Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1896 — TALMAGE’S SERMON. [ARTICLE]

TALMAGE’S SERMON.

WASHINGTON PREACHER SHOWS EVILS OF BAD COMPANY. Association with the Wicked Breeds Corruption, and He Who Consorts with the Unclean Will Be Polluted, Bar* the Great Divine. Sin Is Infectious. Young and old, but more especially the yonug men and women of our time, have S vital interest in the theme upon which Bev. Dr. Talmage discoursed last Sunday. He chose for his subject, “Bad .Company,” the text selected being Proverbs i.. 15, “Walk not thou in the way with them.” Hardly any young man goes to a place •f dissipation alone. Each one is accompanied. No man goes to ruin alone. He always takes some one else with him. “May it please the court,” said a convicted criminal when asked if he had anything to say before sentence of death was passed upon him—“may it please the court, bad company has been my ruin. I received the blessing of good parents, and, In return, promised to avoid all evil associations. Had I kept my promise I should iia ve been saved this shame and been free f'-om the load of guilt that hangs around . • like a vulture, threatening to drag 1 to justice for crimes yet unrevealed, who once moved in the first circles of . ciety and have bean the guest of distinguished public men, am lost, and all through bad company.” This is but one of the thousand proofs that evil associations blast and destroy. It is (he invariable rulp. There is a well oau in the wards of a hospital, where .there are a hundred people sick with chip fever, and he will not be so apt to take the disease as a good man would bo Wpt to be smitten with moral distemper jlf shut up with iniquitous companions. In olden times prisoners were herded together in the same cell, but each one learned the vices of all the culprits, so that llnstead of being reformed by incarceration the day of liberation turned them ®ut upon society beasts, not men. I Beware of the Vicious, i We may, in our places of business, be compelled to talk to and mingle with bad men, but he who deliberately chooses to associate himself with vicious people is , Wugaged in carrying on a courtship with a Delilah whose shears will clip off all the locks of his strength, and he will be tripped into perdition. Sin is catching, t infectious, is epidemic. 1 will let you ok over the millions of people now inlia biting the earth, and I challenge’you to •how rue a good man who, after one year, lias made choice and consorted with the wicked. A thousand dollars reward for one such instance. I care not how strong your character may be. Go with the corrupt, and you will become corrupt; clan with burglars, aud you will become a burglar; go uuioug the unclean, and you will become-unclean. Young man, in the name of God, I warn you to beware how you let a bad man talk familiarly with you. If such a one slap you on the shoulder familiarly, turn round and give him • withering look until the wretch crouches In your presence. I give warning to young men and say, "Beware of evil companions.”

I warn you to shun the skeptic—the young man who puts his fingers in his vest and laughs at your old fashioned religion aud turns over to some mystery of the Bible and says, “Explain that, my pious friend; explain thnt.” And who •ays: “Nobody will scare me. I am not •fraid of the future. I used to believe In «uch things, and so did my father and xnmher, but I have got over it.” Yes, he has got over it, and if you sit in his company a little longer you will get over ft, too. Without presenting one argument against the Christian religion such men will, by their jeers aDd scoffs and caricatures, destroy your respect for that religion, which was the strength of your father in his declining years and the pillow of your old mother when she lay •-dying. Alas! a time will come when this blustering young infidel will have to die, and then his diamond ring will flash no splen9*r in the eyes of Death, as he stands ever the couch, waiting for his soul. Those beautiful locks will be uncombed •pon the pillow, and the dying man will «ay. “I cannot die—l cannot die." Idleness Begets Sin. Again I urge you to shun the companjnahip of idlers. There are men hanging round every store and office and shop who hare nothing to do, or act as if they had not. They are apt to come in when <be firm are away and wish to engage you ta conversation while you are engaged in pour regular employment. Politely suggest to such persons that you have no time to give them during business hours. Nothing would please them so well as to have you renounce your occupation and associate with them. Much of the time they lounge around the doors of engine houses, or after the dining hour stand upon the ■teps of a fashionable hotel or an elegant restaurant, wishing to give you the idea that that is the place where they dine. But they do not dine there. They are •inking down lower and lower day by day. Neither by day nor by night have anything to do with-fillers.

•Before you admit into your acquaintance ask him politely, “What do you do for a living 7“;, If he says, “Nothing; I am a gentleman,” look out for him. He may have a very soft hand an<l very faultless apparel and have a high sounding family name, but his touch is death. Before you know it, you will in his presi -ce be ashamed of your work dress, i. jsiness will become to you drudgery, •• 1 aftef awhile you will lose your place] .id afterward your respectability, and, ~ist of all, your soul. Idleness is next door to villainy. Thieves, gamblers, burglars, shoplifters and assassins are made from the class who have nothing to do. When the police go to hunt up and arrest a culprit, they seldom go to look in at the busy carriage factory or behind the counter where diligent clerks are emSloyed, but they go among the groups of llers. The play is going on at the theater, when suddenly there is a scuffle in tiie top gallery. What Is it? A policeman has come in, and, leaning 6Ver, has tapped on the shoulder of a young man, saying, “I want you, sir.” He has not worked during the day, but somehow has raked together a shilling or two to get into the top gallery. He is an idler. The mm on big right hand is an idler, and the man on his left hand is an idler. Daring the past few years there has been a great deal of dullness in business. Young men hare complained that they have little to do. If they have nothing else to do, they can read and improve their minds and hearts. These times are not always to continue. Business is waking up, and the superior knowledge that In this interregnum of work you may obtain will be iv.orth $50,000 of capital. The large fortunes of the next twenty years are having their foundation? laid now by the young men who are giving, themselves to self-improvement. I went into a store In New York and saw five men, all Christians, jutting ronpd, saying that they had nothing to do. It Is an outrage for a Christian man to bave nothing to do. 3>t him go out and visit the poor, or djsmmt and be making his eternal fortune, last him go into the back office and pray.

Shrink back from idleness in yourself and in others if you woold maintain a right position. The Harvest of Eternity. A young man came to a man of 90 years of age and said to hitn, “How have you made out to live so long and be so well?” The old man took the youngster to an orchard, and, pointing to some large trees full of apples, said, "I planted these trees when 1 was a boy. and do you wonder that now I am permitted to gather the fruit of them?” We gather in old age what we plant in onr youth. Sow to the wind, and we reap the whirlwind. Plant in early life the right kind of a Christian character, and you will eat luscious fruit in old age and gather these harvest apples in eternity. 1 urge you to avoid the perpetual pleasure seeker. I believe in recreation and amusement. God would not have us vyith the capacity to iaugh if he had not intended us sometimes to indulge it. God hath hung in sky and set in wave and printed on grass many a roundelay, but he who chooses pleasure seeking for hia life work does not understand for what God made him. Our amusements are intended to help us in some earnest miskiojj, The thundercloud hath an edge exquisitely purpled, but with voice that jars the earth it declares, “I go to water the green fields.” The wild flowers under the fence are gay, but they say, “We stand here to make room for the wheattield and to refresh the husbandmen in their nooning.” The stream sparkles and foams and frolics arfd says: “I go to baptize the moss. I lave the spots on the trout. I slake the thirst of the bird. I turn the wheel of the mill. I rock in my crystal cradle muckshaw and water lily.” And so, while the world plays, it works. Look out for the nian who always plays and never works. You will do well to avoid those whose regular business it is to play ball, skate or go a-boating. All these sports are grand their places. 1 never derived so mucti advantage from any ministerial association as from a ministerial club that went out to play ball every Saturday afternoon in the outskirts of Philadelphia. These recreations are grand to give us muscle and spirits for our regular toil. I believe in muscular Christianity. A man is often not so near God with a weak stomach as when he has a strong digestion. But shun those who make it their life occupation to sport. There are young men whose industry and usefulness have fallen overboard from the yacht. There are men whose business fell through the ice of the skating pond and has never since been heard of. There is a beauty in the gliding of a boat, in the song of the skates, in the soaring of a well-struck ball, and I never see one fly but I involuntarily throw up my hands to catch it, and, so far from laying an injunction upon ball playing or Any other innocent sport, I claim them all as belonging of right to those of us who toil in the grand industries of church and state. But the life business of pleasure seeking always makes in the end a criminal or a sot. George Brummel was smiled upon by all England, and his life was given to pleasure. He danced with the peeresses and swung a round of mirth and weulth and applause, until, exhausted of purse and worn out of body and bankrupt of reputation and ruined of soul, he begged a biscuit from a grocer and declared that he thought a dog’s life was better than a man’s.

Such men will come into your office, or crowd around your anvil, or seek to decoy you off. They will want you to break out in the midst of your busy day to take a ride with them. They will tell you of some people you must see, of some excursion that you must take, of some Sabbath day that you ought to dishonor. They will tell you of exquisite wines that you must taste, of costly operas that yon must hear, of* wonderful dancers thiit you must see, but before you accept their convoy or their companionship remember that while at the end of a useful life you may be able to look back to kindnesses done, to honorable work accomplished, to poverty helped, to a good name earned, to Christian influence exerted, to a Savior’s cause advanced, these pleasure seekers on their deathbeds have nothing better to review than a torn playbill, a ticket for the races, an empty tankard and the cast out rinds of a carousal, and as in the delirium of their awful death they clutch the goblet and press it to their lips the dregs of the cqp falling upon their tongue will begin to hiss and uncoil with the adders of an eternal poison. Again, avoid as you would avoid the death of your body, mind and soul any one who has in him the gambling spirit. Men who want to gamble will find places just suited to their capacity, not only in the underground oyster cellar, or at the table back of the curtain, covered with greasy cards, or in the steamboat smoking cabin, where the bloated wretch with rings in his ears deals out his pack and winks at the unsuspecting traveler—providing free drinks all around —but in gilded parlors and amid gorgeous surroundings.

Avoid Unhealthy Stimulants. This sin works ruin first by unhealthful stimulants. Excitement is pleasurable. Under every sky and in every age men have sought it. The Chinaman gets it by smoking his opium, the Persian by chewing hasheesh, the trapper in a buffalo hunt, the sailor in a squall, the inebriate in the bottle and the avaricious at tlie gaming table. We must at times have excitement. A thousand voices in our nature demand it. it is right. It is healthful. It is inspiring. It is a desire God given. But anything that first gratifies this appetite and hurls it back in a terrific reaction is deplorable and wicked. Look out for the agitition that, like a rough musician, in bringing out the tune plays so hard he breaks down the instrument. God never made man strong enough to endure the wear and tear of gambling excitement. No wonder if, after having failed in the game, men have begun to sweep off imaginary gold from the side of the table. The man was sharp

enough when he started at the game, but a maniac at the close. At every gaming table sits on one side* ecstasy, enthusiasm, romance —the frenzy of joy; on the other side, fierceness, rage, tumult. The professional gamester schools himself into apparent quietness. The keepers of gambling rooms are generally fat, rollicking and obese, but thorough and professional gamblers, in nine cases out of ten, are pale, thin, wheezy, tremulous and exhausted. A young man having suddenly inherited a large property sits at the hazard tables and takes up in a dice box the estate won by a father’s lifetime sweat and shakes it and tosses it away. Intemperance soon stigmatizes its victim—kicking him out, a slavering fool, into the ditch, or sending him, with the drunkard’s hiccough, staggering up the street where his family lives. But gambling does not in that way expose its victims. The gambler may be eaten up by the gambler’s passion, yet you only discover it by the greed in his eyes, the hardness of his features, the nervons restlessness, the threadbare coat and his embarrassed business. Yet he is on the road to hell, and no preacher’s voice, or startling warning, or wife’s entreaty, can make him stay for a moment his headlong career. The infernal spell is oh hifii; a giant is aroused within, and though you may bind him with cables they -Would part like thread, and though you fasten him seven times round with chains they would snap like rugted wire, and though you piled up in his path heaven high Bibles, tracts and sermons and on the top

should set the cross of the Son of Gtxl. over them all the gambler would leap like a roe over the rocks on his wsy to perdition. The Gambler Gain* Perdition. A man used to reaping scores or hundreds of dollars from the gaming table will not be content with slow work. Ha will say, "What is the use of my trying to make these SSO in my Btore when I can get five times that in half an hour down at Billy’a?” You never knew a confirmed gambler who was industrious. The men given to this vice spend their time, not actively engaged in the game, in idleness or intoxication or sleep or in corrupting new victims. This sin has dulled the carlieutor's saw and cut the band of the factory wheel, sunk the cargo, broken the teeth of the farmer’s harrow and sent a strange lightning to shatter the battery of the philosopher. The very first idea in gaming is at war with all the industries of society. Any trade or occupation that is of use is ennobling. The street sweeper advances the interests of society by the cleanliness effected. The eat pays for the fragments it eats by cleaning the house of vermin. The fly that takes the sweetness from the dregs of the cup compensates by purifying tne air and keeping back the pestilence. But the gambler gives uot anything for that which he takes. I recall that sentence. He does make a return, but it is disgrace to the man he fleeces, despair to his heart, ruin to his business, anguish to his wife, shame to his children and eternal wasting away to his soul. He pays in tears and blood and agony and darkness and woe. Wlmt dull work is plowing to the farmer when in the village saloon in one night he makes and loses the value of a summer harvest! Who will want to sell tape and measure nankeen and cut garments and weigh sugars when in a night’s game he makes aud loses and makes again and loses again the profits of a season? If men fail in lawful business, God pities and society commiserates, but where, in the Bible or society, Is there any consolation for the gambler? Furthermore, this sin is the source of uncounted dishonesty. The game itself is often a cheat. How many tricks and deceptions in the dealing of the cardsl The opponent’s hand is ofttimes found out by fraud. Cards are marked so that they may be designated from the back. Expert gamesters have their accomplices, and one wink may decide a game. The dice have been found loaded with platina, so that doublets come up every time. These dice are introduced by the gamblers unobserved by the honest men who come into the play, and this account* for the fact that 99 out of 100 who gamble, however wealthy when they begin, at the end are found to be poor, miserable, haggard wretches that would not now be allowed to sit on the doorstep of the house that they once owned. Promisea'of God. In a gaming house in San Francisco a young man, having just come from the mines, deposited a large sum upon the ace and won $22,000. But the tide turns. Intense anxiety comes upon the countenances of all. Slowly the cards went forth. Every eye is fixed. Not a sound is heard, until the ace is revealed favorable to the bank. There are shouts of “Foul, foul!” but the keepers of the table produce their pistols, and the uproar is si-, lenced and the bank has won $95,000. Do you call this a game of chance? There is no chance about it But these dishonesties in the carrying on of the game are nothing when compared with the frauds that are committed in order to get money to go on with the nefarious work. Gambling, with its needy hand, has snatched away the widow’s mite and the portion of the orphans, has sold the daughter’s virtue to get the means to continue the game, has written the counterfeit’s signature, emptied the banker’s money vault and wielded the assassin's dagger. There is no depth of meanness to which it will not stoop. There is no cruelty at which it is appalled. There is no warning of God that it will not dare. Merciless, unappeasable, fiercer and wilder it blinds, it hardens, it rends, it blasts, it crushes, it damns. Have nothing to do with gamblers, whether they gamble on large scale or small scale. Cast out these men from your company. Do not be intimate with them. Always be polite. There is no demand that you ever sacrifice politeness. A young man accosted a Christian Quaker with, “Old chap, how did you moke all your money?” The Quaker replied, “By dealing in an article that you mayest deal in if thou wilt —civility.” Always be courteous, but at the same time firm. Say “No” as if you meant it. Have it understood in store and shop and street that you will not stand in the companionship of the skeptic, the idler, the pleasure seeker, the gambler.

Rather than enter the companionship of such accept the invitation to a better feast. The promises of God are the fruits. The harps of heaven are the music. Clusters from the vineyard of God have been pressed into the tankards. The sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty are the guests, while standing at the banquet to fill the cups and divide the clusters and command the harps and welcome the guests is a daughter of God, on whose brow are the blossoms of paradise and in whose cheek is the flush of celestial summer. Her name is religion. Her ways are ways of pleasantness And her paths are peace.