Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 December 1895 — TALMAGES SERMON. [ARTICLE]

TALMAGES SERMON.

SERMON DELIVERED IN WASHINGTON LAST SUNDAY. Beware of the Special Allurements of the Season—Parent a Should Make Home Attractive—Arm the Young Against Temptations—Hum Horrors. ' ■■■■—» ' - . .--L. - The Open mg Win fcr. Last Sunday Dr. Taitv.igo chose as the subject of his sermon "The Opening Winter.'’ .Althouglpthe cold comes earlier or later, according to the latitude, -this sermon is sooner or later as appropriate every where.as it is in Washington. The text selected will In; found in Titus "ifj:.~T-. "I have determined tin-re to winter." - Paul was not independent of the Reasons. lie sent Tor his overcoat to'Troas on a memorable occasion. And now in the text he is making arrangements for the'approaching cold weather and makes an appointment with Titus to meet him «t Necropolis, saying.- "I have determined there to winter." . Well, this is the Bth •day of December and the second Sabbath of winter. We have had a lew —-shrill. sharp blasts a I ready,.forerunners, of whole regiments of storms and tempests. Xo one here needs to bo told that we are ill the opening gates of the winter. .This season is not only a test of one’s physical endurance, but in our great cities is a test of moral character. A vast number of people have by one winter of dissipation been destroyed, and forever. Seated in our homes on some stormy night, the winds howling outside, we imagine the shipping helplessly driven on the coast, but any winter night, if our ears were good enough, we ■could hear the crash of a thousand moral shipwrecks. There are many people who ■C’nneto the cities orr tim lst of September who will be blasted by the Ist. of March. At this season of the year temptations are, especially rampant. Now that the - long winter evenings have came, there are many who will employ them in .high pursuits, *Tbtelligent, socialities, in Christian work, in the strengthening rfnd ennobling of moral character,, and this winter to many of you will be the brightest -and the |>est- of all your lives, and in .anticipation 1 congratulate you. lint to others it TiYfiyTibtrtravc such effect, and I charge you, mv beloved, look out where you spend your winter nights. Evil Allurements. In the first place, I have to remark that at this season of the year the evil allurements are especially busy. There is not very much temptation for a man to plunge in on a hot night amid blazing gaslights and to breathe the fetid air of an assemblage, but in ■ the cold nights satan gathers a great harvest. At such times the grogshops in- one night make more than in four or five nights in summer. At such times the playbills of low places of entertainment seem especially attractive, and the acting is especially impressive and the applause especially * bewitching. Many a man who lias kept right ail the rest of the year will be capsized now, aud though last autumn he came from the country, and there was luster in the eye, and there were roses in ihe cheek and elasticity in step, by the time tlie spring hour has come you will, pass him in the street and say to your friends: “What’s the matter with that man? How differently he looks from • -“Wlfiit Tie loobKfriast •of one At this time ■of .the year there are many entertainments. If we rightly employ them and they are of the right kind, they enlarge •our socialities, allow us to make important acquaintances, build up in our morals and help up in a thousand ways. I can scarcely think of anything better than good neighborhood. But there are those entertainments from which others will come besoiled in character. There are those who by the springtime will he •broken down in health, and, though at the opening of the season their prospects wore bright, at the close of tlie season they will be in the hands of the doctors or . sleeping in the cemetery. Tlie -certificate of 'death will be made out, and tlie physician, to save the feelings of the family, will the disease by a Latin name. But the doctor knows, and everybody knows, they died of too many levees. Away with all these* wine drinking convivialities. Ilow dare you, the father of a family, tempt the appetites of the young people? Perhaps at the cnicrnicnt, to save the feelings of the minister or some other weak temperance man, you leave the decanter in a side room, an“d only a few people are invited there to partake, but it is easy enough to know when 1 you come out by the glare of jour eye and the stench of your breath that you have ljeen Serving the devil. Practice Self Control.

- Men simetimes excuse themselves and say after late suppers it. is necessary to take some sort of stimulant to aid digestion. My plain opinion is that if you have, no more self control than to stuff yourself until your digestive organs refuse their office you had better not call yourself a man, but class yourself among the beasts that perish. At this season of the year the Young Men’s Christens Associations of the land send out circulars asking the jiastors to speak a word on this subject, •and so I sound in your ear the words of the Lord God Almighty, "Woe unto him that putteth the bottle to his neighbor’s lips.” Rejoice that you have coine to the -glad winter months that remind you of the times when in your childhood you, were shone on by the face of father, mother, brothers, sisters, some of them, alas! no more to meet you with a “Happy New Year,” or a “Merry Christmas.” But again and again have we seen on New Year’s day the sons of some of the best families drunk, and young men have excused themselves by the fact that the tvine cup has 1 been offered by the ladies, and again and again it has been found out that a lady’s hand has kindled the young man's thirst for strong drink, and long after all the attractions of the holiday have passed that same woman crouches in her rngs. -and her desolation, and her wpe under the uplifted hand of the drunken monster "tp whom she had passed the fnscinating cup op New Year's day. If we want to go tj ruin, let us go alone and not take others with us. Can we not sacrifice our feelings if need be? When the good ship London weuj down, the captaiu was told that he. might escape in one of the lifebonts. “No,” ho replied, “I’ll go down with the passengers.” All the world applauded his heroism. And can we not sacrifice our tastes and our appetites for the rescue of others? Surely it is not a very Breat sacrifice. Ob, mix not with the innocent beverage of the holiday the poisou of adders! Mix not with the white sugar of the cup the snow

of this-awful leprosy! Mar not the clatter of the cutlery of the festal occasion with the clank of a madman’s chain! Pass down the street and lOogflnto the pawnbroker’s window. Elegant watch, elegant furs, elegant flute, elegant shoes, elegant scarf, elegant hooks, elegant mementoes. -Ton sometimes see people with pleased countenances leaking'into such a window. When I look into a pawnbroker’s window, it seems, to me as if I had looked into tlie window of hell!' To whom did that watch belong? To a drunkard. To whom did those .furs belong? To a drunkard’s wife. To whom shoes belong? To a drunka?d’s child. I take the three brazen balls at the doorway of a pa wnbloker’s shop and l clank them together, sounding the knell of the drunkard's soul. A pawnbroker's shop is only oneof the eddies in the great torrent of municipal drunkenness. “Oh,’* things. I have destroyed no young man by such influences. I only ale, and it wtll take a great amount of ale to intoxi—cate.” Yes, bnt I toll you there is riot a drunkard in America that did not begin with ale. Three X’s—l do not know what they meaflr Three X’s oh the brewer’s dray, three X’s on tlie door of the giushop, three X's on the side of the bottie. Three X’s. I asked a man. He could not tell. I asked another what is the meaning of the three X's. He could not tell me. Then i made up my mind that the three X’s were an allegory, and that they meant thirty heartbreaks, thirty agonies, thirty broken up households, thirty prospects of a drunkard’s grave, thirty ways to perdition. Three X’s. If I were going to write a story, the first chapter I Would call “Three X’s” and the hist chapter I ■would call “The Pawnbroker’s Shop.” Oh, beware of your influence.

Curse of Modern Society. The winter season is especially full of temptation, because of the long evenings allowing such full swing for evil indul--gcancs. You-caxi .scarcely cxpecLa.yuuug, man to go into his room and sit there from T to 11 the evening reading Motley’s “Dutch Republic” or John Foster's essays. It would be a very beaudo if. The most of our young men are busy in offices, in factories, in banking houses, in stores, in shops, and wlieri evening conics they want the fresh air and they want sightseeing, and they must have it. they witTllave it. and they ought to have it. Most of the men hero nsseinbio'd will have three or four evenings of leisure on the winter nights. After tea, the man puts'on his hat and coat, and he goes out. One form of allurement says, “Come in here.” Satan says: “It is best for you to go in-. Yojj. ought not to be so' green. By this time you ought to have seen everything.” And the temptations shall be mighty in dull times such as we have had, but which, I believe, for I hear all over the land the prophecy of great prosperity, aud the railroad men and the merchants, they all tell me of the days of prosperity they think arc coming, and in many departments they have already come, and they are going to come in all departments, but those dull times through which we have passed have destroyed a great many men. The question of a livelihood is with a vast multitude the great question. There are j’oung men who expected before this to’set up their household, but they have been disappointed in the gains they have made. They cannot support themselves—how can they support others? And to the curse of modern society the theory is abroad thaLa man must not marry until achieved n fortune, whcir Ure* twain ought to start at the-foot of the hill aud together climb to the top. Unattractive Homes, Then the winter has especial tempta ; tions iu the fact that many homes are peculiurlj- unattractive at this season. In the summer months tlie young man can sit out mi the steps, or he can have a bouquet iiVthe vase on the mantel, or, tlie evenings being so short, soon after gaslight he wants to retire anj'how. Blit there are many parents who do“not understand how to make Hie long winter evenings attractive to their children. It is amazing to me that so many old people do not understand young people. To hear some of these parents talk j-ou would think they had never themselves been young and had been born with spectacles on. Oh, it is dolorous for young people to sit in the house from 7 to 11 o’clock at night and to hear parents groan about their ailments and tlie nothingness of this world. The nothingness of this world? Ilow dare you talk such blasphemy?—lttook God six days In make this world, and lie lias allowed 0,000 years to hang upon his holy heart, and this world has shone on j’ou and blessed you and caressed you' for these fifty or seventy years, and yet you dare talk about the -nothingness of tills world! "Why, it is a magnificent world. Ido not believe in the whole universe there is a world equal to if except it be heaven. You cannot expect j’our children to stay in the house these long \vfilter evenings to hear you denounce this star lighted, sun warmed, shower baptized, flower strewn, angel watched, God inhabited planet. Oh, make your home bright! Bring in IRhe violin or the picture. It does not require a great salary, or a big house, or chased silver, or gorgeous upholstery to make a happy home. All that is wanted is a> father’s heart, a mother's heart, iu sympathy with young folks. I have known a nuin with s7oo,salary, and lie had no other income, but he laid a homesp happy and bright that, though the sons have gone out and won large fortunes amt the daughters have gone out into i splendid spheres and become princesses of society, they can never think of that early home’without tears of emotion. It was to them tlie vestibule of heaven, and all their mansions now, and all their palaces now, ‘Patinot make them forget that early place. Make your homes happy. You go around ybur house growling about your rheumatisms and acting the lugubrious, and your sons will go into the world and plunge into dissipation. They will have their own rheumatisms after awhile. Do not forestall their misfortunes. You were youhg once, and you had your bright and joyous times. - Now let the young folks have time. I stood in front of a house and I said to the owner of the house, “This is a splendid tree..” He said in a whining tone, “Yes,''but it will fade.” I walked round his' garden and said, “This is a glorious garden have." “Yes,” he said, “but it will perish.” Then he said to my little child, whom I was leading along, "Come and kiss me.” The child protested and ed away. He said, "Oh, the of human nature!” \Vhd*would wapt to kiss him? I was hot surprised to find out that his only son had become a vagabond. You may groan people out of decency, but you can never groan them into it, and in the presence of these men and women of common sense that St

is a most Important thing for yoa to maks your homes bright if you want your sous and daughters to turn out well. Arm Against Temptation. <*- Alas, that old people so Vnueh misunderstand youug folks! There was a great Sunday school anniversary, and there were thousands of children present. Indeed all the Sunday schools of the town I were in tlie building, and it was very uproarious and full of-disturbance, and the presiding officer on the •occasion came for- ■ a vei,v hind tune shouted. “Silence!” and the more noise the presiding officer made the more noise the chili droll made. Some one else rose on the platform hnd came, forward and with more stentorian voice shouted "Silence!” and the uproar rose to greater height, -ambit did seem as if there would he almost a riot a mL. the. .police have to be called in when old Dr. Beaman, his hair, white as tlie'driveti show. said. “Lot'hie try my hand.” So lie came forward with' a slow step to the front of the platform, and when the children saw the venerable man and the white hair they thought thej' would liush up that instant and hear what (lie old man had to say: He said: “Boys, I want to ma-ke a bargain with you. If you will be still now while I speak, when you get’to be as old as I "~am I wiil-he as still as a mouse.” Thera was not another whisper that afternoon. He was as much a boy as any of them. Oh, in these approaching holidays let us turn back our natures to what they were years ago and' be boys again and girls again and make all our homes happy. God ...will hold you responsible for -tlie influence you now exert, and it will be very bright aud very pleasant if some winter night when we are sleeping mi* dor the blankets of snow our children shall ride along in the merry party, and hushing a moment into solemnity look off and say, “There sleep the best father and mother that ever made a happy new year.” Arm yourself against these temptations of December, January and Feb-

Tuary. Temptations will come to you-i-n----tbe form of an' angel of light. I know that the poets represent satan as horned and hoofed. If I were ft poet and I were going to picture salmi. I w<7ul(T him as a human being-, with manners polished to the last perfoction, hair falling in graceful ringlets, eyes a little bloodshot, but floating in bewitching languor, hand soft aud diamonde'd, too t exquisitely -shapedy -yoleamellow as a flute, breath perfumed ns "though fibtliing had ever touched the lips but balm of a thousand flowers, conversation facile, carefully toned and Frenchj’. But I would have the heart incased with the scales of a monster, and have it stuffed with all pride and beastliness of desire and hypocrisy and death, and theirl would have it touched withflm rod of disenchantment until the eyes became the cold orbs of the adder, mid to the lip should come.the foam of raging intoxication, qnd to the foot the spring of the panther, and to the soft hand Jhq change that would make it the clammy {.and of the wasted skeleton, and then I would suddenly have the heart breals nut in unquenchable;flames, and the alb jected lisp of the tongue become tlie hiss as the worm that never dies. But until disenchanted, ringleted and dianionded and flute voiced, and conversation facile, carefully toned and Frenchj'. Kngage in High Pursuits. Oh, what a beautiful thing it is to seo a young man standing up (> amid tlieso' temptations of city life incorrupt while hundreds are falling. I will tell your his-, tory. You will move iu respectable circles all your days, and some day a friend of your father will meet you and say: “Good morning. Glad to see jaifl. You seem to bo prospering. You look lika your father for all the world. 1 thought you would turn out well when I- used to hold j'ou on my knee. If "you ever want anj - help or any advice, come to mo. As long as I remember your father I’ll re* member you. Good morning.” That will be' the history of hundreds of these young men. Ilow do I know it? I know it by tlie way you start. But here’s a j'ouug map who takes the opposite route. Voices of sin charm him away. He reads bad books, mingles in bafl soeietj'. Tho glow has gone from his cheek, and tho sparkle from his eye, and tlie purifj’ from his soul. Down he goes, little by little. The people who saw him when he came to town while yet hovered over his head the blessing of a pure mother’s prayer* and there was on his lips the dew of a pure sister’s kiss, now as they‘see him pass cry, “W’hut an awful wreck!” Cheek bruised in grogshop tight. Eye bleared with dissipation. Lin "swollenjwith Jn-_ diligences. Be careful what von say to him; for a trifle he would take'your life. Lower down," lower down, uutil, outcast of God and roan, lie lies in the asylum, a blotch of loathsomeness, and pain. One moment he calls for God. and then he calls for rum. He prays; he curses] lie laughs as a fiend laughs, then bites his nails into the quick, then puts his hand through the hair hanging around his head like the mane of a wild beast, then shivers until the cot shakes with unutterable terror, then with liis fists tights back the devils or clutches for serpents that seem,to wind around him their awful folds, then asks fojr water which is instantly consumed on his cracked lips. Some morning tlie surgeon going his rounds will find him dead, Do not try to comb out or brush back the matted locks. Straighten out tlie limbs, wrap them in a sheet, put him in a box and let two men carry him down to tlie wagon at the "door. With a piece of chalk write on top of tire box the name of the destroyer and the destroyed. AYho is it? It is you .Oman, if, yielding to the .temptations of a dissipated life, you go out and perish. There is a way that seemeth bright and fair and beautiful to a man, but the end thereof is de’afh. Employ these long nights of December, Janunr.v and February in high in intelligent socialities, in innocent amusements, in Christian work. Do not waste this winter, for soon you will hare seen your last snow shower and have gone up intorihe companionship of him whose raiment is white as snow, whiter than any fuller on earth could whiten it. For all Christian hearts tile winter nights of earth will end in the June morning of heaven. The river of lifo from under the never freezes Ovbr, The folinglc of life’s fair tree is never frost-bitten. The festivities, the hilarities, the family greetings of earthly Christmas times will give way fa larger reuuiou and brighter lights anfl[ sweeter garlands and mightier joy in ths great holiday of heaven, j \ r s—- -s, The Difference. Johnnie—-What’s tlie difference between a visit and a .visitation? I’a—A visit, my son,,ls when we see your grandmother oiLYour niother'a side. ..-r-"’ ' “Yes.” “A visitation la when she cornea to see us.” ' ~ "