The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-06-24
TO SIN
DISCUSSED BY REV. ED. F. COOK AT
WESLEY CHURCH.
SAVANNAH'S EVIL INFLUENCES
IRRELIGIoUs HOMES, SOCIAL CLUBS
AND MUSIC HALLS.

! 11eIds henuily and Cheerfully, De-
string Nothing Better Than to Sin.
IrreIigious Homes Cultivate the
worst Natures of Boys and Girls.
Social Clubs Furnish Temptation
to Dring and TO Gamble.
/ Irreligious homes, social clubs and
music halls were discussed by Rev. Ed.
F. Cook last night at Wesley Monumental
| Church. Rev. Mr.. Cook sought to show
the temptations that beset the pathway
/ of these not hardened and callous ia sin,
\ and the alleged evils he enumerated and
/ condemned were offered 10 view as most
| conductive agencies for the rapid tran
/ stion from the state wherein temptation
| is possible to that depraved and wholly
abandoned state wherein there is no
such thing-wherein to be tempted is but
to yield.
The preachers text was from Matthew,
25:41: Watch and pray. that ye enter not
into temptation; the spirit, indeed. is will
| ling. but the flesh is weak" He said
| that there is but one class that is free
from temptation, and that is the class
that cheerfuliy and gladly follows the
Z
to do his will. There are many such, he
said. in Savannah, to whom sin has be-
come part of their nature and in whom
temptation never takes hold
In testimony brought out recently in
case involving one of the music halls OF
the. CITY," said Mr.. Cook. "one of the
! witnesses said that he considered it no
| fit place for a gentleman and that one
| would not go there. Cross examination
| diSulged the fact that he had been at
| tending the music hall once a week for
about two years. 1t was no place for a
gentleman, yet men went there to feast
their eyes and to indulge their lustful
natures.
| 1T is not TO the men who have sunk
so low as never to know temptation to
| whom l want to speak; ii is to boys and
girls and men in this congregation who
! know the meaning of the word and who
| have to fight, their better natures strug
! Cling against their worse, to withstand
| the seductive sins it suggests. Be always
on guard against Satan. His wiles,
though, are not the only things that fur
nish temptation, for the evils of ones
own spirit cry out for recognition and
| cause battles between higher and lower
natures. No man, in himself, can cope
| successfully with temptation, and he
must have the help of God"
In Savannah. the minister said, there
are many irreligious homes, homes where
| the Bible is not opened and where pray
ers are never offered. In those homes it is
the custom to have wine upon the table,
| and social games of cards are played.
! Visits are paid the theater too, and, when
a parent is asked why it is that he fol-
lows such a policy. he replies that he
wants his children to learn to Withstand
| temptations at home and to be with the
family. The danger in this practice, how
ever, is that, having though in modera-
| ton, learned a home to drink wine there
! Is a temptation to the son to get out with
! the boys and drink with them, as he feels
| confident that there will be no peril for
| him, he has never suffered from his
| indulgence at home. He has played cards
at home, too, and has played successfully,
! so why not enlarge the sphere of his ac-
! ton and play with the boys, though the
stakes might be but small? The boy has
within him appetites and tastes that, Gull
! tivated at home in this way drive him
| forth for their Indulgence with a strength
| that not one in a hundred can withstand
! OF the clubs Mr. Cook said that the
first temptation they offer is to drink, for
| there are the gilded bars. Then there is
a temptation to gamble, either with cards
or with other devices. This may be in
moderation, but there is the great danger
| of its becoming excessive, and the young
man is in imminent peril of losing that
! character and stability that would make
him the best citizen and the most potent
factor for the improvement OF his COM
munity and of his country. Daily there
is a temptation to drink and gamble in
the clubs, and there boys meet men older
| in vice than themselves, whose influence
over them is bad and whose dirty stories
besmirch and pollute their thoughts and
| their characters. In the clubs the state
laws are violated every Sunday, when
liquor is sold.
The graduates from the irregilious
homes, Mr.. Cook said, often furnish the
recruits for the ranks, of the gamblers,
the drunkards and the libertines. During
his passionate, he said, he had noted a
number Of young men of the so-called up
per classes, who. unable to stand the
pace they had attempted to follow. had
found suicide welcome or the penitentiary
opening its gates. From those homes and
from other homes go forth the young
men to the music halls and to the haunts
OF dreadful vice.
MIR. Cook related a story of two boys
who were sent to the care of a friend
in Savannah by father of another place,
who was anxious that they see the Elks'
Fair. The friend was to take care of the
boys. One of the injunctons of the father
at night. The first night, however, after
they had been shown to their rooms and
their fathers command made known TO
them. they slipped from the house and
went TO a music hall They had wanted
10 get away upon the pretense of going
to the Y. NJ. c. A., and Mr. Cook remark
ed, parenthetically, that a number OF in
stances have been brought to his atten-
ton recently wherein the Y. NJ. C. A.
had been employed as but a pretext, boys
using it having gone TO places they
should never have visited. He warned
mothers and fathers to be sure OF their
boys. -.
His story OF the two visiting lads
neither of whom was beyond his early
teens. concluded with his relating how
both had got beastly drunk and were
taken back to the home they. were visit
ing in o hack. lie inveighed against music
halls, places for the debauc seduc-
ton and damnation OF the boys. conduct
ed upon the principal street of the city.
The proprietor OF one OF them. he said
had proclaimed that he would be able TO
establish Ia the courts that he conducted
/ a decent and orderly place, i'm which
event. Mr.. Cook implored that God might
help the proprietor and the court wherein
such fact could be established.
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