Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1868-02-12

@ tall, spare woman with thin features,
and bespeaking long and continued, but
meekly endured suffering There was a
beautiful and Quaker-like simplicity in
the black silk dress, the snow white hand
kerchiet, with the corners drawn under
the ribbon strings in front, and pinned
smoothly to the dress behind.
Her gray hair was parted neatly under
the straw bonnet, and those who knew
her remarked that it had gained much Of
its silver since she had last entered that
door. In her arms the matron bore o
rosy infant, robed in long white frock,
and an embroidered cap. A faint color
broke into her sallow cheek, tor thoug.
she did not look up, it seemed to her as
if every eye in that assembly was turned
upon her burden. Tey were all her
neighbors-many of them kind, truthful
fiiends--who had sat with her at the same
communion table for years. Yet she
could not meet their eyes, nor force that
tinge of shame from her pure cheek, but
moved humbly forward, weighed to the
dust with q sense of humiliation and
suffering.
A slight, fair creature walked by her
side, partly shrinking behind her all the
way, pale and dropping, like a crushed
lily. 1t was the deacon's daughter, and
the babe was hers, but she was unmarried.
A black dress and plain, white vandyke
supplanted the muslin, that in the days
of her innocence had harmonized so
sweetly with her pure complexion. The
close straw bonnet was the same, but its
trimming of pale blue was displaced by
white satin ribbon, while the rich and
abundant brown curls that had formerly
dropped over the neck, were gathered up
and parted plainly over her forehead.
One look she cast upon the congregation,
then her eyes fell, the long lashes droop-
ing to her burning cheek, and with a
downcast brow she followed her mother
to seat. out not that occupied by the
old deacon.
There was slight hustle when she en-.
tered, and many eyes were bent on her.
few from curiosity, more from com.
miseration. She sat motionlcss in the
corner of the slip, her head dropping for
ward, and her eyes fixed on the small
hands that lay clasped in her lap.
After the party was seated, stiffness
crept over the house; you might have
heard pin drop, or the rustic of silk
dress, to the extremity of that large room.
All at once there arose noise at the
door opposite the pulpit; it was but q
footstep ringing on the threshold stone,
and yet the people turned their heads
and looked startled, as if something un-
common was about to happen. 1t was
only handsome, bold-looking young
man, who walked up the aisle with a
naughty step and entered q pew on the
opposite side from that occupied by the
mother and daughter, and somewhat
nearer the pulpit.
A battery of glances was levelled at
him from the galleries, but he looked up,
and even smiled, when young lady by
whom he seated himself drew back, with
a look Of indiguation to the farthest cor
ner of the pew.
The old deacon locked up as these bold
footsteps broke the silence; his thin cheek
and lip became deadly white, he grasped
the railing convulsively, half rose. and
fell forward with his face on his hands.
and remained motionless as before. We'll
might the wrongcd old gentleman yield
for moment to the infrmities of human
nature even in the house Of God.
That bold man who thus audacously
intruded in his presence, had crept like
shepard to his hcarthstone-had made his
innocent name a by.word, and his daugh-
ter, the child of his age creature for
men to handy jests about. But for him,
that girl, now shrinking from the gaze of
her old friends, would have remained the
pride of his home, an eve lamb in the
church of God Through his wiles she
had fell from the high place of her rcli.
gious trust, and now, in the fulness of her,
penitcncc, she had come forward to con:
fess her fault, and receive forgiveness of
the church she had disgraced.
The old deacon had lost his children,
one by one, till this gentle girl alone was
left to him; he had folded love for her.
his latest born, in his innermost heart,
till all unconsc:ously she had become to
it an idol. The old man thought it was
to punish him that God had permitted |
ler to fall into temptation; he said so,
Oeseechingly, to the elders of the church,
when, at her request, he called them to-
5rther, and made known her disgrace.
lie tried to take some of the blame upon
himself; said that perhaps he had been
ess indulgent than ne should have been,
md so her affections had been more easi.
v won from her home and duty-that
le feared he had been proud man
pritually proud. but now he was more
that his heavenly Father
ad allowed this thing to chastcn him;
he end had been obtained; he was a
ickcned old man, but could say, "The
yill Of God be DONE" Therefore he be-
ought his brethren not to cast her forth
. her disgrace, but to accept her confes.
ion of error and repentance; to be mer-
iful and receive her back in the church.
Ic went on to say how humbly she had
rept to his feet ant prayed him to for
i've her; how his wife had spent night
lter night in prayer for her fallen child,
nd so he left her in their hands, only en-
eating that they would deal mercifully
18th her, and he would bless them for it.
Willingly would the sympathising ell. (;
ers have received the stray lamb again
ithout further humiliation to the broken.
earted old man; but it could not be. q
he ungodly were not unwilling to visit l
L