The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-06-23

reverend and holy teachers to point out 10 you
mans primal duty-that to his God. From their
lips and their lives you must learn the divine
truths Of Christianity which teach you your
duty to your Maker. Mine is but the humber
task to urge upon you the faithful performance
Of those daily duties to man and to your State
which will meet you on oil sides in your jour
ney through life, and to caution You not to be
led astray by the glare of success, nor to allow
yourselves for one moment to suppose that 1t
is of itself an evidence Of right. All history,
snored as we'll az profane, would contravene any
such doctrine as that success ts the criterion
ofright. You yourselves have seen the wicked
prosper and the evil cause triumph, when, IN the
inspired language of the Psalmist, "the vllest
men are exalted.a Nature herself works by vio-
lent revolutions. and 1t is from chaos that she
ovokes order. Storms purify the moral rs Woii
as the material world, and from the wild confu-
sion OF the political elements now prevailing We
may h pc to sec eliminated those better prin-
ciples which will give new life to the country
Bo not dismayed, then, because in the great
uphcaval society has undergone you see the
dross now uppermost, nor be misled by those
false lights which are hung out by worldly
prosperity or unworthy success. Your hlstorl-
cal researches will have made you familiar with
tho wonGrous story OF that spoiled child OF
fortune, Sylla, who gained, from his unint er-
ruptod career OF success, the title OF Felix, and
YOU will remember the remarkable words with
Which he closed his commentaries just before
his death: ST saw in dream one Of my dead
children, who gave me his hand and exhorted
me to abandon the affairs of earth, and TO come
and enjoy eternal repose and peace. Thus
ed, who declared to mo that after hnving over
come envy by my glory. should have the hap.
piness of dying in tho flower OF my prosperity"
These were the almost dying words OF one who
was, perhaps, the most successful man, using
the term in its more worldly acceptation,
who ever ived-who, satiated with sue
CESS, disgusted with pleasure, using his
very vices as the means or his promotion,
arose to be dictator of tho Roman Republic;
Who having crushed oil his enemies, eniauci-
pated the slaves and trampled on the freemen
Of his country, died laughing surrounded by
buffoons, in the arms OF profigates, tho won
der, the admiration and the terror OF his age.
Turn from that disgusting picture of the man
who was Called the :" Fortunate" and look OIL
another of far different composition. In
dungeon of the Bastile reposes on his pallet
of straw an old and feeble man, whose sole
crimo in the eyes Of his prosecutors was that
!" after tho manner they called heresy 80 wor-
shipped ho The god of his fathers. It is Ber-
nard do Palissy, who in spite Of all the power
welded by the bigotted and bloody Catherine,
and her weak son, refused to abjure his faith.
The klng Of Franco is standing before him, try
ing to shake that faith by persuasion and me-
naco. He is telling him ,tha5 ho has been
his friond, but, unless he abiures his religion
he will now be constrained to deliver him up
to his enemies, to bo burned on the morrow.
Bowing before his sovereign, touched by the
kindness he had shown, but griered nj the
weakness ho displayed, the old man, infexible
in his duty, replied in these memorable words:
s'Sire, Your Majesty hns oflen said that you
pity me- For my part I pity You for pro-
nouncing the words I am constrained This
is,not speaking like king; but let me inform
Guisarts, your whole pcoplc, nor You Your.
sell, shall consrain poor potter. can die"
can die! royal language, indood, TOR it is the
language Of truth, Of faith. OF duty, Which OF
those mon Sylla, the fortunate, or Palissy, tho
martyr, is the creator in the sight OF wisdom
which the most successful, Il this question ls
to be answered, not by time, but by eternity =?
firm and abiding sense of duty the great
active principles of your lives. do not tell
you todn this, because it is expediont that
you should do so; do not promise that by
80 doing you will gain renow1, heap up riches,
or escape SORROWS, because no such false md
illusory hopes can be hold out. to YOU. On
the contrary you may full, as many OF the best
men have done, in accomplishing the OBJECTS
dearest 10 you Oh earth: You must look for
UO IL you 9'oPo
principle, and you may oven expect
to suffer on its account; but in the
face OF this expectation, / still con-
jure you to cling to it,. tor it is
he right. Perhaps as you walk toiling and
painfully along tho straight and narrow way Of
duty, where difficulties meet you at evory step,
whore dangers appal and temptations allure
YOU, your strength may fail and you will long
to follow the alluring but crooked paths Of sin !;
if so, think of Him who crowned with thorns
trod with naked and bleeding feot the road
that led to Calvary, and from his example
learn t, cleave to tho right, even if'thus doing
30 leads you too to the cross. Perhaps when you
SEQ vice Haunting by in her triumphant char
lot, crowned with tho laurel OF victory, Trunk
with power, rich with spoil, seductive in hor
meretricious beauty, pressing on swiftly in that
broad road which seems to lead to. fortune,
pleasure, glory, while virtue sad and afhict-
ed, with weary steps and slow, pursuing her
locelv way ON that thorny and rugged path
which ends only at the grave, your hearts will
sink and you may bo tempted to forsake the
falso. Should such temptations arise,
should you be disposed for the sake of
cxpedioncy to sacrifice duty, go 10 yonder
quiet cemetery, and, as you look upon the
grave of Jackson, think Of that great soldier,
pure patriot and linmble Christian,
"Who taught lis how to 1.-Two, and oh, too high,
For such price, who taught us how to die."
Sould any further incentive TO confirm your
wavZring faith be thon needed turn from the
grZve OF the dead hero and Christian to con-
template the living one, and learn TO live like
him, whose inspiration has been patriotism, and
whose pole-staris is duly.
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THE WIIIHLWIND COnETH-BE-