Young Men Tempted

Rev. T. DeWitt Talinage bad a very laige audieuce in University Hall, iSiiLiduy eveuing. iu tact, lliiee-quarters ül au hour betoie the services vwtre to begiu, all tlie seats were liiled and many were standing'. His seruion was from tlie text, "öurely, in vuiu the net is spread in thesighl oi any bird." - ProvtirDö 1, 17. iiis reiiiarKs were as iollows: TJiere are two classes oï temptations - tne superficial anti tue LUutiuTaniíOU - those above ground, thoso underground. Il a man could see sin as it is, he would no more embrace ic than he wo'uld embrace a leper. Sin is a daughter oï (heil; yet slie is garlanded anti robed and triuketed. Her voice ie a warbíe. Her cheek is the setting suii. Her ïore'head is an aurora. She says to men: "Come, walk this path with me. It is thymed and primrosed, and the air is bewitcihed with the odors oí the hanging gardens of heayen. The rivera are rivera oi wine, aud all y on liave to do is to drink them up in cihalices that sparkle with diamond and amethyst and ohrysoprasus. See! It is all bloom and roseate cloud and iheaven." Oh, tmy friends, if for one moment the choiriug oí all these coucerted voices oí sin could be hu.-Jhed, we should 6ee the ordhestra of the pit with hot breath blowing through liery flute, and the skeleton arrns on drums o! thuoder and darkness beating the chorus, "The end thereof is death." I want to point out the insidious temptations that are assailing more especially o ar young men. Tiie only kind o nature comparatively iree from temptatio.ii, go far as I can judge, is tilie cold, bard, stingy, mean temperament. What would Satan do with such a man ií íxe got him? Satan is not anxioue to get a man who after awhile may dispute witlh him the realm of everlasting meanness. It is the genero us young man, the ardent young man, the warm hearted young man, the socdal young man that is in especial peril. A pírate goes out on the sea, and one bright inoreing 'he puts the glass to his eye and looks oif, and sees au empty vessel iloating from port to port. He says, "Never mi'nd; that's no prize for us. " But the same morning he puts the glass to his eye, and he sees a vessel coming from Australia laden with gold, or a vi .ssel from the Indies lade with spices. He says, "Tihat's ou prize; bear duwn on it!" Across tha unJortunate sliip the grappling hook are thrown. The crew are blindoldec a-nd are conipelled to walk the plank It is not the empty vessel, but th laden merchantman that is the tem] tation of the pírate. And a young man empty oí íiead, empty of hear empty of life- you want uo Young Meai's Ghristian Association to kee him safe; he is safe. He will no gamble unless it is with somebod else's stakes. He will not break th Sabbath u'nless somebody else pay the Jiorse hire. He will not drink uu less someone else treats Mm. He wi hang around the bar hour after hou waiting for some generous young ma to come dn. The generous young man comes ín and accosts him an eays, "Well, will you íi,ave a drin with me to-day?" Tlhe man, as thoug it were a sudden thing for him, gays "Well- well, if you insist on it, I wil -I will." Too imeau to go to perditiou uuIpss 6omebody else paya 'ais expenses? For kucJi young men we will not iigiit. We would uo more contend for them than Tartary and Ettiiopia would iïght as to wlio should have the great Sahara desert, but for tiiose young mna who are buoyant and ent'husiastic, those who are determined to do eomei Wug for time and for cternity -for them wr will fig-'ht, and wp now declare everlasting war ugainst all the influenees that assail them, and we ask all good men and philanthropists to wheel tato line. and all the armies of heavcn t) .x'ar down upon tlLe foe, and we pray' Almdghty (tod that with the thunderbolts of His wrath Hr will strike down and ccjiieume all these imiluences that are attempting to destroy the young men for whom Christ died. The first class of temptations that assaults a young man led on by th sketic. lic will mot admit that he is ají tníideü or atheist. Oh, no! he is a "free thinker" he is one of your "liberal" mem; Jie is iree and easy in religie:]. Oh how liberal he is; he is so "liberal" that he will give away his Bible; he is so "liberal" that he will give away the throne of eterual justiee, he is so "liberal" that he would be willing to give God out of the wndverse; he is so "liberal" that he would jrive up Jii.s own soul and the souls of all (his friends. Now what more could you ask in the way of liberality? The victim oí this skèptic has probably jn.st come from the country. Through the intervention of friends !he has been placed in a shop. I teil you, my young brother, we have to take a. religión of some kind We liave to choose betVeen four and fivo. Shall it be the Koran of the Mohammedan, or tbe Shaater of the Hlndoo, or the Zendavesta of f the Peradan. or the Confucius Writinga of the Oliinose, or the Holy Soriptures? Take nvhat yon wíll: Ood helping me, T wil] take tl)" Bible. Ijig-htfor all darkness; rock for all foundation. baJm for .all wo-.ir.rts. A fclory that lifts its pillara of over the wltélerneas march. Dn oot ive up your Bibles. Ask them wJjat has ever done to lift the ïonrteen hnhdTd millioms of the race out of barbarism. Ask them when infidelity ever instituted a sanitary commission, and before yon lenve their society onee and forever teil them that tliey have iusulted the memoíy oi youi dn-istian fatlier, and spit upon tue deatiibud cH your motaer, anu wiel) tne swiiie s faiioiit rooted u) the grave oí your .sister, who dieu beüeving ín the J_ord Jesus. Ii taese péople stoft at you a.s tliougli religión aud tne Kible were iit onl for weak-niiaded pebpie, you juat te tliem you are 1101 ajüamad to be i tne company of Burke, the statesman aud Kapnael, the painter; aud Tñoi vvaldseii, vin: sculpwr; and Mozar the rnusician; aud Blackstone, the law yer; and Bacom, the pJiiiosopüei" au Harvey, the physician; and juna Mi too, tue poet. Voung man, liold on to your Bjbli It i.s tne best book you ever owuec jl will teil you iiovv to drpss, how t bargain, how to walk, how to act to live, liow to die. lorióos üiule Whether an pcirchment or paper, i octavo or duodécimo, on the cente table of the drawing room or in th couuting room ol' tne baukrr. öioi ious BlUle! Llgiu to our feet and lam to our path. Hold on to it! The seco'nd class of insidious temp tatioas that come upon our young mt ïm led o.n by the dishonest employer Every commercial establishment is school. In nine cases out of ten th principies of the employer bccome th principies of the employee. I ask th older anerohants to toear me out i these statements. II, when y Yu wer just starting in life - in commercia life - you were told tJhat honesty wa not inarketable; that, tihough yo might sell all the goods in the shop you must not sell your conscience that, while yo'u were X% exercise al industry and tact, you were not t se;l your coascienoe; i you were taugh that gains gotten by sin were com bustible, and at the moment of ig nitioii would be blovn on by th breath of God until all the splendid estáte would vanish into white ashe scaUered in the whirlwind, then tha iiLstruction lias been to you a pre caution and a dielp ever ednee. There are himdreds oí commercla establishment in our great citie which are educating a class oí younj, raen who will be the honor of the land aad thore are other establishment whicU are educating young men to be nothing but tsharpers What chanc ís there for" a young niau who iva taught dn an establishment that it i right to lie, if it is smart, and that a Frenen label is all that is necessary to make a thing Frencb, and that you ought always to be homest when i pays, and that it Is wrong to stea uuiiless you do it well? Suppose, now, a young man jus starting in liïe enters a place of tha kind where fcliere are ten young men all drilled in the ínfamous praetices o the establishment. He is ready to b taught. The young man has no theory of commercial ethics. Whcr ís he to get tiia theory? He will ge the theory from his employers. On day ïie pitóhes his wits a little bcyovi wli at the establishment demanda o liim, and le fleeces a customer unti the clerk is on the verge of boing seize by the law. What is done in the es tablishment? He is not arraigned The head of the establishment says to hini, "Now, be careful, be careful young man, you might be caught; bu really that was spleaidddly done; you will get aloiig in the world, I warran you." Then that young man goes up uutil he becomes head clerk. He ha fomnd there is a premium on iniquity One (morning the employer comes to the establishment. He goes into th counting room and throws up 4ii hands and efliouts. "Why, the safe ha been robbed!" Wbat is the matter NothiDg, notihing; only the clerk who has been practicing a good while on customers is practicing a little on th employer. No new principie introdiiced into that establishment. It is a poor rule that will not work both ways. You must never stea iMiJess you can do it well. He did it well. I am not talking an abstrae tion. I am talking a terrible am crushinj' fact. Now hM-e is a youmg man. Took at h.im to-day. Look at him five years from now, after he has been un der trial ín. such an establishment Fiere he stands in the shop to-day his cheeks ruddy with the breath o the hills. He unrolls the goods on the counter in gentlemanly style. He commemds them to the purchaser. He [odnts out all the good points in the :abric He effects the sale. Tíhe goods are wrappwl up, and he dlsmlsses thp ustomer with a cheerful 'good morning,' and the country Tnerc'hant deTai-t.s so impreased with the straight'orwardnss of the young man that ie will come agato and again, every pring and every autumn, unless in;erfered with. The young man has been now in that establishment five years. He unrolls the tcoo-ds on the counter. He says ;o the customer, "Now these are the est goods ivp havo "n our establishmemt." They have better on the next flhelf. He says, "We are sellwig these goods less than cost." They are makng twenty per cent. He says, "Tliere s nothing like them in all the city." Thre are fifty efliops that want to ell t.h.e same flhmg. He says, "Now bat is a durable article; it will vasli." Yes, it will va out. The sale is made, the goods are vrapped up. the, country merchant Loes off feeling that he has an equivalent for liis money, and t'he sharp lerk Roes 5nto the private room of he countins house, and he siys: "Well. got rid of those goods at last. I eally thouRÍlit we nevev Would geil ■hem. I told him we were selliiiRh-om less tüian cost, and he thouuht f was gettíng a good bargain. Got id of them at last." And the head of lie fh-m says, "Thafs wpll dome, wpleni'lly doiie!" Meanwhile God has rerorded eight lies- four against the oiniK man. four lies against his erartoyer, for I iwidertako to say that he. -- respoogJWe for all the ïiqnities of hls clerks, and all the fniiiifics of tbiOse wíio aro clorks nf IW clerks. down to Wie teitth y;cncrlion. if those employers inculcated iia uit ons and damnlnjc principies. Thpre is a mistakn we make abont nung men. AVe put them in two ííssos: the one class ia moral, the th?r Mssolute. Tlie moral are safe. lie dissoiute cannot be reclaimed. I I deny both propositions. Tile hioral are not sale uniese tliey liavo laid hold ui (jod, and the flessolute may be re cl.iimed. I suppute inore are sel' i-ighteo'us men iu tnis íiouse wiio a no need oí God, and will uot week after j Him, íwwl th-ey will go out in tl woi'ld, anti th.ey will 'oa tempted, and thcy will be flung down by uüsfortuuf. ,-ui.l tuey will go down, down, down, iwitil soine nigiit youwill see tliem gc.jig home hooting, raving, shoutinj blasphemy - godng home to their mcther, goihig lióme to their sister, gcing home to the young cornpanion t) wlioni, to'iily a little while ago, in the presence oí a brilliant assernblagt, flacilúng lights and orange blossomi, and eensers swinging in t'he air, the,' promised fidelity and purity, iind kincness perpetual. As that toan reaclies the door, she will open it, not with ai outery. but he will stagger bafe from the door as he comes iu. and ii her look there will Te the prophecy cl woes tTiat are coming, want that wil shiver im need o' fire, hangerthat wil cry in vain for "bread, cruelties that will not leave the heart when they have crushed it, but pinoh it agau and tab it again, nntil some nigtt she will open the door oï the plate where her companion was ruined, aml she will fling out her arm from undei her ragged shawl and say, with alraost omnipotent eloqnenee: "Give me back my husband! Give me back my prtector! Give me back ïny all! Hin of the kind heart and gentle wores and the manly brow, give him back to me!" And then the wretches, obese and filthy, will push back their ma'.ted locks and they will eay: "Put her out! Put her out!" Oh! selr-righteous man, without God you are in peril. Seek after him to-day. Amid the teu thousands temptations of life there is no safety for a man without God. But I may be addressing some who have gone ástray. and so I aasault that other proposition that the clisolute cannot be reclaimed. Perhaps you have only gone a little astray. While I speak are you troubled? U there a voice withln you saylnjï"'Whii1 did you do tlmt 'or? Why did you go there? Wliat did you mean by thnt?" Is there a memory in yoïr soul that makeé you tremble? God only knows all our hearts. Yea, if you have gome so ïar as to comniit iniquities and have gone through the whole catalogue, I invite you back this liour. The Uord waits for you "Eejoice! O, young man in thy youth and let thy faeart cheer thee in the days of thy youth; but kno-w thou that for all these thwiejs God wil! hrinK thee Snto judgment.4' Come Ihome, youmg man, to your fafher's God. Come home. youn man to your ■mother's God. Oh, I wish bh.at all the batteries of the Gospel eould to-diay be unlimbered against nll those iniluenpes which are taknsr dowai (o mainy of öur youn.? men. ] woirld like to blow & t'-umpet of warning, and recruit until this Avliolt ■"'ildein.ee wóuld mardh out on acru"1 de .ap;ainst tlie els of society. But le+ none of n be disheartenod. Oh. Cihristi'an -woi-kers. tuv lipait is '■■h with hope. The d'ark horizon is blaorowiK toto tlie morninar of -Sncli nrophfts spoke, nd of wïiich poothave dreamed. and of -n-hieh pointers have sketched. The world's bridal hour advaincies. The mountains Will kiss the moi-nma: radiant and ecfulerent. and all the waves oft he sea will beeome the erystal keys of a great nrernn. n -niiiViti the finaors of everlasting joy shall nlny t,!ie srvandmarch of a. -ivorld redeemed. Instead o t,e tliorn there shall oomp np th fir tree. and instead of the briar there fthall come up the myrtle tree, and tihe fmnontains and hilja Rhall break forth Untó siiiKinar. and all the trees of the wood shall elap thedr hand=.