The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1897-08-28

slaughter.
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 retribu-
ton. Not much prospect for n young
man who started life with good health,
and good education, and a Christian
example set him, and opportunity OF
usefulness, who gathered all his treas
ures 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 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 room somewhere that
you can call your own. Whether it be
the back parlor of fashionable board
ing-house, or a room in the fourth
story of cheap lodging,I 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 fight of stairs and knock at
the door, meet them face to face
and kindly yet firmly refuse
family portraits on the wall, il you
brought them with you from your
country home. Have Bible on the
stand. If you can afford it and can
play one, have an instrument of music
harp, or flute, or cornet, or melo-
deon, or violin, or piano. Every morn
ing before you leave that room pray.
Every night after you come home in
that room pray. Make thatroom your
Gibraltar, your Sebastopol, 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 help 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 in 5000 years of
the worlds history never betrayed q
young man who tried to be good
and Christian. Let me say in re-
gard to your adverse worldly circum-
stances, in passing, that you are
on n level now with those who
are finally to succeed. Mark my words,
young man, and think of it thirty
years from now. You will find that
those who thirty years f,pm now
are the millionaires of this country,
who are the orators of tho country,
who are the poets of the country, who
are the strong merchants of the coun-
try. who are the great philanthropists
of the country-mightiest in church
and state-are this morning on level
with you, not an inch above, and you
in Strengthened circumstances now.
All! when l told you to take care of
yourself, you misunderstood me if you
thought l meant you are to depend
upon human resolution, which may be
dissolved in the foam of the wine cup,
or may be blown out with the first
gust of temptation. Here is the helmet,
y .
Clothc yourself in that panoply, and
you shall not be put to confusion. Sin
pays well neither in this world nor the
next, but right thinking, and right be-
lieving, and right acting will take you
in safety through this life and in trans.
port through the next.
| / shall never forget prayer I heard
a young man make some Is years ago
1t was very short prayer, but was q
tremendous prayer: "Oh, Lord, help
us. We find it very easy to do wrong
and so hard to do right, Lord help us"
That prayer, l warrant you, reached
the ear of God, and reached His heart.
And there are a hundred men who
have found out-a thousand young
men, perhaps, who have found out that
very thing. 1t is so very easy to dc
wrong, and so hard to do right. l goI
a letter one day, only one paragraph
which shall read:
Having moved around somewhat,
have run across many young men of in
telligence. ardent strivers after tha
will-o'-the-wisp -fortune-and of on,
of these l would speak He was g
young Englishman of % or "a years
who came to New York, wher,
he had no acquaintances, with
barely sufficient to keep him a
couple of weeks. He had beer
tenderly reared, perhaps 1 should say
too tenderly, and was not used t.
earning his living, and found it ex
tremely difficult to get any position
that he was capable of filling. After
many vain efforts in this direction he
found himself an Sunday evening il
Brooklyn near your church with abou
So left of his small capital. Providenc,
seemed to lead him to your door, ant
he determined to go in and hear you.
"He told me his going to hear yo,
that night was undoubtedly the turn
ing point in his life, for when he wen
into your church he felt desperate, blu
while listening to your discourse hi
better nature got the mastery. 1 truly
believe from what this young mar
told me that your sounding the depth.
of his heart that night alone brought
him back to his God whom he was S,
near leaving"
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