The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-10-20
:: R: TALMAGE'S: SERMON
lcopyright, 1901. Louis Klopsch, N. Y.I


 and the worst time the third watch of the night.
 Do you know it is in this third watch | of the night that criminals do their worst ! work? 1t Is the criminals watch. At half past you will find them in the they % to their garrets, they. get out their tools then they start on the street | Waching on either side for the police, they 90 to their work of darkness. This is burglar, and the false key will soon touch the store lock. This is an incen- diary, and before morning there will be a light on the sky and cry Of Fire, | morning there will be deac body in one of the vacant lots During the daytime these villains in our cities lounge about the third watch of the night arrives | their eye is keen, their brain cool, their arm strong. their foot fleet to ny or pur- sue, they are ready. Many of these poor | They were born ;n a thieves garret.
 Their childish toy was burglars dark lantern. The. first thing they remember their father. struck by the police club. | They began by robbing boys pockets. and now they have come to dig the un- bank and are preparing to blast the gold yauit, Just so long as there are neglect Cd d1tHren of the street. just so long we will Shlve these despsradoes. Some one, | and td quote a passage of Scripture ex- pecting to get a Scriptural passage in answer. said to one of these poor lads.
 cast out and wretched. When your
 father and mother forsake you, who will
 takes you up?' and the boy said, The
 Hour of Great Temptation.
 In the third watch of the night gaInb- the hours be slipping away and though | the wife be waiting in the cheerless home? Stir up the fire. Bring on more n1rSs arss boi bo.s up that onY tte while ago put out a sign of copartnership will this winter be wrecked on gamblers table. There will be many money till that will spring leak. In the third | watch of the night pass down the streets of these cities and you will hear the click of the dice and the sharp. keen stroke these places merchant princes dismount and legislators, tired of making laws, take respite in breaking them. All classes of people are robbed by this the dealer in Chatham street pocket handkerchiefs. The clerks of the store | take a hand after the. shutters are put up and the officers of the court while away their time while the jury Is out. In Baden-Baden. when that city was | the greatest of all gambling places on earth. 1t was no unusual thing the next morning, in the woods around about the city. to find the suspended bodies of sui cides. Whatever be the splendor of sur | roundings, there Is no excuse for this crime. The thunders of eternal destruc- ton roll in the deep rumble of that gam | bling tenpin alley, and as men come out to Join the long procession of sin all the drums of death beat the dead march of a thousand souls.
 In one year in New York City there were seven million dollars sacrificed at the gaming table. Perhaps some Of your friends have been smitten of this sin. Perhaps some of you have been smitten by it. Perhaps there may be a stranger here from some of the hotels. Look out for those agents of iniqnity who .yy tarry about the hotels and ask you. Would | you like to see the city? Yes. Have | you ever seen that splendid building up town?' No" Then the villain will un- | dertake to show you what he calls the ''lions" and the "elephants,' and after a young man through morbid curiosity or through badness of soul has seen the lions and the elephants he will be | on enchanted ground Look out for these men who move around the hotels with sleek hats-always sleek hats-and pat ronizlng air and unacceuntable interest | about your welfare and entertainment | You are fool if you cannot see through | 1t. They want your money.
 In Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. while cured which was familiar to us there ' Tn Chestnut Street a young man went | into a gambling saloon, lost all his prop erty, then blew his brains out, and before 
 l the maid the comrades were shunllng cards again. You see there IS more mercy in the highwayma nfor the belated | traveller on whose body he heaps the stones there is more mercy in the frost | for the flower that 1t kills. there Is more mercy in the highwayman for the belated | steamer on the Atlantic coast. than there Is mercy in the heart of gambler for | his victim.
 When Drunkenness Most Prevails.
 In the third watch of the night also drunkenness does its worst. The drink ing will he respectable at o'clock in | the evening" little flushed al g, talka- | tive and garrulous at 10, at II blasph"-
 nous. al F the hat falls off. at ] the man falls to the floor asking for more drink. Strewn through the drinking sa- looms of tho city, fathers, husbands, sons as good as you are by nature. perhaps better. In the high circles of society 1t
 gets noisy and uncomfortable, is taken l by his fellow revelers, who try to get
 him to bed or take him home. where he
 falls flat in the entry Do not not %aKe Tss9rap up l enough Do not let them know It. Hush
 1t up. But sometimes 1t cannot be hush | ed up when the rum touches the brain
 and the man becomes thoroughly lren-
 zied. Such a one came home, having
 been absent for some time, and during his absence his wife died, and she lay
 quies. and he went in and dragged her | by the locks and shook her out or the shroud and pitched her out of the win dow. Oh. when rum touches the brain | you cannot hush 1t up!
 My friends, you see all around about
 you the need that something radical be
 done. You do not see the worst. In the
 midnight meetings in London a great
 multitude have been saved. We want
 few hundred Christian men and women
 to come down from the highest circles or
 society to toll amid these wandering ana
 destitute ones and kindle up hght Tn I the dark alley, even the gladness or 1 heaven. Do not go wrapped in your me furs and from your well filled tables With
 the idea that pious talk is going to stop
 the gnawing of an empty stomach or 10 | warm stockingess feet. Take bread. l take ralment take medicine. as well as | take prayer. There is a great deal or common sense in what the poor woman said to the city missionary when he was | telling her how she ought to love Goo | and serve him. "Oh." she said, IT you were as poor and cold as am and as ,. hungry you could think of nothing else A great deal of what is called Cnristlan work goes for nothing for the sihple reason that it was not practical, as al atteF the battle of Antietam a man got out or | an ambulance with a bag of tracts ana l he went distributing the tracts, ana | George Stuart one of the best Chrlsuah