Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1874-08-18
TRANSIENT BIILs-CAsH.
The SeduCer and His Victim''-An
Old Sermon of Beecher's,

A resident Of Minneapolis picked nm an
ola sc1p>book, created in his hours of boy
ish leisure fifteen or twenty years ago, aud
found therein sermon on "The Seducer and
His Victim" which was delivered by Henry
Ward Bescher, in Brooklyn, in the year 1856.
The Minneapolis gentleman copied the SER
mon and sent it TO the ST. Paul Pioneer.
We extract the following significant iudict>
neRt Of the seducer:
'sThe seduserl Playing upon the most sa-
cred passions, he betrAys innocence. Howl
BY ias tsnderest faculties by its trust; by
its unSGapeCtihg fAith by its honor. The
victim otEen and often, is not the accomplice
30 much as the sufferer, betrayed by an exor>
cism which beWitChed her noblest affections
and became the suicide of her virtue The
betrayer, for the most intense sel6shuess
without one noble motive, without one pre-
tense Of honor-by lies by devilish Jug
glery of fraud by binding the eye, con-
fusing the conscience, misleading Judgment,
and instilling the dew of sorcery upon every
flower Of sweet affeotion-deliberately heart
lessly, damns the cohfding victim Is there
one shade Of good intention one glimmer-
ing trace of lightF Not one. There was
not the most shadowy, tremulous intention
of honor. IL was sheer, premeditated, wholes
sale ruin, from beginning 70 end. The ao~
cursed sorcerer opens the door of tho world 10
push her forth. She looks out all shudder>
ing for there is shame, and sharp>toothed
hatred, and 6hattering slander, and malig>
nant envy, and triumphing jealousy, and
murderous revenge-these are seen rising be,
fore herr clouds full of fire, that burn but
will mot kill. And there is for her want and
poverty aud gaunt famine. There is the
world spread out. She sees father and moth-
or heartlessly abandoning her; brothers
shame. o sisters anguish. 1t is vision of
desolation, Plundered homo an altar wherC
honor, and purity, and virtue, and peace have
been ihsiduously sacrificed to the foul Mo-
loch. All is cheetlessness to the eye, and
her car catches the sound Of sighing and
mourning, walls and lAments; and far down,
At the horizon of the vision, the murky
cloud for moment lifts, and she sees the
very bottom of infamy, the ghastlincss Of
death, the last spasm of horrible departure,
the awful thunder of final doom. All this
the trembling, betrayed creature secs through
the open door Of the futureJ and with n
voice that might move the dead, she turns
and clasps his knees in awful agony "Leave
me not Oh spare me-save me-cast me
mot away" Poor thing; she is dealing with
. demon. Spare her 2-save her? Tho pol
ished seoundrel betrayed her to abandon
her, and walks the street to boast his hellish
deed. It becomes him as q reputation
Surely society will crush him ! They will
smite the wolf and seek ont tho bleeding
lamb. Oh, my soul believe it not. What
sight is that The dropping victim is worse
used than the internal destroyer. Ho is
fondled, Courted, passed from honor to honor,
and she is crushed and maEglcd under tho
infuriate tramp of public indignation. On
her mangled corpse they stand to put tho
laurels on her murderers brow When SEQ
such things as these, thank God that Mc,S
is a judgment, and that there as a hell"