Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1858-07-08
pursuit, what comfort hast thou for him now
in his pain of death p


At lengththe dying man revived and dic'
tated his will. 1t was strange to see the
mother, and son, and lawyer, muttering,
sometimes wrangling, beside the death-bed.
All the while the testator clutched the dol
lar in his hand.
While the will was being made the preach
er came; even he who held the pastoral
charge of the great church, whose pew doors
bore sanity names on silver plates, and whose
seats on the Sabbath day groaned under the
weight of responsibility, broadcloth and sat-
| in.
He came and said his prayers, decorously
and in measured words, but never once did
the dying man relax his hold of the dollar.
Cant you see I'm going :! at length said
the dying man, turning frightened look to-
ward the preacher.
The preacher, whose cravat was of the
whitest, took book with golden clasp from
the marble table.
And he read:
'And I say unto you, it is easier for a
camel to 60 through the eye of a needle than
for rich man to enter the kingdom of
God
sWho said these words-who-whoT = fair
ly shrieked the dying man, shaking the hand
which clenched the dollar at the preachers
head.
The preacher hastily turned over the leaf
and did not reply.
why did you never tell me this before !?
Why did you never preach from it as sat
in your church? Why-whyp
The preacher did not reply, but turned
over another leaf. But the dying man would
not be quieted.
'And it is easier for camel to go through
the eye of needle than for rich man to
enter the kingdom of God, is it? Then
what's to become of me? Am I not rich !?
What tenant did lever spare9 What debt
or did 1 ever release? And you stood Sun
day after Sunday and preached to us and
never said one word about the camel
The preacher, in search of consoling
passage, turned rapidly over the leaves, and
in his confusion came to this passage, which
he read:
'Goto, now, ye rich men, weep and howl
for your miseries that shall came unto you.
Your gold and silver is caukered, and the
rush of them shall eat your flesh as it were
fire; you heaped treasure together for the
last days. Behold the hire of your laborers,
who have reaped down fields, which is of
you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the
cries of them, who have reaped are entered
in the ears of the Lord of Sabbath
sAnd yet you never preached that to me !
shrieked the dying man.
The preacher who had blundered through
this passage from James which we quoted,
knew not what to say. He was, perchance,
terrified by the very look of his parishioner.
Then the wife drew near and strove to COM
fort him, and the son (who had been read
ing the wilD attempteda word or two ofcon-
ISOLATION.
And with the dollar in his hand he sank
into death, talking Of death, of stocks, of
rent, of copper mines and camels, of tenant
and of debtor, until the breath left his lips.
Thus he died.
When he was cold, the preacher rose and
asked the lawyer whether the deceased had
left anything to such charitable society,
which had been engrafted upon the preach
er's church.
And bis wife closed his eyes and tried to
wrench the dollar from his hand, but in vain.
He clutched it as though it were the only
Saviour to light him through the darkness
of eternity.
And the son sat down with dry eyes, and
thought of the hundreds of thousands that
were now his own.
Next day there was hearse followed by
train of carriages nearly mile in length.
There was crowd around an open grave,
and an elegant sermon upon the virtues of
the deceased, by preacher.
There was a futteriug Of Grape badges and
rolling of carriages, and-no tears. They
left the dead man and returned to the pal
ace, where sorrow died even as the Grape was
taken from the door knob.
And in the grave the dead hand still clinch-
ed the dollar.