The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1902-08-14

hand" said distinguished man in De-
trot, eff I could forget the sins of my
youth. and sacrifice my left hand and my
eyes if / could put away the sinful stories
of my boyhood's days.
Second, for the habits of indulgence we
shall be obliged to pay. We wake up at
forty years in the midst of a busy world,
every man is busy about us, and before we
can seize an opportunity it is gone; before
away, and habits of indulgence to greater
or less degree will cling to you till death.
You may have gone through the worst
forms of sim and God will forgive you, but
you are marked.
once said to friend of mine as I was
trying to help one who has been drunk
ard, al often wish that had felt the pangs
and sufferings of incorporate men that. l
| might better sympathize with men," and /
shall never forget his face; it grew deathly
white, and the tears ran down his cheeks
as he said, Never say it again, for if /
could only forget I would be perfectly
happy, but while it is true that we never
forget, God does, for He has said, I viii
remember your transgresslons no more for
ever" and in the Old Testament has de-
clared that "our sins shall not be men,
TONED against us in that day."
Third, we shall have to pay for every
warning given. After Jonah was rescued and
entered Nineveh he cried aloud: "Yet forty
days and Nineveh shall be overthrow" but
God has been better to you than that.
They had one appeal, you have had fifty;
they had one warning, you have had q
thousand; they had forty days, you have
had forty years. Sometimes the warning
has come in the providences of God, some
| times in the sickness of the night when the
very ticking of the clock was an invitation,
and we shall have to pay for consciences
scared and hearts burdened, and we shall
be obliged to go out into the world to come
absolutely shorn of excuses. 1t is not
necessary to speak of big sins. DIR. Tai
mage has said, however, that there are five
acts in the rum traffic.
ACT THE FIRST.
A man starting from home for college,
his parents weeping, his sister almost with
heart breaking and as he leaves the house
they stand in the doorway of the old home
to wave him farewell until he is over the
hill and gone.
ACT THE SECOND.
The marriage altar and the church filed
with music and two hearts beating as one
and a new home established. 81
ACT THE THIRD.
Midnight and woman waiting in
home of poverty for husband who does
not come home, and when he comes is in
AL FOOhlH.
Three graves IN a dark place, the grave
of child who died of neglect, the grave OF
woman who died of broken heart, the
grave of man who has killed himself.
ACT THE FIFTH.
A distressed souls entry, no music, no
life, the blackness of darkness everywhere.
V.
Suppose. we go on in the way in which
we started. Oh. what an infinite cost, ig-
coionoa ond tho a.
friends and the pleading of the Spirit
A young boy sent away from New York
to- g Western city provided with a new
suit of clothes and a new hat, was seen
tearing the lining out of his old hat and
when asked why he was doing so said, "It
was piece of my mothers dress, and /
cannot go without it. She loves me, and
that you have of your mother; you have
the memory of her sweet life and the
vision of her tears of concern and the sad
look of her face as she said, ri beseech
you, do not go astray," and you promised
you would not, and you have. Manhood
will suffer if you go on.
Here is graduating scene in Western
college, and at the feet of the leader of
the class the flowers are thrown and as he
descends from the platform the old college
hall rings with cheers and people rise and
congrat ulate the aged father and the low
ing mother on having such boy, and here
is picture of prison cell and the in
mates hair is matted and his eyes are
bruised, and the picture of the second is
the picture of the first after the trans
forming power of sin. Oh, that we might
turn to God to-day, for we may wait until
it is too late.
The Rebecca Goddard years ago came al
most within sight of the New York harbor
and was then caught in the ice and thrown
back again at sea, drifted for days at the
mercy of the waves and finally mas lost,
and yet she was within sight Of the her
Dor. God pity us if we should be in sight
of home tonight and after all be lost.