The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1903-02-22
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
RY rHE Rgv. HANK be WITT rALMAoE. 0. D.


with the obsequiousness OF a visitor he
strides into that young mans store and
home with the mien and heavy step of
a tyrant and a master.
Then I see Debt call out to a yelled fig
ure who is standing in the doorway. He
says: Come in, mother, come in. You
need not be afraid; come in Then the
female figure throws back the veil from
her head, and l see that she is the old
bag Pride, with painted, withered.
sneering scornful face. Then Debt takes
mother Pride through the aislos of the
stores and through the rooms of the
young mans home as he says: Mother
these goods-they shall soon all be mine
and l will make the young man drop his
life insurance policy when he dies, l viii
literally strip his widow of everything
Aha, that young man did not realize what
a keen, shrewd farseeing Satanic plan
ner ] could be when / told him to increase
his outgo over his financial income. l
am well worthy to be called tiny child,
mother. I carry misery and woe
wherever I go Such is nearly always
the outcome of every mans life when
Pride and Debt go hand in hand and are
allowed to sit down by the domestic fire
side.
The Tyranny of Debt.
The tyranny of debt when is the off
spring of false pride, makes its conquests
ever those who have large incomes as
well as those with small. Only the other
day there was buried in one of Chicago's
cemeteries a man who for ten years had
a salary Of over $1,000 per year. Yet that
man was always in debt While he had
an income of $500 he was trying to live
on the scale of those who had a So 600 In
come. When he was appointed a general
SUPERINTENDENT Df a LARGO on a.
$3.50 per month salary, he Immediately
moved his family into a new neighLor-
hood and tried to associate with Chicago's
m1ionaires. That man. when he died,
did not own the home he lived IN. H.
did not even own the bed on which he
died. Every particle of real estate held
in his name was plastered over with
mortgages. Last fall he even allowed his
life insurance policy to lapse because he
could not afford to pay few hundred
dollars necessary to keep 1t up, though
he had q salary OF $1,000 per year. So we
find today that many a man who lives In
a fine mansion is in the merclloss clutch
OF debt The financial curse of this age
is that multitudes of people, on account
of false pride and pernicious eXtrava-
gance. are eling out a miserable exist
ence. These people may move in the best
society, so called yet they are far poorer
y
airy Of $40 a week who saves at least one
tenth of his income.
Debt is not only the offspring of pride
but is often the parent of a large family
of criminal children The study of gem
ealogical tables is among the most inter-
esting of studies. Certain families nearly
always have good children; you can trace
them down from generation to generation.
Other families nearly always have bad
in their blood that is diseased and con-
taminated As the waters falling down
the cascades near Duluth show the dis
colorations contracted in passing thrfugh
forests OF cedar and tamarack mlvs
away, so the glood of some children is
| tainted with criminal tendencies, inner.
tied even before they are born. They are
born with a propensity for lying, for
stealing, for inebriety. which they are
seldom able to eradicate. But though
| these children may not be able to over
| come their evil tendencies in their own
| strength, they can overcome by the help
of a superior power, which is offered to
all who are tempted.
Wilfully Running Into Debt.
Wilful debt is that kind of debt into
which many allow themselves to run
! through useless and sinful extrava gances.
| While the young man is being financially
ground to pieces by the upper and neither
milstones of this kind of debt what is
often the most natural thing for him to
/ do? Ask that young collector who Is
taking some of his employers money to
win, as he fooishly thinks, a fortune al
! the gamblers Wheel He is not at heart
a bad young man. He intends to pay
that money back. He expects to use 1t
only for a little while and then return II
with intel est after he has escaped from
the clutches of merciless debt Ask that
young embezzler who has Just felt the
heavy hand of the law placed upon his
shoulder. Did he ever expect that the
| late suppers the theater tickets and the
attendance at the races would yet end il
q pris IN cell? No. no! He was lea as a
lamb to the slaughter by the evil worry
ings of debt accommodating debt. ASK
that wildcat Spectator in Wall street
Did he ever think for one moment thai
he would lose the estate conflded to him
| in trustee form when he began to run
into debt? No. no! These men are being
destroyed by debt in the same way that
| the learned Lord Bacon was led to ac-
cept brides. They are being lured to de-
struction as Benedict Arnold was lured
when his debts drove him to embark IN
! the plot to destroy West Point The
bloodhounds of debt had barked at his
heels ever since his Philadelphia extrava.
gances, and his debts not only made him
a traitor against his creditors. but al
last they made him traitor against his
| country.
Crookedness. gambling, wildcat specula.
ton and a betrayal of ones best friends
are often found among the malformet
offspring of a lideous parent, Debt. Bu
without doubt the greater number of tn,
children of this infamous progenitor ar,
those with the fatal marks of perjury