The weekly American banner. (Yazoo City, Miss.) 1855-18??, 1856-02-15

last andis found, and they tegan i be merry. y
sRe,der. we have quoted text s. Scripture,
not with the intention % preaching sermon,
though the thoughts that press forward for ut
terance are ofasolomon, and earnest import.
Some weeks ago, we notedthe fact in a short
parahraph in the Banner, that there were seven
convictions for murder at thelast. Circuit Court.
1t was quoted in many of our exchanges az
matter Of news, since when we.have received
number of letters from different parts of the
whole country, inquiring of us for descriptions
OF the criminals and of the men they murdered.
Some from fathers who have lost their sons and
the name has lead them to fear that the MUIR
dered were their children and some more wretch
ed, thatthe murderers were their lost, prodigal
sous. We have in all these cases taken special
pains to learn tho particulars of the murders,
the murdered and the murderers, have written 20
the parties interested us at length, always en-
| terng into the feelings ofthe bereaved relatives
of the lost and strayed, and expressing wish
and fervent God grant that the absent may
return, the lost be found, if not-n this world,n
Heaven. o, the heart-aches and long waiting,
watching and wretchedness that these letters
have pictured forth. Father, mother, look at the
bright-eyed little boy that now stands beside
you, looking up to you for example and instruc-
ton, and try to strain your heart to the terrible
idea, away off in long years to come, which will
seem but little while as they pass, to dr. ear
time, when your hearth-stone is desolate, the
cold embers of its once warm hopes scattered to
the wind-for the innocent boy, with his high un.
curbed spirit, is reckless man, land has left you
and is away out upon the ocean of life, with nc
guide to steer his bark over its rough breakers
You have watched for him and looked in vain
for the prodigal's returning step--til hope de-
ferred has made the heart sick. At last anews-
paper paragraph notices the untimely or dis.
graceful end of one of your name The heart
long racked with uncertainty, strangely enough
seizes on hope of certainty, though that Ger.
tainty is but the doom Of dispair. Dear reader
is not this terrible, only think of the dreary
road down to wretchedness, over which the MIND
and heart have had to travel step by step, draw
Ing upon the very life-blood. at every cash, be
lore it could reach that composure of misery
that method in anguish, as to be able to si
Down and entertain the terrible hope-fear-
I that the weary feet of hesrt-broken Search ha.
at last found resting-place, though it be a
the foot Of the gallows or in the convict lonely
cell.
To all of as, whether we have children our
selves, or are the children and the recipients o
; the fond love of parents or friends, who are
connected with US by natural or other ties
these thoughts suggest the most serious reaec
tons. Society is so framed that we live in mu
tual dependence upon each other, and no on,
has social or moral right to transgress the law
that God and man have prescribed for its good
We are linked together for the general good
and no one is so isolated that he is not perso
nally responsible in some measure for the hap
piness of those nearest him. The deares til
and one til at bears with it the greatest weigh
of responsibility, is the relation between pare n
and child. God gives us children for bless
ing. but sometimes they turn out curse. 1t j
hard hen child has grown up and is not
blessing, to reproach the parents, whose cup o
bitterness must be full already without the cen
sure of the world but still God and the usage
of the world, hold parent responsible, and thi
makes the gift of children@raught with fearful
3 conditions. We know there are childre
who have been brought upin the most strictesI
n school of family discipline, who have been ad
y monished in season and out of season,bs pray
r ing fathers and mothers, who turn out reprobate
;, y and prodgals. Again, there are those who nev
! er had home cul ure, orphans and foundling'
g or the offspringof vicious parents,who have bee
q good citizens and pous Christi ans, blessed an
= blessing as it regards this world and the pros
d poets of future one. But these are exceE
i tions, and only prove the rule laid down by tn
y wise man, "Train up a child in the way b
70 should go, and when he is old he will not Dc
IN part from it." Perhaps those who SO strictl
IS trained the youth that afterward went astra.
, erred in Judgment, and applied the spur wher
!. only the rein was required; perhaps over-taske
lie a willing spirit, or goaded it over the mark {
IS endurance into recklessness. None Of US al
perfect, and in the management of huma
:, soul, even in its infancy, the wisest may sons
times fail to strike the true mean between mod
q ration and severity, mercy and justice. Blu
q these difficulties in bringing up children, SO {;
J. from paralyzng our efforts should be incentiv,
to more earnest desire and corresponding a
n ton to do what's right Who can tell whether IL
y little ones, the subjects of fondness and car
.f..a h,,Js Co