Connecticut western news., 1902-05-22
TALMAGE SERMON
By Rev. FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE. DID,. Pastor of Jefferson Park Presby- terian Church, Chicago

young people against the tempters who would lead them to ruin; text, Proverbs i, 10, My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not"
 No cathedral, 1t matters not how lofty the spires or how wonderful the statuary or how mazy and bewildering the architecture, awes the tourist into reverence unless time has hallowed it. Then the centuries have covered up the crumbling walls with moss and creeping ivy; then Westminster abbey, with it's dark, damp, dripping vaults, has become the sepulcher of dead kings and queens. In the same way no man has q right to give advice or tell us what to do unless gray hairs begin to fringe the forehead or he can speak out of his own bitter experience. It is absurd for the ruddy faced lad to write an essay upon sorrow, when the only sorrow he ever felt was the fright from the dentist pulling his first baby teeth, and what audience does not smile when listening. to the schoolboy's bombastic graduation oration upon How to Win Huccessr No reformer can have great influence in attacking clubroom when he himself is so unsociable that the hearers dislike the reformer worse than they despise his teachings.
 Every speech, every sermon, every argument, every essay, must be backed up by the personality of the individual. 1t is said that when John J. Crittenden arose to address a jury and ran his fingers through his long gray hair his case was already half won. All Ken tuckians knew John J. Crittenden would not defend a client unless he himself believed in that mans inno- cence. You must respect the speaker before you can respect his speech.
 King Solomon wrote with authority. He had drunk from the chalices of pleasure. He had quaffed to the bitter dregs every cup of woe. He had seen the ups as well as the downs of life. He was no fanatic or adventurer. He was the king who sat upon the richest throne of the then known world. His pillared halls were lined with statuary. The fountains which played in his gardens moistened the throats of birds whose ancestors once cleansed their plumage or sang their young to sleep in foreign lands. His cellars were filled with wine of choicest vintage.
 The throneroom and Judgment hall were circled by rooms above rooms. Near by were his harems, in which the king gathered thousand wives and concubines. As the wit once wrote of Brigham Young, King Solomon was the most married man that ever lived. Not only was he great and increased more than all that were before him in Jerusalem, but his wisdom remained with him. When two women claimed . little child, Solomon ordered his ex- ecutioner to cut the baby in twain and give half to each. The real mother fell on her knees and begged him to save the child and if necessary to give 1t to her enemy. Then said Solomon: "She b the true mother. Give her the child" As a gardener, he knew all about flow ers; as an equestrian, all about horses; as an architect, all about buildings. He made the ant our teacher. As a mer-
 
 to tell us how to trade. Today, amid wealth and power, within sound of clinking tankards of gold and rumbling chariot wheels, the old sage writes an eternal protest against sin, My son. if sinners entice thee, consent thou not" The Importance of Starting Right.
 Young men dislike to be patronized. \ fn nfh in terms of familiarity, we dislike old CT people to pat us condescendingly upon the back. So today, as a young . man, I thought you young people would let me try to interpret these words of the Bible. I would especially interpret them now, because many of you who have come from far away are for the first time living in a great city. You are away from home, away from ia ther and mother. Unless you start right you will never end right. ''The glory of young men is their strength" The way to keep that strength Is to refuse to allow the sinful dissipations to sar the virility of youth.
 King Solomon warns the young peo pie against sin, because young folks are apt to be thoughtlessly reckless They do not want to be bad; they have no intention of throwing overheard al the past teachings of probity and right they are naturally religious; they say their prayers when they arise in tht morning; they say their prayers agair before going to bed at night. But they are full of fun and animal spirits. They laugh and sing and frolic just as col capers, kitten plays with her tail ant a bird flies hither and thither for thu mere pleasure of flying. A full blood ed lad cannN keep still. He squirm and twists and whispers and passe notes in the schoolroom. He does abOu everything that the teacher tells hin not to do If you ask him why he doe thus, he could not answer. Wha schoolboy when out in the country ha not tried to see how near he coul' skate to the airhole in the ice? Wha boy has not fished when standing upol . rolling log or has not tried to wal across dangerous trestle or has no climb1d a steep precipice until hi brain was dizzy with vertigo? Wha boy has not tried to swim across riV or merely because the older boys sai he could not?
 When Benedict Arnold was a youn man. he would catch held of the spoke of the mill wheel and be dragged roun and round, in and out of the wate merely to terrorize the miller, wh thought the boy was going to di' When healthy boy at boarding schoo did you not love to go rowing? Di you not pull the boat so far from shor that when the storm came up it wa almost impossible to get back?
 That is the spirit with which youn people enter a large city. This is tt first time you have ever been ava from home. At the first manifestatio of sin you were shocked and horrifie, You were always accustomed to a S,
 cred Sabbath. You went to churc