The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-07-30

Not oD2 out OF ten thousand that ever
ses so far on the wrong road ever stops.
Gradually his health will fail through
late hours, and through too much stimu-
lants he will be first rate prey for cry
sipelas and rheumatiSm Of the heart.
Evils of Bad Associations.
The doctor coming in wll at a glance
see it Is not only present disease he must
fight, but years of fast living The cler-
gyman, for the sake OF the feelings Of the
family, on the funeral day will only talk
in religious generalities. The men who
got his yacht in the eternal rapids will
not be at the o~bsequies. They have
pressing engagements that day. They
will send flowers to the coffin, will send
their wives to utter words Of sympathy,
but they will nave engagements else
where. They never come. Bring me
mailet AND chisel. and 1 will cut that
mans epitaph, Blessed are the lead who
die in the Lord?" NO. you say, that
would not be appropriate" "Let me die
the death Of the righteous and let my last
end be like his?" NO" you say, that
would not be appropriate" Then give
me the mallet and the chisel, and | will
cut an honest epitaph, Here lies the vic
tim Of dissipatirg associations!.'
<AhclAcI tSol ny WHALE yOu tdu llu
whether your secret society is right or
wrong is the effect it has on your 5; 3lar
occupation. 1 can understand how
through such an institution a man can
reach commercial success. l know Sorle
men ave formed their best business re-
lations through such a channel. If the
secret society has advantaged you in an
honorable calling, it is q good one, but
has your credit failed? Are bargain max
ers now more anxious how they trust you
with Il bale of goods? Have the men
whose names were down in the CONNER
cial agency Al before they entered the
society been going down since in COM
mercial standing? Then look out. You
and l every day know Of commercial es-
adjustments going to ruin through the
social excuses of one or two members,
their fortune beaten to death with bali
players bat or cut amidships with the
front Prov Of the regatta or going down
under the swift hoofs of the fast horses
or drowned in the large rotations Of
cognac or Monongahela. That secret So
ciety was the Loeb Earn. Their business
was the Vile de Havre. They struck,
and the Vile de Havre went under!
The third test by which you may know
whether the society to which you belong
is good or bad is this: What is its effect
on your sense OF moral and religious OBJ
legation? Now. if | should take the
names of Ill the people in this audience
and put them Oh Il roll and then l should
lay that roll back of this organ and a
hundred years from now some one should
take that roll and call it from A to Z
there would not one of you answer. l
say that any society that makes me for
get that fact is Il bad society.
When | 60 to Chicago, | am sometimes
perpleXcd at Buffalo, as | suppose many
travellers are, as to whether it is better
to take the Lake Shore poutp or the Mich
igan Central. equally expeditions and
equally safe. getting to their destination
at the same time. But suppose that /
hear that on one route the track is torn
up, the bridges are down and the switches
are unlocked. it will H!)t take me a great
while to decide which road to take. Now,
here are two roads in the future-the
Christian and the un-Christian, the safe
and the unsafe. Any institution or any
association that confuses my ideas in re-
gard to that fact is a bad institution and
q bad association. | had prayers before
1 Joined that society. Did | have them
afterward? l attended the house of God
before l connected myself with that I'M
ion. Do l absent myself from religious
Influences?
In the Last Hours.
Which would you rather have in our
hand when you come to die, a pack of
cards or a Bible? Which would you
rather have pressed to your lips in the
closing moment, the cup Of Belshazzarean
wassail or the chalice of Christian COM
munion? Whom would you rather have
for your pallbearers, the elders Of a
Christian church or the companions
whose conversation was full of slang and
innuendo? Whom would you rather have
for your eternal companions, those men
who spend their evenings betting. gam
bling, swearing, carousing and telling
vile stories or your little child, that bright
girl whom the Lord took? Oh, you would
not have been away so much nights,
would you, if you had known she was
going away so soon? Dear me. your
house has never been the same place
since. Your wife has never frightened
up. She has never got over it She
never will get over it. How long the
evenings are with no one to put to bed
and no one to whom to tell the beautiful
Bible stories! What a pity it is that you
cannot spend more evenings at home in
trying to help her bear that sorrow! You
can never drown that grief in the wine
cup. You can never break away from
the little arms that used to be Sung
around your neck when she used to say.
"Papa. do stay with me tonight, do stay
with me tonight" You will never be
able to wipe away from your lips the
dying kiss of your little girl. The fas-
c~ination of a bad secret society is SO
great that sometimes a man has turned
his back on his home when his child was
dying Of scarlet fever. He went away.
Before he got back at midnight the eyes
had been closed. the undertaken had done
his work. and the wife, worn out with
three weeks watching, lay unconscious
in the next room. Then the returned
father comes up stairs, and he secs the
cradle gone. and he says What is the
natter" On the judgment day he will
find out what was the matter.
Oh. man astray, God help you! l am
going to make a very stout rope. You
know that sometimes a ropemaker will
a ke very small threads and wind them
.-AI --Isl- A.