The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1900-08-11

"AN"W az tne sOuIB darkness.
as broad as hell. They want a reli.
gion that will allow them to keen
their sins and then at death saw IN
Them; "Well done, good and faithful
servant" and that tells them: "Au
is well, for there is no hell" What a
glorious Heaven they hold before usl
come, let us go in and see 1t. There
are Herod and all the babes he mas.
sacred. There are Charles Guiteau
ahu kobespierre, the feeder of the
french guillotine, and all the liars,
thleves, house burners, garroters.
pickpockets and libertines of all the
centuries. They have all got crowns
and thrones and harps and scepters.
and when they chant they singi
Thanksgiving and honor and glory
ana 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-
ltyofsaying useful word to all young
men who are now forming habits for q
lifetime. OF what use to a stonema-
son or bricklayer is a plumb line?
why not build the wall by the unaided
eye and hand? Because they are in
sufficient, because if there be de-
Election in the wall it cannot further
on be corrected. Because by the law
OF gravitation wall must be straight
in order to be symmetrical and safe.
A 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 60 years
OF age, though he had not since Fl
years of age, before which he had
been dissipated, touched intoxicating
liquor until that particular carousal
that took him off. Not Keeling well in
the street on hot summer day he
stepped into drug store, just as you
and I 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 a 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 may be 100
feet high, and yet detection one foot
from the foundation affects the entire
structure. And if you live 100 years
and do right the last so 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 to these young
men, you cannot build wall so high
as to be independent of the character
of its foundation? A man before 30
years of age may commit enough sin
to last him lifetime. Now, John or
George or Henry, or whatever be your
Christian name or surname, say here
and now: mo 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. am going
to start right and keep on right. God
help me, for / am very weak. From the
throne of eternal righteousness let
down TO me the principles by which /
can be guided in building everything
from foundation to 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. believe in fun. I have had lots
of it in my time. But 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. I have had
fun illimitable, though I never swore
one oath and never gambled for SO
much as the value of a pin and never
saw the inside of haunt of sin save
as when many years ago, with q COM
missioner of police and a detective and
two elders of my church, I explored
New York and Brooklyn by midnight,
not out of curiosity, but that might
in pulpit discourse set before the peo-
ple the poverty and the horrors of I'M
foreground city life. Yet, though I was
never intoxicated for an instant and
never committed one act of dissolute-
only by the grace Of
God, without which restraint would
have gone headlong to the bottom OF
infamy-I have had SO much fun that
7 don't believe there is man on the
planet at the present time who has had
more. Hear it, men and boys, women
and girls, all the fun is on the side
of right. Sin may seem attractive, but
it is deathful and like the manchineel,
a tree whose dews are poisonous. The
only genuine happiness is in Christian
life.
There they go-two brothers. The
one was converted year ago in church
one Sunday morning during prayer or
sermon or hymn. No one knew it at
the time. The persons on either side
of him suspected nothing, but in that
young mans soul this process went on:
Lord, here I am, a young man amid
the temptations of city life. and l am
afraid to risk them alone; come and
by my pardon and my help; save me
from making the mistake some OF my
comrades are making and save me
now" And quicker than a flash God
rolled Heaven into his soul. He is just
as jolly as he used to be, is just as bril-
liant as he used to be. He can strike
A ball or catch one as easily as before
he was converted. With gun or fishing
rod in this summer vacation he is just
as skillful as before. The world is
brighter to him than ever. He appre'