The Carolina Spartan. [volume] (Spartanburg, S.C.) 1852-1896, 1856-05-01
Home -LeavingS.

In addition 10 the extract given last
week from the sermon Of DIR. Guthrie, Of
Scotland, we present the following touching
description Of the departure of our first pa
rents from Paradise in connection with the
departure ofthe lsraeites from Julea:
If our bosom burns with any patriotic
fire, If we have the common affections of
men for family and friends, it is impossible
TO look with insensibi;ty at that bleeding
fragment of n nation gathered for the
march to Babylon, amid the blackcned and
blood stained ruins of their capital What
m' urnfnl company! The sick, the bed
rid, the blind, old men totterng forth on
the staff of age, and pluckng their gray
boards with grief; the skeleton infant
hanging on a breast that famine and sor-
row have dried; mothers with terror-strick.
en- children ciuging to their sides, or, worse
still, with gentle daughters imploring their
protection from these rude and ruflian sol
dierS; fow gallant men, the survivors of
the fight, wasted by famine, bleeding from
unhaudaged wounds, their arms bound, and
burning tears streaming down their cheeks,
as they looked on wives and daughters
shrieking and helpless in the arms of bru.
tai passion; how they strain at their bonds,
and bitterly envy their more fortunate
companions who lay in the bloody breach
nor had survived to see the horrors of that
day. The piety that abhors the sins of
this people is not incompatible with the
pity that sympathizes with their sorrows;
and we could sit down and weep with Je
remlah. rs seated on a broken pillar of the
temple, desolaton around him, and no
sound in his ear but the long wild wall of
the captive band, he wrung his hands.
raised them TO heaven, and cried, oh that
my head were waters, and mine eyes q
fountain of tears, that | might weep day
and night for the slain of the daughter of
my people?
There was home leaving, however, in
which "o feel q nearer interest. DO not
refer to that eventful morning when some
OF us left fathers house; and the gates of
that sanctuary opened, amid tears aud fears
and many kind farewel-and when
watched by fathers eye, and followed by
mothers prayers, we pushed out our
bark on the swell of life's treacherous sea.
The turning time Of many young mans
history-the crisis of his destiny-tha. day
may have eyerted an influence as perma-
nent on our fate as its impression remains
ihdeh6le on our memory. | refer to n
home-leaving of far older date; to one, not
oil personal, nor Of national, but of univer-
sal interest. My eye is turned back on the
oay "nen our first parents, who had fallen
into SIN aud forfeited their inheritance
were expelled from mans first home. And,
recoIlectlng the reluctance with which |
have seen q heart broken mother make up
ne her mind to dIsown the prodgal and drive
him from her door-kRowing, when with
slow and trembling hand she had barred
him out, how it seemed to her AS if in that
horrid sound she had heard the door of
heaven bolted against him, and feeling
how much provocation we ourselves could
suffer, ere bleeding heart would consent
to turn a child out upon the open streets,
and believing also that our Father in
heaven Is kinder than the kindest, and bet