In a seaport town on the West Coast of England, notice was once given of a sermon to be preached there one Sunday evening. The preacher was a man of great celebrity, and that circumstance, together with the object of the discourse being to enforce the duty of strict observance of the Lord’s Day, attracted an overflowing audience. After the usual prayers and praises, the preacher read his text, and was about to proceed with his sermon, when he suddenly paused, leaning his head on the pulpit, and remained silent for a few moments. It was imagined he had become indisposed; but he soon recovered himself, and, addressing the congregation, said that before entering upon his discourse he begged to narrate to them a short anecdote.
“It is now exactly fifteen years,” said he, “since I was last within this place of worship, and the occasion was, as many here may probably remember, the very same as that which has now brought us together. Amongst those who came hither that evening were three dissolute lads, who came not only with the intention of insulting and
MOCKING THE VENERABLE PASTOR,
but even with stones in their pockets to throw at him as he stood in the pulpit. Accordingly, they had not attended long ‘to the discourse, when one of them said impatiently, ‘Why need we listen any longer to the blockhead? Throw!’ But the second stopped him, saying, ‘Let us see first what he makes of this point.’ The curiosity of the latter was no sooner satisfied than he, too, said, ‘Ay, confound him! it is only as I expected. Throw now!’ But here the third interposed and said, ‘It would be better altogether to give up the design which has brought us here.’ At this remark his two associates took offense, and left the place, while he himself remained to the end. Now, mark, my brethren, continued the preacher, with much emotion, “what were afterward the several fates of these young men. The first was hanged, many years ago, at Tyburn, for his crimes; the second is now lying under sentence of death for murder, in the jail of this city; the third, my brethren,” and the speaker’s agitation here became excessive, while he paused and wiped the large drops from his brow, ― “the third, my brethren, is he who is now about to address you! Listen to him.”
Oh! the need, in these days, for godly work amongst the young, yet how impossible it seems sometimes to do anything to guide them. One of my patients was a young girl of sixteen. She was very ill, and her illness was largely brought about by her life in the evenings―she came home late night after night. I told the mother (the father was away at the war) she must not be out late, she must keep her in. “I can do nothing with her,” the mother said, “she will do as she likes and she tells me so to my face.” This disobedience to parents is a sign of the last days and an awful sin in God’s sight. And the disrespect for old age and gray hairs is another sign of the last days. It says in Leviticus 19:32: “Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of the old man, and fear thy God.” How rarely do you see among many of the young this command carried out. When you do, how beautiful it is―it shows an inward grace that prompts the outward act. I have never forgotten, and I never shall, how an act of a young girl of seventeen struck me and affected me. We were at a Sunday school treat, and all the children were enjoying themselves, when a drunken man staggered across the field. He was old, and in rags, and his hair was white. The children, a good many of them, gathered around him, teasing him, and mocking him, and making him angry. Suddenly this young girl placed herself in front of the poor old man, and with flashing eyes, confronting the mockers said, “Remember he has gray hair.” Many slunk off ashamed, as she led the poor old man away. She was a Christian girl, and I heard of her many years afterward as living a beautiful godly life.
Parents are often to blame for the sins of their children by unworthy living at home, and not setting a good example to them, The following incident is solemn: ―
ONLY ONE STEP FURTHER
Gipsy Smith related the following at one of his recent meetings: “In an American home a boy came down late to breakfast, and his mother saw with surprise that he had by his plate a big roll of dollar bills. She knew the lad ought not to have money, and she cried, Where did you get all that?” I won it last night in a gambling den,’ said the youth. The mother rebuked him strongly, and the boy got mad. ‘I know you are looked up to in the church,’ he said. ‘Yes,’ replied the mother, ‘and you must take all that money back at once.’ The boy asked, ‘Where did you get that vase on the mantel-piece?’ ‘Why, you know I won it at the whist-drive,’ was the reply. ‘Then,’ said the boy, you take that back, and then I will take this money back. It was you, mother, who taught me to play whist and bridge. I have only gone one step further.”