Empty pews & selections from other sermons on timely topics

NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES

EMPTY PEl£

MADISON C!tlTERS

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THE MEW YORK
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SERMONS ON TIMELr/TOPBeS

MADIS

PHILADELPHIA

A. T. Zeising & Co., Printers and Purlisiiers

402, 404 & 406 Race Street

TH^^■EWYORK I
PUBLIC LIBRARY

7435t3„

TILDEN FOUND*. flONS t

R ^9'6 LJ

TO

REV. J. H. GOOD, D. D.

PRESIDENT OF
HEIDELBERG THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, TIFFIN, OHIO

THIS I5O0K IS A FFECTTONATKLY

DEDICATED

AS A TOKEN OF (iRATITliDE, HV HIS FORMER' STni)h<I'(

THE AUTHOR , ;

PREFACE.

In the midst of a busy pastorate we venture to send
forth this book, bespeaking for it the charitable judg-
ment of friends and strangers. The selections are
mainly taken from stenographic reports, by Mr. Henry
J. Greer, of Sunday evening sermons on timely topics,
preached to audiences overflowing in almost each instance
the possibilities of the building. We give these homely
selections this permanent home in the hope and with
the prayer that their influence may be for the good

of man and the glory of God.

M. C. P.

December^ 1886,

OOKTENTS.

CHAPTER. PAGE.

I. — Empty Pews, 9

II. — America's Most Popular Sin, .... 20

III.— The Character of Christ, 25

IV.— The Fullness of Time, ..... 28

v.— The Kight Vocation, 33

VI.— The Sunday Question, 34

VII. — High-Toned Scoundrelism, ..... 37

VIII.— The Tramp 39

IX. — Intermarriage. ....... 41

X. — Good Housekeeping, 43

XI. — Unequally Yoked Together, .... 4")

XII.— Beauty 46

XIII. — "A Friend iu Need is a Friend Indeed,'' . 48

XIV. — Itevenge, 51

XV.— Grumblers, . 52

XVI. — Gossipers, 54

XVII.— Is Christianity Failing? . . . 57

XVIII.— Wanted— A Man, 68

XIX. — Crimes and Criminals, 71

XX. — Dollars and Sense, 75

XXI.— The World Unsatisfying, 77

XXII. — Sen.sational Preaching, 79

XXIII.— A Sum in Addition, 81

XXIV. — Sleeping Under the Sermon, .... 8G

XXV. — Calvin and Calvinism, 89

XXVI.— The Bible and History, 91

(7)

O CONTENTS.

CIIAPTEB. PAGE.

XXVII.— Pride, 95

XXVIII.— Honoring Our Parents, .... 98

XXIX. — Hypocritical Punctiliousness, .... 101

XXX.— The Lawyers, 103

XXXI.— Force of Character, 105

XXXII.— Funeral Reform, 107

XXXIII. —Evolution, 109

XXXIV.— Hell in the Light of Common Sense, . Ill

XXXV.— That Boy of Yours, 120

XXXVI.— Eandom Shots, 124

Prudery— The Christian Abroad— Talk and Conversation— Carrying a
Revolver — Exaggeration — Low-Necked Dresses — Tight Lacing — Horse-
Racing— 111 Temper— True Religion— Busybodies— True Living — The Sen-
sitive. Man— Table Prayer— A Cure for Anger- A Good Rule for the Mar-
ried— Objectors — Little Bad Habits— Pkrental Indulgence— Affectation —
The Education of Woman — Sunlight— Fresh Air— Gambling — Monopo-
lies— The False Witness — False Measures— Marrying for Money— Love is
Not All— Trust Not Appearances— Marry The Man— A Warning— What
Girls Should Know — Girls' Extravagance— A Wise Choice — Don't — Flirt-
ing—The Novel— An Hlogical Criticism — Snobbery— Common-Sense Edu-
cation— A Trade — Coming to Town — One Covenant — Be Progressive —
Religion in Business— Original Sin— "The Elect" — The Main Thing —
The Atonement— The Jew— The Faithful Servant Girls— Time— Benevo-
lence—Envy— Purity— Christ's Text-Book— Getting On in the World-
Prayer— Decision of Character — The Cheap System— Young Man, Be-
warel — Fancy Pictures— Trust Not Too Far- Companionship with Fools —
Silence—" Pay as You Go" — Keep the Children at School— True Blue
Blood— Money All Gone — The Christian Character— Borrowing Trouble —
Arithmetic— A Base Motto— The .Toyous Christian- The Poor — When in
Rome — Behind the Age— Honesty and Policy— An Antidote for Frivolity —
A False Charity— Hasty Words- Why ?—Good-Looking Folks— Heaven
Upon Earth— The Frosted Windows— A Sad Fact— Pluck— How to Drive
the Children Away from Home— Do Right— "Thou Shalt Not Steal"—
Fie for Shame! — Shut Out — A Good Conscience— Sunday and the Work-
ingman— " Ready for Either " — The Commercial Liar— Politics and Reli-
gion—A Wish— "Seek Y'e the Lord" — Waiting— Inability— Study the
Bible— To Business Men— A Word to the Aged— A Fact— Be Y'^our Own
Match-Maker — A Bad Mother — Long Life — Loyalty to Conscience — Mirth
a Medicine— Tell the Truth— Courtesy to Children— Parting Words.

I.

"Brethreu my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might
be saved." — Homatis, s.: 1,

M Thousands upon thousands of well-cllsposed,
intelligent, warm-hearted men and women
seldom enter the church, except possibly to
attend a funeral or witness a wedding. How does it
come about that this is so? I will give you, as far as I
can in one sermon, my views upon this perplexing
problem. I do not know that my views will agree
with yours; on such a question difference of opinion
is to be expected. The graveness of the subject forbids
silence. The pulpit that does not examine the causes of
its own weakness, is too incapable to know its duty, or
too cowardly to do it.

Now, one reason, as I understand this matter, so many
pews are empty, is because of want of pulpit ability.
I am not underrating the ministry. The most at-
tentive and rejrular church-n;oers do not fall behind me
in speaking freely of the dullness, the sameness, the
inconsequence, the length of the sermon. A preacher
of any but the highest powers Avho ventures to detain
his hearers beyond half an hour, is regarded as a sort
of social criminal, and the prospect of an hour's sermon
would keep even most of "the regulars" away. Short
services and shorter sermons arc insisted on by the taste
of the day. The impatience of preaching demands

(9)

10 EMPTY PEWS.

serious attention. The clergy may Avell say: We have
piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have
mourned to you^ and ye have not wept.

A homely but true adage is: "A sermon, like a
pudding, must have something in it." We all have
heard men preach who would have made as good sports-
men as the Irishman who aimed at nothing, and hit it
every time. Good old Andrew Fuller once exclaimed:
" Oh, the holiness of their living, and the painfulness of
their preaching." The want of brains in a preacher is
a capital defect, and no amount of moral and spiritual
excellence Avill make a stupid man a successful preacher.
It is not true that the Apostles were ignorant fishermen.
If, for instance, the author of the fourth Gospel had
been originally an ignorant fisherman, he was something
very different when he penned his account of the life of
Christ." He is learned in the subtleties of neo-Platon-
ism; he knows the metaphysics of Alexandria; and,
unless he wrote dowai things which he did not under-
stand, we must confess that here we have advanced
learning and high and general culture employed in the
early propagation of Christian doctrine. Paul stands un-
equaled to this day as a rhetorician. If high culture and
education were necessary in apostolic times to give effect to
preaching, how much more necessary must they be now?

It is often said of a man, " He is a good pastor, but no
preacher." God sent him to preach. Fifty pastoral
visits during the week, sipping tea and nursing babies,
will not hold a thinking audience on Sunday. Many
ministers have brains enough, but not brains enough to
know how practically to use their brains. They leave
them at home when they preach.

When Edward Irving published four discourses under
the title of ''Ovations," he gave as the reason that tlie

EMPTY PEWS. 11

very word "sermon" was indicative of dullness. A
sermon should be a thing of life and beauty. It need
not be great, eloquent, magnificent ; but instead of dull,
drowsy and dry platitudes, flowery and glittering gener-
alities, put something in the sermon to glow, brighten,
convince, subdue — "thoughts that breathe and words
that burn."

The Gospel aifords the grandest theme for genuine elo-
quence, and the last place on earth one should expect to
find dullness ought to be in the pulpit. Our empty pews
are in a large measure due to weakness in power of state-
ment, and oratorical inefficiency of the ministry. A
preacher asked Garrick, the tragedian, " Why is it you are
able to produce so much more effect with the recital of
your fictions than we do by the delivery of the most
important truths ? " "My Lord," said Garrick, "You
speak truths as if they Avere fictions ; we speak fictions as
if they were truths." The pulpit depreciates too much
the importance of manner as an instrument for doing
good. The want of rhetorical culture is admitted to be
• one of the greatest and most constant causes of failure
in the pulpit. The graceful gesture, the modulated
voice, the logical clearness, the elegant expression, by
appropriate emotion, by graceful action — these things
are wonderful aids in sustaining, melting, inflaming and
overwhelming our auditors.

Instead of droning, and whining, and canting, and moan-
ing, and croaking, and funeralizing religion, let us freshen
up and get out of the old ruts, and introduce into our
sermons the brightness, the holy sarcasm, the sanctified
wit, the epigrammatic power, the blood-red earnestness
and the fire of zeal. Instead of going through our ser-
mons cool, collected and composed, let us surround our
pulpits with heaven's fire, and send our hearers away

12 EMPTY PEWS.

aroused, saying: "This man is in earnest; we must come
and hear him again." No life can be above stale medi-
ocrity without the inward glow and passion called
enthusiasm. Kindled from truth and eternal principles,
it is " God in us.'' Emerson truly remarks, that
"■ Every great and commanding movement in the annals
of the world is the triumph of enthusiasm." When on
his way to Rome, in 1867, Garibaldi was cast into
prison, he wrote to his comrades: "If fifty Garibal-
dis are thrown into prison, let Rome be free." He did
not care for his own comfort so long as the cause of free-
dom in Italy was advanced. If we had such enthusiasm
for our Master and his cause, the prayer put into the
disciples' lips by Jesus himself, "T/i?/ Kingdom Co7ne,"
would be rapidly and gloriously answered. With a
bleeding heart I think of the thousands in the temples of
sin, and the few in the churches who doze and nod over
sermons destitute of fire and evangelical fervor. " Give
me only fire enough," said Bernai'd Palissy, "and these
pigments will become indelibly fixed upon this china."
His derisive neighbors screamed, " he is mad." "More
fire!" shouted the determined man ; "more fire!" and
to-day the name of Palissy is a synonym for determina-
tion and success. I say the same — more fire ! more fire !
More fire in our sermons, more fire in our preachers,
more fire in our prayers and songs, more fire in the pew,
more fire in everything we do, and we will forever im-
press the blessed name of the Lord Christ in the dull,
cold hearts of men.

" Thou must be true thyself,

If thou the truth wouldst teach ;
Thy soul must overflow, if thou

Another's soul wouldst reach ;
It needs the overflow of heart

To give the lips full speech."

'P

EMPTY PEWS. 13

Again, our preaching is too theologic. The people are
tired of set theological terms and phrases. Terminology
and vocabulary people do not understand nor care for.
They do not aifect nor stir. There is neither force nor
application to such preaching. It is like some people's
hand-shaking; the hand is good enough, but there is no
grip to it. We need less theology and more Christianity
— less of Paul and more of Christ — but not Christ as the
centre of a mere theology. The life, the character, as
they contain and illustrate the life and character of
Christ himself, is that which saves the soul. We must have
Christ in our lives as well as in our creeds. Such a view
of Christianity the people can understand and feel the
force of Life is too short and too valuable to be spent
in spinning theological cobwebs and building speculative
castles in the air. Christendom is full of star-gazers and
sun-gazers ; men so wrapped in lunar speculations, or stel-
lar calculations, or solar computations, as to the high sky
of religion that they have forgotten man. There are
plenty of sermons on justification, verbal inspiration,
effectual calling and the efficacy of the sacraments ; but you
seldom hear sermons on common honesty, or these primi-
tive commandments : Thou shalt not lie ; Thou shalt not
steal ; Thou shalt not commit adultery. All that Chris-
tianity is meant to do in making life pure is left undone.
Our duty is no longer to 1)e lionest and true and self-
denying and pure, but to hold accurately the creed of
the church.

Instead of telling a Christian congregation every Sun-
day to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, thus telling them
to do what they are already doing, let the Gospel be
applied practically to society and the affairs of men.
We need ministers of the present, and not mere mouth-
pieces of the past. Let us not simply blow a penny
whistle, but a trumpet in Zion.

/i

14 EMPTY PEWS.

Let us not mouth thundering words about sinners in
the mass, and pass by the individual sinners who fill our
pews and pay our salaries. Talk about the living Phari-
sees, and not the Pharisees of Judea, who have been dust
and ashes for eighteen hundred years. Shame on the
minister who fawns upon the people, flatters them and
credits them with virtues which he knows they do not pos-
sess; who avoids truth because disagreeable to his hearers ;
who panders to prejudices in public which in private he
despises. The people always rush to hear the man who
does not stick and stutter and stammer in telling the truth.
The courageous preacher will attract attention, com-
pel conviction and arouse to action. Indeed people
will be offended if you tell them the truth. The
woman broke the lookino;-(Tlass because it showed
wrinkles in her face. Those who get vexed because sin
is aimed at them, do so because they are shot ; and woe to
the minister who dares to keep his mouth shut when the
people sin ! I have grown sick at heart over the syco-
phantic cowardliness of pusillanimous souls in the pulpit.
With an earnestness which well-nigh takes my breath
away, I plead for a ministry terrible in its earnestness,
and uncompromising in its denunciation of sin and wick-
edness— sparing none. God forbid that the seductive
voices and subtle influences of the world should ever
charm my lips to silence.

Perhaps the spirit of our age has something to do
with empty pews. Theology will always be present
tense. Man was made for religion, and until his
nature is changed, the foundations of religion will remain
unshaken. The human soul was created to look above
material nature. It wants a God for its love and trust,
an immortality for its hope. It Avants the peace of heart
and satisfaction of spirit that can only be found in Christ.

EMPTY PEWS. 15

The world can never outgroAv the need of salvation. The
spiritual wants of the race will be the same forever. It
is this Gospel alone applied by the Holy Spirit that con-
verts sinners, edifies saints, establishes the church and
revolutionizes the world.

Creeds, written statements of belief, are necessary,
whether in politics or religion. No progress can be made
unless an explicit statement of beliefs and purposes is
put before the people. Show me a man who has no creed,
either written or unwritten, and I will show you an idiot.
But our creeds embody much that is objectionable, if not
false, and is one reason why so many men and women do
not make a public profession of religion. The creeds of
our churches are too inclusive of detail in doctrine and
scriptural interpretation, and too exacting and arbi-
trary in their terminology, so that people cannot give
unqualified assent to them. Why should we be led in
our theological thinking by men who lived centu-
ries ago ?

For instance: The Westminster divines met in 1648.
They were appointed as a commission by the Parliament
to get together some sort of codification to compose the
distracted thought of the time. They met. They were
grand Christian men ; good men as ever lived before
them ; good men as have lived since ; they did their
work as well as they could. And yet that assembly
was divided. There were hot discussions, and the
things that they carried were carried by a mere major-
ity, with strong protest against them. Shall what they
did constitute the spectacles through which we are to
look upon our Bible to-day?

" Through the shadow of the globe
We sweep into the younger day."

We have better methods of investigation, and ought to

16 EMPTY PEWS.

have a better knowledge of the facts of revelation than
our predecessors had, and as we acquire a more accurate
knowledo-e of facts and laws, a rectification of theories
must be brought about. I want you, however, distinctly to
understand that I have no sympathy with the new-fangled
doctrines which some restless teachers of this age would
force down our throats, and which are not worth a dog's
dying for them, much less a man's. I have humbly
preached the old. truths in new and attractive dress,
and I thank God that he has always blessed me
with crowded audiences. I am no more a fool than
my contemporaries, and if I could see any thing better
than these trutlis I would willingly grasp them. But
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross
of Christ. I will stand by it as long as I live. Return
unto thy rest, oh, my soul ! All I ask is, that our creeds
be revised, abbreviated, simplified ; that the doctrines
of the churches be brought up to the level of present
needs and present enlightenment on the great question
of man's relation to God. And if "revision " did not
hurt the Bible, surely creeds, which are only human,
would not be hurt by being revised. It is true, our
creed is not imposed on our members. No one joining
our church is required to subscribe to our articles.
Why not have a creed so simple that our members can
subscribe to it ? If I err on this subject, believe me, my
error is of the head and not of the heart.

Disputatious preaclung makes empty pews. Too many
men preach to maintain their views" rather than to Avin
men to Christ. Much preaching is better calculated to
make enemies than friends. Bigotry is the enemy which
sows arrows, fire-brands and death in the army of the
Lord. In the Devil's army one mind rules all. The
line is closely set, and its movement as of one man.

EMPTY PEWS. 17

The heavenly army is broken up into groups, one leader
is slandering another leader, and the privates are throw-
ing stones at their respective captains. God speed the
day when all our churches will be heaven-like, to which
all denominations go, Jews and Catholics not excepted ;
and I thank God that He has deemed me worthy to
bear His message to such various minds and souls
as these.

Stiff preachers make empty pews. The preacher
should be the people's man — one of the people. He
should prove himself the friend of mankind. He should
descend from his pomp and high platform of empty dig-
nity and come amongst the people, speak to the people
and show himself a friend of manhood at large, remem-
bering that his Master was the people's Christ.

Cold churches make empty pews. Christianity is
served too much on ice. We want warm hearts, warm
greetings, warm hand-shakings in all our churches. Peo-
ple meet every Sunday in many of our churches for
years, and, in attempting to get up a smile of recognition,
they will look like the Egyptian sphinx.

Again, religion is advertised wrongly. Religion is not
a sullen Stoicism, nor a sour Phariseeism. It does not
consist in length of face, in a few melancholy passions, in
some dejected looks, or depressions of mind. It is a cold,
cheerless, heartless asceticism and not the Christian
religion which gives man an unnatural and forbidding
appearance. Many a man imagines himself very pious,
who has nothing more than dyspepsia. This twisting
and perverting God's word into unnecessary rules for
the abridgment of Christian liberty and conduct, have
done much to drive the liberal-minded, large-hearted,
independent and the young people from the church.
We want more joy to be brought out of the world by

18 EMPTY PEWS.

Christians. The brighter and the merrier the Chris-
tian's face, the better for the cause of Christ.

We want more joy in our religion. It is high time we
cease singing:

' ' Look how we grovel here below,
Fond of these trifling toys ;
Our souls can neither fly nor go,
To reach eternal joys,"

et id omne genus humbugihus. Is Christianity the
refrain of a lost cause ? Or is it not the proclamation
of a grand triumph ? Almost all prayers are a piteous
beseeching, lamentation and depreciation. Men accuse
themselves of everything in praying ; and should the pas-
tor say "Amen ! Lord that is so," the pastor Avould
have to go. " Delight thyself in the Lord." " Rejoice in
the Lord alway."

But the most common excuse for staying away from
church is : " church-goers are no better than non-church-
goers." Now, we will not insult you by giving you
figures, but go to our penitentiaries and jails : are there
more church-goers than non-church-goers there ? Look
at the criminals in the police courts to-morrow morning:
are they church-goers or non-church-goers? Who are
they who work for the elevation and purity of public
morals, and to ameliorate the condition of humanity?
Church-goers or non-church-goers? To say that the
people, as a rule, who go to church are no better as a
rule than those who do not go, displays either deplorable
ignorance or pitiful bigotry.

It is true that all are not saints who go to church.
There are Balaams in the church ; in profession prophets
of Jehovah ; in practice "lovers of the wages of unright-
eousness." There are Sunday saints and week-day
devils. Hence the necessity of preaching practical

EMPTY PEWS. 19

righteousness. Let such men be thundered out of the
communion of the church.

Brethren, the great want of the present age is not so much
arguments sustaining Christianity, as living Christians
illustrating and exemplifying it. There is a plenty of
sounding brass, and tinkling cymbals are not hard to find.
There is hypocrisy enough in the world, and there is no
need that Christians should increase it by empty talk and
vain profession. They best answer the power of Christ's
Gospel, who in their lives exemplify and demonstrate it.
Conduct is the great profession. What a man does tells
us what he is. A covetous professor, a quarreling church,
a renegade preacher, a dishonest and tricky church offi-
cial, a corrupt religious corporation, a praying defaulter,
a sanctimonious robber of widows and orphans, does more
to make men infidels and keep them away from the
church, than the most blatant bar-room talker, or the
most polished infidel lecturer. The translation of the
Bible most needed to-day, is its translation into flesh
and blood, into the daily walk, works and words of
men, and the world will not be able to resist the evidence
of the divine mission of our Lord. Let the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God blaze out in the lives of
his children, and an astonished world will mark the
change, and seek in some way to account for a revelation
so wonderful, so transforming.

" Let your light so shine before men, that they may see
your good works, and glorify your Father which is in
heaven."

II.

i^merica'? Mogt popular^ ^in.

the profanest people in the

a clergyman because he Avas not heard to swear,
all other Americans being supposed to be addicted to this
wicked practice.

The air is filled with oaths. Turn where you will, you
can hear men swear. Young and old, men and Avomen,
high and low, rich and poor, learned and illiterate, church
members and non-church members, prostitute the name
of God to vile and mean uses.

Louis IX. of France, punished any one who was con-
victed of swearing by searing his lips with a hot iron.
If we had such a law in Philadelphia, how the hot iron
business would flourish. When some one complained to
the King that the punishment was too severe, he replied,
"I would to God that by searing my own lips, I could
banish out of my realm all abuse of oaths." Chrys-
ostom's remedy was : " Every time, whenever thou
shalt forget thyself to have let slip an oath, punish thy-
self for it by missing the next meal." With such a cus-
tom prevailing in our midst, how many boarding houses
would flourish?

Now, we have five reasons why the name of God
should not be taken in vain :

It is useless. Did curses ever start a heavy load? Did
they ever unravel a tangled skein ? Did they ever take

(20)

America's" most popular sin. 21

the meanness out of a customer ? Did they ever collect a
bad debt ? Did they ever cure a toothache ? Bid tliey
ever accomplish anything ? Verily, the swearer is the
silliest of all dealers in sin. He sins gratis. He sells
his soul for nothing.

When Job's misfortunes were completed by being him-
self smitten witli boils from head to foot, Mrs. Job, the
worst boil he had, virtually said to him : " Why dont you
sivear ? Curse God, though you die in so doing." Yet
profanity would not have removed one boil, would not have
brought back one of the captured animals, nor restored any
one of the dead children.

It is cowardly to swear. There was once a man who
swore dreadfully in the presence of others, but was
rebuked by a gentleman, who told him that it was cow-
ardly for him to do in the presence of others that which
he did not dare do by himself. " Ah," said the man,
" I am not afraid to swear at any time or in any place. "
" I'll give you ten dollars," said the gentleman, " if you
will go in the village graveyard at twelve o'clock to-night
and utter the same oaths you have just uttered here, when
you are alone with God." "Agreed," said the man ;
" it's an easy way of earning ten dollars." " Well, you
come to me to-morrow, and say that you have done it, and
the money is yours." He was impatient for the mid-
night hour. When the time came he hurried to the
graveyard. Darkness and silence were brooding like
spirits o'er the still and pulseless world. Beneath him
the many dead, above him pitch darkness. The words,
"alone with God," came over him with mighty power; a
deep sense of his monstrous folly and heinous wickedness
fell upon him like the sudden pealing thunder of the mid-
night storm. His further endeavors were thwarted by the
Invisible One. He could go no further. Instead of

22 America's most popular sin.

carrying out his purpose, acting rudely and saucily with
God; instead of blistering his mouth with hot and
sulphurous oaths, he was humbled, and trembling, cried
with a loud voice, "God be merciful to me a sinner."
The next day he went to the gentleman and thanked him
for what he had done; and said he had resolved never
to swear another oath as long as he lived.
To swear is impolite. Cowper once wrote :

" It chills my blood to hear the blest Supreme,
Lightly appealed to on each trifling theme ;
Maintain your rank ; vulgarity despise ;
To swear is neither brave, polite, nor wise."

Can he who leads every sentence with an oath or a
curse, wear the name and garb of a gentleman ? This
reminds me of that incident of Abraham Lincoln, who
said to a person sent to him by one of the Senators, and
who in conversation uttered an oath: "I thought the
Senator had sent me a gentleman, I see I was mis-
taken. There is the door, and I bid you good-day."

Profanity indicates low breeding. It detracts from
the grace of conversation. It is an evidence of a weak
brain and limited ideas. I care not what kind of clothes
a man wears ; what culture he boasts ; what refinement
he prides in ; Avhat family connections he has ; how much
he may restrain himself in the presence of ladies, he who
fears not to rush into the presence of a thrice holy and
Almighty God, with oaths upon his lips, is no gentle-
man. No language can be more disgustful, more grate
the ear or fret the heart, than to hear the God of heaven
summoned in attestation of tattle, or challenged to damn
and destroy.

Swearing is wicked. It springs from a mere malig-
nancy of spirit in man against God, because he has for-
bidden it. As far as the violation of the command of God

amekica's 'most popular sin. 23

is concerned, the swearer is equally guilty with the mur-
derer, the unchaste person, the robber and the liar. Whose
is this name which men roll off the lips of blasphemy as
though they were speaking of some low vagabond. God !
Yes, men swear by the name of God. It makes my hair
rise, my flesh creep, my blood chill, my breath catch, my
foot halt. God ! In whose presence the highest and
purest seraphim veil their faces, and cry in notes
responsive to each other : " Holy ! Holy ! Holy ! Lord
God of Hosts!" God! God Almighty! Think!
Swearer think ! You are guilty of a sin that mounts to
heaven with daring, and is hurled back into your blasphem-
ous teeth with withering condemnation. Every star in
the heavens flashes rebuke into your face ; every quiver-
ing leaf, every lurid shaft of lightning, every shock of
thunder, all the voices of the tempest, the harping angels,
and the very scofling devils rebuke you. Who will ever
again malign the name of God ? Is there a hand in this
vast congregation to-night that will ever again be lifted
to wound him ? If so, let that hand, blood-tipped, be
lifted now. Which one of you will ever again use his
name in imprecation ? If any, let them speak. Not
one ! Not one !

Swearing is a dangerous sin. The third command-
ment is the only one in the decalogue to which is afiixed
the certainity of punishment : " For the Lord will not
hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." It
was a capital offense under the Levitical law (Lev. xx :
10). The New Testament reiterates in paragraph after
paragraph and chapter after chapter, that profane swearers
arc accursed now, and are to be forever miserable. No
wonder that this iniquity has so often been visited with
the immediate curse of God. Profane swearer, whether
you think so or not, your oath is a prayer — an appeal to

24 America's most populae sin.

God. How frequently the awful imprecations damn and
G-od damn roll from your profane tongue. Are you
really desirous of an answer to your prayer ? Be thank-
ful that your prayer has not been awswered.

The oaths that you utter may die on the air, but God
hears them, and they have an eternal echo. I beseech
you, I conjure you, break off this useless, impolite,
cowardly, wicked and dangerous habit ere the brittle
thread of life breaks, and you are plunged into eter-
nal misery. Oh ! let your oaths be turned into suppli-
cations ! Repair immediately to the throne of grace, and
beg for pardon and mercy. Before you lay down this
book, turn to Jesus, who died for swearers as well as for
his murderers. And then, oh then, though you may have
sworn as many oaths as there are stars in the heavens,
and sands upon the sea shore innumerable — then you
shall find, to your eternal joy, that there is love in His
heart, and merit in his blood, sufficient to pardon your
sins and save your soul forever. Swearer, can you ever
again blaspheme such a God and Saviour as this ? Does
not your conscience cry, God forbid ? Even so. Amen.

III.

TIiB ChariactBi^ of Christ.

/HE more we study the character of Jesus
Christ, the more we will fall in love with him.
There is no one with whom we can compare
him. He is the miracle of the ages, than whom there
can be no greater — above all praise and eulogy. He is
in the noblest and most perfect sense the realized ideal
of humanity.

It is a remarkable fact, that there is no hesitation
among the great intellects of different ages : whatever
their special position towards Christianity, whether its
humble disciples, or those openly opposed to it, or care-
lessly indifferent, or vaguely latitudinarian, they have
uniformly borne testimony to the originality and trans-
cendent excellency of the character of Christ. Thus
Josephus, the great Jewish historian, who lived in the
latter part -of the first century, refers to Christ as "a wise
man, if it he proper to speak of him as a man, for he was
a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as
received the truth Avith pleasure." Shakespeare pays a
lowly reverence to Christ in passage after passage.
Richter calls him ''the holiest among the mighty, and
the mightiest among the holy, who lifted with his pierced
hand empires off their hinges and turned the stream of
centuries out of its channel, and still governs the ages."
Spinoza calls Christ "the symbol of divine wisdom."
Kant and Jacobi hold Him up as "the symbol of ideal

(25)

26 THE CHAEAOTER OF CHRIST.

perfection;" and Schelling and Hegel as that of "the
union of the divine and human." Strauss, the most learned
infidel of modern times, in speaking of Christ, says that
"he remains the highest model of religion within our
thoughts, and that it is a^s ahsurd to think of religion
without Christ as it is of poetry without regard to Homer
and Shakespeare." Renan says: "Whatever will be the
surprises of the future, Jesus will never be surpassed."
Goethe says: "I esteem the Gospels to be thoroughly
genuine, for there shines forth from them the reflected
splendor of a sublimity, proceeding from the person of
Jesus Christ, of so divine a kind as only the divine could
ever have manifested on earth.' "How petty are the
books of the philosophers with all their pomp,"
exclaims Rosseau, the skeptic, "compared with the
Gospels ! Can it be that writings at once so sub-
lime and so simple are the works of men? Can He,
whose life they tell, be himself no more than a man ?
Is there anything in his character of the enthusiast or the
ambitious sectary? What sweetness; Avhat purity in
his ways ! What touching grace in his teachings ! What
a loftiness in his maxims ! What profound wisdom in his
words ! What presence of mind, what delicacy and
aptness in his replies ! Wliat an empire over his pas-
sions ! Where is the man, where is the sage, who knows
how to act, to suffer and to die without weakness and
display ? My friend, men do not invent like this ; and
the facts respecting Socrates, which no one doubts, are
not so well attested as those about Jesus Christ. These
Jews could never have struck this tone, or thought of
this morality; and the Gospel has characteristics of
truthfulness so grand, so striking, so perfectly inimi-
table, that their inventors Avould be even more wonderful
than he whom they portray. If the life and death of

THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST. 27

Socrates were those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus
were those of a God," Thomas Carlyle says: "Jesus of
Nazareth is our divinest symbol ! Higher has the human
thought not yet reached." Unitarian Channing acknowl-
edges " that the character of Jesus Christ is wholly
inexplicable on human principles." The first Napoleon,
speaking of Christ, among other things said : " I see
nothing here of man, near as I may approach, closely as
I may examine. All remains above my comprehension.
Great with a greatness that crushes me — it is in vain
that I reflect. All remains unaccountable. I defy you
to cite another life like that of Christ."

In Christ we have all that is lovely and attractive,
true and good. The most perfect and excellent of all
beings.

" Defects through nature's best productious run ;
The saints have spots, and spots are on the sun."

But Christ was altogether lovely. All lights and no
shades ; all excellencies and no defects ; all beauties and
no blemishes.

We soon exhaust the most excellent characters of earth.
But in the character of Christ there are depths, heights,
lengths and breadtlis of loveliness that we can never
exhaust.

" Nor earth, nor suns, nor seas, nor stars,
Nor heaven his full resemblance bears;
His beauties we can never trace
Till we behold him face to face .'

And after, in heaven, we shall have seen the King in
his beauty as many millions of years as there are sands
upon the sea-shore, there will still be in him an infinitude
of undeveloped beauties to transport our expanding souls.

IV.

The Fullneg^ of Time.

" When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son." — Gal. iv : 4.

HEN the fullness of time was come. The
full time appointed by the Father. The
exact period had arrived when all things
were ready for His coming. But why did not the prom-
ised redemption immediately appear, in place of being
delayed four thousand dark and gloomy years ? Why
did the world not at once receive the benefit of His in-
carnation and atonement ?

This delay of redemption was in entire ac.cord with the
whole system of divine arrangements and interpositions
in favor of men. On all subjects connected with human
improvement and comfort the same question may be asked.
AVhy were the medicines, the sciences, the arts and the
inventions, which ward ofl" disease, promote the intelli-
gence, the happiness and the comfort of men, so long
delayed ? They were made known when the fullness of
time had come ; and so with redemption, Christ came
at such a time when all the world would be most benefited
by his coming.

It was a time when the prophets had centered in him,
and when there was no question as to their fulfillment.
And such an important event must be prophesied . so far
before the event as to make it impossible for men to say
that it was mere guess-work.

(28)

THE FULLNESS OF TIME. 29

The fitness of the time appears in the undeniable fact
that there was at this time a general expectation through-
out the world that a great prophet and deliverer would
come, Avho should change the aspect of human affairs.
The rumor seems to have advanced from the East, and to
have reached the ears of the Roman Emperor. Josephus,
Suetonius and Tacitus, mention that all the people at this
very time believed that some one from Judea should
obtain the empire of the world. There are many pas-
sages in heathen authors which prove that this expecta-
tion was prevalent at this time in the Oriental world, and
especially in Judea. And the many instances of per-
sons who appeared in Judea about this time, pretending
to be the Messiah, and collected vast numbers of deluded
Jews around them (facts repeatedly mentioned by the
historians of that day), are additional proofs of this gen-
eral persuasion. If we turn to the New Testament we
find this state of things corroborated there by many inci-
dental circumstances. The state of the public mind is
indicated by Herod's anxiety upon hearing of the birth of
a remarkable child in Bethlehem, and by the visit of the
Eastern Magi. Still more illustrative is the thronging of
the multitudes to John the Baptist upon his first appear-
ance, and the message of the Pharisees and priests, to
in(p,iire if he were the Christ. " And all the people mused
in their hearts if he were the Christ or not." Notice
also the convei-sation of the Samaritan woman ; her eager-
ness of the Messiah, as a prophet as well as a prince.
Observe how the people pressed around Christ, demand-
ing from heaven the sign which they expected of the Mes-
siah. Observe how they caught at every appearance of
extraordinary power ; how, after his performance of a
miracle, they were ready to take him by force and make
him a king, and with what acclamations and royal honors

30 THE FULLNESS OF TIME.

the multitude accompanied him into Jerusalem. His
humble condition alone restrained their enthusiasm. In
a word, everything in profiine history, and in the evan-
gelical narratives, proves that the minds of the men of
that age were wrought up to a high pitch of expectation,
that the Great Prophet and King would soon come into
the world.

It was needful that men should be prepared for salva-
tion, and also that salvation should be prepared for men.
Sin could not at once be abolished by a single effort of
power, and salvation could not appear suddenly Avithout
due preparation. Like everything else that has a begin-
ning, it must unfold itself in regular succession.

The world also had to be brought to see the need of a
Saviour, and a fair opportunity had first to be given to men
to try all the schemes of human redemption, and an experi-
ence of four thousand years taught the human race that
salvation could not be obtained through man's own wis-
dom and strength. Not throu2;h the law of which Juda-
ism was a proof ; not through intellectual culture, science,
art, eloquence or political power, of which the history of
heathenism furnished the evidence. When Judaism was
felt by the religious sense of the enlightened to be a type
of a future and a better service, and Avhen the cultured
intellect of heathenism could not resist the conviction of
its own emptiness and of its entire inability to satisfy the
wants of man's moral nature, and when the various sys-
tems of religion devised had failed to arrest crime, to
purify the heart, to elevate public morals, to support man
in his trials, conduct him to the true God, and give him
a well-grounded hope of immortality, man's extremity
became God's opportunity. Then it was a proper time
for God to send forth his Son and reveal a better system.

It was prophesied that Christ's kingdom was to be a

THE FULLNESS OF TIME. 31

universal kingdom ; lience there must be a political prepa-
ration. Rome then was the mistress of the world, and
her conquering legions bore her banners from the Isles of
Britain in the West to tlie Oriental cities in the East.
In Europe, Asia and Africa there was but one vast
empire, and the magnificent idea of a universal temporal
kingdom, towards which the great heroes had hopelessly
declined, was once more revived. The Greek lan-
guage combined the whole world. The gates of the
temple of Janus were closed for the second time during
Roman history. The nations were waiting for a hero.
Then the angel of history closed the old book and opened
the new ; and the name that is written on its title-page is
— i.' Jesus Christ." He was the fountain from whence all
subsequent history sprung. What an appropriate time
for the coming of the Prince of Peace.

Now, to my mind, the very facts which show the fit-
ness of the time for the introduction of Christianity are
the very circumstances which show that the power of
God must have been exerted in its origin and establish-
ment.

Christ's universal expectation among the Jews led to
his almost universal rejection. Their idea was a tempo-
i-al deliverer, and his peaceable and unwarlike character
disgusted them. His ignominious death was a stumbling-
block. The fact that he was not saved by the power of
God from the disgrace of crucifixion was everywhere
regarded as a perfect answer to all his claims.

The Jews were odious to the Gentile world, and the
consummation of Jewish prophecy to become the founder
of a universal faith was too much for the wise men of
Greece and Rome.

The corrupt morals of the pagan world were against
the cordial reception of the Gospel. The apostles waged

32 THE FULLNESS OF TIME.

a tremendous war of extermination against their pompous
sacrifices, their idol feasts, their dissolute worship and
their favorite fights of gladiators, and at once, from the
emperor on his throne down to his dissolute slaves,
all were arrayed against the Gospel.

The intellectual refinement of the age was against the
establishment of Christianity. The Greek language Avas
spoken in all its purity, and elocution was everywhere
cultivated. The apostles were publicans and fishermen,
denominated by the ruling nations " barbarians." Such
were the men who were to assault the high-fenced walls
of Judaism, break the power of heathenism, though
intrenched in the vices of the people, upheld by the
power of the priesthood, and sanctioned by the traditions
of memorial ages. Such were the men sent forth to go
into the proud schools of philosophy, teach their teachers
and bring out captives to the humble faith of the crucified
Nazarene.

These then were the circumstances under which Chris-
tianity made such progress in the world, that in less than
three hundred years a Christian emperor sat upon the
throne of the Cassars, and surpassed all that the philos-
ophy and glory of Greece and Rome could boast. Noth-
ing but facts which could not be denied, and the power of
God exerted in the teachers of religion could have made
this astonishing change in the world.

I see not only the fullness of the time when Jesus
appeared, but from the unparalleled success of his
religion, I am convinced that it was not only God who
sent him forth, but that he sent forth his Son, whom
to know aright is eternal life.

V.

ThB I^ight ifocation.

NE of the most serious blunders young men
^j^ frequently make is concerning their occupa-
>^^S><c) tion or calling. The world is full of " square
men in round holes, and round men in square holes."
Many men have made shipwrecks of themselves and their
prospects by rushing thoughtlessly into some business or
profession for which nature never intended them. Dean
Swift says :

"Brutes find out where their talents lie ;

A bear will not attempt to fly ;

A foundered horse will not oft debate

Before he tries a five-barred gate.

A dog by instinct turns aside

Who sees the ditch too deep and wide ;

But man we find the only creature

Who, led by folly, combats nature ;

Who, when she loudly cries forbear !

With obstinacy fixes there ;

And where his genius least inclines

Absurdly bends his whole designs."

The mischievous notion that a man to be respected
must either be a preacher, doctor or lawyer has spoiled
many a good carpenter, blacksmith or farmer. A shoe-
maker may put genius into his Avork, while a physician may
only quack, a lawyer pettifog, and a preacher bore. It
matters not what a man's vocation is, if pursued with an
honorable spirit. Every man should do that to which he
naturally and instinctively inclines. Take care before
you decide. A change in a calling can seldom be made
to advantage.

" Honor and shame from no condition rise;
Act welljyour part; there all the honor lies."

(33)

VI.

The ^undaij Question.

^OMPARE the Sabbath-observing people with
those who do not observe it ; compare them as
G^^S^ citizens, as business men ; compare their influ-
ence in society, and then say whether the Sabbath with
its means of grace is not useful. Let the comparison be
fair and faithful, l^o not select a few cases of rare
inconsistency and hyjocrisy in the churches, and set
them over against rare virtue and good citizenship
among those who, from education and habit, never attend
the house of God. But look at the masses on both sides,
and then decide which takes the wisest course : he who
honors God's Sabbath, or he who lounges away the sacred
hours in sleep and idleness, or seeks his own pleasure in
travel and amusements, attends to his correspondence,
etc., or visits his neighbors and friends to get a ^' a good
square meal."

Ask yourself, ask history, ask matter of fact, what the
Sabbath with its means of grace has done for the land in
which you live. Compare your country, where the Sab-
bath is duly observed in every neighborhood, with those
countries which rarely enjoy this blessing, where there
are no Sabbath-schools, where preaching occurs only on
great festival occasions, and where all are taught to
look upon the holy day as a lioUday. Sunday — sin-day.
Blot out our churches from the map of our city, let
teachers of religion and morals cease their works, and
the people, instead of attending church, throng the
streets and attend public places of amusement, gamble
and drink, and train up tlicir children to follow their
unholy examples — what would be the state of society ?

(34)

THE SUNDAY QUESTION. 35

History most clearly proves that every nation and com-
munity has been prospered while it honored God's Sab-
bath, and that social order and the supremacy of the law
have not been maintained where the Sabbath has been
trampled on. Look abroad over the map of popular
freedom in the world, and Switzerland, Scotland, Eng-
land and the United States, the countries which best
observe the Sabbath, constitute almost the entire map of
safe popular government.

Some years ago, De Tochneville, the distinguished
French statesman, was commissioned by his country for
the purpose of studying the genius of our institutions.
In reporting to the French Senate, he said : ''I went at
your bidding, and passed along their thoroughfares of
trade. I ascended their mountains and went down their
valleys. I visited their manufactories, their commercial
markets, and emporiums of trade. I entered their judicial
courts and legislative halls. But I sought everywhere in
vain for the secret of their success, until I entered the
church. It was there, as I listened to the soul-equaliz-
ing and soul- elevating principles of the Gospel of Christ,
as they fell from Sabbath to Sabbath upon the masses of
the people, that I learned why America was great and
free, and why France was a slave." ^

De Montalembert, anotlier French statesman, says:
" Without a Sabbath, no worship, without worship, no
religion, and without religion, no permanent freedom."
Here we have the corner-stone of American liberties.
There can be no permanent freedom without religion,
and their can be no religion without Avorship, and there
can be no worship without the Sabbath. Therefore,
without the Sabbath there can be no permanent freedom.
I believe that the security or disaster of American insti-
tutions depends upon the issue of the Sabbatic contest.

36 THE SUNDAY QT7ESTI0N.

I believe also that the Sabbath question is a question of
life and death in regard to Christianity. The enemies of
religion tried the sword and the fagot. They could not
destroy the Gospel. Imperial power found its arm too
weak to contend with God. Argument, ridicule and
sophistry were all in vain. Christianity rose with aug-
mented power and more resplendent beauty. The last
weapon the enemy seeks to employ to destroy Christian-
ity and drive it from the land is to corrupt the Sabbath,
make it a day of festivity, and make Christians feel that
its sacred obligation has ceased. Voltaire truly said :
" There is no hope of ever destroying the Christian
religion, so long as the Sabbath is kept as a sacred day."
Let us guard with holy jealousy that which is so essential/
to us as a people. It has been well said : " Take awa^
the Sabbath, and you deprive man of his most humane
and beneficent institution. Take away the Sabbath, and
you destroy a mighty conservative force, and dry up a
fountain from which the family, the church, and the
state receive constant nourishment and support. Take
away the Sabbath, and you shake the moral foundations
of our national power and prosperity ; our churches will be
forsaken, our Sunday-schools emptied, our domestic devo-
tions will languish, the fountains of public and private
virtue will dry up, a flood of proftmity, licentiousness and
vice will inundate the land, labor will lose its reward,
liberty be deprived of its pillar, self-government will
prove a failure, and our republican institutions end in
anarchy, confusion and despotism. Yes, the end of the
Sabbath would be for the United States, the beginning
of the reign of Mammon, Bacchus and Venus, and
finally overwhelm us in temporal and eternal ruin." No,
Ave cannot, we dare not — God Almighty helping us, we
will not — give up the Sabbath.

VII.

{ligh-Toned ^coundi'eli^ni.

M^-'HE refined and popular way of stealing in these
days is to get into debt on a large scale, buy
and borrow all you can, give your note, grace-
fully fail, and take advantage of the bankrupt laws — a new
way of paying old debts. Strange, but true, a man Avill
be treated kindly in proportion as his fall was severe.
Smash on a small scale and the world will kick you;
smash on a grand scale and the world will feel honored by
being kicked by you. Go down for a few thousand and
you are a rascal, and no one will trust you ; go down for a
hundred thousand, sweep away the livelihood of widows
and orphans, poor girls, the aged and bedridden, and
you will be pronounced unfortunate. The vulgar pick-
pocket is sent to jail. Steal a whole bank, and you are
only a defaulter. " Fail ! In the bright lexicon of
youth there is no such word as fail." A man merely
becomes embarrassed, and compromises with his creditors
for twenty cents. What defaulters need is stripes. We want
governors who cannot be moved by the pardon petitions
of sentimental women and soft-headed men. Make hard
times for the defaulters and there will be no more for the
people. Let us not put a high premium upon crime by
saying virtually to the young criminals of the country,
what a safe thing it is to be a big thief. • It is a disgrace
to our public authorities that men notorious for financial
criminality walk the streets of our city unwhipped of

(37)

38 HIGH-TONED SCOUNDRELISM.

justice, and with a proud, defiant look, as much as to say :
" Well, what are you going to do about it ? " I tell you
what I would like to do : brand upon their brows in shin-
ing letters the unmistakable word ^'■scoundrel! " I would
like all men to point at them the finger of scorn, and cry
with a loud voice: " Stop thief!"

Let crime be given no quarter. Let the prison door
be opened to the guilty, no matter what family connec-
tions he may have. High social standing only aggra-
vates his guilt. A

VIII.

The Tramp.

V^TF^HE tramp is a confused woi-kshop for the devil
O^c^^ to tinker in. He is a nuisance in tlie world,
o^-^r^C:^ and needs abatement for the public good. " If
any man work not, neither should he eat," is St. Paul's
bill of fare for the loafer. This extends to all who are
able to work for a living, but will not do it. Work is an
ordination of God, and greatly conducive to man's happi-
ness. The commonest service, if it be right, is a real
dignity.

I have one proposition for the tramp : on the side of
him put healthy work, on the other put a whipping-post,
and then let him take his choice.

If you help a man who prefers begging to work, and
keep him from work and at begging, are you helping that
man ? Are you not injuring that man and the Avhole
community ? The tramp will come to you at times when
it seems most heartless to refuse him. Don't believe the
tales he tells. It is his business to invent pitiful and
heart-rending tales. We even find children begging,
early trained to roguery. Every thing they beg is con-
verted into whisky. Ask them, where are your parents ?
" Dead." Yes ; they are dead — dead drunk.

"If I could only get work," is the tramp's plea.
Offer him Avork, and he is much obliged to you ; but the
hand is lame, the foot is sore, or he must dismiss his
friend who is near by, so that he may not be kept waiting ;

(39)

40 THE TRAMP.

but it seems to take liim all the day to dismiss his
friend, as he never comes back. In other cases there
are other excuses. The man who don't work, don't want
to work ; and a man who can work and won't work, ought
to be compelled to work. To every man who comes
within our city limits and says : '' I would work if I
could get work to do," should be given the reply of work
to do in a place provided, to which he should be compelled
to go by the strong arm of the law.

Let our churches and schools go to the root of the
matter. Let men be taught that the world does not owe
them a living. It was here first; it don't owe them any-
thing. But every man owes the world work. We are
born debtors to humanity. Idleness is a disgrace. It
is not the mark of a "gentleman." The tramps of high
society are in large measure responsible for the tramps of
low society.

There are worthy poor, and they almost always never
beg. They must be found. It is our duty to provide
means for their relief. Let the work of beneficence be
carried forth practically and judiciously, through our
numerous organized and co-operative societies, cover-
ing all conceivable cases of need and suffering. To these
contribute liberally. Refuse help to unknown parties,
send them to these societies, and let each case be investi-
gated ; and the applicants that Avill not be helped by
these societies, if in need, proclaim their unfitness for
private beneficence.

There are unworthy poor. Good, friendly advice and
work are worth more to them than money. They need
moral culture. Our Christian duty is to impart it to
them. " Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the
law of Christ."

IX.

Inisei^mawiagB.

tT^TF^HE Bible forbids intermarriage with the Avorld.
[Pca>R The church is not to become mixed with the
0-^=*^ world by unholy alliances with the ungodly.
Intermarriage so filled the antediluvian world Avitli wick-
edness that the flood became a necessity. We read that
the sons of God made love with the daughters of men.
They expected by intermarriage to exert a predominat-
ing influence upon the wives, and of begetting and rear-
ing up a godly seed, but the experiment proved a
disastrous failure.

To-da}' the daughters of God are making love with the
sons of men. Intermarriage with the world, in most
cases, fills for mankind the cup of life with wormwood
and gall. Fond lovers may call this a hard doctrine, and
we may wound their susceptibilities, but nevertheless we
are telling them the truth. The history of hundreds and
thousands of those who have disregarded the divine law
on this subject proves it true. Many a girl has had a
happy connection with the church. It afforded her much
satisfaction and real enjoyment. But she yoked herself
with an unbeliever or a Avorldling. If she got to church
she had to go alone, and her treatment was such if she
went that life became miserable. And remember that
bitter tears can never undo what you ought never to have
done at first.

It is true, however, that a few religious women have
brought their husbands to Christ, but many more have
made shipwrecks of their own faith over the marriage
altar.

(41)

42 INTERMARRIAGE.

The same may take place when a union is effected
between two professors of religion, from two different
religious denominations. The husband or the wife being
a miserable bigot, knows of no religion but that of his
or her own sect. He knows no church but his church ;
she knows no church but her church. At length the
children become the subjects of dispute and ill-will. The
husband authoritatively demands them to go with him —
the mother claims her share. Harmony between husband
and wife is destroyed — the family is thrown into confu-
sion and strife. In such a case there is only one way of
escape, and that is, to attend a church like this, where
Christianity is not preached as a creed, but as the spirit
of Christ living in our lives.

Husband and Avife are said to be " one flesh ; " but
there is a great difference between a fleshly union, and a
union of heart and spirit. Is marriage a Scriptural
union, if the one-be an infidel or a worldling, and the
other a believer and a doer of the word ? or if the religi-
ous beliefs are diametrically opposed to each other ? It
has been truly said : " Like oil and water cast into one
vessel, they may be thrown together under one roof, but
life commuriion, such as the marriage relation is designed
to afford, they can never have." You know Avell that I
have no hostile feelings towards those Avhose religious views
are other than mine. I have spoken with distinctness be-
cause of a sincere desire to guard your most sacred interests,
and secure to you, young ladies and gentlemen, that happi-
ness withput which life will be charmless and joyless. I
therefore unhesitatingly express the opinion that marriages
between persons who do not tread in the same religious
path are wholly unadvisable — nay, wrong, for they tend
to invite a future teeming with shadows, clouds and
darkness.

X.

({ood pou^el^BBping.

^ GOOD wife must be a good housekeeper. No
^' matter what a girl's accomplishments may be,
her education is incomplete if she has not some
knowledge in the sciences of hake-ology, hoil-ology, cook-
ology, stitch-ology and mend-ology. All experience and
observation shoAv that good housekeeping is one of the
most essential elements of happiness in the household.
Even if a girl should never be required to do the work
herself, she ought to know whether the work is done in
the proper manner- or not.

" Give me the fair one in city or country,
Whose home and its dnties are dear to her heart."

Then, too, do not forget that the rich of to-day are
very often to-morrow's poor. Croesus, whose name is a
synonym for great wealth, was himself taken captive,
stripped of all his treasures, and in his old age supported
by the charity of Cyrus.

The greatest defect in our social system is the aimless
way in which girls are brought up. Nine-tenths of them
are prepared in neither body nor mind for the lofty duties
and serious responsibilities which marriage implies, and
marriage, in consequence, has been brought down to a
low, sensual plane. Let our girls be brought up to have
their regular daily domestic duties, let idleness be forbid-
den them, and let every woman be clothed with the

(43)

44 GOOD HOUSEKEEEPING.

dignity of a useful life. The great secret of domestic tran-
quillity lies in a good, square meal. Meredith says :

"We may live without poetry, music and art ;
We may live without conscience ; we may live without heart ;
We may live without friends ; we may live without hooks,
But civilized man cannot live without cooks. ^■
He may live without hooks ; what is knowledge but grieving?
He may live without hope ; what is hope but deceiving?
He may live without love ; what is passion but repining ?
But where is the man that can live without dining?"

With Dr. Holland we believe that there is but one cure
for many of our social evils, and that is '" universal house-
keeping." No hotel or boarding house, however pleasant,
can supply the want created by an instinctive heart-long-
ing for some place, "be it ever so lowly," which can be
called — our liome.

" A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,
Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere."

XI.

UnequalliJ Yo^ed Together.

'^VID says : "If you wish to marry suitably,
marry your equal." If possible marry a man
who is in some way your superior. Your
standing in society will be determined by his. If you
marry your inferior you wrong yourself, your family and
your whole life. As Shakespeare says :

" 'Tis meet that noble minds
Keep ever with their likes."

True are the words of Tennyson in Locksley Hall of
every woman who marries her inferior :

" Thou shalt lower to his level day by day,
What is fine within thee growing coarse to sympathize with

clay.
As the husband is, the wife is ; thou art mated with a clown,
And the grossness of his nature will have power to drag thee

down.
He will hold thee when his passion shall have spent its novel

force,
Something better than his dog, a little dearer than his horse."

Now and then a woman of great force of character may
lift her husband upward, but she accepts such a labor at
the risk of her own higher life. Do not misunderstand
me. I do not say that you shall marry for ambition ;
This is Mrs. Carlyle's experience. She said: "I
married for ambition ; Carlyle has exceeded all that my
wildest hopes ever imagined of him, and I am miserable."
Yet there is no great danger marrying geniuses, as the
supply is very limited. Many men think themselves
geniuses, and try to make the female sex believe that
they are not made of common clay, and that the girl who
gets them will be blessed.^ From such a blessing I would
have you adopt the Episcopalian prayer: ^^Good Lord
deliver U8." (45)

XII.

Beauti}.

'^'^EAUTY is said to be only skin deep. Some-
times it is no deeper than the powder and the
paint.

' ' 'Tis not the fairest form that holds
The mildest, purest form within ;
!Tis not the richest plant that holds
The sweetest fragrance in."

Many a fair face hides a foul heart.

A woman's worth is to be estimated by the real good-
ness of her heart, the greatness of her soul, the purity of
her character, the sweetness of her disposition and well-
balanced temper. A woman with these qualities, be she
ever so plain, or even homely, makes the best of wives
and truest of mothers. She will have a higher purpose
in living than fluttering around dry-goods and millinery
stores, like a butterfly around a gaudy flower, ever on the
lookout for the latest style. A good many women have
the delirium trimmins. ^'

To love dress is not to be the slave of fashion.
Elegance fits you. I believe that the love of beauty and
refinement belongs to you. Nor am I opposed to pleasure
and gayety. But this is not the only object of your
creation. Don't give gayety and style your first thought,
your best time, and all your money. I would have you be
troubled more by a neglected duty than an unfashionable
bonnet. Consult the Bible oftener than Harper s Bazar,

(46)

BEAUTY. 47

and follow the Saviour more closely than Madame
Demorest I

The most pitiable creatures I ever saw were the
husbands of "professional beauties." They all believe
with Socrates, that beauty is " a short-lived tyranny; "
and with Theophrastus, "a silent cheat." What you
want, young man, in a wife, is not a toy to play with,
a doll to be dressed, an ornament to exhibit, but a
"helpmeet," not simply a help-eat.

" Woe to him who weds for life
Some female cipher called a wife ;
Who, destitute of brains or heart,
Leaves him not free to act his part ;
A torture on the tyrant's plan,
Which chains a carcass to a man !
Go wed a Tartar for your bride.
Or yoke Xanthippe to your side ;
But let not Hymen's holy chain
Bind you to some one fair but vain,
Who, next to dress, loves you best.
And has no soul to make yoii blest !
Far better is acidity
Than flat, stale insipidity ;
And such a female is no woman —
Her husband must be more than human."

XIII.

"i^ Fi'iBnd in Meed i^ a Fi^iend Indeed."

^"^-^C ORD BACON says : " To be without friends, is

to find the world a wilderness." A Portuguese
proverb says: "There is no living without
friends." Robinson Crusoe might glory on his lonely
island in being monarch of all he surveyed, but he was
heartily glad when he got the company of the man
Friday. It is only a mean man that can be contented
alone. God intended us for society. A trusty friend is
one of earth's greatest blessings.

Beware, as for your life, of the friendships you form.
Alas ! for the dire contagion of evil friendships ! Be
scrupulous as to whom you admit to your confidence and
aifcctions. Washington was wont to say : " Be courteous
to all, intimate with few, and let those few be well tried
before you give them your confidence." Aim high. Get
into the best society possible. Slight no man for
poverty, nor esteem any man for his wealth.

Stick to your friend. lie can never have any true
friends who is often changing them. To part with a
tried friend, without any great provocation, is unreason-
able levity.

Bring your friend to a proper understanding of him-
self Persuade him from his follies. "Rebuke a wise
man," says Solomon, "and he will love thee." Phocion
said truly to Antipater : "I cannot be both your friend
and flatterer."

(48)

"a friend in need is a friend indeed." 49

True friendship cannot exist between bad men. The
degree of their privacy to each other's wickedness will be
the measure of their dislike and distrust.

True friendship is tested in the hour of adversity. No
lack of friends when all goes prosperously with you ; but
that is not the time to form the estimate of the friendship.
Wait until you are in trouble, and many a professed
friend will be shy of you, and give you the dead cut. It is
remarkable how few the friendships are that bear the
strain of altered circumstances and remain true as the
needle to the pole. "^4. friend in need is a friend
indeed."

Many people expect too much from their friends.
Their friends must do everything for them ; give them
flaming testimonials of character ; lend them no end of
money ; become their sureties for a loan, and get them
out of every scrape into which their improvidence gets
them. Hence, we quite agree with that old saying:
" Friends, like fiddle-strings, must not be screwed too
tight."

Friendships are often productive of mischief because
they are not governed by wisdom and prudence. Many
a man clings to his friends like the ivy to the oak for
support, so that his energies are never called out, and his
talents are never brought into exercise. Stand on your
own legs. Be independent. You are better off without
any friends than with such as are prepared to help you
whenever you get into trouble ; for with such friends you
will always be getting into trouble, and will never learn
how to get yourself out of it. The young man who
begins with crutches the battle of life, generally ends on
crutches.

He is our best friend who is a friend to our soul. Give
a wide berth to the sneering skeptic. Have for your

50 "a feiend in need is a friend indeed."

bosom friends men who will '' strengthen your hand in
God," who will foster your piety, and make you wiser,
better and holier men.

In closing, we wish to introduce you to a Friend who
will prove to you the kindest and truest friend you ever
had. "Hesticketh closer than a brother." For friend
and brother are by no means equivalent. A man's worst
foes are frequently those of his own household. " Many
kinsfolk, few friends."

In Christ alone our proverb finds its verification.

Jesus is for every man " a friend in need," and therefore

"a friend indeed."

" One there is above all others

Well deserves the name of Friend ;
His is love beyond a brother's,
Lasting, true, and knows no end."

XIV.

I^eVenge.

CoT^^YRON says: ''Sweet is revenge." But we
ll|^ rather agree with Milton :

^"^^^ '^ " Kevenge, at first though sweet,

Bitter, ere long, back on itself recoils."

Juvenal says : " Revenge is only the pleasure of a
little, weak and narrow mind." Lord Karnes truly says :
*' The indulgence of revenge tends to make men more
savage and cruel." The dog believes that revenge is
sweet, and, Avith almost human tenacity, cherishes ideas
of revenge. He neither forgives nor forgets. Revenge
is not manhood; it is rather doghood. When you are
tempted to give the cutting or hasty answer, check your-
self with the question : "Is this the reply my Saviour
would have given? " If your fellow-men should prove
unkind, inconsiderate and ungrateful, be it yours to
refer the cause to God. Revenge I No such word should
have a place in the Christian's vocabulary. Revenge I If
I cherish such a feeling towards my brother, how can I
meet that brother in heaven? "-But ye have not so
learned in Christ." Christ did not answer cutting
taunts and meet unmerited wrong. '' Overcome evil
with good." "Who, when he was reviled, reviled not
again." "Let this mind be in you which was also in
Christ Jesus."

(51)

XV.

({i^umWei'?.

^I^^AcyERYTHING goes wrong with some people
IJ f§L because they make it. They never have any
^^^v9 pleasure because they never get ready to enjoy
it. Everything is out of humor and so are the people.
Something is wrong all the time, and the wrong is with
them. Their lot is harder than falls to other mortals ;
their home is the worst of anybody's ; they have more
trouble than anybody else ; they are never so happy as
when they grumble ; and, if everything worked to their
satisfaction, they would still grumble because there was
nothing for them to grumble about. The grumbler is a
violator of God's law, and a sinner against the peace and
harmony of society. While we are perfectly willing the
grumbler should go to heaven at death, everybody is
heartily glad to get rid of him on earth.

Don't torment yourselves with borrowed troubles.
Don't wait for happiness. Go to work and make it.
Adopt the true philosophy of life. Take things as they
come. Look at the bright side. If there is no bright
side, brush up one of the dark ones. Don't hang down
your heads or lips. " Nothing so bad but it might have
been worse." "It is a long lane that has no turning."
" 'Tis always morning somewherein the world." "Every
cloud has a silver lining." "The darkest hour of the
night is that which precedes the dawn." Form the
habit of thinking how much there is to cheer you, even
when there may be much to depress. A poor Avidow, not
having bed-clothes to shelter her boy from the snow
which was blown through the cracks of her miserable

(52)

GRUMBLEES. 53

lovel, used to cover him with boards. One night he
said to her smilingly and contentedly: "Ma, Avhat do
poor folks do these cold nights that haven't any boards
to put on their children ?" A poor widow living in a
house open to snow in winter, and who could have no fire
when the wind blew, exclaimed: "How favored I am!
For wlien it is coldest and the wind does not blow, I
can have a fire." When rheumatism had disabled one
of her feet, she exclaimed again : " How favored I am !
I once lost use of both my feet." Thus, in every calam-
ity she saw some especial mercy. " How dismal you
look," said a bucket to his companion as they were going
to the well, " Ah !" replied the other, " I was reflecting
on the uselessness of our being filled : for let us go away
ever so full, we always come back empty." " Dear me !
How strange to look at it in that way," said the other
bucket. " Now I enjoy the thought that however empty
we come, we always go away full. Only look at it in
that light and you will be as cheerful as I am."

Solon being asked by Croesus who in the world was
happier than himself, answered : " Tellus, who, though
lie was poor, was a good man and content with what he
had, and died at a good old age." What a glorious
world this would be if all its inhabitants could say with
Shakespeare's shepherd : " Sir, I am a true laborer. I
earn what I wear; owe no man hate ; envy no man happi-
ness ; glad of other men's good ; contented with my farm."
Cultivate what is warm and genial, not the cold and
the repulsive, the sullen and the morose. Smile and all
nature will smile with you ; the air Avill seem more balmy,
the sky more clear, the grass will have a brighter green,
the trees a richer foliage, the flowers a more fragrant
smell, the birds will sing more sweetly, and the sun,
moon and stars will appear more beautiful.

XVI.

Business is business, but the best kind of
^ business is to mind your own business, and the
^^>J<::70 reason why those people succeed so well who
mind their own business is because there is so little com-
petition. Woman generally gets the credit for the
gossiping business. It is said that Avhen the Lord made
man he gave him ten measures of speech, and that the
//woman ran away Avith nine of them. The Chinese say
'' that a woman's sword is her tongue and she never lets
it rest. Many a woman's tongue is like an express
train running along at the rate of forty miles an
hour, pouring out its rain of sparks on every side and
setting everything on fire. But justice compels me to
say that the men are just as bad blabs as the Avomen.
Indeed, many women have gone out of the gossiping
business, and babbling, tattling, sly-whispering, and im-
pertinent, meddling men have succeeded them, and are
trespassing constantly on the community with their
tongues.

There is a sad propensity in our fallen nature to listen to
the gossips and scandal-mongers. Without any intention
of doing injury to a neighbor, a careless remark may be
seized by a babbler, and, as a snow-ball grows by rolling it,
so does a story by telling : it passes through the babbling
tribe, growing larger and larger, and darker and darker,
and by the time it has rolled through Babbletown, it has
assumed the magnitude and blackness of base slander.

(54)

QOSSIPEKS. 55

Especially is this true of the fair sex. An injurious
rumor against a person of unblemished character, origi-
nating with some gossip, once attached to a person's
name, will remain beside it in a blemish and doubt for-
ever. INIany a woman has withered and melted like snow
in the spring, shedding burning tears of sadness over
man's unkindness, and woman's inhumanity to woman,

which

" Has made countless thousands mourn."

Among many species of animals, if one of their number
is wounded and falls, he is at once torn to pieces by his
fellows. Traces of this animal cruelty are seen in men
to-day, but especially in women. Let a woman fall from
virtue, and nine-tenths of her sisters will turn and tear
her to pieces, and the next day the man who robbed her
of her virtue, broke her father's and her mother's hearts,
and drove her to tlie street, will be smiled on and almost
congratulated on his success. The cruelty of woman to
woman is perfectly wolfish. Shame, oh, shame ! Reverse
the action : loathing for the unrepentant wretch who ac-
complished her ruin, and tenderness for the wounded sister.

Believe but half the ill and credit twice the good said
of your neighbor. If you can say nothing good of him,
say nothing at all. Deal tenderly with the absent.
Beechersays: "When the absent are spoken of, some
Avill speak gold of them, some silver, some iron, some
lead, and some always speak dirt, for they have a natural
attraction toward what is evil, and think it shows pen-
etration in them. As a cat watching for mice does not
look up, though an elephant goes by, so they are so busy
mousing for defects that they let great excellencies pass
them unnoticed. I will not say that it is not Christian to
make beads of others, and tell them over every day. I
say it is infernal. If you want to know how the devil
feels, you do know if you are such a one."

56 GOSSIPERS.

Fault-finders are always small souled. The ignorant
laugh, and ridicule, and criticise. True worth never
exults in the faults of others. " Faults are always thick
where love is thin." " A white cow is all black if your
eyes choose to make it so."

When an eminent painter was requested to paint Alex-
ander the Great, so as to give a perfect likeness of him,
he felt a difficulty. Alexander in his wars had been
struck by a sword, and across his forehead was an
immense scar. The painter said: " If I retain the scar,
it will be an offense to the admirers of the monarch, and
if I omit it, it will fail to be a perfect likeness. What
shall I do ?" He hit upon a happy expedient, he repre-
sented the Emperor leaning on his elbow, with his fore-
finger upon his brow, accidentally, as it seemed, covering
the scar on his forehead. So let us study to paint each
other with the finger of charity upon the scar of a brother
or a sister, hiding the ugly mark, and revealing only the
beautiful, the true and the good.

XVII.

l^Chri^iiianitiJ Failing?

'C^T^HE noisy infidels have for over three centuries
[P<^bfi said: ''Christianity is virtually extinct, and
'V-.^::*^ now Me are to have anew order of things."
But, for some reason or other, Christianity does not die,
and the world moves forward in much the same way.

What is infidelity ? A murderous hand reaching up
through the smoke of the pit, to smite and blast, to
curse and destroy, to drag down bodies and souls of
immortal men into the prison-house of woe. Infidelity
is nothing new. It has left a blasted fire-track, stretch-
ing from the very walls of heaven, across fair Eden,
down the long ages of time into the blackness of eternal
darkness. What has infidelity done for the world ?
Where are the testimonies of the work it has wrought ?
Where are its temples ! Where are its schools and col-
leges? Where are its hospitals ? Where are its organized
societies of benevolence ? What has it benefited society?
What has it done for the elevation and purity of public
morals ? What science or art has it originated ? How
many slaves has it liberated? How many inebriates has
it reclaimed ? How many fallen women has it restored ?
When hot war tramped the land with iron heel, what did
infidelity do for the relief of the wounded and dying
soldier-boy ? What has it done to pioneer new countries
for civilization ? Where did it ever create a single virtue ?
What life has it ever assisted to higher holiness ? What

(57)

58 IS CHRISTIANITY FAILING?

death has it ever cheered? None, none! Nor can it.
Its nature forbids hope. It only bewilders, and confuses,
and perplexes, and tortures, and damns. But it has an
object. It is to destroy. It raves and foams against
^vj God, and the Bible, and the Sabbath, and the family,
and the church, and the state. It would open wide the
flood-gates of vice, plunge the -world into the grave of
despair, and consign humanity to the dungeons of the
damned. We have nothing to hope from infidelity, but
everything to dread.

There was one nation, and only one, that ever tried
this system of infidelity — one nation that succeeded in
persuading the people that they would die like brutes,
and they began to live like brutes. France decreed in
national convention that there was no God and death an
eternal sleep. The Sabbath was abolished, churches were
turned into temples of reason, the Bible was dragged
along the streets by way of derision and contempt.
Infidelity then reigned and frightful was its reign. Its
crown was terror, its throne the guillotine, its sceptre the
battle-axe, its palace yard a field of blood, and its royal
robes dripped with human gore. Gutters were filled
with the torn shreds of human flesh. Property was con-
fiscated. The morning breeze and evening wind bore
across the vine-clad hills of France the cries of suffering
and the shrieks of terror. And to save the metropolis
and the kingdom from utter desolation, the infidel
authorities had to institute the Sabbath and public wor-
ship.

Infidelity is a failure — an inglorious failure. The his-
tory of the past proves that the human mind can not be
satisfied with what the Germans very properly denomi-
nate Wurst-Philosophie. The most hostile theories
against Christianity have been speedily abandoned, and

IS CHRISTIANITY FAILING? 59

the best thought of the age bows reverently to the claims
of Christianity.

The enemies of religion have striven among themselves
and fiercely demolished one another. The theory of
Paulus was soon displaced by that of critical Strauss.
The theory of Strauss was in turn destroyed by that of
the ;\?sthetic Renan. The theory of Renan has fallen
to pieces of its own inconsistencies. Baur, Ililgenfeld
and Schwegler, like sappers and miners with pick-axe
and powder, went forth to subvert Christianity, but they
have only disclosed the Gibraltar strength of her founda-
tions. Voltaire said he lived in the twilight of Chris-
tianity. He told the truth, although he meant a lie. He
did live in its twilight, but not as he meant to say, the
twilight of the evening ; it was the twilight before the
mornincf. Voltaire and his theories have sunk into the
night of the past. Christianity lives in the twilight of
the present. He, too, boasted that with one hand he
would overthrow the fabric of Christianity, which required
the hands of twelve apostles to build up, and to-day the
press which he employed to print his blasphemies is used
in printing the Bible, and the house in which he lived is
packed with Bibles from garret to cellar as a depot for
the Bible Society. Gi])bon labored earnestly to over-
throw Christianity, yet to-day Gibbon's hotel at Lake
Leman contains a room where Bibles are sold. Chester-
field's parlor, formerly an infidel club-room, echoing with
profanity and raillery at the Christian religion, is now a
vestry where the groans and prayers of the penitent go
up to God. Tom Paine thought he had demolished the
Bible, but after he had crawled desparingly into a
drunkard's grave in 1809, the book took such a leap that
since that time more than twenty times as many Bibles
have been made and scattered through the world as were

60 IS CHRISTIANITY FAILING?

ever made before since the creation of man. A few years
ago a man traveled around the country showing up "The
Mistakes of Moses," at about five hundred dollars a
night. I would not give ten cents to hear the infidel on
the mistakes of Moses, but I would give one hundred
dollars to hear Moses on the mistakes of the infidel.
It would be interesting to hear a military leader and
legislator like Moses, who, after he was eighty years
old, commanded for forty years an army of six hundred
thousand men, emancipating, organizing and giving laws
to a nation which has maintained its existence for more
than thirty centuries, give his candid opinion concerning
the " mistakes " of a "colonel " of cavalry, Avhose military
career is said to have included one single engagement, in
which " he was chased into a hog yard and surrendered
to a boy of sixteen, after which he heroically resigned his
commission in the face of the enemy," subsequently turn-
ing his attention to managing a swindling whisky ring,
discussing theology, blaspheming God, setting up men of
straw and knocking them down, criticising dead men and
dead issues, and defending Star Route thieves for a cattle
rancho in New Mexico.

Infidelity has had its era. A little over a century
ago England was under the dominion of infidelity. But
a reaction came, and to-day Gladstone, the greatest living
Englishman, is an earnest teacher in the Sunday-school,
and the Bible the text-book of every British youth. At
the close of the last century, and far into our own, infi-
delity was predominant in Germany ; but in our day not
only are devout believers the masters of her mind, but the
presses of England and America teem with the products
of her faith.

Christianity is far from being a creed outworn. Chris-
tianity and civilization are identical. The one cannot

IS CHRISTIANITY FAILING? 61

be carried forward without the other. Wherever go the
swift ships, wherever stretch tlie electric wires or the iron
rails, there goes the cross, the grand magnetic centre of the
creation of God. Church bells are ringing everywhere,
grand cathedrals are arising on every shore and plain ; on
wilds and continents unknown Christ is setting up his
throne. Christianity is making inroads everywhere, and
is spreading most in the most advanced and cultured
nations. This is not the case with Mohammedanism,
Buddhism, Confucianism and Brahmanism. They bur-
row among the superstitious and uncultured. China, the
most populous and wealthy of all heathen countries, com-
pelled by the force of circumstances to open its doors to
the outside world, has been penetrated by missionary
pioneers to Thibet on the west and Burma on the south,
and fully one-half of its provinces from Hong Kong and
Canton as far as Pekin have been occupied by a chain of
missions which take in the principal cities of the Empire.
Japan, which in its thirst for progress and improvement
has opened the way for the preaching of the Gospel,
already rejoices in the organization of scores of evangel-
ical churches. In the Mohammedan countries, from the
Balkan Mountains on the north to Bagdad on the south,
from Egypt on the west to Persia on the east, central
points in the most prominent cities have been established
for the evangelization of the Moslem population.

All the great religions are going down, while the glad
tidings proclaimed to the shepherds on Judea's plains are
spread abroad as never before. With the Bible trans-
lated into more than three hundred different languages
and dialects, with missionary stations planted on every
shore, with dark continents opened for the heralds of sal-
vation, with long isolated nations unbarring their gates
and flinging open wide their moss-grown portals, with

62 IS CHRISTIANITY FAILING?

the isles of the sea stretching out their liands to God,
with servants and hand-maidens, on whom the Spirit of
God has been poured out, flying as on the wings of the
wind to bear the message of salvation to a lost world,
with all the appliances of modern science and the activ-
ities of modern enterprise and intellect, the way is sure
for the Gospel of Christ to reach the very ends of the
earth.

Christianity is on the eve of fresh victories. She is
Just raising herself. Oh I I see her. There is beauty
on her brow, there is lustre in her eye, there is glory on
her cheek. I see her stepping on the mountains, passing
over the plains ; I see her fair white hand, with nail-
scars and blood-drops on it, stretching down through the
clouds of wrath, distributing blessings on the sons of
men, lifting helpless sinners from bondage and misery
into liberty and joy, and placing them high above the
seats of angels and archangels.

The church is the only institution left standing in the
world which carries the mind back to the times when the
smoke of sacrifice rose from the Pantheon, and when
camelopards and tigers bounded in the Flavian amphi-
theatre. The Christian church was great and respected
before the Saxon had set foot on Great Britain — before
the Frank had passed the Rhine — when Grecian elo-
quence still flourished at Antioch; and she still exists,
divinely beautiful, divinely wise, divinely beneficent ;
she still lives with an immortal life, radiant Avith an
imperishable beauty, surrounded by the wrecks of a
thousand kingdoms and empires that have been swept
away, while she is yet young. The dew of youth is yet
upon her, and she comes as an angel down to the lowest
depths of the fall, building ascending steps of deliverance
that reach the very throne of God, and link heaven and

IS CHRISTIANITY FAILING? 63

earth together. Over against 82,000 ministers, 886,000
Sunday-school teachers and more than 18,000,000 com-
municants in this country, there is to-day but one popu-
lar infidel lecturer, and he no more impedes the progress of
the church than a snow-flake would a lightning express
train. His attack upon the church is fully as laughable
as the attack of a fly upon a bumble-bee, a weasel upon
a lion, or a canary bird upon an eagle. He might as well
endeavor to turn back the flowing tide Avith a Avisp of
straw, outroar a hurricane with a tin whistle, hold the
wind in his fist, suspend the succession of the seasons by
his nod, or extinguish the light of the sun with a veil.

■ CD C5

Foolish man I He is but plowing the air, striking with
a straw, writing on the surface of the water, and seeking
figs where only brambles grow.

A certain circuit judge was always sure of meeting
some cuttino; or sneerino- remarks from a self-conceited
lawyer when he came to a certain town in his rounds.
This was repeated one day at dinner, when a gentleman
present said : '' Judge, why don't you squelch that fel-
low?" The judge, dropping his knife and fork, and
placing his chin upon his hands and his elbows on the
table, remarked : '' U]) in our town a widow had a dog
that, whenever the moon shone, went upon the steps and
barked, and barked away at it all night." Stopping
short he quietly resumed eating. After waiting some
time it was asked : " Well, Judge, what of the dog and
the moon "'" "0/i / the dog died and the moon keeps on
shining," he said. So all the Injuresouls will die, and
Christianity will shine on.

The church is established on the top of the mountain,
an<l all the nations are flowing unto it. The times are
full of promise. Everything is hopeful. The liberality
of Christians is greater than ever. The Bible is read by

64 IS CHRISTIANITY FAILING'^

a larger proportion of the world's people than in any
previous age. When the revised version of the New Tes-
tament was placed in market, one publishing house in
New York sold 250,000 copies before three o'clock in the
afternoon. The printing press sends forth 2400 Bibles
every day. Each Lord's Day the Bible is studied by over
9,000,000 children in the Sunday-schools of our land
alone. In the year 1500 the number of Christians was
100,000,000; at the beginning of the present century
the number was 200,000,000, but now the number is
over 450,000,000. Christianity in the last eighty-six
years gained more than in 1800 years previous. From
1850 to 1880 the increase of population in our land was
116 per cent. ; of communicants in the same period, 184
per cent. Thus it is evident that the ratio of communi-
cants has exceeded that of the population 68 per cent.

By the multiplied agencies of church-work over 6000
are converted per day — a Pentecost every twelve hours.
The Methodist Church in this country alone is building
two churches a day. In seven decades the Christians
of America contributed voluntarily $129,905,000 for
missions. The amounts raised for ministers' salaries, for
the running expenses of 115,610 churches, for repairs,
for ncAV churches, for the benevolences, colleges, etc., etc.,
we dare not undertake to compute. The aggregate must
)te an enormous sum. Now, would a religion be supported
with such amazing generosity if the people did not believe
in it, and if it were dying out ?

Church-going, if not more popular, is more respectable
to-day than ever. Let a stranger come into any com-
munity. The first question is: "Where do you go to
church ? " Where is there a community in the United
States where the most intelligent and respectable people
do not attend and support the church ? Seven-eighths

IS CHEISTIANITY FAILING? 65

of the members of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science are either church members or
church attendants. Never in the history of American
politics were so many of the leading statesmen church
members. In 1745 only four or five students in Yale
College were church members ; William and Mary's
College was a hot-bed of infidelity. In Bowdoin only
one student dared to avow himself a Christian. How is it
to-day? Take the oldest of American universities. Dr.
Dorchester, in his "Problem of Religious Progress,"
says ; " Inquiries extending through 1400 graduates of
Harvard within the last ten years show only two skeptics,
and never before were there so many evangelical church
members among the students of that institution." The
same is true of Yale. Dr. McCosh testifies that since
his connection with Princeton over 1200 young men have
graduated ; of that number four left the institution
confirmed infidels. Since graduation even these four
have considered the grounds of their unbelief and
returned to the stand of Christianity.

The pulpit is aided by thousands of magazines and
great numbers of periodicals of various kinds. Journal-
ism has grown so that now no respectable daily news-
paper is without its religious news. No danger of Chris-
tianity failing. Dispel all fear.

Christianity is safe. It is the living faith of the world's
best civilization. It has associated itself with the best and
most enduring literature, the noblest forms of art, the
broadest system of education, the most liberal systems of
government, the most progressive theories of human
development, the purest social state, the most practical
and successful endeavors for the amelioi'ation of human
suffering and the extension of human happiness, and in
fine with every element of dignity, prosperity and power

66 IS CHRISTIANITY FAILING?

among the nations of the earth. The name Christian,
given a few humble folloAvers of Christ at Antioch eight-
een hundred and twenty-six years ago as a term of
reproach, is now blazoned on the banners of the greatest
kingdoms of the earth, and borne Avith pride by the
world's best civilization.

Its grand facts are constellated in eternal beauty, and
in the dispensation of the fullness of the spirit of the
Almighty God, the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the
earth as the waters cover the sea, and Jesus shall reign
from sea to sea, and from the rivers unto the ends of the
earth. Kings shall become nursing fathers and queens
nursing mothei'S to the church of the living God, and gos-
pel truth and gospel righteousness shall become the law
of the nations.

Hope thou in God. The power is his. The grace is
his. Tlie mighty attraction of the cross shall yet draw
men to tlie crucified, and Jesus shall see the travail of his
soul and be satisfied.

Amid all the world's overturnings and uncertainties,
Christianity, like the imperial oak whose roots strike
deep and wide, and whose summit stretches towards the
heavens, towers aloft in its own native majesty, and
proudly bids defiance to every assault. Thick and
hot as the flames of persecution gather around it and
threaten it, like the bush of Iloreb, it remains entire
amid all the flames. He who planted it hath said: '' The
gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Thrones may
fall, empires perish, confederations dissolve, nations
vanish, and

"The proudest works of Geuius shall decay,
And Reason's brighest lustre fade away ;
The sophists' art, the ])oet's boldest flight,
Shall sink in darkness and conclude in night;"

IS CHRISTIANITY FAILING? 67

but the church, triumphant over time, shall stand and its
branches wave in glory in the sky Avhen the world itself
shall be no more. It can no more perish than God
himself can die ; for he is in it, and has linked it to his
own immortality.

" Allehiia I for Lord God Omnipotent reigneth."

XVIII.

Wanted— A Ifan.

, T should be the highest ambition of every man to
possess true manhood. And what is so sublime
a thing as a man — a real man — a true man I To
be a man — a genuine man — is everything. It is to be
the best thing beneath the skies. To be a man is some-
thing more than to live to be twenty-one years of age —
something more than to grow to the physical stature of
man.

Three thousand years ago the prophet Jeremiah said :
" Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places
thereof if ye can find a man." But Jeremiah was " the
weeping prophet." Philosophers in all ages have com-
plained that human creatures are plentiful, but men
are scarce. But philosophers made their ideal too high,
their conception of what man ought to be too lofty. I
have no sympathy with the cynic of whom history
informs us, that, being ordered to summon the good men
of the city before the Roman censor, proceeded imme-
diately to the graveyard, called to the dead below, saying
he knew not where to find a good man alive ; or that
gloomy sage, that prince of grumblers, Thomas Carlyle,
who described the population of his country as consisting
of so man}^ millions, " mostly fools," and who could speak
in praise of no one but himself and Mrs. Carlyle, the lat-
ter deserving all the praise she got for enduring him so

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WANTED — A MAN. 69

long. "When any one complains, as the famous Diogenes
did, that he has to hunt the streets with candles at noon-
day to find an honest man, we are apt to think that his
nearest neighbor would have quite as much difficulty as
himself in making the discovery. If you think there is
not a true man living, you had better, for appearance,
put off saying it until you are dead yourself

In looking for a man, look for a man with a conscience
— a man who, like Longfellow's honest blacksmith, can
'' look the whole world in the face, and fear not any man."
Look for a being that has a heart. A warm, loving nature
is true manliness. In looking for a man, look for a mag-
nanimous man ; a broad mind, that not only observes
what passes in the limited range of its own sphere, but is
not afraid to look abroad ; is far-sighted and not afraid of
excellence in others.

In your search for " a man," look for a being that has

a soul — the capability of solemn thought.

" A little nonsense now and then
Is relished by the best of men."

But some men are so given to levity that they are inca-
pable of a serious thought. Thousands to-day worship
Bacchus and Venus. Tlieir hearts are set on having '' a
good time." Others apply themselves so intensely to
their business, that they find pleasure only in worshiping
the mighty dollar. The man who so inordinately loves
money for its own sake, and becomes insensible to all
refined enjoyments, after awhile ceases to be a man.
Out of the gold which the woman brought to Aaron he
made a golden calf That operation is being repeated
over and over again every day. Many a man has
gathered so much gold together that instead of makiiig
a man of him it made hlra a golden calf. Money does
not make the man. Goldsmith hints this when he says:

70 WANTED — A MAN.

" 111 fares the laud, to hastening ills a prey,
When wealth accumulates and men decay.''

" How much, then, is a man better than a sheep " if, as
Tennyson says, " he nourishes a blind life within the
brain" — blind to God and immortality? Striking and
grand are these lines Burns sent to an intimate friend :

" The voice of nature loudly cries —
And many a message from the skies —
That something in us never dies :
That in this frail, uncertain state,
Hang matters of eternal weight;
That future life, in worlds unkuown,
Must take its hue from this alone ;
Whether as heavenly glory bright,
Or dark as misery's woeful night.
Since then, my honored first of friends.
On this poor being all depends,
Let us the important NOW employ,
And live as those who never die."

Faith in Jesus Christ makes manly men, " By faith,"
says St. Peter, '' we become partakers of the divine
nature." Then only will we be men in the highest sense.
Would YOU be men 'i Imitate Christ. He is our model
— a model containing all the elements of true manhood ;
a model of sympathy and love ; a model of purity and
uprightness. Clirut-men are wanted.

XIX.

Crime? ^i drimiqal?.

vOFi^HE highest interests of society demand that
^"^fe^ every criminal be speedily punished to the full
Ch^J^o extent of the law. Too many criminal matters
are "fixed up," Avhile the interests of society are fixed
down. All over this country society realizes the impera-
tive need of a more speedy and eifective administration
of the criminal law — a more certain and expeditious
execution of justice, which would send terror to the
hearts of the evil-doers. If every criminal should be
given to understand that he would be severely punished
immediately after the committal of the crime, crime
would walk more slowly among us.

The jury-box must be regenerated, purified, and placed
on a higher pedestal. Changes are needed which will
assure the public that intelligence, uprightness, good
moral character, and respectable common sense are in the
jury-box. I believe that the jury system is immovably
imbedded in the structure and character of our civiliza-
tion, but it does not yield satisfactory results as an
agency in the administration of justice. Trial by jury
has been degraded to a contemptible farce in many parts
of our country. Every blockhead, every ignoramus and
every corrupt knave that is permitted to vote can
discharge the functions of a juror. It is a common
and true saying in tliis country, that ignorance is the
best jury qualification, and intelligence the greatest

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72 CKIMES AND CEIMINALS.

disqualification. We need a change in our law, so that only
intelligent and sensible men can serve as jurors. To bring
this about we must educate and agitate ; and we must
have men who are willing to serve their country in the
capacity of jurors ; and to this end we need a law that
will allow respectable pay, so that respectable men can
be secured.

Criminal lawyers are in a large measure to blame
for the large number of crimes and criminals. When a
man has committed a crime, he weighs his chances to
escape punishment by the amount of money he is able to
pay a lawyer for his defense. So much money will
secure such a lawyer, whose very name carries power-with
it to so influence a jury as to secure acquittal, or a dis-
agreement, which is about equal to an acquittal. Now I
would not deny the worst criminal the right to a defense ;
but when a crime has been committed that shocks the
moral sense of even irreligious people, and when there is
no doubt as to the man's guilt, then, when in answer to a
call for money a lawyer lends his name, his influence,
his eloquence, his wit and his wisdom in defense of that
criminal, and when, by ingenuities, by unwarranted
exceptions, by "packing" the jury, so as to be able to tell
beforehand what the verdict will be, and by perversion
of law secures the acquittal of the criminal, or has
awarded him a ridiculously inadequate sentence, then I
say such a lawyer — no matter what his social standing,
what his qualifications — such a lawyer becomes the accom-
plice of criminals. He helps to undermine our social
fabric, and disgraces an honorable profession.

Let the corrupt juries, the more contemptible laws,
rules and practices in the impaneling of juries disappear;
let the trickery of legal shysters be expelled from our
courts, and the vile tribe of criminal pettifogging dudes

CRIMES AND CRIMINALS. 73

be banished from the presence of respectable judges, and
let the execution of justice be changed from a hideous
sham to a reasonably swift and a reasonably certain
reality, and crime Avill cease to walk among us with
brazen face.

Undoubtedly the ''blood and thunder" fiction of
to-day — the books apologetic for crime — books swarming
with libertines and desperadoes, are filling the minds of
men with sin and whirling them into iniquity. Our
newspapers daily have chronicles similar to the following :
"A half dozen boys formed themselves together as a gang
of road agents on the Western frontier, after the manner
so graphically pictured in the popular fiction of the day."
Another boy shot his step-mother. He said: "I don't
see anything wrong in that kind of thing; it's dead sure to
make me the hero of a novel with my picture in it." "A
boy in Ohio went out into the yard and blew out his brains
with a shot-gun, after a manner described in a novel he
had been reading." I have the profoundest contempt
for those papers which give publicity to every crime, and
lionize the criminals. And the man who publishes such
a paper is a cancer-planter, and beside him the lowest
thief is a gentleman and the foulest tramp a prince.

Another class of books which tend to criminality are
infidel books. The life of every infidel author is so pol-
luted with shame, sensuality, debauchery and demoraliz-
ing sentiments, as to make their books, of all others, the
most dangerous. Let a man read infidel books, and he
will soon give up his religion, his God and his morals.
Let us reject, denounce, cast out and hate witli infinite
scorn all infidel books.

My theme also impresses me witli the fact that moral
and religious education is in(lisj)ensable. It is a fact that
ignorance and crime abound most in those communities

74 CRIMES AND CRIMINALS.

where the people know least of God's law ; therefore,
every man who seeks to destroy confidence in God's law
is an enemy to his country and a promoter of crime.

Religious principle is the only moral safeguard of a
man. Some years ago a country preacher, who had
heen appointed chaplain of the prison at Sing Sing,
clumsily began his work by patting a prisoner on the
back and saying : " Do you love the Lord ? "' The con-
vict replied sharply : '' What do you take me for ? If I
had loved the Lord I shouldnt he here.'' Those who
love the Lord do not dwell in prisons. I care not who or
what a man may be, if he goes away from God I will not
warrant that he shall not be guilty of the foulest crimes
or sink to the lowest point of moral degradation. There
are sad and sickening proofs around us on every side ;
and though every sinner does not go to the extremest
length in his wanderings from God and right, yet he
may do it. There is no certainty where a man will go
without the restraining grace of God, and the history of
every-day life proclaims it in trumpet tones, that if you
neglect the principles and precepts and restraints of
religion, you have no security that you will not go
down — wildly down — ignominiously down — forever down.
Put your trust in God, and he will put his Almighty arms
under you and lift you up above the world's temptations.
You will pull grandly through this life, and in death go
up — gloriously up — forever up!

XX.

Dollar^^and ^enge.

M^-^HE Bible does not say one word against making
money. It tells us that money "answereth
all things." It warns us against the love of
money, which is ''the root of all evil." It is no fancy
sketch Avhich the poet has drawn of gold and its wor-
shipers, who

" On its altar sacrificed ease, peace,
Truth, faith, integrity, good conscience, friends,
Love, charity, benevolence, and all
The sweet and tender sympathies of life ;
And, to complete the horrid, murderous rite,
And signalize their folly, offered up
Their souls and an eternity of bliss.
To gain them — what? An hour of dreaming joy,
A feverish hour, that hastened to be done,
And ended in the bitterness of woe."

The covetous rich man is never happy. Indescribable
are his cares, griefs and fears. Theophrastus thus de-
scribes the character of a covetous man : '' Lying in bed,
he asked his wife whether she shut the trunks and chests
fast, the cap-case be sealed, and whethei- the hall-door be
bolted ; aii<l, though she says all is well, he riseth out of
his bed in his shirt, barefooted and barelegged, to see
whether it be so, with a dark lantern searching every
corner, scarce sleeping a wink all night." The covetous
man pines in plenty, like Tantalus up to the chin in
water, yet thirsty. As the dog in iEsop's fable lost the

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76 DOLLARS AND SENSE.

real flesh for the shadow of it, so the covetous man casts
away the true riches for the love of the shadowy. It is
a common saying that a hog is good for nothing while he
is alive ; and so a covetous rich man does no good with his
riches until he is dead and his riches come to be disposed
of. Common as the folly may be, there is none greater
than that of people living miserably in order to die
magnificently and rich. A very rich man was told by a
friend that he ought to give aAvay his money during Ms
life. He was startled by the suggestion, but said, and
there Avas a mournful honesty in his remark : " Oh, hut
you see, I would like to die rich.'' This reminds me of
the poet's line :

" Hell's loudest laugh, the thought of dying rich."

Be your own executor. Do good with your money while
you live. The only real way to die rich is to be rich in
faith and good works.

When a man dies, people ask: "How much did he
leave behind ? " But God, who judges, will ask : " What
are the good deeds which thou hast sent before thee? "

XXI.

The Woi^Id Uq^ati^fijiiig.

§^^LEXANDER THE GREAT overran the whole
(/^]^\Q ®'^^''-^' ^^^^ subdued every nation ; and at the
oCi:?cS!s3 conclusion of universal victory he sat down
and wept like a child because he had not another
world to con({uer. We read also of a Roman
emperor, who had run the round of all the pleasures in
the world, offering a rich reward to any one who should
discover a new pleasure. Cyrus, the conqueror, thought
that for a little time he was making a fine thing out of
this world ; yet before he came to his grave he wrote out
this pitiful epitaph for his monument : " I am Cyrus. I
occupied the Persian Empire. 1 was King over Asia.
Begrudge me not this monument." But the world in
after years plowed up his sepulchre. Pope Adrian VI.
had this inscription on his monument: "Here lies
Adrian VI., who was never so unhappy in any period of
his life as at that in which he was a prince." " I, sinful
wretch, by the grace of God, King of England and of
France, and Lord of Ireland, bequeath to Almighty God
my sinful soul and the life I have misspent, whereof I put
myself wholly at his grace and mercy " — so wrote Henry
IV., in his last will, when the frightful reality of leprosy
had disenchanted the rapturous dream of usurpation.
Queen Elizabeth, dying, cried : " Millions of money for
an inch of time." Was the gay queen happy ? The his-
tory of kings and queens proves that though their crowns

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78 THE WORLD UNSATISFYING.

may be "set with diamonds or Indian stones," the kings
and queens themselves but seldom enjoy the crown of
content which is worn upon the heart.

The world clapped its hands and stamped its feet in
honor of Charles Lamb. Was he happy ? He says : ''I
walk up and down, thinking I am happy, but feeling I
am not." Samuel Johnson, happy? "No. I am afraid
I shall some day get crazy." Buchanan, the world-
renowned writer, exiled from his own country, appealing
to Henry YIII. for protection — happy ? " No. Over
mountains covered with snow, and through valleys flooded
with rain, I come a fugitive." "• Indeed, my lord,"
wrote famous Edmund Burke, " I doubt whether, in
these hard times, I would give a peck of refuse wheat for
all that is called fame in the world." '' Sweet," says the
poet, " sweet were the days when I was all unknown ;

But when my name was lifted up, the storm
Broke on the mountain, and I cared not for it."

Man's soul thirsts and longs for something nobler,
brighter, greater and better than the world itself. As
Macduff says: "As Avell try to fill the yawning chasm
with a few grains of sand as satisfy the gulf of the soul's
desires with the pleasures of an empty world." Nothing
can satisfy the soul but God.

XXII.

Sensational pi^eaching.

EBSTER thus defines " sensational : "
" Attended by, or fitted to, excite great
interest." If religion is the great con-
cernment of life it ought to be presented in a way so
as to excite great interest. If there is one thing that
ought to make a sensation, it is the tremendous reality
of eternity. Sugar-coated sermons, the prophesying of
smooth things and glittering generalities never make a
sensation, but facts and specifics always do. A man who
goes through a sermon free from fervor or agitation;
exhibits no emotion, no earnestness, no reality ; makes
no unguarded expressions; is faultless to a fault ; makes
nobody mad, and makes No. 14 shoes for No. 7 feet,
will never make a sensation. I think foul scorn of con-
ventional rhetoric and soft sentimentalism. Oh, may
God make us all sensational enough to win from sin
to holiness ! A sensationless sermon is like gaslcss soda.
Shakespeare says :

" There is a divinity which shapes our ends,
Kough hew them how we will."

So I could not do otherwise than I do if I would, and 1
would not if I could.

" Ist's Gottes Werk so wird's bestehen ;
Isfs Menschen Werk wird's unter gehen."

It is said that I often say things which make people
laugh. Is there anything mean in a laugh ? Is there any

(79)

80 SENSATIONAL PREACPIING.

piety in crying ? Is there not sorrow enough in the world
during the week, without going to church on Sunday to
cry ? Furthermore, are there not many churches in this
city where the people sleep ? Which is the greater sin,
to sleep or laugh in church ? The only man who ought
not to smile in church is the man who has been mean
during the Aveek.

Nine-tenths of the people who came to hear Christ
came from idle curiosity. The same is true of John
the Baptist and nearly all of God's prophets. I admit
that multitudes come here through curiosity, but under
God they are given blessings of surprise, and oh, how
often have we seen it true,, that

"They who came to scoff, remained to pray."

Hundreds to-day, who had given up church-going for
years attend here regularly with joy and devotion, and
are among our best supporters and most earnest workers.
But by " the help of God I continue." Hence, I thank-
fully and joyfully exclaim : " Not unto us, 0 Lord, not
unto us, but unto thy name be all the glory ! "

XXIII.

A ^um in i^ddition.

^^5^T. PETER says: "Add to your faith virtue,
Sb) and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge tem-
perance, and to temperance patience, and to
patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness,
and to brotherly kindness charity."

We arc not to content ourselves Avith a single grace.
Give all diligence, make good use of every Christyin
advantage, and secure as high attainments as we pos-
sibly can. The graces of religion are as susceptible of
cultivation as any other virtues. We are to have an
accumulation of virtues and graces. It is our business
to add on one after another, until we have become pos-
sessed of all.

Faith is mentioned first, because it is the foundation of
all Christian virtues. Faith in Christ, and not a mere
intellectual belief in the general existence of God, which
may be said to be a universal religious sentiment. The
devils believe and tremble. Tbc belief in God is an
ineradicable instinct of mans religious nature. It is
incorporated in the structure and functions of his moral
being. More than this, the whole universe proclaims
there is a God I The herbs of the valley and the cedars
of the mountain bless him ; each bird and insect that lives
and moves proclaims him. The seas roar him, the winds
whisper him, the storm thunders him, and the ocean pro-
claims his immensity. Man's own moral nature responds

(81)

82 A SUM IN ADDITION.

to this truth ; reason demands and accepts it ; conscience
announces and enforces it. The fool alone has said in
his heart, not his head, there is no God. A belief
in God's existence is inevitable, and there is nothing
praiseworthy or meritorious for a man to believe on
God.

Neither is there anything praiseworthy in a general
belief in the historical existence of Jesus Christ, as
recorded in the Gospels^ An intellectual acceptance of
the mere facts of Christ's life and death is not saving or
Gospel faith. Every man, who believes in history at all,
is obliged to believe in the existence of Christ, whether
lie wishes to or not. There is no escaping it, except by
a universal historical skepticism.

J^aving faith is unreservedly surrendering to Christ as
our personal Lord and Redeemer ; taking him as our
master and model ; obeying his words as the law and guide
of our life.

" Add to your faith virtue.'" Virtue here has refer-
ence to the common meaning of the Greek word, as
referring to manliness, firmness and independence.
Many men's gentleness is the gentleness of weakness.
The Christian must have strength of conviction and force
of character. Gentleness can be overdone. We have
need to add to the patience of Job the meekness of
Moses, the amiability of John, the sharp words and shaggy
mien of Elijah and John the Baptist, the boldness of
Peter, the enthusiasm of Paul, the bluntness of Latimer,
the severity of Knox, and the magnificent explosions of
Luther's far -resounding indignation.

Some blurt forth their feelings rudely, and apologize
for their roughness by calling it honesty, straightfor-
wardness and plainness of speech. Now, we can be
explicit and open, and honest, and withal courteous and

A SUM TN A"nDTTTON. 8S

considerate of the feelings of others. AVe can add to
fidelity brotherly kindness. No one was ever more plain
in speech, more faithful and certain in reproof, than
Christ; but his love infused every warning. We can be
strong characters, men of remarkable decision, inflexible
purpose, aye, even be stirred Avith the anger that is as
majestic as the frown of Jehovah's brow — the anger of
truth and love — without renouncing the meekness and
gentleness which were in Christ.

" And to virtue knowledge.'' The knoAvledge of God
and salvation through the Redeemer. It is the duty of
every Christian to make the highest possible attainments
in knoivledge. We should know as much of Christ as it
is possible for us to know. The greatest object of Paul's
desire was to know Christ, to become as fully acquainted
as he could with his character, his plans, with the rela-
tions which he sustained to the Father, and with the
claims of his religion. To know Christ is the greatest
privilege of the Christian.

In the Royal Gallery at Dresden there is a painting of
the Divine Child, by Raphael, that is more admired for
its beauty than any other like production. There was a
tourist who was so charmed by this picture that, day by
day, for two months, he stood before the wonderful con-
ception, spell-bound, occasionally weeping with delight
as some new beauty would appear, and when his last day
had arrived, and his horses were ready for the road, he
ran back and took a parting gaze. We have the original
of that picture in the four Gospels, sketched from life.
Here behold Him, not on canvas, but the living, loving,
acting Jesus. Study this portrait. Strive to know more of
Christ. Nothing will prompt you so much to a life of
.self-denial ; nothing will make you so benevolent and so
alive to tlie highest and best interests of the world.

84 A SUM IN ADDITION.

"And to knowledge temjjerancc." The ■word temper-
ance here refers to the mastery over all our evil inclina-
tions and appetites. "Temperate in all things" — in
sleep, in food, in drink, in speech, in business, in pastime,
in everything. We are to confine everything within
proper limits, and to no propensity of our nature are we
to give indulgence beyond the limits which the law of
God allows.

The temperance cause should not be based upon a
philological argument over a disputed word, nor on the
debatable ground that drinking pure wine is a sin in
itself. The wine that Christ made and drank was not
the fiery and poisonous compound of modern distillation
and manufacture. The wine of Palestine was light, pure
wine. It was the usual beverage of that land ; and that
drunkenness was rare is evident from the fact that there is
no rebuke of it anywhere in the Gospels, or any reference
to its existence. And not until we come to the Epistles of
Paul, and to the customs and habits of the Gentiles, do
we find temperance exhortations; and he gives this reason
for abstinence: Charity to the weak. He says : ^'' All
things are laivful, but all things are not expedient. It
is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine, nor any-
thing whereby thy brother is offended or made wealed

"And to temperance patience.'' I do not take patience
in this connection to mean simply enduring trial without
murmuring, complaining or rebelling, in order that the
effects of affliction should produce in the soul the results
which trials are adapted to accomplish. We are to exer-
cise our opportunities for the play of good nature. We
are not to be irritable, huf!y, sensitive. We should not
lose our temper. We live only by the forbearance of
God. We are to repeat in our lives, as his children at
least, something of this patience. We are taught to pray

A SUAI IN ADDITION. 85

every day : "• Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our
debtors." If we are exacting and revengeful, if we can-
not forgive the unkind treatment of others, how can we
sincerely pray this petition ?

" And to Y>aitience godliness.'' True piety : reverencing
God, his character and his laws; obeying him from love.
Godliness is forming and influencing our life by a regard
for God.

^' And to godVmess brotherlg kindness.'' Kindness is
the sun of life. Give no pain. Say not a word, give
not the expression of the countenance that will offend
another, or send a thrill of pain to his bosom. Kindness
is the charm with which the Christian should captivate,
and the sword with which to conquer. How true it is that

" A little word in kindness spoken,
A motion or a tear,
Has often healed the heart that's broken,
And made a friend sincere !"

Cherish a bright, sunny, cheerful temper and disposi-
tion.

"And to brotherly kindness chariti/." Charity is the
brightest star in the Christian's diadem. With Cotton,
let us pray :

" Fair charity be thou my guest,
And be thy constant couch my breast."

Charity ''thinketh no evil." With an unwilling ear
and sad heart it hears bad news. It glories in no man's
misfortune. It rather holds down its head and partakes
of his shame. It rejoices in the belief that everybody is
sincere. Where it cannot succor want, it will condole.

" Soft peace it brings wherever it arrives;
It builds our quiet, latent hope revives,
Lays the rough paths of nature smooth and even,
And opens in each breast a little heaven."

XXIV.

Sleeping Undei' the ^ei'mon.

N Acts XX : 9, we read: " And there sat in a
ivindow a certain young man, named Eutychus,
being fallen into a deep sleep ; and as Paul was
long preaching^ he sunk down with sleep, and fell down
from the third loft, and was taken up dead"

For what purpose is this paragraph here ? That preach-
ers should not preach long sermons ? Paul did not con-
sider it such a warning, for, as soon as the young man
was restored, he began again and preached until the gray
streaks of dawn lit up the Eastern sky. If, however, a
tedious preacher should quote Paul's example, it may be
sufficient to remind him that he is not a great apostle.

Paul was such an interesting preacher that the hours
flew unobserved. He was born in the famous university
town of Tarsus ; versed in the Stoic philosophy, as his ser-
mons amply show ; learned besides in all the wisdom of
the Jewish schools ; he associated with men like Apol-
los, skilled rhetoricians; he sought the aid of all the
culture of the day, and thus his audience was carried
away by his solid thought, irresistible logic, attractive
style, bold novelty, burning eloquence, and overpowering
earnestness.

We learn further from this narrative the importance of
social worship. They Avere not satisfied with being
Christians on their own account ; reading and praying in
private did not satisfy them. And the man who is

(86)

SLEEPING UNDER THE SERMON. 87

satisfied to stay away from the church surely has his
heart in the wrong place, and will soon be numbered among
the backsliders. The apostle warns us " not to forsake
the assembling of ourselves together."

We learn also that the first day of the week was set
apart for religious worship. " On the first day of the
week, when the disciples came together." In honor of
Christ's resurrection, the Sabbath Avas changed from the
seventh to the first day of the week. Christ, during his
forty days on earth after his resurrection, appeared to his
disciples in every instance on the first day of the week.
On the first day of the week Christ founded his church.
Among the apostles it was the chosen day for worshiji.
John began turning the prophetic wheel on "the Lord's
Day," a term applied by the Church Fathers to designate
the day on which the Lord arose. Listen to the historic
evidence of the founders, defenders and leaders of the
church of the first centuries. Justin Martyr says :
" On Sunday do the saints assemble." Ignatius says:
"Let us no more Sabbatize, but keep the Lord's Day."
Irenseus says: " On the Lord's Day every one of us
Christians keeps the Sabbath." Clement, of Alexandria,
declares that : " The keeping of the Lord's Day is incum-
bent on Christians." And Origen says: " The Lord's
Bay ought to be preferred to the Jewish Sabbath." The
Christian Sabbath was founded by Christ, established
by the apostles, and indorsed by the voice of history. Let
us ever keep it holy unto the Lord.

The duty and privilege of the Lord's supper is also
taught here. In primitive times all who took upon them-
selves the Christian name sat down together at the holy
feast. All who assembled in the upper room at Troas
met to join in the ordinance, Eutychus amongst the rest.
0 ! ye who bear the Christian name, never absent

88 SLEEPING UNDER THE SERMON.

yourselves from the Lord's table. Nothing will strengthen
you so much for the battle of life.

I also gather from this passage that preaching is an
important part of divine worship. A great many of our
churches are nothing but horticultural exhibitions &nd
appendixes to a concert. The liturgy is accounted all ;
and a ten minutes' essay, whose only redeeming feature
often is its brevity, takes the place of instructive exposi-
tion of God's word, or impassioned appeal. We shall do
well to stick to apostolic times, and enforce the great doc-
trines of Christian faith and. morals.

XXV.

Calviq and Calvinism.
Presbyterians are not called " Caivinists "

because they are followers of Calvin in doctrine
or in discipline. We " build upon the foun-
dation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ him-
self being the chief corner-stone." We are Christians in
doctrine, Presbyterians in polity — the only polity known
to the apostles and primitive Christians. The doctrines
of Calvin were not originated by him. They existed and
were adopted previous to Calvin; but he so well defended,
so clearly expounded, and so perfectly systematized these
principles as to connect with them his illustrious name.
Renan sarcastically said : ■•' Paul begat Augustine, and
Augustine begat Calvin." But who begat Paul ? Our
theology was born in heaven. Its paternity is from God.

Though we call no man "our father," yet we are proud
of John Calvin. The Lutheran Reformation traveled
but little out of Germany and the Scandinavian king-
doms, while Calvinism obtained a European character.
Under Calvin Geneva became the capital of European
reform and the cradle of civil and religious liberty.
Calvin was a politician as well as a theologian. lie made
the ecclesiastical tribunals independent of the civil law,
and through his teachings Geneva became the fertile seed-
plot of popular liberty and republicanism.

The Calvinistic preachers kindled the fire of liberty
into a blaze, and made tyranny and despotism lick the

(89)

90 CALVIN AND CALVINISM.

dust. Calvinism intoxicated Europe with republicanism.
The convulsion in France, the confederation of the States
of Holland, the revolutionizing of England and Scotland
were due to Calvinism.

Calvinists founded this great, grooving and glorious
Republic. The Pilgrims of Plymouth Rock, the Puri-
tans of Massachusetts, the Holland Reformers of New
York, and the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of North Car-
olina, who were the first to declare for independence,
were Calvinists. Had it not been for these Calvinists —
these Christian patriots — American independence Avould
have found its grave, rather than a recognition before the
world. George Bancroft, author of " The History of the
United States," says : " He that will not honor the mem-
ory and respect the influence of Calvin, knows but little
of the origin of American liberty."

"Again, we boast of our common school system. Cal-
vin was the father of popular education, and the inventor
of the system of free schools."

Ranke says: " John Calvin was virtually the founder
of America." Froude, the great English historian, says :
" John Calvin has done more for constitutional liberty
than any other man." And when I remember that the
Church of England attempted to found a State Church
in Virginia to the exclusion of every other, I thank God
for the Calvinists who fought that this might be a coun-
try where every man could worship God according to the
dictates of his conscience. As a lover of American lib-
erty, I thank God for John Calvin and Calvinism, for
to their influence I owe the liberty wherein I now stand
and rejoice.

XXVI.

The Bible and jli^toi^ij.

C^TI^VHE Bible accords in a most Avonderful manner
-^«4^^ with ancient history. There is nothing more
j-'-d:^^C<5 common in history than the recognition of a
God. The fictions of the poets respecting the different
ages of the world coincide with the facts of Scripture.
The first, or Golden Age, is a feeble representation of the
bliss of our first parents (Geii. ii.), and the second, or
Iron Age, described in the fiction of Pandora and her
fatal box of evils, which overspread the earth, is in accord-
ance with the introduction of evil into the world (Gen.
iii.). Similar accounts of the creation are found among
the ancient Phoenicians, and among the ancient Greek
philosophers.

In all the superstitions of the world you find evidences
of man's fall, of a serpent being the instrument in it, of
propitiatory sacrifices, and longing for a deliverer. That
the aspect of the globe has been entirely changed is an
undisputed fact. The oldest nation on earth — the
Chinese — have a tradition almost exactly similar to that
of Moses, in these words : " The pillars of heaven were
broken ; the earth shook to its foundations ; the heavens
sunk lower towards the North ; the sun, the moon and
the stars changed their motions ; the earth fell to pieces,
and the waters inclosed within its bosom burst forth with
violence and overflowed it. Man having rebelled against
heaven, the system of the universe was totally disordered.

(91)

92 THE BIBLE AND HISTORY.

and the grand harmony of nature was disturbed." The
long lives of men in the early age of the world are men-
tioned by Berosus, Manetho, Hesiodus and others.

And with respect to the New Testament, we have the
testimony of Josephus, Tacitus and Suetonius, that
Christ existed and was crucified at the time in which the
evangelists place that event. Celsus, born A. D. 150,
full of enmity to the Christian religion, mentions so
many circumstances in Christ's history, that his life
might almost be taken from the very fragments of Celsus's
book, preserved by Origen, which never pretends to dis-
pute Christ's real existence, or the facts recorded of him.

THE PRESERVATION OF THE BIBLE.

That the Jews neither mutilated nor corrupted the
Scriptures is fully proven by the silence of the prophets,
as well as of Christ and his apostles, who, though they
bring many charges against them, never once accuse them
of corrupting one of their sacred writings ; and also by
the agreement in every essential point of all the versions
and manuscripts, amounting to nearly 1150, which are
now extant, and which furnish a clear proof of their
uncorrupted preservation. As to the New Testament,
Lord Hailes, of Scotland, searched the writings of the
Church Fathers to the end of the third century, and
he actually found the ivliole of the New Testament (with
the exception of less than a dozen verses) scattered
through their writings, which are still extant ; so that,
had every copy of the New Testament been annihilated
at the Council of Nice, A. D. 325, when infidels say the
New Testament was compiled, the book could have been
reproduced from the waitings of the early Church Fathers,
who quoted the book then as we quote it now, and believed
it then as we believe it now.

THE BIBLE AND HISTORY. 93

THE OLDEST BOOK.

Moses wrote 1500 B. C. Confucius lived 600 B. C—
nine hundred years after Moses. On the authority of
Max Miiller, the Vedas are not older than 1200 before
Christ. The oldest human compilation, that of Zoro-
aster, is 300 years younger than the five books of Moses,
and the outgrowth of them.

Who can account for the Mosaic septenary division of
time having its imagery in the history, mythology and
philosophy of the race ? No natural change points out
such a measure as is the case with the month and year,
and yet it has been employed as a sacred number by
people most diversified in habit, and most remote from
each other in time and place.

The proof of the antiquity of the Mosaic record is also
found in the language of every country in the world.
Words such as Adam and Eve all indicate the Hebrew
to have been the language of Eden. Every one
acquainted with the Hebrew tongue, the Greek and
Latin, and modern languages, will see that most of them
can more or less plainly be traced back to the Hebrew.
The very letters of the Hebrew alphabet — aleph, beth,
gimel, daleth, etc. — are exactly parallel with the Greek
alpha, beta, gamma, delta, etc., and if wc refer to the
English alphabet, or the Italian, French, Spanish and
German, wc find nearly the same form given to the let-
. ters, and almost the same sounds, and all corresponding
strikingly with the Hebrew. This proves that languages
look back to the first — the Hebrew; that the language of
every nation owns the Hebrew as its parent. In short,
the languages of the world reflect the unquestionably
historical antiquity, the divine inspiration and truth of
the Mosaic record.

94 THE BIBLE AND HISTORY.

THE BIBLE AND LIBERTY.

The oldest and best pyramid that can be erected to
liberty is Christianity. Wherever Bible readers and
Bible believers are in the ascendency, or numerically in
the majority, there will be found the greatest amount of
both physical and intellectual liberty, and the greatest .
freedom of thought, speech and action. The countries
that are indisputably the foremost and most enlightened
of all other nations are Bible countries. On the other
hand, where skepticism prevails, and especially in the
communities where it is in the ascendency, there will be
found nihilism, communism, and the greatest amount of
despotism. Why is it that the most highly civilized and
intelligent people, the most just and reasonable laws, and
the broadest liberty are to be found only in Bible coun-
tries ? And why is it that in those countries where the
Bible has not yet come the people are generally igno-
rant, their laws crude and oppressive, and their rulers
despots? Is it not a fact that liberty finds her only place
of abode in Bible countries ? And if intelligence, liberty,
and civilization exist only in the highest sense where an
open Bible is found, what guarantee have we that, if the
Bible should be destroyed, the things which we now love
more than anything else in the world will not vanish
with it? The friends of liberty first met in the sacred
temple of God, and liberty, conceived by the Bible, was
born upon the holy altar of the Christian church. She
worships at her august shrine, and bows with imperial
grandeur before her majestic throne.

XXVII.

pride.

sRIDE is a virtue. Pride is also a vice. With-
out pride as a principle a man cannot be
virtuous. The pride that is a vice is the over-
valuing of one's self for some real or imagined superiority,
producing haughty bearing and arrogance of manner.

It is related of the French family of the Duke de Levis,
that they have a picture of their pedigree, in which Noah
is represented going into the ark, and carrying a small
trunk, on which is written : " Papers belonging to the
Levis family." There are many men whose reputation
hangs upon their having had a grandfather, and the
only thing they do is talk about their noble ancestry.

The peacock has graceful hues, that put to shame the
richest fabrics overwrought in looms. Could he but look
at his ugly feet his pride would soon abate. So with
men: if there be beauty, rank, wealth, fame, talent,
success, or any other thing that will engender pride,
there is also some counterpart to it to keep them humble.
Some shrewd philosoj)hcr has said that if the best man
had his faults written on his forehead they would make him
pull liis hat over his eyes!

Wordsworth asks :

" What is pride? A whizzing rocket
That would emulate a star.''

There is a plenty of ragged aristocracy in the world —
gaudy parlors and empty kitchens. Trying to be some-
body when you are nobody is up-hill work.

(95)

96 PEIDE.

Solomon says: "Pride goeth before destruction, and a
haughty spirit before a fall." When once a philosopher
was asked what the great God was doing, he replied :
"His whole employment is to lift up the humble and to
cast down the proud."

One of ^sop's fables says that there was a tortoise
once that was very unhappy, because he had no wings
and could not fly. As he saw the eagles and other birds
having a good time floating through the air, he said to
himself: " 0, if I only. had wings as those birds have, so
that I could rise up into the air and sail about there as
they do, how happy I should be ! " One day, the fable
says, he called to an eagle and offered him a great
reward if he would only teach him how to fly. " I never
shall be happy," said the tortoise, "till I get wings and
fly about in the air as you do." The eagle told him he
had no Avings to give him and did not know how to teach
him to fly. But the tortoise pressed him so earnestly,
and made him so many promises, that finally the eagle
said: "Well, I'll try what I can do. You get on my
back and I'll carry you up in the air, and we'll see what
can be done."

So the tortoise got on the back of the eagle. Then
the eagle spread out his wings and began to soar aloft.
He Avent up, and up, and up, till he had reached a great
height. Then he said to the tortoise: "Now get ready ;
I'm going to throw you off", and you must try your hand
at flying." So the eagle threw him off", and he went down,
and down, and down, till at last he fell upon a hard rock
and was dashed to pieces. Proud ambition to fly has
cost many people their lives. "Be content with such
things as ye have."

Pride is the offspring of want of merit. Humility is
the child of wisdom. Solomon says: "Before honor is

PRIDE. 97

humility." and Christ savs: '"He that humbleth him-
self shall be exalted."'

The stalks of wheat that hold up their heads so high
are empty-headed, and those which hang down their
heads modestly are fulh of precious grain. The people
who hold their heads so high do so because they have not
sense enoujih to weigh them down.

Felthem says: "Of all the trees, I observe that God
hath chosen the vine — a low plant that creeps upon the
helpful wall; of all the beasts, the soft and pliant lamb;
of all the fowls, the mild and guileless dove. When God
appeared to Moses it was not in the lofty cedar, nor in
the spreading palm, but a bush — a humble, abject bush."

"The bird that soars on highest wing,
Builds on the ground her lowly nest;

And she that doth most sweetly sing.
Sings in the shade when all things rest :

In lark and nightingale we see

"What honor hath humility.

" The saint that wears heaven's brightest crown,
In deepest adoration bends ;
The weight of glory bows him down

The most when most his soul ascends:
Nearest the throne itself must be
The footstool of humility."

XXVIII.

[lonoi^ing GUI' pai'ent?.

'HE religion of the Chinese consists in honoring
their ancestors. One good result flows from
their religion : they do not speak disrespect-
fully of their parents. They do not call their father
"the old man," or "the governor." They do not call
their mother "the old woman." May not this be the
reason why God has given China so long a life as a nation ?

Obey your parents: not from fear, but from love.
Too many children obey because they know what will
come if they don't. They obey because they must or
get punished. Mothers are often fretful and fathers
tyrants and despots, from whom there is no appeal, pro-
voking their children to wrath, which God forbids.

Obey your parents because you love them, because it is
right, and because God asks it. Let your obedience be
prompt and cheerful.

Obey your parents in their absence. So act in their
absence that you can always in their presence look them
right in the eye.

Treat your parents' wish as though it were a com-
mand. When George Washington was all ready to go
to sea, he discovered that his mother did not wish him to
go. As he went in to say good-bye to her, he found her
in tears. That was enough for him. He went out and
said to his servant: "Take ray trunk back again to my
room; Iwill not break my mother's heart to please myself."

(98)

HONORING OUR PARENTS. 99

When his mother heard what he had done she said :
" George, God has promised to bless those who honor
their parents, and he will bless you ! " And God did
bless Washington, and made him a blessing to the world.
When he conquered himself he won a greater victory
than when he conquered the British at Trenton and at
Monmouth and at Yorktown. Washington's obedience
to his parents was the turning-point in his life and led to
all his after-greatness.

The lion. Thomas H. Benton was for thirty years a
United States Senator. When making a speech in New
York once, he turned to the ladies present, and spoke
thus about his mother: ''My mother asked me never to
use tobacco, and I have never touched it from that day to
this. She asked me never to learn to gamble, and I
never learned to gamble. When I was seven years old,
she asked me not to drink, and I made a resolution of
total abstinence. That resolution I have never broken.
And now whatever service I may have been able to render
to my country, or whatever honor I may have gained, I
owe it to my mother." Find out what the wishes of your
parents are and follow them.

Obey your parents in the Lord. God is above your
parents. They have no right to command you to do what
God forbids.

Help your parents all you can. Remember what they
have done for you. When you were helpless they helped
you; now when they are helpless help them. Save therti
as many steps as you can. A young lady will never
miss it in marrying a young man who is kind and
devoted to his mother. The young lady who sits at the
piano and sings ''What is Home Without a Mother?"
when the mother in ({uestion is doing all the hard work,
will never make a good wife.

748519

100 HOA^OEmG OUR PARENTS.

Remember this, too, that a son's or daughter's spotless
name is, while life lasts, a father's truest glory and a
mother's greatest joy.

Help your parents in old age. Make them comfort-
able. The young man or the young woman who is
ashamed of his or her father or mother because the brill-
iance has faded out of the eyes and the roses have fled
from the cheeks, is a grown-up baby. Visit your parents
as often as you can. Cheer them in their declining days.
If you cannot visit them, write to them often. Amid all
the successes of the noble Garfield, nothing stirred his
energy more than the thought of the gratification that
would be given to his mother's heart. He always found
time to write a letter home and tell all that he was doing.

Christ, while suff'ering on the cross, provided a home
and a guardian for his mother: "Now, when Jesus
therefore saw his mother and the disciple standing by,
whom he loved, he saitli unto his mother : Behold thy
son ! And from that hour the disciple took her into his
own home." How beautifully this sets the example of
Christ before us to teach us how to honor our father and
mother !

XXIX.

Hijpocritiical punctiliou^neg^.

tT^J^cV^ here are people so very punctilious in the
Q?,^^R observance of all acts of worship and devotion
o^'-^^o who, in their practical life, are little better
than the heathen. Conscientiousness in little things in
regard to ecclesiastical eticjuette will not cover personal
sins. There are people so decorous in their behavior in
the house of God, that to smile would be to sin; whose
hearts are full of envy, jealousy and bitterness. If you
have been a good citizen, a kind neighbor, a true friend,
a dutiful son, a faithful husband, and walked humbly
with God during the week, go to the house of God on
Sunday with a bright and merry face.

There are people so sanctimonious that they would not
blacken their boots on Sunday, but will blacken their
reputations during the week. They won't shave on
Sunday, but shave their neighbors to the tune of twenty
per cent, during the week. They would not ride on the
street-cars on Sunday, but will ride the men in their
employ to death during the week. '' Consistency, thou
art a jewel," and a jewel few people can wear.

There are many overearnest men who have no doubt
but that the whole universe of truth is inclosed within
the sweep of their own little pair of compasses, and who
feel that they are placed at heaven's gate — namely, their
church — to protect it from the entrance of unworthy
applicants. The punctiliousness of our churches is not only

(101)

102 HYPOCRITICAL PUNCTILIOUSNESS.

a stumbling-block to the timid, but to all who hold them-
selves superior in things of the soul to human dictation,
and especially the inquisitorial and offensive dictation of
bigots.

Religion is not church-going ; it is not going to a par-
ticular church ; it is not singing out of a particular hymn-
book ; it is not being orthodox and going among men as
orthodox, and sending the people to perdition who do not
believe as you do. Instead of making more noise in the
world about our orthodoxy than the Master ever did,
and elaborate and ostentatious prayers, as to be trouble-
some to our neighbor, let us fear God and do righteous-
ness from Sunday to Sunday, and from Monday to
Monday. He is the true believer who is the subject of
high and divine inspirations, so deep and profound that
he cannot utter them, and not he who is loaded and
clogged with the mere theories of dead men on the subject,
that leave no scope for anything else.

" 'Tis not the wise phylactery,

Nor stubborn taste, nor stated prayers,
That makes us saints ; we judge the tree
By what it bears."

XXX.

The LaWijer^^.

tr/oi(VJ}IERE are many dishonorable lawyers, just as
there are many dishonorable men in all profes-

sions and callings. I cannot, in the light of
liistory and justice, join in the popular derisive cry against
lawyers. The law as a profession is an honorable pro-
fession, and contains many of the Avorld's most honored
and honorable names. As a lover of freedom, I grate-
fully remember what lawyers have done for humanity.
Turn the pages of history and go back with me to Greece.
A lawyer, Demosthenes, the world's greatest orator, was
the greatest champion of freedom and the rights of the
people. It was Cicero, a lawyer, who exposed the con-
spiracy of Catiline, and stood up for the rights of the
people. Henry Grattan and Daniel O'Connell, lawyers,
gave to down-trodden, bleeding, suffering Ireland what
little liberty she has to-day. It was Lord Brougham, a
lawyer, who gave to England popular education. It was
Patrick Henry, a young lawyer, who stood upon the floor
of the Virginia House of Burgesses (second only to the
Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of North Carolina), to fire the
hearts of our forefathers to strike for independence, and
amidst cries of " treason " uttered these words : " Tarquin
and Csesar had each his Brutus, Charles I. his Crom-
well, and George III. may profit by their example."
It was John Adams, a lawyer, who stood up so bravely
in the Continental Congress for the rights of the people.

(103)

104 THE LAWYERS.

Thomas Jefferson, the man who wrote the grandest docu-
ment ever penned, Avas a lawyer. When South Carolina
threatened to trail our flag in the dirt, the man who
spoke in eloquent strains that still thrill the hearts of the
American people to enthusiastic loyalty was Daniel
Webster, a lawyer. That grand man, the emancipator
of four million slaves, the martyr to freedom, Abraham
Lincoln, was a lawyer. And up on the rock-pillared
Sinai, and among the shaded hills of Galilee, we behold
the fountains whence all law sprung — Closes and Christ.

XXXI.

Force of [Jhar'acter.

^ ^ " ^ VIRTUOUS woman is an evangel of good-
^Q ness to the world. She is one of the pillars in
the eternal kingdom of right. The world
would go to ruin without the influence of woman's moral
and religious character. But woman does not do enough.
Her power is not equal to its need. The world is a grand
Pandora's box of wickedness — a far-spread scene of
selfishness and sensualism, in which woman herself acts a
conspicuous part. There is to-day a loud call for a more
active religion — a more powerful impulse in behalf of
morality. To youthful women we must look for a leader
in the cause of morality and religion. The girls of
to-day are greatly instrumental in giving a beautiful com-
plexion to the society of to-morrow.

Why do not the women of to-day exercise that same
moral sway over their male associates that our fathers
tell us our mothers did over them ? Because they do not
possess sufficient force of character. Their moral wills
are not resolute. Their influence is not armed with
executive power. They would not have a drunkard for a
husband, but they will drink a glass of wine with a young
man in our fashionable restaurants or hotels, on the way
home from the theatre. They would not take the name
of God in vain, but they love the society of men who
swear like troopers out of their presence. They Avould
not be dishonest, but they exaggerate and equivocate, and

(105)

106 FORCE OF CHARACTER.

affect and pretend, so that many men seldom think of
believing what young women tell them. They counte-
nance the society of tricksters and deceivers, and allow a
ten-dollar-a-Aveek society swell to spend twice that amount
on them for theatre tickets, carriages, flowers, etc., when
they know, or ought to know, that these things are unpaid
for, employers robbed, or appearances kept up by borrow-
ing or sponging. They would not be irreligious, but
they smile upon men who boast that for years they had
not been inside of a church, and sneer at God and divine
things, and proclaim themselves "free thinkers." They
would not be licentious, but have no stunning rebuke for
men whose very touch is pollution, and admit them into
their society.

This is the virtue of too many women. We need
women who will resrard their moral convictions as solemn
resolves to be true to God and duty, come what may. A
young lady by her constant and consistent Christian
example can exert an untold power for good, and in this
way only can she make the young man believe that her
reliijion is the thing for him. Associate with men of
intelligence and sense ; with men whose language is
chaste and good, whose sentiments are lofty and edifying,
and whose deportment is such as correct morals dictate.
She is truly beautiful who can gather the good around
her for the blessing of her smiles, and strew men's path-
ways with moral light. Fair to God is she who teaches
the sentiments of duty and honesty in every act of her
life.

XXXII.

FuijBi'al I^efoPn}.

T is high time that Ave had reform in our funeral
customs. I never heard of a funeral sermon con-
verting a sinner, silencing a scoffer, or turning
an infidel to the truth. Funeral sermons are often far
from the truth. Generally, the less good a man has
done, the more good the preacher is expected to say of
him. I give you fair warning that I will not lie at
your funeral ; and if you insist on a sermon, I will tell
the truth about you. The most sacred place to hold a
funeral service is quietly in the home. There let the
pastor briefly administer the comforts of religion to those
who mourn.

Common decency should lead us to do away with dis-
plays which make funerals so expensive that to die costs
more than to live.

Let the last parting be too sacred to be done before

the eyes of an often critical and unsympathetic crowd

who come from curiosity. Brass bands at a funeral

are unpardonable nuisances. Loud demonstrations should

be avoided.

" Stillest waters are deepest."

To hold the funerals of haters of the church in the
church is wrong. It is trying to do for their bodies what
they never would do for their souls. Furthermore, it
seems like an injustice to the dead man. It seems like

(107)

K)8 FUNEEAL EPIFORM.

takins a mean advantage of a man after he is dead to take
him by force where he could not be persuaded to go while
he was alive. If a man live and die like a brute, like
Jeholakim, he should be " buried with the burial of an
ass: drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem."
Sunday funerals are rarely necessary. They nearly
always assume a magnitude that amounts to Sabbath
desecration. The Lord's Day is for rest and divine wor-
ship, and not for great funeral pageants.

XXXIII.

Evolution.

"^^^WENTY-TWO hundred years ago, when the
w~\ world had almost wholly apostatized from the
o-..J:^C^ true and living God, Democritus, among the
Greeks, became offended with the gods, and set himself
to invent a plan of the world Avithout them. From
Eastern travelers the Greeks knew that the Brahmans in
India had a theory of the world developing itself from a
primeval egg. He set himself to refine upon it, and
imagined virtually the nebular hypothesis. He said
that matter was eternal, and consisted of very small
atoms, dancing about in all directions, and which at last
happened into the various forms of the present world.

The ancient Phoenicians held a theory that all lile
sprung from the mud watered by the sea. Lucretius
developed this theory in a poem in six books. Evolution
is an old heathen mummy, and modern infidels will have
their hands full galvanizing it.

The evolutionist says that infinite ages ago there existed
a few primal germs (who made the primal germs these
men do not know), and these primal germs developed all
the living creatures of the ages. First, there was a veg-
etable stuff; that vegetable stuff developed into some-
thing like a jelly-fish; the jelly-fish developed into a tad-
pole ; the tadpole developed into a snail ; the snail devel-
oped into a turtle; the turtle developed into a wolf; the wolf

(109)

110 EVOLUTION.

developed into a dog ; the dog developed into a monkey,
and the monkey developed into a man. As Hugh Miller
makes a plain farmer say on this evolution of man from
the monkey : "It takes o. great deal of believing to believe
that ! " But then the man who wants to get rid of God
is willing to persuade himself to believe any miracle, only
so it is not in the Bible.

The evolutionist counts by fossils and upheavals, and
tells us that this world is millions of years old. Now, in
all the millions of years covered by human history, an
instance has never been known where a monkey of the
highest type has given an existence to one of these self-
sjtyled infidel philosophers. No menagerie or zoological
garden can be found where anything approaching the
development of an infidel has occurred in the cages of
monkeydom. Nor do travelers in any part of the globe
bring back tidings of any portion of the world where
monkeys have gone into the business of raising agnostics
— knownothings — to deny the existence of God and sneer
at Christianity.

A few days ago I met an evolutionist. I put a ques-
tion to him; a question which is (d)evolution in a nutshell.
I asked him : Was your mother a monkey ? He turned
on his heels and left as rapidly as he could carry himself.
I claim a nobler origin. With the psalmist I say :
" For Thou hast made man a little lower than the angels,
and hast crowned him with glory and honor."

XXXIV.

|1b1I in the Light of domfflon ^en^B.

kiV^HE doctrine of hell is perhaps the hardest to be
vJA received of all the articles of the Christian
(>~J=^^::^ creed. There is reason for this. All men
feel themselves guilty, and their consciences tell them
that if there be such a place, unless they fall out with
the devil and fall in with the angels, they will be can-
didates for admission, whose claims will never be disputed.

The wisest and best men of every nation and every
age, the most celebrated heathen sages, who had nothing
but the light of nature to guide them, as well as Jews
and Christians, have stood in awe of retribution after
death. And this fact of itself ought to shake the unbelief
of the most intelligent skeptic. He may be very wise,
but he will surely admit that men far wiser than he have
arrived at conclusions exactly the opposite of those at
which he arrived. Think for yourself by all means.
But we believe w^th Lucretius, the Roman poet and
philosopher, that while " it is a pleasure to stand upon
the shore and to see ships tossed upon the sea, a
pleasure to stand in the window of a castle and to see a
battle and the adventure thereof below, yet no pleasure
is comparable to the standing upon the vantage-ground
of truth, and to see the errors, and the wanderings, and
the mists, and the tempests in the vale below." Remem-
ber that, while in the multitudes of counselors there is

(111)

112 HELL IN THE LIGHT OF COMMON SENSE.

safety, the man who always confides in his own judgment
invariably brings himself to grief. _ A sound and sen-
sible private judgment will in many things of importance
and difficulty be distrustful of itself, and feel that there
are other judgments at least as worthy of confidence;
and, therefore, I submit the question : If nearly all the
truly wise and good men of every nation and age, with
all their differences of opinion upon other points, have
unanimously agreed as to a future state of retribution,
does not this fact claim every man's respectful attention?
Can a man who wishes to have credit for good common
sense say that the belief in hell is nothing more than a
superstition, or an invention of preachers to make an
easy living ?

The question, Is there a hell ? resolves itself into
this : Is there a Moral Governor of the world ? Is there a
moral law ? Is there such a thing as sin ? For, if there
be, then there is such a thing as punishment for sin.
There is sin, and there is punishment for sin, which we
daily witness. But there is not for all sin such a reckon-
ing in this world as meets the claims of righteousness
and justice. Do we not daily see evil doings pass unde-
tected, and many bad men pass unpunished ? See how
often the righteous suffer and the wicked flourish. The
wicked are not plagued as other men ; they have more than
heart can wish for. When we take a deliberate view we are
naturally led to exclaim : " AVherefore do the wicked
live, become old, yea, are mighty in power ? Is there no
reward for the righteous ? Is there no punishment for
the workers of iniquity? Is there no God that judgeth in
the earth?" And, indeed, were there no retribution
beyond the limits of this present life, we should be neces-
sarily obliged to admit one or the other of the following

HELL IN THE LTGHt OE CO^^^rON SENSE. 113

conclusions: either that no Moral Governor of the wurld
exists, or that justice and judgment are not the habita-
tion of His throne.

* *
It is absurd to say that men are punished by the stings
of conscience. If conscience have not power enough to
deter men from Avrong-doing, it will not have power to
punish them when the wrong is done. Many a man has
prospered in his wickedness, gone to his grave in peace,
and experienced, even in the prospect of death, no
avenging terrors, no retributive remorse. What does our
sense of justice say ? That such men ought to be pun-
ished, and that if they go unpunished it is wrong, and
that if there be no hell there ought to be.

A heaven without a hell is an impossibility. The
existence of a pure city necessarily implies the existence
of impure commons, where everything impure and unfit
to be in the city is cast.

Give to the justice of heaven the same common sense
that you give to the justice of earth, and you will have
a penitentiary somewhere in the next world.

Deny future retribution, and it is not in your power to
forfeit heaven or stay out of it, live as you please ; and
you must expect to have as your immortal associates all
the base villains that ever disgraced humanity. Is not
this revolting to every feeling of propriety ? Does it not
contradict conscience, stultify reason, and trample every
instinct of man under foot ?

Where is hell ? Anywhere outside of heaven. If hell be
only a state, it will be hell all the same. That " there is

114 HELL IN THK LIGTTT OF COMMON SENSE.

no jieace to the wicked/' is a fact founded in the very
constitution of man. Si7i destroys liappiness. The
sinner is his own destroyer. lie punishes himself. Death
makes no change in our moral character. It disengages
the soul from the trammels of the body and gives expan-
sion to its powers; but he that was "unjust will be
unjust still," though removed from earth to the world of
spirits. The passions and propensities of the soul follow
it into eternity, so that even if there were no condemna-
tion from God, still the sinner would be in hell. In this
world a man's happiness depends upon the state of his
mind, and the passions of the soul will accompany it into
the next world and form a part of its very being. They will
there have the same influence upon our happiness as here.
In order that the blind man may enjoy the beauties of the
flower-garden his eyes must be opened ; in order that the
deaf man may enjoy the sweet strains of music his ears
must be unstopped ; in order that the dyspeptic may enjoy
a good meal his health must be restored; and so, in order
that a man may enjoy the blessings of heaven he must
have his heart changed and be brought into sympathy
with God, or else he would feel in heaven like a fish out
of water. If there were no day of judgment and no hell,
the sinner, continuing the enemy of God, must be lost and
wretched. Man carries in his bosom the elements of woe,
and the circumstances in which he will be placed will call
them into action.

The Scripture hell-fire of torment is not material, but
symbolical of mental affliction, which consists in the loss
of God, of friends, of hope. Dante's poetry, his imagery
of brimstone and fire must not be confused with ortho-
doxy. Let the memory alone of the impenitent survive,
and the words of Milton will be true :

HELL IN THE LIGHT OF COMMON SENSE. Il5

" AVhich way I climb is hell ; myself am hell."
Memory will be the unquenchable fire, and the worm that
never die.*?.

* *

When we speak of hell, we call it all hell, indifferently
and without distinction. There are great differences of
constitution and of temperament, and there must be
necessarily corresponding differences of moral obligation.
That which is a temptation to one produces in another the
feeling of intense di.sgust. Our natural capacities, our
means of obtainino; knowledc^e, our various aids to assist
us in the pursuit of it, the different natures and qualities
of our actions, will all be taken into consideration, and
we will be rewarded or punished according to the deeds
done in the body.

* *

Christ will not let the devil have more in hell than
there will be in heaven. For then Satan would laugh at
Christ. In the Father's house are many mansions. St.
John tells us that there will be a host beyond all count who
will get into heaven. Why should not you then be
saved? We quote the following to cheer up the disconsolate:
" And he measured the city with a reed, tAvelve thousand
furlongs. The length, height and breadth of it are equal."
— Rev. xxi: 16. " Twelve thousand furlongs — 7,920,000
feet— which, being cubed, is 948,988,000,000,000,000,-
000,000 cubic feet, the half of which we will reserve for
the throne of God and the court of licaven, half of the
balance fur the streets, and the remainder, divided by
4.0G, the cubical feet in the rooms (nineteen feet square
and sixteen feet high), will be 5,743,758.000,000 rooms.
We will now suppose the world always did and always
will contain 900,000,000 inhabitants, and a generation
will last 33^ years (2,700,000 every century), and that

1 16 HELL IN THE LIGHT OF COMMON SENSE.

the world Avill stand a hundred thousand years — 27,000,-
000,000,000 persons. Then suppose there were 11,230
such worlds, equal to this number of inhabitants and
duration of years: then there would be a room sixteen
feet long and seventeen feet wide and fifteen feet high
for each person; and yet there would be room." But
a prepared place implies a prepared people. There is
a room in heaven for every one of us, but, unless we live
right, that room will be "To Let" through all eternity.

" God is love." But love is not an eifeminate tender-
ness— a w'eak, womanish sympathy, that cannot punish
the disobedient. God is love, but he is also just, and jus-
tice always punishes. There was a time when the terror
of the law was preached too much ; now the pendulum
lias swung over to the other extreme — too much love. As
a consequence we have much rose-colored religion ; a soft,
sentimental thing; gaudy rhetoric which means noth-
ing; a religion of words, words — words such as lovers
use. We need to-day an aggressive, vigorous, positive
Christianity.

* *

God is bound by the holiness of his nature to punish
sin. It is an exercise of power which becomes him as
the Moral Governor of the Avorld. There is nothing
cruel or vindictive in God to prohibit sin by a law. A
hiw without a penalty is only a dead letter; and the pen-
alty must be such as to deter men from sinning. Is it
cruel in God to ordain man with the power of choice ? Is
God a monster of cruelty because, when I abuse my free
agency, he leaves me to suffer the result of my folly ?

If Christ died to save all men, and all men are not
saved, is not Christ's work then a failure ? Is education

HELL m THE LIGHT OF COMMON SENSE. 1 1 7

a failure because all men are not educated ? Christ says :
" Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life."
Christ throws the responsibility of condemnation on
men's own consciences. Will God save men against their
wills ? If men are saved against their tvilh, why may
they not even rebel against salvation thus forced upon
them ? If God saves all men, whether they will to be saved
or not, he must take away the moral agency with which
he has endowed them, and reverse his own nature as
revealed in nature and in his \\ ord.

God is almighty, and therefore he will save everybody
if he can, and if he can save everybody he will. When
Christ was groaning in Gethsemane beneath a ponderous
load of anguish, he cried out in the deepest agony of his
soul : " If it be possible, let this cup pass from me." He
prayed the same words three times ; yet it appears that
the cup did not pass from him ; and why may it not be
impossible for God to save sinners who hate his law,
blaspheme his goodness, reject his grace, scorn his Christ,
laugh at his church, hoot at divine mercy, defy divine
justice, and persist in rebellion and impenitence to the
end ? God can no more save such men, because of his
very nature, than he can create two mountains without a
valley between them.

* *

Will purgatorial fire fit a soul for heaven ? If so, the
fundamental Bible principle of divine forgiveness would
be done away with. Then why did Christ die ? As a
matter of fact in human experience, does punishment
reform ? If so, why is not one trial sufficient ? Why are
our most hardened criminals men who have been incar-
cerated over and over again ? There have been reforma-
tions, but they were brought about through Christian

118 HELL IN THE LIGHT OF COMMON SENSE.

influences. The man y-iven to lust suffers the most
excruciating agony, with the full knowledge that his suffer-
ing is directly caused by his sin ; and, as soon as his
paroxysms of suffering are over, he goes again to his
transgression and shame. The drunkard suffers again
and again all the horrors of the delirium ; he is over-
whelmed with fears ; he believes that the serpents twine
themselves about his body, laughingly cuddle in his boots,
and fasten their poisonous fangs in his bloated cheeks.
He knows that this is the awful penalty of his love for the
cup. Aching, rasping, crucifying, damning torture. In
hell on earth. Does it reform him ? The first thing in
the early morning is his cup.

Time is the only stage of probation. Either here or
nowhere are we to prove our fitness for heaven. If men
will not hear Christ now, under favorable circumstances,
neither will they be persuaded if in some futu-e world
Christ should manifest himself to them. If mankind could
be made to believe that there was no hell, or that they would
be given another chance to repent in the next world,
civilization would rush into barbarism. No hell hereafter
would mean all hell here. Let a' minister in this city
rail against hell, and the profane, the drunkard, the lib-
ertine and the despiser of things sacred will applaud him,
and his name will be heralded notoriously through the
press as a reformer; while the men of serious religion,
men who pray in their families and closets, who keep the
Sabbath holy, and walk humbly with God, will be sad.

I cannot accept Cannon Farrar's gospel of Eternal
Hope, because he is not willing to go out of this life trust-
ing his chances of eternal peace to the opportunity of
repentance after death. And no man can teach me to
believe what he is not willing to practice liimsclf. Of

HELL IN TfiE LIGHT OF COMMON SENSE. 119

course, you will do as you please; but, for one, I have
made up my mind not to take a guess for my dying
pillow. Have we not built air castles enough for this life
without building any for the next ?

XXXV.

That Bojl of hm

Op^^c^EACH your boy to be accurate. If he be not

taught accuracy in childhood, he will never
learn it in his manhood. Teacu him to speak
accurately on all subjects, and he will scorn to tell a lie.

* " :i:

Teach your boy the valuable lesson of consideration for

the feelings of others. Teach him to disdain revenge.
Impress him with this beautiful sentiment : " Write
injuries in dust, but kindnesses in marble."

Let your boy be boyish. A mannish boy, a boy who is

a man before his time, is a disagreeable object.

*

* *

I never take any stock in the so-called "good boys" —
boys who never get into mischief. It is a good thing if
they die young, for they generally turn out bad as men.

Early instill into your boy's mind decision of character.
The undecided boy is sure to become a namby-pamby
man. He will be as Dryden says:

" Everything by starts and nothing long."

Teach your boy courtesy. " Manners make the
man," says the proverb. True politeness is rapidly
becoming in this country one of the " lost arts."

(120)

THAT BOY OF YOURS. 121

Do not give your boy expensive notions. Bring him
up to be simple in his habits and pleasures.

Teach your boy to look upon labor as a real dignity,
and idleness as a disgrace.

* '' *

Teach your boy to be open and frank. If he has care-
lessly broken anything, and takes the full blame upon him-
self, and makes no excuses about it, don't punish him,
but commend him for his honesty, and he will grow up
every inch a man.

* *

Teach your boy to be strictly honest in all his deal-
ings with his brothers and sisters. If he disregard their
rights he will grow up to disregard the rights of men.
'' As the twig is bent the tree inclines."

Put your boy on his honor. Trust his honor. Noth-
ing will improve his character more. The boy that
always requires looking after is in danger.

* *

Be your boy's companion ; treat him as a gentleman ;
and if such treatment does not make him a gentleman,
nothing else will.

* *

Teach your boy that the best whisky-sling is to sling
the bottle or the concealed jug out of the window, and
that the best throw of the dice is to throw the dice away.

Teach your boy not to despise little things. Life is
made up of little things. The "little things" in the
aggregate make up whatever is great. Look to the
littles. If we make the little events of life beautiful and
good, tiien will tlie whole life be full of beauty and good-
ness.

122 THAT^BOY OF YOURS.

Teach your boy to be self-reliant. " Ability and neces-
sity dwell near each other," said Pythagoras. Let your
boy learn no other language but this: " You have your
own way to make, and it depends upon your own exertion
whether you sink or swim, survive or perish. " The

wisest charity is to help a boy to help himself.

*

Teach your boy that there is no such thing as " luck."
Good pluck is good luck. Whole-hearted energy crowns
men with honors.

The word " can't " ought not to be found in your boy's
vocabulary. Teach him stick-to-it-ness. Don't flinch.
Never fly the track. Hold on ; hold fast ; hold out.

* *

Teach your boy that the use of tobacco is a filthy, costly
and unhealthy habit. The only verse in the Bible that
can be quoted in favor of this habit is: " Let him that
is filthy be filthy still." The boy with a cigar in his
mouth, a swagger in his walk, impudence on his face, a
care-for-nothingness in his manner, older than his father
(judging from his demeanor), is going too fast. Stop
him, father ; stop him ! The chances are ten to one that
in a dishonored grave will soon lie the buried hopes of a
father, the joys of a mother's heart, and the pride of
sisters fair.

Teach your boy that if he does not wish to be a nobody,
or something much worse than a nobody, he must guard
his youth.

* *

Never permit your boy to associate with your neigh-
bors' badly-managed boys. " He who goes with wolves
soon learns to howl." A boy readily copies all tliat he

THAT BOY OF YOURS. 123

sees done, good or bad. A boy's temper and habits will

be formed on a model of those with whom he associates.

*

* *

Above all, bring up that boy of yours in " the nurture
and admonition of the Lord." The only way to bring
him up in the way of the Lord is for you to walk in that
way yourself. Let yours, then, be the religious home, and
God's blessings will descend upon it. Your children
shall be like *' olive plants around your table" — the
" heritage of the Lord." It will give to the boy's soul
its "'perfect flowering," and make it "lustrous in the
livery of divine knowledge."

0, parents, if you would sweetly breathe out your last
breath on the bosom of Jesus, then neglect not the relig-
ious nurture and training of that boy of yours.

XXXVI.

{Random ^hotg.

^,^^^_ PRUDERY.

C/pTir^HERE is too much prudery in the world.
[PcU>R Prudery is very often nothing more than
o^^d^o impurity in a cloak ; and " ill-deemers," says
the proverb, "are commonly ill-doers." The most im-
moral thing in the world is some people's respectability.

THE CHRISTIAN ABROAD.

A good many people's religion cannot endure the
slight change of climate involved in spending a short
time at a summer resort. They seem to say as they go
away in the summer : '' Good-bye, religion ; I'll be back
again in the fall."

TALK AND CONVERSATION.

Notwithstanding we are a reading people, there is
a great lack of edifying conversation, especially among
many young ladies. They can talk, talk, talk, but con-
verse they can't. Why ? Because too many read non-
sense instead of sense. The ignorance of current events
among ladies is deplorable. The man or woman who
does not read the daily papers is not worth talking to.
The daily newspaper is the mirror of the age.

If half the time and less than half the strength given
by many young women to show, fashion, frivolity, crazy-
patch work, and to the reading of trashy novels, were

(124)

RANDOM SHOTS. 125

devoted to sensible and useful acquisition, what blessings
would flow to Avomankind ! It is an offense to an intelli-
gent mind to see a young woman of much pretense, and
beauty, and show, and prominence in society, who is
unread and uncultivated in those departments about
which ordinarily intelligent people are wont to converse.

CARRYING A REVOLVER.

What does any man want with a revolver ? Why carry
one wherever you go ? What has a man with a clear
conscience to be afraid of? There is nothing going to
hurt you. Be gentlemen, be fair, be honest, be upright,
and there will be no reason for the deadly weapon.

EXAGGERATION.

Avoid all exaggeration. Be honest and modest in all
your observations. Some men live in a kind of mental
telescope, through whose magnifying medium every
mouse is turned into an elephant.

LOW-NECKED DRESSES.

The Bible forbids immodesty. Low-necked dresses
are in the highest degree immodest. Much of the
so-called "full dress " one sees on ladies is only half dress.
A really modest man does not know what to do with his
eyes. I can never cease wondering how any virtuous
and pure-minded female can allow herself to wear one of
them in the presence of a large company of people. A
man, upon entering a ball-room with a heavy overcoat on,
when asked by his wife to explain, said that somebody in
the family ought to wear clothing,

TIGHT LACING.

Upon many occasions have I seen women so tightly
laced that they actually fought for breath. God so made
the heart that it must have room to open and shut, and

126 RANDOM SHOTS.

the lungs must have room to be filled with air. To give
them room, and keep anything from pressing against
them, God has built around them a bone fence. When
the waist is tightly laced the ribs are pressed in upon
the heart and lungs, and neither of them has room to do
its work properly. If they could speak for themselves,
what a terrible outcry the poor, suifering hearts and
lungs would make ! It is astonishing how many women
are dissatisfied with the way the Lord made them.

HORSE-RACING.

I don't believe that the cultivation of a horse's speed
is a sin. If the Lord made fast horses, it was to have
them go fast. But the evil begins when the betting
begins — when fast horses make fast men. Gambling is
accursed of God. Upon the brow of every pool-seller I
would write the unmistakable word •' Swindler." I know
of many men and women w ho bet on horses last summer,
and I do not know of one who won. I am glad of it. I
hope it may so discourage them that they may quit.
If a man gain he is apt to go right on to hell.

ILL TEMPER.

Religion should influence our temper. If a man be as
jealous, passionate, revengeful, huffy, sullen, morose,
sour and moody after his conversion as before it, Avhat is
he converted from or to ? The Christian should cherish
like an apple of gold a bright, sunny, cheerful temper
and disposition.

TRUE RELIGION.

Be good, and do the most good that you can now and
here, and help others to be and do the same. Do good
with what you have, or it will do you no good. Be not
simply good ; be good for something. Some of you are
so good that you are good for nothing.

RANDOM SHOTS. 127

BUSYBODIES.

The man who minds his own business has his hands
full. If you have no business, then make it your busi-
ness to leave the business of others alone. They who
know most about other people's business generally fail
in their own. Some people are so busy meddling with
other people's business, and so seldom minding their
own, that I would not be at all surprised, at the general
resurrection, to find them getting out of somebody
else's grave.

TRUE LIVINU,

John the Baptist preached about eighteen months.
But he had the courage of his convictions ; he did his
duty, and his glory streams down the ages and floods the
Avhole earth. He died at the age of thirty-three years, and
yet the angel said he should be " great in the sight of
the Lord." We may not preach long, but let us preach
courageously. We may die young, but Ave can leave
beliind us foot-prints on the sands of time, reminding
others that they, too, can make their lives sublime.

"We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best;
And he whose heart beats quickest lives the longest —
Lives in one hour more than in years do some
Whose fat blood sleeps as it slips along their veins."

THE SENSITIVE MAN.

The most troublesome man in the church is not the
rudely outspoken one ; nor yet the chronic grumbler and
objector; nor yet the perpetual critic and fault-finder ; nor
yet the church-gossip ; bad as they are, they are not so bad
as the man who applies every thoughtless remark, every
word and deed that is capable of inappreciable interpre-

128 RANDOM SHOTS.

tation to himself, and who is continually being hurt,
offended and insulted. You can scarcely crook your finger
without giving him offense. He is always on the lookout
for slights and insults, and takes them when they are
neither intended nor given. The least little thing throws
him off his guard into a whirlwind of passion, and he
threatens to leave the church. Don't be easily provoked.
Keep cool. Be slow to take offense. " Soon fire — soon
ashes." Forgive injuries. Remember, that " To err is
human; to forgive divine." Be merciful, as you expect
God to be merciful to you. Show that clemency to all
men that you expect Christ to show to you.

TABLE PRAYER.

Table prayer is a plain. Christian duty. Our Lord
always gave thanks before eating. So did the early
Christians. So should we. It is one mark of a Christian
family. It is confessing Christ before men. It is an easy
duty. Who cannot say : " Dear Father, we thank thee
for our daily bread, and pray thee bless it to our use."

A CURE FOR ANGER.

It is said of Julius C»sar that, when provoked, he used
to repeat the whole Roman alphabet before he suffered
himself to speak. Thomas Jefferson said : " When angry,
count ten before you speak ; if very angry, a hundred."
Solomon said: "He that is slow to wrath is of great
understanding, but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth
folly."

A GOOD RULE FOR THE MARRIED.

Matthew Henry tells of a couple who were both pas-
sionate naturally, but who lived very happily together by
simply observing this rule : never to he both angry at the
same time. Take turn about.

RANDOM SHOTS. 129

OBJECTORS.

A man, upon making application for membership in an
active church, being asked Avhat he could do, said : " Well,
I am good on objections. If anything is proposed, I can
object to it." Our churches are full of such men and
women, who, too lazy to do any work, simply ease their
consciences by objecting.

Two laborers were trying to place a stone in position
on the foundation-wall of a new building. A crowd was
standing around looking on, and each one offering his
criticisms and counsel freely and loudly, but not one
lifting so much as a finger to help. " That reminds me
of church work," said one passer-by to another. " Why ?"
asked his friend. '' Because," was the reply, " two men
are doing the work and the rest are doing the talking."
Work or be still.

AFFECTATION.

About the most painful thing to listen to is an affected
young lady — drawling, and lisping, and chopping, and
clipping her words. If she could only see herself as
others see her, she would then know what a simpleton she
makes of herself Some one has said : " Affectation is a
greater enemy to the face than small-pox."

THE EDUCATION OF WOMAN.

The education of woman involves issues of the most
serious and far-reaching kind ; for, as some one has
said: "When you educate a woman, you educate a race."
There are men who spend thousands of dollars in the
education of their boys (and often on five-dollar boys),
who spend little, if anything, in the education of their
daughters. But such a narrow-minded, squeezing,
wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching and covetous
old sinner can never expect to become my father-in-law.

130 RANDOM SHOTS.

LITTLE BAD HABITS.

Take care of your little bad habits. Little ones are
only great ones condensed into small forms, as the
serpent in the egg, the explosion in the cold powder.
The embankment of earth, so long as it is entire, can
hold in its strong embrace the swelling floods of a mighty
river. But let the destroyer take a little instrument and
make a small opening. The opening becomes larger and
larger, until a foaming torrent comes roaring through
the breach, sweeps over fertile plains and buries whole
cities. So a little habit will grow and grow, and when
the rains descend and the floods rise and the winds blow,
your character will be swept away.

" A little theft, a small deceit,

Too often leads to more ;
'Tis hard at first, but tempts the feet

As through an open door.
Just as the broadest rivers run

From small and distant springs,
The greatest crimes that men have done

Have grown from little things."

FRESH AIR.
Man needs plenty of fresh air. Close houses, close
stores and close factories mean impure air. Without airy
houses, stores, shops and factories, nature cannot do the
work she is striving to do. I do not wonder that so
many people's health fails, their strength leaves them,
and their very minds become enfeebled. Sleep in the
best and airiest room. Breathing vitiated atmosphere,
especially in sleep, destroys muscular strength.

LOVE IS NOT ALL.

Love is not all. It is quite possible to love one wholly
unworthy of you. It does not follow that because two
are uncomfortable apart they will be happy together.

RANDOM SHOTS. 131

PARENTAL INDULGENCE.
Absalom's father, David, spared the rod and spoiled the
boy. How many such wrecks as Absalom lie stranded on
the beach of time ! They were shattered on the same rock —
parental indulgence. 0, parents, will you not forestall
these unavailing lamentations, these moans of blasted
hopes and broken hearts, that are darkening and burden-
ing the earth ? Tell your children exactly what to do,
and then make them do it. " Correct thy son, and he
shall give thee rest." " Chasten thy son Avhile there is
hope." Judicious, steadfast authority exalts the parent,
and makes his love inestimable.

SUNLIGHT.
Man is just like a plant : it is only in the sunlight he
can live. Cook or bake yourself thoroughly in the sun
every day. Let your children bask in the sunshine. If
you let the sun shine into your houses the carpets may lose
some of their rich, deep color ; but as this lost color will
pass into the cheeks and lips of your children, you need
not mourn the faded carpets. I would rather have pale
carpets than pale people. An Italian proverb says :
"Where the sun does not come in the doctor does."

MONOPOLIES.
By a monopoly I mean rich men buying up all com-
petitors and crushing them out of existence; getting
control of some commodity; crushing out all fair compe-
tition, which is the life of trade, and dictating the price.
Any set of men who, by any combination or action,
compel us to pay more than the nominal prices for what
we eat and drink and wear, are guilty of highway
robbery. The swindling of these wholesale robbers is
called percentage; their wrong-heartedness, long-headed-
ness; their duplicity, shrewdness.

132 EANDOM SHOTS.

GAMBLING.

Gambling is a poor business. Every gambler sooner
or later goes to the dogs. It is an unhappy business.
The gloomiest set of men in the world are your betting
men. They are always on the edge of a precipice ; they
are in perpetual danger of being reduced to beggary. It
is an immoral business. When rogue meets rogue, then
comes the tug of scoundrelism.

don't.
Don't tell everything you hear. Don't blister your
tongue with backbiting. Don't be the devil's bellows
to blow up the fire of strife in the community. Either
cut off a bit of your tongue or season it with the salt of
grace. Be quick at work and slow at talk. Think of
your own faults ere other people's faults you tell.
"People who live in glass houses should never throw
stones."

MARRYING FOR MONEY.

Do not make matrimony simply a matter of money.
There is nothing objectionable in a man if, along with
worth, he has money. But —

" In many a marriage made for gold,
The bride is bought and the bridegroom sold."

Though Cupid is said to be blind, he is a far better
guide than the rules of arithmetic. Love is the golden
chord in marriage. What false ideas of happiness we
have ! When John Jacob Astor was told that he must
be a very happy man, being so rich, he said : " Why,
would you take care of my property for your board and
clothes? That's all I get paid." Have a fortune in
your husband, which is far better than to have one with
your husband. It is better to have a man without
money, than money without a man.

RANDOM SHOTS. 13B

FALSE MEASURES.

There is a great deal of stealing nowadays by short
weights and measures. This sin is lamentably common.
The Sealer of Weights and Measures shoAved that in one
year, in one of our large cities, nearly seven thousand
weights and measures were found incorrect. When all
the measures get to be the same size you may look out
for the millennium. Give some of our merchants the
right to sell out the Delaware river by the (}uart and they
would cheat youin the measurement.

TRUST NOT APPEARANCES.

In the decision of the sacred question of marriage, be
not influenced by appearances. The maintaining of
appearances is the great snare and evil of our times.
Never judge a man by the coat he wears. It may be
borrowed or unpaid for. Remember that the deepest
rascals are often the finest clothed and smoothest tongued.
With what great care you purchase a good dress ! How
you hold it up to the light, that you may see every shade
and detect any defect ! Be not less considerate in that
important event which is to link your life and destiny with
another. Be satisfied with nothing but sober reality.

MARRY THE MAN.

Don't marry because somebody asks you to marry.
Marry the man, not any man. Look before you leap.
Go slow. Think where you are going. As Davy
Crockett said : ".fie sure you are right, then go ahead."
Remember that a father's home and a mother's counsel,
and the society of brothers and sisters are aff'ections that
last, while those of many a young man wane in the
honey-moon.

Nothing so much causes ill-assorted marriages and
mischievous results as making "old maid" a term of

134 KANDOM SHOTS.

reproach. Many girls have been hurled into matrimony
by the dread of being so stigmatized, and have repented
the step to their dying day. Many women can give
more honorable reasons for living outside the temple of
Hymen than their foolish sisters can for having rushed in.
Some have never found their other selves. Providential
circumstances may have prevented the junction of these
selves ; and is not a life of loneliness more honorable than
a loveless marriage ? Is not single blessedness preferable
to double cursedness ?

There are many women who laid down their hopes of
wedded bliss for the sake of accomplishing some good.
In such cases singleness is an honorable estate. There
is a work for woman in the world, married or single, as
wife, mother, sister, daughter or friend.

A WARNING.

I warn you, young man, against the gossiping gad-
about. She will drive you mad. A man said to his
wife: "Double up your Avhip." He meant keep your
tongue quiet. It must be a terrible thing to be living
with a whip that is always lashing you. A blind man,
having a shrew for a wife, was told by one of his friends
that she was a rose. He replied: " I do not doubt it,
sir, for I feel the thorns daily." There is nothing
grander than a bright and contented disposition.

WHAT GIRLS SHOULD KNOW.

A good wife must have mental attractiveness. I do
not say that she must be well versed in classic lore and
polite literature, but she must have that common intelli-
gence, fit for every-day use, which is absolutely essential
to make her intercourse with society pleasing to herself
and agreeable to others. And the girl who is ignorant
in these days generally has but two excuses for her

RANDOM SHOTS. 135

ignorance : she was either lazy, or crazy after the boys.
A good wife must at least know enough of physiology to
appreciate the importance of cleanliness of person and
in the house. A carelessly dressed, slatternly and untidy
woman cannot long keep her place on the throne of her
husband's life. From a lazy, slovenly woman may
heaven deliver you ! The devil tempts everybody, but
a slovenly woman tempts the devil. Young man, look
out where you are going ! A lazy girl will make a lazy
wife, just as sure as a crooked sapling will make a crooked
tree. A good wife should know enough of arithmetic to
check the accounts of merchants and marketmen, and
reckon the amount saved by paying cash. The reason
why so many people get along so miserably in life, and
have so many obstacles to surmount, is because they have
no knowledge of arithmetic.

A WISE CHOICE.

A young man who had long been absent called upon
two beautiful young ladies of his acquaintance. One
came quickly to meet him in the neat, yet not precise
attire in which she was performing her household duties.
The other, after a lapse of half an hour, made her stately
entrance in all the primness of starch and ribbons, with
which, on the announcement of his entrance, she had
hastened to bedeck herself. The young man, who had
long been hesitating as to his choice between the two,
now hesitated no longer. The cordiality with which the
first hastened to greet him, and -the charming careless-
ness of her attire, entirely won his heart. She is now
his wife. He was a sensible man. Take warning from
this. Never be afraid to see a friend because you are in
your working gown. No true gentleman will think less
of you because he finds you in the performance of your

136 RANDOM SHOTS.

duty, and he will think all the more of you if you are
not ashamed to let it be known. 0, young ladies, love
home ! Of that realm you are the queens. Fit your-
selves to fulfill its divine prerogatives; for in the home
is embosomed God's own trust, the glory of the state,
the hope of the church, and the destiny of the world.
Oh, the illimitableness of which you are capable ! Love
home I Prize its duties I Live for it, and you will
secure to yourselves such testimony as Abraham Lincoln
proudly bore to his mother, when he said: "All I am,
my mother made me;" and above all, you will secure
the approval of God.

girls' extravagance.
The extravagance of girls prevents thousands of
young men from marrying. Thousands of young men
in this city, already engaged, are putting oflF marriage
from year to year until they can make enough to support
their wives. Too many young women want to begin
where their parents left off. Too many young men are
too proud themselves to commence married life in a
quiet, economical way. If they cannot continue their
private luxuries and support their wives in style, they
put off marriage. Begin as your fathers began, and
Avork up, save up, grow up. This is the only way to
get up. Young ladies and gentlemen, I beseech you be
true to the best feelings of your hearts, careless about what
the world will say, and pure and happy Christian homes
will be more abundant.

FLIRTING.

Flirting is trifling with the most sacred and serious
relations of human life. Marriage can never be esteemed
if courtship be made a round of low frolic and fun. Let
all your dealings with women be frank, honest and

RANDOM SHOTS. 137

noble. Be this your motto : / will treat every ivoman
I meet as I would wish another man to treat my inno-
cent, confiding sister.

THE NOVEL.

I do not wage war indiscriminately against the novel,
for there are pure, good novels. The world owes
a debt of obligation to such fictitious writers as Haw-
thorne, Marion Harland, Walter Scott, Charles Kings-
ley, Thackeray, Dickens, Roe, Howells and others, whose
names easily occur to you ; and this debt of obliga-
tion can only be paid by reading their works. They
will elevate, purify and ennoble mankind. The popular
novel may be described in Pollok's words :

' ■ A novel is a book
Crammed full of poisonous error, blacking every page;
And oftener still of trifling, second-hand
Keniark, and old, diseased, putrid thought.
And miserable incident at war
With nature; with itself and truth at war:
Yet charming still the greedy reader on,
Till done, he tries to recollect his thought.
And nothing finds ])ut dreaming emptiness."

It may be written in eloquent and polished style, vivid
in its portraiture, but it is damnable in its influence.
Avoid all books which present false pictures of human life.
They are dangerous ! Stand aloof!

AN ILLOGICAL CRITICISM.

The minister who preaches in the pulpit like an angel
and lives in the world like a devil is the guiltiest man
that the sun shines upon. But the world is too rigorous
and exacting. Damaging as the criticism is, that the
preacher does not live up to what he preaches, it is also
illogical, because, as a preacher, it is his duty to say the
best things. It is his duty as a man to live up to them.

138 RANDOM SHOTS.

Would it not be absurd if he recommended only what he
lived — a limited purity, a qualified faith — because he felt
he could rise no higher himself? In the pulpit the
preacher is bound to take the highest possible ground ;
hence it is obvious that his faults, which are inevitable,
should be kept out of sight of his hearers.

SNOBBERY.

There is a large class of people in this country who
imitate English life. There is an alarming tendency to
depreciate American life. Many Americans look across
the ocean for their example. This raging Anglo-mania
reaches everything ; no matter how ugly, it must be in
affectation of the English. We go wild over the aristo-
cratic swells who tramp through our country, accept our
hospitality, and, like Matthew Arnold and others, upon
their return home, fill the English press with tirades on
American life. The average Englishman, Avho has
always lived on a narrow island, has not breadth of mind
enough to grasp American greatness. America is ahead
of England in everything that makes a nation great.
Let there be no more afl'ecting English manners. Let
Americans stand by their nativity !

COMMON-SENSE EDUCATION.

Artemus Ward once said he "tried to do too much and
did it." That is just the weak point in our schools and
colleges: much is done, but not enough done thoroughly
and well, AVhile a little knowledge may be a dangerous
thing, too much is too much. Many minds are so rounded
and polished by education as not to be energetic in any
one faculty; so symmetrical as to have no point; while
other men not thus trained are led to efforts that render
them at last far more learned and better educated than

RANDOM SHOTS. 139

the polished and easy-going graduate who has just knowl-
edge enough to prevent consciousness of his ignorance.
The end of life is to he and do, not to read and brood
over what men have been and done. Shakespeare refers
to this exquisite cultivation when he speaks of "the
native hue of resolution being sicklied o'er with the pale
cast of thought."

Pope says truly: "Some men are too refined for
action." The vast majority of our most successful men
are not polished scholars. This tends to show what is
too commonly forgotten in modern plans of education :
that it is far better to have the mind well disciplined than
richly stored, strong rather than full. Good common
sense — the power of adaptation to circumstances, the
secret of being alive to what is going on around one, of
knowing what the people want, and of saying and doing
the right thing at the right time and place, is the crown
of faculties.

A TKADE.

It is a rule in the imperial family of Germany that
every young man shall acquire a trade, going through a
regular apprenticeship till he is able to do good, fair jour-
ney work. This is because kingdoms are subject to vicissi-
tudes, and it is deemed necessary to a manly independence
that the heir-apparent or a prince of the blood should be
conscious of ability to make his own way in the world, if
needs be. This is an honorable custom, worthy of imi-
tation. Franklin says : '' He that hath a trade, hath an
estate." Work, however looked down upon by people
who cannot perform it, is an lionorable thing ; it may
not be very profitable, but honorable it always is ; there's
nothing to be ashamed of in it. The man who has rea-
son to be ashamed is the man who does nothing. Let

140 RANDOM SHOTS.

the dandy whose conceit greatly exceeds his brains be
ashamed of his kid gloves, but never let a man who
works be ashamed of his hard hands.

COMING TO TOWN.

Young man, be sure you can better yourself in the
city before you leave your comfortable home or place in
the country. The chances are, if you come to the city,
you will wish yourself back again in the country before
the year is over. It is hard for the country boy to do
well in the city now, as our cities are overcrowded.
The greatest slave on earth is the average city clerk.
With proper care and effort, country life can be made as
enjoyable and pi-ofitable as city life. Spend in the coun-
try towns and villages the same amount for concerts,
lectures, etc., that you would if you came to the city,
and you will have almost equal advantages. Farmers
should settle in colonies. Let them live in villages. It
is a pleasure to go a mile or two to work. The isolation
of American farm life is its curse.

BE PROGRESSIVE.

Advance with the advancement of the times, and
advance in the front ranks. Don't get set in your ways.
Be open to new ideas. Be enterprising, and you will
succeed. The business houses which folloAv the old
methods go to the wall. Let the next thing always be
something else. It is true that if you are original and
enterprising you will be o])posed. But opposition will
prevent dull times, and criticism is the whetstone by
which a genuine man is polished and sharpened. People
have opposed everything new. The inventor of the
umbrella was stigmatized for interrupting the designs of
Providence with regard to the rainy weather; for when
tlie showers fell it was evident God meant that men

RANDOM SHOTR. 141

should get wet. The man who brought that bahn into
the -world, anaesthetics, was also stigmatized. By the
aid of this, the most violent surgical operation can be
performed, while pain is banished into dreamland. The
design of Providence, it was claimed, was that, if a man's
limb must be amputated, it should ache, and the inventor
frustrated that design. Vaccination was stisrmatized as
the work of the devil ; because disease is, by its nature,
made contagious by God, and man should not interfere
with God's doing. It was meddling with Providence.
That kind of logic has always existed in the world ; it
exists still. So don't be afraid of criticism. Advance !
If you can do anything better to-day than it was done
yesterday, do it, regardless of what your father or grand-
father did, for they and their methods have passed away.
Be alive ; be original ; be enterprising. Go forward.
Don't stand still. The perfectly satisfied man and the
clam are first cousins.

RELTGION IN BUSINESS.
It matters not how a man ma,j say his prayers, if he
depart from the path of strict rectitude in business his
religion is worthless. If his Christianity be not good
Itehind the counter, if it will not bar out falsehood, and
personal greed, and sharp practice, and low cunning, it
is a sham. "Without works your faith is dead." That
is, if you don't live during the week what you profess on
Sunday, your religion is a humbug. Carry your religion
with you into every-day life. Let your religion be a
reality. Bring it down from the clouds. Suffuse all
your actions with holy principles.

ONE COVENANT.

The covenant of works and of grace are one. It was
ordained in Christ of God from the foundation of the

142 RANDOM SHOTS.

world. The covenant of grace was the original covenant,
made not after the failure of the Edenic transaction, but
existing prior to its inauguration, and existing prior to
the creation of man — from the beginning, from eternity.
The covenant of Christ is the original policy of the
original government. Christ was away back, from the
very beginning of the world, saving the world. Christ is
'■^ Alpha and Omega — the first and the last." He is
^'■the same yesterday^ to-day and forever.'' '■''The Lamb
slain from the foundation of the ivorld.''

ORIGINAL SIN.

We do not teach that we are guilty of Adam's sin, or
responsible for his act in the sense of being criminal, but
that we have inherited from Adam a depraved nature ; we
have lost original righteousness. Our corrupt nature is
called original sin, because it is the nature of sin, because
it comes from the first parents, because it is the source of
all other sins in the individual, and to distinguish it from
actual sin. We have inherited from Adam a depraved
nature. Now what are the facts in the case? Does not
the babe suffer ? Is not suffering the natural consequence
of sin ? Do we not see that the very first tendency in
children is to disobey ? Do they not naturally incline to
the wrong ? Why so ? Do not men inherit a diseased
moral nature ? Do not men willfully disobey the moral
law, and alienate themselves from God ? Sin is born in
the child as surely as fire is in the flint ; it only waits to
be brought out and manifested. Surely no one can deny
actual sin. Now, did you ever see a tree growing without
a root ?

Our nature is depraved. Contrasted with the character
of God, man is unholy, unclean, impure, as demonstrated
by the records and by the facts of daily life. Man is the

RANDOM SHOTS. 143

very opposite of what he should be and must be before he
can hope to find that heavenly way which leads unto
eternal life. Man, in order to bring himself into sympa-
thy with God, must be changed into the moral likeness
of- God, so that there can be some basis for union and some
ground for fellowship ; for "what concord hath light with
darkness 't " Man must begin life anew, on diiferent
principles, with new convictions, affections, resolves,
inspiring a new manner and course of life. This must be
the result of a higher power operating upon him. If you
ask: "What power hath God over me?" I respond, he
has as much power over you as the man you employ to
graft your trees has over those trees. INIan can take a
tree that bears this year sour apples and make it bear, a
few years from now, sweet ones. Is not God able to do
as much with your heart as that man is with the trees
you never made, but only bought 'i If man can change
the tree, cannot God change you ? Try it, my friend.
Ask him in faith to graft you with a new order of life,
and your life will henceforth be sweet.

"THE ELECT."

How may you know that you are among " the elect ? "
If you choose to come to God, he has solemnly declared :
'"'■Him that cometh unto me I will in nowise east out."
The question is: Come or not come? Choose or not
choose ? When you decide the question and come, then
you settle the matter of your election ; by obeying the
divine command you make " your calling and election
sure." The eternal decrees of God are, that the fanner
shall have a crop if he do his part — plow and sow. The
farmer knows this, and he knows that he will not have
a harvest unless he sows the seed. The decrees of God are
made conditional on his doing. So in the matter of

144 RANDOM SHOTS.

salvation : God has '' elected " that your soul will or will
not be saved, and he tells you that you will be saved if
you come to Christ, and will not be saved if you do not
come to Christ. " Whosoever will may come.'' The
whosoever will are the elect ; the whosoever won't are
the non-elect. Don't tease yourselves with useless
inquiries, and perplex yourselves with the secret counsels
of God ; attend to your plain duties, repent and believe,
and your salvation will be sure.

THE MAIN THING.

Do not allow, the technicalities of religion to stop your
salvation. There are men who are all the time asking
(questions, and making discussion the refuge of their guilt.
They debate in order that they may not decide. They
have studied redemption, but not the Redeemer ; Chris-
tianity, but not Christ. Instead of discussing whether
the serpent in Eden was figurative or literal, or the wars
of the Jews, and Jonah, or troubling yourself about the
difficulties suggested by the book of Revelation^ look to
Christ ; believe on him, and take him as your master
and model, and you will not be slow to find out that
"all Scripture is given by inspiration of God." You
may never have all your difficulties solved, or all your
objections met, but you may plant your feet upon the
Rock of Ages. The great point with you is not this
or that doctrine ; not whether you agree or disagree with
evangelical Christians. The great point is this : Are
you at peace with God ? Do you think and feel as he
wishes you to feel ? Is your soul, is your conscience, is
your conduct in harmony with him ? Hoio do you stand
before God ? I leave the level of faith, and come to that
of practice and conduct. Love and repentance first ;
theology second.

RANDOM 8H0TS. 145

TIIK ATdXEMENT.

Christ bore human sin as a representative of man before
the divine law — a sacrifice for sin, a substitute for man,
and a satisfaction to law. Christ, the Lord himself,
suffered on account of the broken law, in order that the
majesty of the law might be honored to the full. Some time
ago one of our judges was called upon to try a prisoner
who had been his companion in early youth. It was a
crime for which the penalty was a heavy fine. The judge
did not diminish the fine, but fined the prisoner to the
full. Some who knew his former relation to the offender
thought him somewhat unkind thus to carry out the law,
while others praised his impartiality. All were surprised
when the judge quitted the bench and himself paid every
farthing of the penalty. He had shown his respect for
the law and his good-will to the man who had broken it ;
he exacted the penalty, but paid it himself That is just
what God has done in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ
our Lord ; and for the sake of Christ's righteousness we
shall be treated as righteous, being made righteous by
his grace. Some years ago a man of high standing
married an Indian girl in one of our Western cities, for
he saw in her the capabilities of noble womanhood.
She was educated, and subsequently moved in the highest
circles of society, for the sake of her husband, who was
held in the highest esteem. The doctrine that God
treats sinners with favor for the sake of his Son finds
many analogies even in human society.

THE FAITHFUL SERVANT rJIRLS.

Who has not heard early on Sunday mornings the
tramp, tramp, tramp of people with a hard day's work
before them, hastening to the Catholic church, with
prayer-book in h;iiid? No people deserve more praise

146 RANDOM SHOTS.

than the poor servant girls. Though worked so hard,
while we are yet asleep, they go to their church and lay
a goodly portion of their earnings upon her altars. Can
God refuse their sacrifice? They put us to shame.
Would to God Protestants were as faithful !

THE JEW.

The Irishman who whipped the Jew, when asked why
he did so, replied : " That man is a Jew." " Well, what
of that?" "The Jews," replied the Irishman, "killed
Christ." "Yes; but that was more than 1800 years
ago." " Well, never mind," said the Irishman ; "I only
heard of it to-day." Many of us seem to be as ignorant.
Shall the deed of his ancestors be laid against the
Jew and his descendants down to the sixtieth generation ?
Were those ancestors guilty of crucifying the Messiah ?
Would they have put Jesus Christ to death had they
believed him to be the Messiah ? Hear Paul : " Which
none of the princes of the world knew ; for, had they
known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of
Glory." Listen to Jesus on the cross : " Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do." Is it not time
that we forgive and forget what Christ forgave 1800
years ago? The Jew rejects Christ, but believes in
the Messiah. Who shall say now that his "faith," like
Abraham's, shall not be accounted unto him for righteous-
ness? With all the rough handling the world has given
the Jew, it is wonderful that he has no more faults. For,
as Shakespeare made Shylock to say: "He hath dis-
graced me, and hindered me of half a million, laughed at
my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation,
thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated my
enemies — and what's his reason ? I am a Jew. Hath
not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs,

EANDOM SHOTS. 147

dimensions, senses, aftections, passions ? Is he not fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapon, subject to the
same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and
cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is ? If
you prick us do we not bleed ? If you tickle us do we not
laugh ? If you poison us do we not die ? and if you
wrong us shall we not revenge ? " It is high time that
we should lay aside all bigotry. We are all children of a
common Father.

TIME.

Dr. Young truly said: "The man is yet unborn who
truly weighs an hour." Some one records having seen
the following notice : " Lost ! somewhere between sunrise
and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty dia-
mond minutes. No reward is offered for their recovery,
for they are lost forever ! " The day that ends with the
setting sun will never come back. Franklin asks : " Dost
thou love life ? Then do not squander time, for that
is the stuff life is made of." Fill each day and every
hour with something to do.

BENEVOLENCE.

Selfishness is ugly. How beautiful woman appears on
errands of mercy. I confess I always feel as if I should
bow in reverence and take off my hat whenever I pass the
Sisters of Charity. Their black garments should be
exchanged for the white robes of heaven, for they seem
so godlike. But we, too, have our sisters of charity, who
practically follow Him who "went about doing good."
A large heart of charity is a beautiful thing. Everybody
predicts a beautiful life from a good-doing young w^oman.

ENVY.

Envy, like Milton's fiend, sees undelighted all delight.
Hannah Moore calls envy "the ugliest fiend of hell," and

148 RANDOM SHOTS.

Spenser declares : '' Of all the passions in tlie mind, thou
vilest art."

And what produces envy ? The excellence of another.
Envy is, then, only the acknowledgment of inferiority —
the homage paid to excellence. A man that makes a
character makes enemies. A radiant genius calls forth
swarms of biting, stinging insects, just as the sunshine
awakens the world of flies. " I don't like you," said the
snow-flake to the snow-bird. " Why don't you like rae ?"
said the snow-bird. " Oh," said the snow-flake, " I'm
going down and you are going up."

PURITY.

Purity precedes all spiritual attainment and progress.
It is the letter A in the moral alphabet. However beau-
tiful your face, and varied your attainments, and charm-
ing your social qualities, you are nothing without purity —
only tinkling cymbals. An impure woman is an awful
sight. She outrages all just ideas of womanhood, all
proper conceptions of true beauty. A French author
says : " Beauty unaccompanied by virtue is a flower
without perfume." She is not beautiful, however com-
plete on the outside, who is faulty and unsightly within.

Christ's text-book.
Christ's text-book was every-day life. He spoke up to
the times. He did not read off" any dry theological
abstractions. lie spoke to the men who lived around
him doing all kinds of mischief. We find him in the
market places, in the streets where the people congre-
gate. We find him in all the activities of life. He lived
in an age of corruption, and he never shut his mouth con-/
corning it. He never used language of diplomacy, of
ex))edioncy. of policy. He called everything by its right
name.

EANDOM SHOTS. 149

GETTING ON IN THE WORLD.

Let us pass along the streets of beauty, comfort and
wealth. These people who live here have come up mostly
from the multitude. Here we see the rewards of industry,
economy and perseverance. You say they were lucky.
I say they were plucky.

But how did they get on ':" By never getting off — on
sprees — and spending their time in idleness. They culti-
vated the higher attributes of manhood ; for brain power
always takes the precedence of Ijrute force. Instead of p
spending their time in clamoring for higher wages and
fewer hours work per day, they devoted their time to
learning how to do better work, which so often insures
that prosperity which clamor and complaining never win.
It is the sheerest nonsense and a sad waste of time for the
laboring men to make faces at the capitalists. The one is
dependent upon the other. IIow shall we solve this prob-
lem ? Let every man start out and begin to be a capitalist
himself, and let him make the best bargain he can for
himself Level up, boys ; level up, straighten up, reach
up, grow up, save up ; this is the only way you can get
up and overshadow the men who abuse their power.

PRAYER.

Let prayer be the fixed habit of your life. It is the
beaten path to greatness. Nothing under heaven gives
men such majesty of resources, and such a vision into the
unseen and imperishable, as the cry of the heart in
devout, believing prayer. Daniel, on his knees with his
window opened toward Jerusalem, was greater than when
administering the affairs of the empire. Luther was more
a champion of liberty and truth at the mercy seat than
when nailing his theses to the church-door in Wittenberg,
or when standing in lone grandeur before the royal

150 EANDOM SHOTS.

ecclesiastical tribunal at Worms. Newton was more a giant
when telling liis wants to God than when pursuing his
bright way through the heavens. Washington prayed,
and he never fouDjht such battles as when bowed before
God in the bush or under the covering of his tent. Abra-
ham Lincoln was a greater man on his knees before God,
imploring him to drive Lee out of Pennsylvania, than
when he signed the emancipation proclamation. AVhen,
on the death of William IV. of England, June 20, 1837,
Victoria, but eighteen years and seven days old, was
awakened in the night, and told by the Prelate that the
throne of the United Kingdom of ^Great Britain and
Ireland was hers, the first thing she said was : "I ask
your prayers," and then and there they knelt down and
prayed. Since that time all the governments of Europe
have been worn out or fearfully shaken, but hers stands
as firm as it did the day she ascended it ; and wherever, the
world over, her name is pronounced, every Englishman
feels like taking of his hat and shouting: " Crod save the
Queen! " Let the light and power from the throne of
God fall on every step of your career, and you will be
winners in the race of life.

THE CHEAP SYSTEM.

To many people a thing that is cheap has a charming
attractiveness. The cheap house is praised to the skies.
I have a holy hatred for the word " cheap." It means
cheap labor and dishonest work. It is a blood-stained
tyrant. Think how cheap things become cheap, and
you will be left comfortless ; your solace will become your
sorrow. The bold figures in our windows, advertising
cheap things, ought to be written with blood, and in God's
sight are. How are prices forced down ? By the wages
of the workers being forced back. The purchaser says :

RANDOM SHOTS. 151

"It is cheap." The workingwoman says : " It is death."
God only knows how much buying on the cheap is
responsible for fallen virtue. What is good is cheap at a
good price. What is cheap is too dear at any price. What
you can buy "dirt cheap" usually is dirt. And your
advertised ^^ great bargains'' are nsuaWy great sells.

DECISION OF CHARACTER.

Be decided. Know you are right, and then sail right
on. Have the courage to say " No." Be brave for the
right. Dare to be true. Dare to stand alone. God will
smite every peril before you, and close every mouth that
would threaten or defame you.

' ' Let the road be long and dreary,
And its ending out of sight:
Foot it bravely, never weary,
Trust in God, and do the right."

YOUNG MAN, BEWARE !

Young man, I warn you against the man who lives
fast, knows the town, is up to all the dodges of licentious
villainy, rolls all the vile and sensual gossip under his
tongue, who boasts of the " wild oats" he is sowing, and
who takes a fiendish delight in undermining the principle
and ridiculing the scruples of the uninitiated. Cut such
a companion off and cast him from you. Forsake that
saloon, give up that club, frequent no longer that con-
vivial meeting which breaks up after the midnight hour,
and the members of which, inflamed with strong drink
and licentious stories and songs, go madly to seek the
gratification of their fevered and raging lusts. " Come
out from among them and be separate." It is better that
you should go companionless to heaven, than that with
these sons of Belial you should be cast into hell.

152 RANDOM SHOTS.

FANCY PICTURES.

It is quite common for young men, and older men, too,
who ought to have better sense, to carry pictures of
cigarette girls, actresses, etc. Show me Avhat kind of
pictures a man likes to look at, and I will tell you what
kind of a man he is. Unclean pictures are doing a
mighty work for death. Young man, carry i/ our mother s
picture with you. Bind it to your bosom, and when
tempted to do some evil, or to go to some place of evil con-
course, consult that silent monitor. DraAV forth and look
upon that face ! Oh, with what tremendous, resistless
eloquence it would warn, plead and entreat you to keep
back from all evil, and inspire you to ascend to the reali-
ties of eternity.

TRUST NOT TOO FAR.

It is wise not to trust your best friend too far, for he
may some day be your enemy. Many who have trusted
their friends too far, could have cried out with Queen
Elizabeth: "In trust have I found treason;" or with
Julius Csesar, when stabbed by Brutus : " And thou
also, Brutus ! " Csesar received twenty wounds, mostly at
the hands of those whose lives he had spared.

COMPANIONSHIP WITH FOOLS.

Solomon says: "A companion of fools shall be
destroyed." A wise and good teacher once refused to
let his son and daughter go into what he considered
unsafe company when they were quite grown up. The
daughter accused her father of underestimating their
development into manhood and womanhood. To con-
vince her of her mistake and the pernicious effects of
associating with the bad, the father gave her a dead coal
of fire, and requested her to handle it. Her white hands
were soon soiled, and she said to her father: " We

EANDOM SHOTS. 153

cannot be too careful in handling coals." " Yes, truly,"
said her father ; " you see, my child, that coal, even if
it do not burn, it blackens. So it is with the company
of the vicious." There is nothing in which the young
ought to be more careful than in selecting their company.

It is impossible to take coals of fire in our bosom and
not be burned. Neither can we associate with the low
and vulgar without becoming Ioav and vulgar ourselves.
The ancient Pythagoras, before he admitted any one into
his school, made inquiry as to who his associates had been,
rightly judging that those who had been careless about
their companionships were not likely to derive much
benefit from his instruction.

Associate with the sinful as little as possible. You
may mean to purify them, but the chances are that you
will be corrupted. A story is told of two parrots that
lived near to each other. One was accustomed to
sing hymns, while the other was addicted to swearing.
The owner of the latter obtained permission for it to
associate with the former, in the hope that its bad habit
would be corrected ; but the opposite result followed, for
both learned to swear alike.

Petrarch says : " Let no man deceive himself by
thinking that the contagions of the soul are less than
those of the body. They are yet greater : they sink
deeper and come on more unsuspectedly."

Nothing is truer than that men and women will be
judged by the company they keep. "Birds of a feather
Hock together." And, as the Germans say : ^^ Mitgefan-
gen, 77ittgehangen."

SILENCE.

A German proverb says : " Speech is silver; silence is
gold." Carlyle says : '' Silence is deep as eternity ; speech

154 RANDOM SHOTS.

is shallow as time." Denouncing the vapid verbiage of
shallow praters, he again exclaims : " Even triviality and
imbecility, that can be silent, how respectable are they in
comparison ! " Cato says : " I think the first virtue is
to restrain the tongue ; he approaches nearest the gods
who knows how to be silent, even though he is in the
right." He who knows Avhen to keep his tongue still
has a wise head. Yet, as some one has said : " Silence
is just as far from being wisdom as the rattle of an empty
wagon is from being music." Many a man passes for
wise simply because he is too big a fool to talk.

"pay as you go."

John Randolph's favorite maxim is a good one — "Pay
as you go." If you cannot pay, do not go. There are
men in every community who live by a form of petty
thieving — making small loans and incurring small bills
which they never pay. Debt is a foe to a man's honesty.
Live this month on what you earned last month, not on
what you are going to earn next month.

KEEP THE CHILDREN AT SCHOOL.

What a pity that so many children are taken out of
school just when they are beginning to learn. Boys and
girls taken out of school and cooped up in stores, shops
and factories, are not only mentally impoverished, but
physically ruined, and that too for a miserable pittance.
It is a false economy to make children earn their bread
too soon. While at school, the history, geography,
grammar, physiology and natural philosophy they learn
constitute the knowledge that will be their capital when
they enter on the business of life. Intelligent workmen
are cheaper at higher wages than the uneducated. Give
your children the best education you possibly can.

RANDOM SHOTS. 155

Even if they should not live to profit by their edu-
cation, and should disappoint all your hopes, still you
will have the consciousness of having discharged your
duty to them ; of having done all in your power to make
them what God willed they should be — men and women.

TRUE BLUB BLOOD.

The purest blood in the world is that of a Christian
ancestry. The Bible all through makes much of family
descent. The true aristocracy is the aristocracy of
grace. Cowper manfully exclaims :

" My boast is not that I deduce my birth
From loins enthroned, the rulers of the earth ;
But higher far my proud pretensions rise —
The son of parents passed unto the skies."

The conceited coxcomb who talks disrespectfully of his
parents, is ashamed to acknowledge his mother's prayers,
and snaps his fingers at his father's instructions, is the
silly fellow who invariably comes to a bad end. If you
have come of a good stock, don't disgrace it. Keep up
the noble succession — the only true succession — the line
of saints.

MONEY ALL GONE.

"The fool and his money are soon parted." The
prodigal son left home rich. His friends and acquaint-
ances and flatterers declared with a ''hip, hip, hurrah ! "
that he was the best fellow in the world. But Ave read :
'"And he began to be in want." Money all gone, and
his friends were all gone. Such is the friendship of the
world. As long as you have money and spend it liberally
your generosity will be admired; you will be called the
best fellow in the world, if you will only make a fool of
yourself for other people's gratification ; but as soon as

156 KANDOM SHOTS.

your money is all gone, depend upon it, your friends will
be gone too.

The prodigal son was at last compelled to feed swine.
This, to the JeAV, was the most scurvy work in which a
man could engage. And how many men — men did I
say? — excuse the mistake; how many swells, who live
off the earnings of their fathers, if they were thrown
upon their own resources, would be fit for no better
employment than herding swine ?

Young man, ''•the way of the transgressor is hard."
The devil does not keep his promises; he is a cheat.
The only wages he pays is degradation and damnation.
Sin only degrades, diseases, bemeans, belittles, pauper-
izes, kills and damns!

THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER.

The Christian should have a noble character : broad in
his views and generous in his opinions. Bigotry makes
man abominable wherever there is light, liberty or
nobleness.

BORROWING TROUBLE.

Don't borrow trouble for the future. Half of the
unhappiness in the world is caused by Avorrying over
things which never happen.

A BASE MOTTO.

No Christian can adopt the motto " All is fair in
trade." The Christian is a business man of conscious
honor, integrity and high-mindedness.

THE JOYOUS CHRISTIAN.

Some Christians' faces look like midnight. They are
as dispiriting as a funeral procession. The joyous Chris-
tian proclaims to the world that the Master he serves is a
good one.

EANDOM SHOTS. 157

THE POOR.
Are you doing anything for the poor ? You pity them,
do you ? For how much do you pity them ?

ARITHMETIC.

Americans need to study arithmetic. If your income
be ^20 per week and your expenses |19 — result, happi-
ness. If your income be $20 and your expenses $21 —
result, misery.

WHEN IN ROME.

"When in Rome do as the Romans do." Never!
There is no liberty in the man who, when in Rome, does
not as he ought to do, but as the Romans do. There is no
independence or manliness in that man. Doing as the
Romans did ruined Rome.

HONESTY AND POLICY.

" Honesty is the best policy ; " but he who is honest for
policy's sake is not honest. Some men are honest when
honesty pays ; but when policy will serve them a better
turn, they give honesty the slip and work policy.

AN ANTIDOTE FOR FRIVOLITY.

Culture is the best antidote for frivolity. We hear of
dancing circles, etc. How many reading circles do the
young women of high society maintain ? Figures would
present a sad commentary. Is it not sad that the feet
should be educated at the expense of the head and heart?

A FALSE CHARITY.

Many people so divide the sermon out among the con-
gregation that they keep none for themselves.

HASTY WORDS.

L>r. Fuller used to say that the heat of passion makes
our souls to crack, and the devil creeps in at the crevices.

158 RANDOM SHOTS.

Says Lord Bacon : '" An angry man who suppresses his
passions, thinks worse than he speaks ; and an angry
man that will chide, speaks worse than he thinks."

WHY?

Why spend your money for strong drink ? There are
men who are shrewd in all their dealings, but will allow
themselves to be cheated by unhealthy adulterations, and
put an enemy to their mouths that will rob them of their//
senses.

GOOD-LOOKING FOLKS.

Good-looking people are mostW people lacking good
sense. They have an idea that they were made to be
looked at, and often they are good for nothing else.
"Handsome is as handsome does."

HEAVEN UPON EARTH.

We often speak of heaven. We often desire it. We
need not wait till we die to enjoy it. We may have
heaven now. We can exhibit heavenly graces and dis-
positions. We can reflect the goodness and diffuse the
mercy and kindness of heaven. Our pleasant looks, kind
words, warm greetings and good deeds will create in each
breast a little heaven.

THE FROSTED WINDOWS.

The frosted windows prove that the saloon-keeper is
ashamed of his business. He is ashamed to let the world
see the '' blood-money " that goes over his counter. And
a man that is ashamed of his business himself ought not
to ask anybody else to have respect for it.

A SAD FACT.

It seems to be easier for a father to support six sons
than it is for six sons to support a father ; and easier for a

RANDOM SHOTS. 159

mother to support six daughters than for six daughters to
support a mother.

PLUCK.

Young man, be resolved to work your way through the
workl liravely and honestly. Luck is a fool ; pluck is a
hero. Pluck is the winning horse in the race of life.
Have an objective point ; have the back-bone to go after
it, and then stick. And if you have not ambition enough
to make a man of yourself and rise in the world, you
might as well order your grave-clothes.

HOW TO DRIVE THE CHILDREN AWAY FROM HOME.

Reserve all your social charms for strangers abroad ;
be dull at home ; don't talk ; forbid your children to
come into the nicely-furnished rooms ; have no amuse-
ments and no pleasures ; make home as irksome as possi-
ble ; forget that you were once young — and your children
will make every possible effort to get from home at night
and run the streets.

DO RIGHT.

No man ever permanently suifered by a straight course
of conduct. David never saw the righteous man for-
saken, nor his children begging bread. We seldom do.
It pays to be honest. It is safe to do right. The Lord
looks grandly after the man who seeks to do right.

"THOU SHALT NOT STEAL."

This commandment not only forbids violent theft, but
borrowing and forgetting to return, which is also stealing.
Overhaul your hat and umbrella-stands, closets and book-
shelves, and see if you have not borrowed some things
which you have forgotten to return.

160 RANDOM SHOTS.

THE FALSE WITNESS.

False swearing is a gross crime. The lying witness
does much hurt. He corrupts the judge ; oppresses the
innocent, suppresses the truth. He endangers the life,
the liberty and all that is sacred to man. The false-
Avitness bearer is the most vile and infamous, the most
pernicious and perilous instrument of injustice; the most
desperate enemy of man's right and safety that can be.

FIE FOR SHAME !

There are many men in this city, prominent in church
and society, who rent their properties for saloons and
houses of prostitution. I verily believe that some of these
hypocrites would, for twenty-five per-cent. increase, rent
their houses to the devil to start branch establishments of
hell, if he would agree to furnish enough ice with which to
cool the rent money — the price of blood. Fie for shame !

SHUT OUT.

When I was a boy, my mother once provided a sing-
ing-school teacher and books, and, though I had an ear
and a voice, I would not go to school and learn music;
and now that I can neither sing nor play, whose fault is it
that I was never allowed to join a choir? Did the leader
shut me out ? I shut myself out. So, if I refuse God's
gifts and shut myself out of heaven, I will have to blame
myself, just as I now blame myself for my ignorance of
music.

A GOOD CONSCIENCE.

Paul said before the Council : " Ihave lived before God
in all good conscience until this day.'' He thus plainly
demonstrates from his own early experience that con-
science is by no means an infallible guide. He served
God in good conscience not only when he was St. Paul

KANDOM SHOTS. 161

the apostle, but when he was Saul the persecutor. The
sun-dial is an ingenious contrivance, but of no use when the
sun does not shine. And so with a man's conscience:
it is of use only when the Sun of Righteousness shines
upon it.

SUNDAY AND THE WORKINGMAN.

The Sabbath is the great breakwater against oppressive
monopolies. Sunday laws were first enacted in the inter-
est of the laboring man by Constantine, the first Chris-
tian emperor. In opposing the Sunday laws, the work-
ingmen of America are opening the way for employers to
compel them at length to work seven days for six days'
wages. Under existing Sunday laws, they get seven days'
wages for six days' work.

"ready FOR EITHER."

We are too much like Redwald, the king of East
Anglia, of whom it is said he had a picture of God on the
one side of his shield and of Satan on the other, with the
legend beneath: Paratus ad utrum — "ready for either."

THE COMMERCIAL LIAK.

Don't debauch your conscience. Tell the truth about
your goods, though you may be discharged the next
moment. You cannot afford to lie, cheat, deceive and
swindle. At the bar of conscience the commercial lie is
as bad as any other lie, and at the day of judgment the
business liar will go down to death under as deep a con-
demnation as any other.

Tell the truth. Undoubtedly it is a hard thing for a
man in business to tell the truth when it ought to be told.
Tell the truth, no matter what is the custom of the
trade — the established, acknowledged custom of the trade.

162 RANDOM SHOTS.

Even a white lie is a base, degrading thing. A lie is a
lie. "iVb man was ever lost in a straight road."

POLITICS AND RELIGION.

Christ laid down a great law of contact. Bring the
Gospel into contact with society, its customs, its laws and
its institutions. It will purge them of evil, elevate and
refine them. The leaven of the Gospel is to be put into
the political lump, and not to be kept as a thing apart
from it, aAvay from it, unmixed with it, but to affect,
influence and regenerate it. Politics can only be made a
pleasure and a profit by the infusion of Christian prin-
ciples. The man who abjures politics is neither a good
citizen nor a good Christian. Let the Christian con-
science exert itself in politics, and mighty reforms will
be brought about. The man who is opposed to mixing
religion and politics generally has not the religion to mix —
not the genuine article, which seeks to make this world
wiser, happier and better.

"SEEK YE THE LORD."

"Seek ye the Lord." Why, is not God everywhere?
Yes. Then he needs no seeking, for in him we live and
move and have our being. This text does not so much
refer as to where Crod is, as to where you are. You have
turned your back on him ; you have forgotten him ; and so,
because he has not been in your thoughts, you have, in a
spiritual sense, lost the Lord. You are to realize that
there is a God ; your thought, love and desire are to come
toward him, and thus you will find God.

A WISH.

There are many Avho, with a burdened heart, say: "/
wish I 7vere a Christian!'' But all your wishing will |
never make you one. There is a great difference between

RANDOM SHOTS. 163

wishing to be one and choosing to be one. A wish is not
of itself a purpose. You may wish to go to Washington,
but unless you act accordingly — unless you make your
preparations, go to the depot and get your ticket, and,
instead of sitting down in the depot and wishing yourself
there, get aboard the train — you will never get there. So,
if you want to go to the capital of the skies, you must get
aboard the line of Christian influences that will bear you
there.

WAITING.

But must I not wait till I am drawn ? Wait for Him
Avho has all these years been waiting for you? ''Behold,
I stand at the door and knock," cries the patient Saviour.
It is he who is seeking you, and waiting for you, and not
you for him. Why, he has been trying to bring you to
him all these years ; and now, instead of waiting to be
''drawn" to the Father, stop resisting, and come.

INABILITY.

" I am unable to come; I am a sinner." That is just
the reason why you are to come to Christ. You are not
to stop on account of your sins, but seek the Lord because
of them. Suppose the man with a withered hand, whom
Christ met in the temple, when Christ bade him " Stretch
it forth," had cried : " Stretch forth my hand? How can
I ? It is withered ! " Of course his hand would never have
been healed. But when he heard the command he
obeyed. The same Being who bade him act gave him
strength to act. Tliat is just what you have to do. You
hear the command. Obey it.

STUDY THE BIBLE.

Some men, when their consciences are aroused, run after
catechisms, commentaries and systems. Love, faith and

164 RANDOM SHOTS.

repentance first ; tlieology next. Even Baxter's "Call
to the Unconverted," or Alleine's " Alarm," are not what
the anxious inquirer so much needs as the Word of the
Lord. Here is the way, the truth and the life. This is
the loudest call to the unconverted ; this is the most
fearful alarm to sinners. Study the Bible; therein are
the words of eternal life.

TO BUSINESS MEN.

Religion is a man's chief business. You need not
renounce tlie stirring business of temporal life to have
eternal life. You need not neglect your business to take
care of your soul. There is no antagonism between
religion and business. Many men plead the pressure of
their business as a reason for their little interest in things
spiritual. But such men make God the author of a con-
tradiction, for he has put man under the necessity of
work, and under the necessity of divine worship. The
doing of either cannot be injurious to the other. You
can be successful in trade, wise in investments, and yet
lay up treasures in heaven. In a few years it will be of
little consequence whether you were rich or poor ; but it
will be of infinite consequence whether you were Chris-
tians or not.

A WORD TO THE AGED.

Many and solemn are the warnings which bid you pre-
pare. Your wrinkled features, whitening hair and decay-
ing strength loudly tell you that the end is near. You
have reached three score years and ten. You are living
upon borrowed time. Death comes striding after you
with rapid steps ! Judgment is close behind ! But God
loves you still. Though one foot be in the grave, you
may have both feet on the Rock of Ages. Then you need
not fear the closing liours of life. Christ will strengthen.

KAN DOM SHOTS. 165

cheer and comfort you, and your even-tide shall only be
the prelude of a blessed morning — a morning without
clouds.

COURTESY TO CHILDREN.

Many parents are wanting in courtesy to their children.
They speak to them roughly, violently and insultingly,
and so inflict painful wounds on their self-respect. Do
not needlessly refer to their faults and follies. Be con-
siderate. Never allude to the personal defects to which
they are already keenly sensitive. Do not needlessly
interfere with their plans, and impose on them unreason-
able and fruitless sacrifices. Find as little fault with
your children as possible, and praise them as much as
you can.

TELL THE TRUTH.

Warburton says: "Lies have no legs and cannot
stand ; " but they have wings and can fly like a vampire.
Lies go by telegraph ; truth comes by mail one day late.
Some one has said : " A big lie, like a big fish on dry
land, will fret and fling, but will die of itself if left
alone." The half-truth lies are the most dangerous of all
lies. In Siam, a kingdom of Asia, he who is found guilty
of telling a lie has his mouth sewed up. If we had such
a law what a demand there would be for needles and
thread !

"Buy the truth, and sell it not." To tell the truth at
all times and under all circumstances, and in the face of
all risks, requires more courage than was ever displayed
upon the field of battle. Of all the valiant men in the
world let him be chief who dares to tell the truth !

MIRTH A MEDICINE.

Solomon says: "A merry heart maketh a cheerful
countenance, but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is

166 RANDOM SHOTS.

broken." "Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it
stoop, but a good word maketh it glad." "A merry
heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit
drieth the bones." Laughter, like a "thing of beauty,"
is "a joy forever."

"Laughter ! 'tis the poor man's plaster,
Covering up each disaster ;
Laughing, he forgets his troubles,
"Which, though real, seem but bubbles ;
Laughter, whether loud or mute,
Tells the human kind from brute ;
Laughter ! 'tis hope's living voice,
Bidding us to make a choice.
And to cull from thorny bowers.
Leaving thorns and taking flowers."

BEHIND THE AGE.

It is remarkable how many boys and girls on street-
cars and railroads are behind the age.

A FACT.

The young man who will not cease drinking to please
his sweetheart will never do so to please his wife. If
you marry a man to mend him or reform him, you are a
fool. Take no such chances.

BE YOUR OWN MATCH-MAKER.

Be your own match-maker. Depend on personal
knowledge of the life and character of the individual who
asks your hand and would link his life with yours.
Marry into a family which you have long known.

A BAD MOTHER.

Fathers, unfortunately, as a rule are too busy in the
rush of to-day's life to look after the religious training of
the children. All depends upon the mother ; and if the
mother be a fool, then, alas ! for the poor children.

RANDOM SHOTS. 167

LONG LIFE.

It is not the good but the bad that die young. Sin
kills people. The psalmist says religion is " the saving
health of the nations." You can find plenty of good
old men, but bad old men are hard to find. "' The wicked
do not live out half their days."

LOYALTY TO CONSCIENCE.

Loyalty to conscience always did and always will give
to the world its grandest benefactors.

PARTING WORDS.

I must stop now ; for, if I have driven a nail in a sure
place, I want to clinch it, and secure well the advantage,
lest by hammering away I break the head ofi" or split the
board. When a woman was asked what she remembered
of the minister's sermon, she said: "I recollect very little
of it. It was about bad weights and short measures,
and I did not recollect anything but to go home and burn
the bushel." Promise me that you will do as much, and
I will have written enough — for this time.

THE END.

THE NEW
REFI

This book is
taU

YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
iRENCE DEPARTMENT

under no circumstances to be
en from the Building

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