The National tribune., 1897-08-19
TALK TO YOUNG MEN
DR.. Talmage Warns Them
Against Debt and Skepti-
ciSm.

ciSm.
Temptations Which BefaT Youth In City
and Countrywide Danger OF Living Be-
yond Ones Means-The Armor of the Lord
Invulnerable.
DR.. Talmage in his sermon this week shows
how running hopelessly into debt and
skepticsm have undone young men in town
and country. The text is Prov, 30: as
an or to the slaughter"
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
long he will revel in the herbaceous luxuri-
ance: but after awhile the men and boys close
in upon him with sticks and stones and shout
ing, and drive him through bars and into q
doorway where he is fastened, and with we'll
aimed stroke the AK fels him; and so the
anticipation of the redolent pasture-field is
completely disappointed.
So many young man has been driven on
by temptation to what he thought would be
paradisiacal enjoyment; but after awhile in
fiuences with darker hue and swarthier arm
close in upon him, and he finds that instead
of making an excursion into a garden, he has
been driven 9 as an OK to the slaughter"
We are apt to blame young men for being
destroyed when we ought to blame the in
fiuences that destroy them. Society slaught-
ers great many young men by the behest:
You must keep up appearances; whatever
be your salary, you must dress as well as
others; you must give wine and brandy to as
many friends; you must smoke as costly
cigars: you must give as expensive entertain
ments, and you must live in as fashionable a
clearinghouse If you haven't the money,
borrow. If you can't borrow, make a false
entry, OF subtract here and there bill from
bundle of bank bills; you will only have to
make the deception little while; in a few
months, or in year or two, you can make
all right"
Suppose you borrow There is nothing
wrong about borrowing money. But there
are two kinds of borrowed money: Money
borrowed for the purpose of starting or keep
ing up legitimate enterprise and expense, and
money borrowed to get that which you can do
without
The first is right, the other is wrong. If
you have money enough of your own to buy
coat, however plain, and then you borrow
money for a dandy's outfit, you have taken the
first revolution Of the wheel down grade Bor
row for the necessities; that may be well.
Borrow for the Injuries; that tips your pros
poets over in the wrong direction.
The Bible distinctly says the borrower is
servant of the lender 1t is a bad state of
things when you have to go down some other
street to escape someone whom you owe.
If young men knew what is the despotism
of being in debt more of them would keep
out of it. e
The trouble is, my friends, that people do
not understand the ethics of going i'll debt,
and that if you purchase goods with no eX-
pectation of paying for hem, ergo into debts
which you cannot meet you steal just so
much money If ] go into grocer's store
and | buy sugars and coffees and meats with
no capacity to pay for them, and no inten-
ton of paving for them | am more dis
honest than if 90 into the store and when
the grocer's face is turned the other way ! fill
my pockets with the articles of merchandise
and carry off a ham!
Yet in all our cities there are families who
move every May-day to get into proximity to
other grocers and meat shops and apothe-
carries. They owe everybody within half q
mile of where they now live, and next May
they will move into distant part of the city,
finding 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 carri-
ers and you are asked where your predeces-
sOr is.
No wonder that so many Of our merchants
fail in business. They are swindled into
bankruptcy by these wandering Arabs, these
nomads of city life.
Now, our young men are coming Zip in this
deprayed state of commercial ethics. and
am solicitous about them. / want to warn
them against being slaughtered on the sharp
edges of debt. You want many things Won
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 Head the right way, young
man, and you will come out at the right
goal.
Bring me 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
will not make five inaccurate prophecies out
of the 500. All this makes me soicitous in
regard to young men, and | want to make
them nervous in regard to the contraction of
unpayable debts.
When a young man wilfully and of choice,
having the comforts of life, goes into the con-
traction Of unpayable debts, he knows not into
what he goes. The creditors get after the
debtor, the pacl. of hounds in full cry, and
alas! for the reindeer. They jingle his door
bell before he gets up in the morning. they
jingle his door-bell after he has. gone to bed at
night. They meet him as he comes off his
front steps. They send him postal card. or a
letter, in curtest style, telling him TO pay up
They attach his goods. They want cash, or a
note at 30 days, or note on demand. 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 him from this side, and from
that side, and from before, and from behind
and from above, and from beneath, and he is
insulted, and gibbeted, and sued, and dunned,
and sworn at, until he gets the nervous dys-
pepsia, gets neuralgia, gets liver complaint,
gets heart disease, gets conyulsive 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 expenses at the
obsequics, to see whether there is any useless
| handle on the casket. to see whether there is
any surplus plat on the shroud, to see whether
| the hearse is costly or cheap, to see whether
the flowers sent to the caske eft have been houuht