The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-04-06

man. Time to shut up?" Push hem
all out into the night air. o they are
going home. Going home, Let the wife
in the corner and the children
hide under the bed. What was the his
tory OF that young man? He began his
designations in the barroom of a Fifth
avenue hotel and completed his damna-
ton in the lowest grogshop-
Sometimes sin does not hold in that
way. Sometimes sin even comes TO the
drawing room. There are leprous hearts
sometimes admitted in the highest cir
Giles of society. He is so elegant, he is
so bewitching in his manner. he is so
refined, he is so educated, no Die sus-
poets the sinful design, but after 4@hiIe
the talons OF death come forth. What
is the matter with that house? The
front windows have not opened
for six months or a year. \ shadow
has come down on that domestic
hearth, a SHADOW thicker than one
woven of midnight and hurricane. The
agony of that parent makes him say.
oh, l wish L had buried my children
when they were SMALL" Loss of prop
erty? No. Death in the family? No.
Madness? No. Some villain, kid gloved
and diamonded, lifted that cup of do
nestle bliss until the sunlight struck
it and all the rainbows played around
the rim and then dashed it into desc
ldIlOIf dHu woe. uIlI TIC IdTpleS OF
darkness clapped their hands. and all
the voices of the pit uttered a loud
"Ha, hal"
The statistic has never been made UP
in these great cities of how many have
been destroyed and how many beauti-
full homes have been overthrow. If
the statistic could be presented. il
would freeze your blood in a solid
cake at you heart. Our great cities
are full of temptations, and to vast
multitudeS Of parents these tempta-
lions become a matter of great solicit
tude
of all, you save yourself a great deal
of trouble, o parent, if you can early
watch the children and educate them
for God and heaven. The first five
years of my life made me an infdei."
said Tom Paine. a vessel puts out to
sea, and after ii has been five days
out there m a cyclone. The vessel
springs a leak. The helm will not work.
What is the matter? 1t is not sea-
worthy. 1t never was seaworthy. Can
you mend it now? It is too late. Down
she goes with $50 passengers into a
Watery rave. What was the time to
fix that vessel? What has the time to
prepare it for the storm? In the dry
dock. All, my friends, do not wait until
SoOi J. Gil Scl oul lHlo the '.OIiu,
beyond the Narrows and out On the
great voyage of life. 1t is too late then
to mend their morals and their man
ners. The drydock of the Christian
home is the place. Correct the sin now,
correct the evil now.
lust look at the character of your
children now and get al intimation of
tell by the way hat boy divides the
apple what his p~roclivity is and what
his sin will be and what style of disci-
pline you ought to bring upon him.
You see how he divides that apple?
He takes nine-tenths Of it for himself,
and he gives one-tenth to his sister.
Well, let that go, and all his life he
will want the best part of everything,
and he will be grinding and grasping to
the day of his death.
A MOTHERS RESPONSIBILITY.
People hurl their scorn at the life of
Lord Byron. Lord Byron was not half
so much to blame as his mother. The
historien tells us that when her child
was limping across the floor with his
unsound foot, instead of acting like
any other mother, she said, Get out of
my way, you lame brat!" Do not de-
nounce Lord Byron half as much as
you denounce his mother. All the
scenes in Venice, all the scenes in
Greece, all the scenes of outrage
wherever he went an echo of that bad
mother heart and that bad mothers
life.
wickedness. The one entered, the
other turned back. Why? Difference
of resolution, you say. No. The one
had a Christian influence, the other
had no pious training. The one man
went on his evil way. He entered and
went on. No early voice accosted him,
but the other heard a voice whose tones
may have died from the ear 20 years
before saying. Don't go there; don't
go there!" 1 think it vas almost the
first time 1 made a religious address.
1t was in DR.. Bethune's church, Brook
Ign. 1t vas an anniversary of the
Young Mems Christian association.
came in from my village home, and
remember nothing Of that anniversary
except that n Of the speakers that
night said: Many years ago two
young men stood at the door of the
Park theater, New York. They were
discussing whether they had better &c
in or not. There was an immoral play
to be enacted that night. One of then
said, L will not go in The other said;
Don't be afraid. Let US go in. VIII
cares? The n who entered went or
from sin to sin, the terminus of his life
delirium tremenS, with which he died
in a hospital. The other man turned
back, came to Christ as his Saviour
entered the gospel ministry, and hi
stands before you tonight. What was
it that stopped me at h door of the
Park theater,, New York, SO many
years ago? 1t was a pressure of E
hand on my shoulder-the pressure Of
my mothers hand"
NECESSITY OF EARLY TRAINING
Begin early with your children. Yol
stand on the banks of a river and yor
try to change it's course. 1t has beer
rolling now for 100 miles. You cannot
change it. But just go to the source Of
that river, go to where the water JUS
drips dow On the rock. Then with
your knife make a channel this way
and a channel that way, and it viii
take it. Come out and stand on tn,
banks of your child's life when it wa.
80 or 40 a of age, or even 20, and try
to change h curse of that life. 1t is
too late! 1t is too late. Go farther III
at the source of life and nearest to thu
mothers heart, where the character
starts, and try to take it in the right
direction. But, oh, my friend, be care.
full to make a line, a distinct line. be.
tween innocent hilarity on the one hand