The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1858-12-09

him up; but none of you remembered
that YOU HAD MADE HIM WHAT HE WAS!
Y You thought him a vile outcast from all
hope of Heaven; you thought Gods
image wholly effaced from his soul !;
aye, and you thought it virtue to
trample- him down to the lowest depths
of perdition. You forgot that that
scared and loathsome form still held
human heart; You knew not how much
that heart had bled before it sinned !;
you knew not how that poor wretch
had longed for a helping hand to lift
him from that abyss of woe; youhated
and despised him, and he hated and
despised you. He saw you pass him
by; he read your glance of scorn,
and he knew that you had plunged
him in that pit of degradation. He
heard your Sabbath bells and saw
your gay throngs parade in livery to
their mock worship; he laughed at
your golden gods, and dreamed the
dream of the ATHEIST. You destroyed
his faith in humanity; you taught him
that religion was a farce and man a
knave, and nature the work of chance
or an evil deity. This was the creed
your actions taught him, and he took
the first lesson in infdelity on the plat
form of that meeting house yonder.
The prime of his manhood was the
midnight of his life. He arose one
morning from his bed in the gutter and
looked around him. He was outside
of the city. BE had no recollection of
how he came there, or how he had
spent the preceding day. 1t was a
bright summer morning, and the air
was full of fragrance and melody. But
there was no fragrance or melody for
him. He saw no God in nature; no
brotherhood in humanity; no joy or
beauty in any thing. His existence
was curse, and he loathed it and re-
solved to end his misery by suicide.
Reckless of his steps he rambled along
until on looking he saw man and child
walking among the shrubbery which
shaded q farm house. The child's gay
laugh and the luxurious and happy ap-
pearance of the place seemed to mock
at his wretchedness. He paused, and
gazing at them through the fence, gave
vent to his agony by curses and impri-
cations. The man looked at him, first
with an expression of surprise, then of
sadness, then of pity, and to the utter
astonishment of the poor wretch (who
was now sober enough to read his
looks) he opened the gate and invited
him in. Half doubling his senses the
inebriate entered the enclosure and sat
down on bench where a cluster of
trees shaded him from the sun. The
man offered him some fruit and seating
himself on the same bench began to
talk. 1t was strange kind of talk,
such as the outcast had never heard
before. He didn't speak to drunken
10m;.' he spoke to the little orphan
boy who fourteen years before had
sought refuge in that city; he did
not speak to the rags, and mud, and
bruises, which defaced the SCARED form
before him; but he spoke to the crushed
and bhghted humanity which still
writhed and groaned within that form.
Kindly and feelingly he questioned him
of his past history, and from the con-
fused answers he seemed to trace back
the dark path of his experience, COM
passionating every fault and sympa-
thizing in every sorrow. He spoke to
him of his mother, and touched chord
in his heart which no other word could
touch; gently and tenderly he wound
his way into that scared heart and
woke up again its buried memories.
The poor devil wept and groaned in
anguish of spirit. o, how he loathed
himself, how he longed to fly away
from himself and return again to the
innocence of childhood. How eagerly
he listened as the man talked on: all
the past came back, his mothers spirit
seemed lowering round him; he felt
new and 5iessedinfuence drawing him;
joy mingled with bis anguish, and
light seemed to CLEAN into his bewild-
cred intellect. The voice that addressed
him spoke in the language and the
tones of brother. He began to feel
human !; he began to believe in God,
and load of guilt and misery seemed
rolling off from his soul. He wondered
that the stranger did not shrink, dis
gusted from the presence of such a
debased creature, but he did not; he
took him kindly by the hand and led
him to the house; he gave water to
wash him, and clothes to put on, and
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