The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1898-02-02

again and again sanctioned the nigh
tg evil BY passing laws in defense OF
race tracks, and many young men
have lost ali their wages at such SO
called meetings Everv man who
voted for such infamous bill mas on his
hands aud forehead the blood Of these
souls.
But in this connection some young
converts say to me: Is it right 10
play cards. Is there any harm in q
game Of whist or euchreI' Well, |
know good men who play whist ard
euchre and other styles of games with
Out any wagers had friend who
played cards with his wife and chill
dren ard then stthe close said, Come,
pow. let US have prayers. l will not
Judge other mems ccDscieuces, but /
ielI you that carcs are in my mind so
associated with the temporal and spiri-
tual ruin of splendid young men tnat
I would as soon say to my family,
Gone, let US have a game OF cards, y
as I would 90 into menagerle ard
say, Come, let US havea game of rat
tlesnakes, or into cemetery al
sitting down by marble slab say 10
the gravediggers Come, let US have
a game at SKULLS" Conscientious
young ladies are silently saying, do
you think card playing will do US any
harm2' Perhaps not, but how will
you feel if in the great day OF eternity,
when We are as ked to give an account
of our Influence, some msn should
say: II was introduced to games CT
chance in the year 1898 at your house,
and I went on from that spolt to same
thing more exciting, and went on
down until I lost my business, and
lost my morals, ard lost my soul, and
these chains that you see on my wrists
and feet are the chains of gamester'S S
doom, and I am on my way to a gam
bler's hell" Honey at the start, eter-
nal catastrophe at last
Stock gambling comes into the
same catalogue. 1t must be very ex
hilaraing to 60 into the stock market
and depositing small sum Of money
run the chance OF taking out a fortune.
Many men are doing an honest and
safe business in the stock market and
you are an ignoramus if you do no:
know that it is just as legitimate to
deal in stocks as 1t is to deal in coffee
or sugar or -four. Blu! nearly all the
outsiders who 60 there on financial
excursion lose all. The old spiders
eat up the unsuspecting flies. I had a
friend who put his hand on his hip
pocket and said in subtance, II have
there the value OF $3.50, 000' His home
is today penniless. What was the
matter? Stock gambling Oithe vast
majority who are victim;zsd you hear
no. one word. One crest stock firm
goes down and whole columns OF
newspapers discuss their fraud or their
disaster, and We are presented with
their features and their biography.
But where one such famous firm sinks
500 unknown men sink with them.
The great steamer goes down and all
the little boats are swallowed il the
same engulfment.
Gambling is gambling, whether in
stocks or breadstuffs or dice or race
horse betting. Exhilaration at the
start. but q rsving brain and shattered
nervous system and sacrificed pro-
perty and q destroyed soul at the last.
Young men, buy no lottery tickets,
purchase no prize packages, bet on no
baseball games or yacht racing, have
no faith in luck, answer no mysteri-
Gus circulars proposing great income
for small investment, drive away the
buzzards that hover around our hotels
trying to entrap strangers. G. out
aud make an honest living. Have
| God on your side and be candidate
for heaven. Remember ali the paths
of sin are banked with flowers at the
start, aud there are plenty Of helpful
hands to fetch the gay charger to your
door and hold the stirrup while you
mount. But farther on the horse
plupges to the bitin sloughinextrica.
BILE.
The best honey is not like that
which Jonathan took on the end of
the rod and brought to his lips, but
that which God puts on the banquet
ing table of mercy, at which we are
sllinvited to sit. was reading OF a
boy among the mountains Of Switzer-
land ascending dangerous place with
his father and the guides. Tne boy
stopped on the edge of the cliff and
said, There IS flower mean to get "
Come away from there" said the
| father. You will fall of" M, "
said be. Il must get that beau.iful
| flower" And the guides rushed to-
ward him to pull him back when, Just
as they heard aim say, Il almost have
it." he fell 1000 feet. Birds OF prey
were seen s few days after circling
through the air and lowering gradual
ly to the place where the corpse lay
Why seek flowers off the edge OF a pre-
cipice when you can walk knee deep
amid the full blooms of the very para
disc of God? When man may sit
at the kings banquet, why will he go
down the steps and contend forth re-
fuse snd bones OF hounds kennel?
''Sweeter than honey and the honey
comb" says David, is the truth of God.
With honey out of the rock would I
have satisfied thee, says God to the
secrsant. Here is honey grathered
from the blossoms Of trees of life, and
with rod maze out of the wood Of
the cross I dip it up for all your souls
The poet Hesiod tells of an ambrosia
and a nectar the drinking of which
would make men live forever, and one
sip OF the honey from the eternal rock
will give you eternal life with God
Come off the malarial levels Of a sinful
life. Come and live on the uplands OF
grace, where the vineyards sun them
selves. "Oh, taste and see that the
Lord is gracious" Be happy now
and happy forever. For those who
take different course the honey will
turn to gall. Fur many things have
admired Percy Shelley, the great
English poet, but l oeplore the fact
that it seemed a great sweetness to him
to dishonor God. The poem % 1een
Nab" has in it the malignlng of the