Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1900-09-21
SAVANNAH, TENNESSEE, FRIDAY SEPTEMBER u, 1900.

and he went on from one success to
another until he was known all over
the land for his faith in God and his
good works as for his worldly success
When man has sacrificed any tem-
poral, financial good for the sake OF
his spiritual interests the Lord is on
his side, and one with God is major
ity.
But If you have been much among
the cities you have also noticed that
they are full of temptations of polit-
ical character. 1t is not so more in
one city than in all the cities. Hun
dreds of men going down in our cities
every year through the pressure OF
politics. Once in awhile man will
come out in a sort of missionary spirit
and say: II am going into politics
now to reform them, and l am going
TO reform the ballot box, and l am 60
ing to reform all the people come in
contact with" That man in the fear
and love of God goes into politics with
that idea and with the resolution that
he will come out uncontaminated and
as good as when he went in. But gen.
orally the case Is when a man steps
into politics many of the newspapers
try to blacken his character and to
distort all his past history, and after
II little while has gone by instead Of
considering himself an honorable citi-
zen he is lost in contemplation and in
admiration of the fact that he has so
long been kept out of Jail! If man
shall go into politics to reform politics
and with the right spirit, he will come
out with the right spirit and unhurt.
That was Theodore Frelinghuysen, of
New Jersey. That was George Briggs,
of Massachusetts. That was Judge Nc
Lean, of Ohio.
Then look around and see the al
lurements to dissipated life. Bad
books, unknown to father and mother,
vile as the reptiles of Egypt, crawling
into some of the best families of the
community; and boys read them while
the teacher is looking the other way,
or at recess, or on the corner of the
street when the groups are gathered.
These books are read late at night.
Satan finds them a smooth plank on
which he can slide down into perdi-
ton some Of your sons and daughters.
Reading bad bookstore never gets
over it. The books may be burned,
but there is not enough power in all
the apothecary's preparations to wash
out the stain from the soul. Fathers
hands, mothers hands, sisters hands
will not wash it out; none but the
hand of the Lord can wash ii out.
And what is more perilous in regard
to some of these temptations we may
not mention them. While God in His
Bible from chapter to chapter thun-
dered His denunciations against
these crimes people expect the pulpit
and the printing press to be silent on
the subject, and just in proportion as
people are impure are they fastidious
on this theme. They are so full of de-
cay and death they do not want their
sepulchers opened. God will turn in
TO destruction all the unclean, and no
splendors of surrounding can make de-
cent that which He has smitten. God
will not excuse sin merely because it
has, costly array and beautiful tapes
try and palatial residence any more
than He will excuse that which crawls
blotch of sores through the lowest
cellar. Ever and anon through some
lawsuit there flashes upon the people
of our great cities what is transpir-
ing in seemingly respectable circles.
You call it "high life," you call it
"fast living" you call it peoples &C.
centricity." And while we kick off
the sidewalk the poor wretch who has
not the means to garnish his iniquity,
these lords and ladies, wrapped in
purple and in linen, go unwhipped OF
public justice. All, the most dread
full part of the whole thing is that
there are persons abroad whose whole
business it is to despoil the young.
What an eternity such a man will
have! AS the door opens to receive
him thousands of voices will cry out.
"See here, what have you done?" and
the wretch will wrap himself with
fiercer flame and leap into deeper
darkness, and the multitude he has
destroyed will pursue him and hurl al
him the long, bitter, relentless, ever.
lasting curse of their own anguish
IL there be one cup of eternal dark
ness more bitter than another, they
will have to drink it to the dregs. II
in all the ocean of the lost world that
comes billowing up there be one wave
more fierce than another, it will dash
over them. But there is hope for al
who will turn.
/ stood one day at Niagara falls, and
l saw what you may have seen there
six rainbows bending over that ire
mendous plunge. I never saw any
thing like it before or since. Si1
beautiful rainbows arching that great
cataract! And SO over the rapids ant
angry precipices Of sin, where SC
many have been dashed down, God'l
beautiful admonitions hover, a warn
ing arching each peril-six of them
50 of them, 1000 of them. Beware
beware, beware!
Young men, while you have time t.
reflect upon these things and before
the duties of the office and the stor,
and the shop come upon you again
look over this whole subject, and aftel
the day has passed and you hear il
the nightfall the voices and footsteps
of the city dying from your ear, and i
gets so silent that you can hear dis
tinctly your watch under your pillow
going stick, tick" then open you
eyes and look out upon the darkness
and see two pillars of light, one hori
zontal, the other perpendicular, bu
changing their direction until the.
come together, and your enrapturet
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