The Jennings daily record. [volume] (Jennings, La.) 1900-1903, 1902-01-25


1 ought to be: am not what I wish
to be; am not what hope to be.
but. by the grace OF God, 7 am not
what I was
Dosnot boast of your moral strength.
Better underrate than overrate our
selves.
My subject is also refutatiOn OF the
famous sentiment that God Is on the
side Of the heaviest artillery. God Is
not on the side OF the most swords
or the most war chariots or the most
cannon if they be in the wrong. but
on the side of the right. How such
preposterous sentiment as I have men
toned should have gained sway I
know not when all history proclaims
the opposite. How Insignificant were
the unarmed Israelites, half starved
and unorganized, compared with
Pharaoh's host on foot, on horseback
and charioted! But the waves of the
Red sea took part in the conflict. part
| ing to let the pursued pass, but COM
| ing together to destroy the pursuers.
| The Midianites and Amalekites were
| like grasshoppers for multitudes, but
| their ownly weapons pitchers and
| lamps and trumpets. and as they held
up the lamps and threw down the
| pitchers and blew the trumpets the
| flash Of the lights and the blare of the
| instruments and the crash of the
| crockery made their enemy fall back
| in wild terror.
Notice also that my text takes it for
granted that you must put on the har-
ness. else how can you take it on? Life
| is a battle-a thirty years. forty
years or a sixty years war. Every
possible effort will be made to make
you think wrong. The young man
who gets his head filled with wrong
notions about God, about Christ. about
the soul, about the great beyond. is
| already captured. Think right, and
| you will act right. Keep the heart
pure. and the life will be pure. Have
the heart corrupt. and your actions
| will be corrupt.
Young man, see that you have on
complete armor. All looks bright now,
and it seems as if you could march
right on without opposition or attack.
but be not deceived. There are hidden
| foes ready to halt you on your way.
| The same cup that Benhadad drank
| out of just before his defeat will be Of
fered to effect your defeat. What work
| Benhadad's cup made for Benhahad's
| army! What shipwrecks on the sea,
| what disasters on the land, caused by
intlaming liquids put upon the tongue
to set seething the brain! How many
kings of thought and influence, with
! crowns brighter than the one Benhadad
wore, have by strong drink been put
into flight as base as that in which
Benhadad rode. Give them to me-"
says the demon OF inebriacy. "Give
them to me; hand them down-the
I brightest Legislators of the land. l
will thicken their tongue; l will bloat
their cheeks; l will stagger their step;
l will damn their soul. Hand them
down to me-"
We hold our breath in horror as
once in awhile We hear of someone,
either by accident or suicide, going over
Niagara Falls, but the tides, the
depths, the awful surges of intemper-
ance, are every hour Of every day
rushing scores of immortals down into
unfathomed abysm. Suicides by the
hundreds of thousands! Suicides by
the million! Beware of the cup out of
which Benhadad drank personal and
national demolition.
Yes, you must have full armor.
There are temptations to an impure
life all the time multiplying and in
tensifying. Read in private and dis
cussed afterward by the refined and
elegant in parlors are books poisoned
from lid to lid with impurities. Loose
characters in the novel applauded by
rhetorical pens and proprieties OF life
caricatured as prudery and infidelity
of behavior put in a way to excite sym
pathy and half approval. My wonder
is not that SO many go astray, but my
wonder is that ten times as many are
not debauched. There are influences
at work which, if unarrested, will turn
our cities into Sodoms and Gomorrahs
ready for the hail and fire and brim-
stone of Gods Indignation.
Yes YOU must have full armor, fol
there are all the tempta tions to gam
ing practices, either in gambling hall.
or in the money markets, buying wha
they never paid for and selling wha
they can never deliver, first borrowing
what they cannot borrow. All hours
OF the DAY anu oil loul . VI lhe ulSH
are vast sums of money passing fraud
ulently, for gambling in all cases i!
fraud, whether it be twenty-five cen
prize package or crash in Northern
Pacific, which made Lombard stree
and the hourse aghast and shook tn,
nations with financial earthquake.
Oh, yes, you need the harness OF
until God tells you to take it off. II
olden time it was leathern armor O
chain armor or ribbed armor, fash
toned in ancient foundry, but no on
can give you the outfit you need ex
cept God, who is master of this worlt
and the Internal world, from which as