The morning news., 1897-08-16
AS AN OK TO THE SLAUGHTER
DIR. TALMAGE's WORDS OF CAUTION
TO YOUNG MEN.


10 the Breakers Ahead.
New York, Aug 15-Dr. Talmage, In
his sermon for to-day. shows how run
ming into hopeless debts and scepticism
have undone young men in town and
country. The text is Prov. 7:22: AS an
OK 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 a rich pasture feld of clover
where all day Ions ne win revel in the
herbaceous uxuriauce; 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 a door
way. where he is fastened. ana with we'll
aimed stroke of the AK fells him; and 50
the anticipation Of the redolent pasture
field is completely disappointed. So many
a young man has been driven on by temp
ta tion to what he thought would be para
disiacal enjoyment; but after awhile in
fuences with darker hue and swarther
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
being destroyed when we ought to blame
the influences that destroy them. Society
slaughters a great many young men by
the behest, you must keep up appear
ances; 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 entertainments, and you must
live in a fashionable boarding house. If
you haven't the money, borrow. If you
can't borrow, make false entry, or sub
tract here and there a bin from a bundle
of bank bills; you will only have to make
the deception a little while; in few
months, or in a year or two, you can make
all right Nobody will be hurt by It, no
body will be the wiser. You yourself will
not be damaged" BY that awful process
a hundred thousand men have been
slaughtered for time and slaughtered for
eterRity
Suppose you borrow. There is nothing
wrong about borrowing money. There is
hardly a 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 eX-
pense. and money borrowed 70 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 a dandy's outfit, you have taken the
..Ts. -, 90 - rlaal Irrtr ID
Borrow for the necessities; that may be
well Borrow for the luxuries; that tips
your prospects over in the wrong direc-
ton.
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 meeting some one
whom YOU owe. If young men knew what
is the despotism ofBbeing in debt, more of
them would keep out Of 1t. What did
debt do for Lord Bacon, with a mind tow
ering above the centuries2 Il induced
him to take bribes and convict himself
as a criminal before all ages. What did
debt do for Walter Scott? Broken-hearted
at Abbotsford. Kept him writing until
his hand gave out in paralysis to keep
the sheriff away from his pictures and
statuary. Better for him if he had mind
ed the maxim which he had chiseled over
the fireplace at Abbotsford, Waste not,
want not
The trouble is, my friends, that people
do not understand the ethics OF going in
debt. and that if you purchase goods with
$40 expectation of paying for them, or go
into debts which you cannot meet, you
steal just so much money. II | go into a
grocer's store and / buy sugars and cof-
fees and meats with no capacity 20 pay
for them. and no intention of paying for
them, ! am morW dishonest than if | 90
into the store and when the grocers face
is turned the other way ! fiji my pockets
with the articles Of merchandise and
carry off a ham! In the one case l take
the merchants time. and / take the time
of his messenger to transfer the goods to
my house, while in the other case I take
none OF the time of the merchant, and /
wait upon myself. and transfer the goods
without any trouble TO hint In other
words, a sneak thief is not so bad as
man who contracts debts he never ex-
poets 10 pay.
Yet. in all our cities there are families
who move every May-day TO get into
proximity to other grOcers and meat shops
and apothecaries. They owe everybody
within half a mile of where they now live,
ana next May they win move into a dis
tant part of the city. finding a new lot OF
victims. Meanwhile, you. the honest
family i'm the new house. are bothered dav
by day by the knocking az 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 prede-
Ucssor has gone TO some distant part of the
city, ana the people who have anything TO
sell have sent their wagons and stopped
there 20 solicit the valuable" custom OF
the new ncighbor. and he the new neigh
bor. with great complacency and an air Of
ufliuence. orders the finest steaks and the
highest priced sugars and the best OF the
canned fruits. ana perhaps an The news
papers. Ana the debts viii keep on ace
cumulatinE until he gets his goods on the
3Dth Of next April in the furniture cart
No wonder that so many OF our mcr-
chants ian I'm business They are swim
died into bankruptcy by these wandering
Arabs. these uomads " city lIfc They
cheat the grocer out OF the green apples
which make them sick. the physician who
attends them during their distress. ana
The undertaken who hts them out for de-
parture from the uelghhorhooi whpro they
owe rNholy when they pay tho debt OF
unturc. the only debt they ever d0 pay.
NoW our young mon are coming up ln
tnia dcuraycd state Of commercial cihica.
ana ann solieltous about thcm want to
warn them against hpIur slaughtered ou