The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1900-08-11
NUMBER 3.

- crystal. blory De 10 Coo fer tSe
religion that drops from above. not
coming up from beneath! "And the
Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest
thou? And said, A plumb line"
want you TO notice this fact, that
when a man gives up the straight up
and down religion of the Bible for
any new tangled religion, 1t is gener-
ally to suit his sins. You first hear
of his change of religion, and then you
hear of some swindle he has practiced
in special mining stock, telling some
one if he will put in $4,000 he can
take out 100000; or he has sacrificed
his integrity or plunged into IRENE
diable worldliness. His SINS are so
broad he has to broaden his religion,
and he becomes as broad as tempta-
ton, as broad as the souls darkness,
as broad as hell. They want a reli-
gion that will allow them to keep
their sins and then at death say to
them; We'll DONE good and faithful
servant and that tells them: "All
is well, for there is no hell" What a
glorious Heaven they hold before usi
Come let US 60 in and see it. There
are Herod and all the babes he mas
sacred. There are Charles Guiteau
and Robespierre, the feeder of the
French guillotine. and all the liars,
thieves, house burners, garroters,
pickpockets and libertines of all the
centuries. They have al got crowns
and thrones and harps and scepters,
and when they chant they sing:
Thanksgiving and honor and glory
and power to the broad religion that
let's us all into Heaven without re-
pentance and without faith in those
humiliating dogmas of ecclesiastical
old fogyism."
My text gives me grand opportun-
ity ofsaying a useful word to all Young
men who are now forming habits for
lifetime. OF what use to stonema-
son or bricklayer is a piumb line?
Why not build the wall by the unaided
eye and hand? Because they are in
sufficient, because if there be de.
hection in the wall it cannot further
on be corrected. Because by the law
OF gravitation a wall must be straight
in order to be symmetrical and safe.
young man is in danger of getting
defect in his wall of character that
may never be corrected.
One of the best friends I ever had
died of delirium tremens at co years
OF age, though he had not since p
years of age, before which be had
been dissipated, touched intoxicating
liquor until that particular carousal
that took him off. Not ceiling well in
the street on a hot summer day he
] CfpnnpH n
and L would have done. and asked for
a dose of something TO make him feel
better. And there was alcohol in the
dose, and that one drop aroused the
| old appetite. and he entered the first
liquor store and staid there until
thoroughly under the power of rum.
He entered his home raving maniac.
his wife and daughters fleeing from
his presence, and at first he was taken
to the city hospital to die.
Remember that the wall NAV be 100
feet high, and yet detection one foot
from the foundation affects the entire
structure. And if you live ZOE yeare
and do right the last 50 years YOU may
nevertheless do something at 20 years
of age that will damage all your earth
| ly existence. All you who have built
houses for yourselves or for others.
am not right in saying 10 these young
men. you cannot build a wall so high
/ as to be Independent Of the character
/ of its foundation? A man before 50
4 years of age may commit enough sin
to last him a lifetime. Now. John or
/ George or Henry, or whatever be your
! Christian name or surname, say here
ana now: NO wild oats for me, no
cigars or cigarettes for me. no wine
or beer for me, no nasty stories for me,
no Sunday sprees for me. 1 am going
to start right and keep on right. God
help me, for l am very weak. From the
| throne of eternal Righteousness let
down to me the principles by which I
can be guided in building everything
from foundation 10 capstone. Lord
God, by the wounded hand of Christ
throw me plumb line"
But" you say, you shut us young
! folks out from all fun" Oh, no! like
fun. l believe in fun. I have had lots
| of it in my time. But l have not had
TO go into paths of sin to find it. No
credit to me, but because of an extraor-
idnary parental example and influence
was kept from outward transgres-
sions, though my heart was bad enough
and desperately wicked. l have had
fun illimitable, though I never swore
one oath and never gambled for so
much as the value Of pin and never
saw the inside of haunt of sin save
as when many years ago, with a COM
missioner of police and a detective and
two elders of my church. 1 explored
New York and Broo%lyn by midnight,
not out of curiosity, but that l might
in pulpit discourse set before the peo-
pie the poverty and the horrors of un-
J derground city life. Yet, though I was
never intoxicated for an instant and
never committed one act of dissolute-
ness-restrained only by the grace of
God, without which restraint l would
have gone headlong TO the bottom of
\ infamy-I have had so much fun that