The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1898-12-29
TALMAGE's SERMON.
ON THE SUBJECT: MASTER OF
THE SITUATION"
An Accusing and Practical Discourse
from the Following Bible Text:
Zechariah H., 4; run, Speak to This
Young Man."

There was no snow on the beard of
the prophet Of my text, and no crows
feet had left their mark near his eyes.
Aechar1ah was a young man, and in
oay-dream he saw and heard two an
gels talking about the rebuilding of the
city OF Jerusalem. One of these angels
desires that young Zechariah should be
well informed about the rebuilding of
mat city, its. circumference and the
nelght OF it's walls, and he says to the
otner angels, Run, speak to this young
man. DO not walk, but run, for the
message is urgent and imminent. SO
every young man needs to have imme-
dlate advice about the dimensions, the
height, and the circumference of that
which, under God, he Is to build, name
~, his own character and destiny. NO
slow or laggard. pace will do. A little
farther en-, and counsel will be of no
advantage. Swift-footed must be the
practical and important suggestions, or
they might as we'll never be made at
all. Run at the pace Of five miles the
hour, and speak to that young man.
Run, before this year Of 1898 is ended.
Run before this century is closed. Run,
before his character is inexorably de-
clded for two worlds, this world and
the next. How many of US have found
out by long and bitter experience
Things that we ought to have been told
before we were twenty-five years of
age. Now, propose to tell you some
things, which, if you will seriously and
prayerfully observe, will make you
master of the situation in which you
are now placed, and master of every
situation in which you ever will be
placed. And in order that my subject
may be climacteric, I begin on the out
side edge of that advice, which will be
more and more important as the SUBJ
ject unfolds.
Now, if you would be master of the
situation, do not expend money before
you get it. How many young men ir-
retrievably mortgage their future be-
cause of resources that are quite sure
to be theirs. Have the money either in
your hand, or in a safety deposit, or in
a bank, or in a United States bond be-
fore you make purchases, or go into
expensive enterprises, or hitch
spanking team to a glittering turnout,
or contract for the building of a man
sion on the Potomac or the Hudson
Do not depend on an inheritance from
your father or uncle. The old man
may live on a good deal longer than you
expect, and the day of your enforced
payment may come before the day of
his decease. You cannot depend upon
rheumatism or heart failure or senility
to do it's work. Longevity is so won
derfully improved that you cannot de-
pend upon people dying when you
think they ought to. They live to be
septuagenarians, or octogenarians and
meanwhile their heirs go into bank
ruptcy, or, tempted to forgery, or mis-
appropriation of trust funds, or water
ing of railroad or mining stock, 20 in
to the penitentiary. Neither had you
better spread yourself out because Of
the fifteen or twenty per cent you ex-
pect from an investment. Most of the
fifteen or twenty per cent investments
are apt to pay nothing save the privi-
lege of being assessed to meet the OBJ
legations of the company in the affairs
Of which you get involved. Better get
three and half per cent from a gov
eminent bond than be promised fifteen
per cent from a dividend which will
never be declared, or paid only once or
twice, SO as to tempt you deeper in be-
fore the grand smash-up, and you re-
ceive, instead Of a payment of divt-
dends, a letter from the president and
secretary of the company saying they
are very sorry.
Do not say you have no chance. but
remember Isaac Newton, the greatest
astronomer of his day, once peddling
cabbages in the street; and Martin
Luther, singing on the public square
for any pennies that he might pick UP;
and John Bunyan, mending kettles;
and the late Judge Bradley, of the
United States Supreme court, who was
the son Of a charcoal-burner; and Tur-
ner, the painter, who was the son of
barber; and Lord Give, who, saved
India to England, shipped by his father
to Madras as a useless boy whom he
wanted to get rid Of; and Prideaux, the
world renowned scholar and theologian.
securing pots and pans to work his way
through college; and the mother of the
late William F. Dodge, the philanthro-
pist and. magnificent man, keeping a
thread and needle store; and Peter
Cooper, who worked on small wages
in glue factory, living to give five
hundred thousand dollars for the
founding of an institute that has al
ready educated thousands of, the poor
sons and daughters Of America; and
Bowditch, the scientist, beginning his
useful learning and affluent career by
reading the books that had been driven
ashore from a shipwreck at Salem.
There is, young man, great financial
or literary or moral or religious sue
cess awaiting you if you only know
how to go up and take it.
Again: If you would master the sit