
no.! Now they are watchful to see
whether there are any unnecessary ex-
enses at the obsequies, to see whether
there is any useless handle on the cas-
ket, to see whether there is any sur
plus plat on the shroud, to see whether
the hearse is costly or cheap, to see
whether the flowers sent to the casket
have been bought by the family or do
mated, to see in whose name the deed
to the grave is made out. Then they
ransack the bereft household, the
books, the pictures, the carpets, the
chairs, the sofa, the piano, the mattress
ses, the pillow On which he died. Cursed
be debt! For the sake Of your own
happiness, for the sake of your god
morals, for the sake of your immortal
soul, for Gods sake, young man, as far
as possible keep out of it!
IRRELIGIOUs YOUNG MEN.
But I think more young men are
slaughtered through irreIigion. Fake
away a young mans religion and you
make him the prey of evil. We all
know that the Bible is the only perfect
system of morals. Now, if you van to
destroy the young mans morals, take
his Rih1o oyvov How. will Won do fhof9
Well, you will caricature his reverence
for the Scriptures, you will take all
those incidents Of the Bible which can
be made mirth of-Jonah's whale,
SamSOn'S foxes, Adams rib. Then you
pass off as your own all those hack
neyed arguments against Christianity
which are as old as Tom Paine, as old
as Voltaire, as old as sin. Now you
have captured his Bible, and you nave
taken his strongest fortress. The way
is comparatively clear, and all the gates
of his soul are set open in invitation
to the sins Of earth and the sorrows Of
death, that they may come in n drive
the stake to their encampment.
A steamer $500 miles from shore,
with broken rudder and lost compass
and hulk leaking fifty gallons the hour,
is better off h a young man whom
you have robbed him of his Bible.
Have you ever noticed how despicably
mean it is to take away the worlds
Bible without proposing a substitute?
It is meaner than to come to a sick
man and steal his medicine, meaner
than to come to a cripple and and steal
his crutch, meaner h to come to a
pauper and steal his crust, meaner than
to come to a poor man and burn his
house down. 1t is the worst of all lar
cenies to steal a Bible which has been
crutch and medicine and food and eter-
nal home to so many. What a gener-
Gus and magnanimOus business infidel-
ity has gone into-this splitting up of
lifeboats and taking away of fire es-
capes and extinguishing Of lighthouses!
I come out and l say to such people,
VIVA are you doing all this for?"
"Oh," they say Just for fun" 1t is
such fun to Sc Christians try to hold on
to their Bibles. Many of them hay
lost loved ones and have been told hat
there is a resurrection, and it is such
fun to tell them there will be no resur-