Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-11-20

God only had your hands.
Down in a southern city, was a young
lady They were having what they
/ called dress ball."-undressed BALI
would be nearer right. They did not
have clothes enough on them to make
! a pad for a crutch. And presently a
young fellow stood there and he did not
dance and one of these society bellies
| with a soft liquid, Gaelic expression
| a straight Grecian nose, large lustrous
| brown eyes that set far apart; her hail
| like ravens wing, her teeth looked
! like lodges of pearl and Arctic snow
| drifts; her neck like a swan-she came
un to him with a gaze of Spartan-like
| championship and she said to him, will
! YOU pledge a glass of champagne with
me?"
He said, NO, nam; | do not drink.
| She said, Had l known that you die
not drink | would have stood upon the
formality of an introduction, and
would not have trespassed upon the
rules of etiquette and spoken to YOU
! But YOU looked so lonely that l thought
[ would run the risk of mourning your
| dispIeasure and having you think me
bold and forward, by speaking to you
Not one glass"
mo, thank you
Il cannot understand you.
And he backed off, but a dude came
up and the same thing went one be-
tween the monkey and the man. He
said, Come on, be a game sport. Come
on.
And others nagged him TO despera.
ton and finally he said We'll, /
could drink just one glass
And he reached out his hand and took
it and he looked at it minute and
he drank it down. Another, and another,
another. He became glibful tongued
ard they pushed him out on the ball
rooni floor and he became so drunk
that the girls had to hold him up to
keep him from falling.
Now, they were happy becaus they
could not bear to see anyone on the
square. The dirty bunch had gotten
him to hell and they seemed to be aDie
to go to bed happy, now.
They danced on and drank and drank
until midnight. AT . o'clock man
could be seen walking up and do"a
in the shade of the depot platform and
he would pull a pint flask from his
pocket and drink it down and say, oh!
God, what will mother say
Then he would stagger into the dark
ness and take another drink and when
he had emptied the bottle he hurled
it out on the rail and when the head
light of the midnight express on the
Shore line was coming for New York,
he staggered aboard and went back to
his home in Vermont, where two months
later nc died of delirium tremens. He
sncok his fist and shot it into the face
of his father until the blood spurted
from his nose.
Oh if you could have seen the letter
that mother wrote back to that so
ciety belle. If so, you would say with
Lady Macbeth of old will not all
oh, W
oh, use your hands to pull people out
of the mire and not to shove them hell
ward.
BY the mercies of God" give it to he
world
Make this world better by the influ-
ences you possess.
The Epworth league motto is Look
up and lift up" Oh, you will not do
very much lifting up unless God AL
mighty has hold of your hands to help
you to do something. And if God will
get hold of your hands you will stick
them down IN your pockets and you will
take them out full of dough and you will
pay Gods expenses quick and get them
out of the way.
About the first thing He does is cut
the purse strings around your pocket
books. ..- ..-.
A fellow | heard of was baptised by
immersion. He Joined the church and
he took out his notebook and the preach
er said, "Give me your pocketbook."
Not on your life. / want that to go
under with me-"
I tell you, pure religion will do more
for the world when God has something
more than nickels and pennies to work
with. Some people have a sort of skim
milk religion. There is no such thing as
a bargain counter proposition with God
Almighty
If IL does not cost you much ii is
worth more than it costs you and if you
get it and lie down and take Rip Van
Wrinkle sleep, your old joints will stiffen
and you will never win Gods marathon
A rich man heard a sermon one time
ard he went home and it troubled him
He said. THAT preacher made me look
into a glass this morning and what
saw there made me ashamed of myself"
His wife said. why? You are a gen.
erous giver. You give money to the
church"
why some people think | do, but
earn three or four times as much as
most of the members of that church and
they give three or four times as much
as / do. l am going to give something
that / will miss and l am determined
that it shall cost me something.
smoke Dig cigars and pay good prices
for them, and 1 am going to quit and
turn that money into the church. Will
any of you join me?"
The wife said, Il like tea. Young Hy-
son and Oolong mixed. / will give that
up
And he turned to the daughter and
she liked a lot of nice things and finery
and with much regret she specified some
things that she would give up. @
And he turned to the boy who was
feeding his face with mashed potatoes
and chicken gravy and he said, What
will you give up?"
The boy said. 81 will give up salt
mackerel I never did like the darned
stuff, anyway"
We have got too many salt mackerel
Christians. If they have something
they don't want and nobody else wants
they give it up, for they think it is
good enough for God.
Like two little girls playing Noah's
Ark in the bath tub until finally they
got tired and one of them pulled out the
stopper and said. THE flood is over
But the other little girl knew the
Bible and she said. mo. When the food
was over Noah came out of the Ark
and built an altar"
SO they took the soap dish and turned
it upside down. Then they hunted up
a toy sheep which had a leg off and they
put it on the altar and said, That is