The Washington herald., 1918-01-26
Man Is Judged BY the Company He Keeps; Stay

ported either by their friends or the
country. Now, when they need II most,
Is the time they are least able to
earn II.
So lay up something. Get a good
Christmas. character in you. then when
you need II to stand against tempta-
ton, you viii be fortified to win a
victory. Don't wait to have It de-
cided by the street mob and the crowd.
That is too late, my friend. You will
lose out.
I believe that the angels weep the
day that a young fellow starts out
and spends more than he earns, and
one of the first covenants to make II
you want to win Is that you Will never
run in debt
Keep Out of Debt.
Before the devil can persuade you to
steal. he has first got to convince
you that you need what you are 60
ing to steal, and the best plan the
devil ever hit upon Is to get people
in debt. I believe the devil win work
harder to get a young man in debt
than he will to persuade an old man
to rob bank.
There are gamblers, graves that
wouldn't be there tonight II they
hadn't gone in debt, for then they be-
came gamblers to get the money to
get out of debt. There are men In
prison who wouldn't have been there
II they had never got In debt, for
once getting in debt. they went and
stole money to get out Of debt and
they were put behind prison bars.
Let's be sensible and see what God
wants US to do. and all that Is going
to help us.
1t is gratifying to be well dressed
oh my!-but when your clothes are
brought on credit, they cost you too
much. Dress as well as you can, but
take it from me, have the nerve to
wear patches rather than to wear togs
owed by the tailor. Patches are more
honorable than pawn tickets A hand
me-down, IL 1t is paid for. is better
than a tailor-made with a collector
after you. Yes, sir.
l tell you, Delmonico's, the St. Regis,
Sherry's, the Plaza, the Savoy. the
Netherland. the Astor, or the Wander
bilt-that Is all right IL you can afford
the price. but there is more satisfac-
titon in a bowl OF bean soup and a
sinker If It Is in keeping with your
pile. Don't try to work the Percy and
Fred gag on them.
Some people think the more they
can look like a scarecrow, the more
pious they are; like an old farmer
out in Iowa l heard Of He went to
a barber shop TO get haircut and his
whiskers trimmed, and they found a
scythe stone hanging behind his ear
that he lost last summer.
So wear the best clothes you can,
and pay for them, that is all Don't
wear a suit that looks as though 1t
had been cut out by a cross-eyed
man with a cross-cut saw and shot out
of a howitzer.
If the truth were only known, a
good share of the professional gamb-
lers got into the game by FIRST be-
ginning an extravagant life. and II
you will find out, q good many OF the
downfalls of virtue was caused by
the fact that they wanted to wear bet
ter clothes than they could buy on
their wages.
1 know young people. have helped
you. have been through the game
and know all about It I am trying
to talk to you tonight, to warn you,
for l want you to win out and want
you TO succeed.
And 1 want to say. above all things,
young people, you must be q Christian.
OF all subjects that you wiz ever be
called upon to consider, religion Is
first; and young men and women the
biggest asset that you VIII have when
you go out into the world to earn
your bread will be a Christian char
acter, the biggest asset that any young
man ever had
There never was q time in the his
tory of America when men and wom-
end put a greater value upon religion
than they do today, never in the
world. and the young man or the
young woman who doesn't build his
or her life on religion-you are lost.
you are lost; and IL you have gone
wrong. you will never have . better
chance to go right
You never had more incentives and
more sncouragements. You have new
er had 1t easier in your life, and had
more Inducements to stand for God.
and never has there been a time in
your lie and in the history of this
country when your influence for God
will count for more.
Plea for Repentance.
God has no words Of chiding. God
has no condemnation for your past.
God stands ready to forgive.
When they were digging the Pana-
ma Canal and Mr.. Taft was Presi-
dent, they took out of the funds they
had fifty-odd thousand dollars to hire
New York Y. NJ. c. A workers and
Christian workers to go down there,
and Mr.. Taft said:
I'VE may be charged with having
filched that money from the public
treasury. I think we could defend
the charge upon legal grounds if We
were called upon to do so. Without
religion we would never dig the Pan
anna Canal. There would be such a
saturnaIia of vice and immortality that
we never could complete the Panama
Canal without religion"
And II they couldn't dig the Pan
anna Canal without putting Christian
men there to work to help them,
don't think you are ever going to go
out and succeed in the world without
religion.
Never has there been a time when
we realize its value and need 1t more
than we do right now, in our day.
william II. Mllourn, VINO was ior
years the Blind Chaplain" Of the
United States Senate, was told by
some friends OF an eminent oculist
In London who had done wonders,
and he journeyed across the seas,
and when he arrived there he found
there was a convention of oculists
being held in Paris.
He went to the Continent to see this
London specialist. He met him and
he said: well, am glad you came. l