The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1874-10-01
ynteQIg&1lter+
SUNDAY READING g..
For the anderson MtelAgencer.
Twilight.

How sweet this calm hour to the pensive
mind How different from the bright and
cheerful morning, but yet how pleasant
Calmly the mind sinks into the musing mood,
and rests from the excitement of the busy
scenes of day. Twilight is a season for calm
and serious reflection. At this hour we may
think over our actions, and form resolutions
for the future. 1t gives kind OF pleasure TO
see the sun declining in the West, and the
shades of evening gathering over US. Wha1
stiffness reigns! The din and bustle OF the
day have ceased, and all is quiet and still.
When musing at this hour, we often think OF
distant friends, who may at the very same mo-
ment be thinking of what we are doing; ana
as we gaze upon the evening star or the rising
moon, how pleasant to think that they perhaps
are looking at the same objects How mucn
better our hearts would be made, and now
happy would be the result, If We would spend
this calm and pleasant hour in contemplating
the mercy and goodness of our Divine Master
We would see the moral image Of the invisible
Creator embodied in human form, displaying
every heavenly disposition, and every divine
virtue, performing series of the most aston
ishing and benefcent miracles: giving slght TO
the blind, and hearing to the deaf; making the
lame man leap as hart, and the tongue OF the
dumb to sing; restoring the infuriated maniac
to the exercise of reason; commanding as
eases to fly at the signal of touch ; raising
the dead to life and on every occasion lmpart-
ing heavenly instruction to attending mull-
tudes. We would be carried in our magma
stions to "dark Gethseminae," and there behold
this illustrious parsonage suspended on the
Cross, encompassed with the waters OF affllc-
tion, and with the agonies of death the veil
of the temple rent in twain from the top to the
bottom. the rocks of Mount Calvary rent
asunder, the sun covered with blackness, the
graves opening, the dead arising, and the
Prince of Life consigned to the mansions OF the
tomb. We would see him bursting the prison
doors of the tomb, and awakening to new
life which shall never end. We would behold
celestial messengers in resplendent forms, de-
scending from the ethereal regions to announce
to his disconsolant disciples that he who was
dead sis alive, and lives forevermore." We
would at length behold him bestowing his last
benediction on his faithful followers, rising
above the confines of this earthly ball, winging
his way on a resplendent cloud, attended by
myrads of angels, through distant regions
which "eye hath not SEEN" "and entering into
heaven itself, there appearing in the presence
of God for u.s."
The contemplation of these sublime and in
teresting objects would have tendency to in
spire the mind with sacred joy, and with an
anticipation of one day "seeing him as he is."
Pleasure and business occupy so large portion
of our tirae, that we should take advantage of
the twilight for serious and instructive study
and contemplation. When we consider how
much time we have already wasted, and how
proftably it might have been employed, we are
frightened to think how much of our short
existence is gone, never to return. The best
amends we can make for the lost time is, to
employ proftably that which is left. Time
glides swiftly on, and with our best efforts we
can scarcely keep up with it. This holy time
should remind us of the twilight of life, when
its lamp will have nearly ceased to burn, and
old age will have come upon US. Then, if this
delightful hour has been properly improved,
when the sun has hid itself for the last time
beyond the western horizon, we shall not crave
the pinions of an eagle to soar upward and
upward to drink of its last celestial beams, but
will calmly and joyfully fall asleep and our
spirits >be waited away by a convoy Of angels
to the realms of eternal bliss, when the twilight
of evening will gently melt into the twilight of
morning. ,