Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1875-06-26
For the CHRosLE.
Wills WATERS.
z HILDA.
CHPTER Xxx.

IuC w dihCi htu Ictufucu W Tie
city, and Mines lexuberant spirits,
and crimson chek, argued a complete
recovery. Incssalt travel and new,
engrossing scees lad worn accusing
| conscience dom % blunt forgetful-
ness. Drifting;oni itantly into fatter-
ing tides of sooety entirely new, this
exquisite little ocisty darling had for
gotten the marble 'ictim, sleeping so
Silly in the city Inecropolis. She
ceased to remembethe noble form of
manhood that had once stood beside
her so loving and oyal. Once in her
travels she had net his mother. a
stately. elegant lad with the sad sign
Of mourning uponler. 1t was mid a
giddy throng, but his dainty idol of
worshipping men gew sick and faint
as this dark, accusing spirit came be-
fore her, and she fed away-away to
the solitude of her room, where she
wrestled with hideus remorse until
the sun threw its welcome beams
athwart her eastem windows. But
now that she was home again amid the
revel and song of her native city, she
silenced the whisper of the past and
buried bygones.
All! willy, subtle mortals, you may
crush conscience and vail the dark
deeds of the past for brief season
with cunning merriment, but it will
not make them less lucid on the great,
final day. Dark, eontemptuous acts
may be hid beneath masks of smiling
faces, and ripping, ringing laughter
may come from a heart all blaekened
by ungodly works, but the sentencing
angel will reveal all things. He will
descend to the grim, gray sepulcher,
and in thrilling tones command your
presence in the upper court, and the
shirking, cowardly mortals dare not
obey. The decree will be asinevitable
as fate's. For here we have no con-
tinuing city, but seek one to come"
All, yes, we seek an imperishable home
in the bright to come" an everlast-
ing abiding place in the land where
grief is not known. Most assuredly
this would be dreary sojourn on old
earth's storm beaten hills did not the
future stretch out before us in golden,
littering waves of eternity. The
cruhing crown of life's ills would
surely ,yercome US were not ;he visions
OF faith glded and perpetull But we
live on under the soothing hope that
in the unending ages of tn, beautiful
future we shall mingle gloiifed band. !
Faith is the mighty Cornerstone of
human endurance. 1t opsns sunny
vista for perlshing hopes, and invites
fidelity to be its Ganymede. Faith is
the divine essence of christianity. |
Without it the laws Of our blessed
hhfs Il grand, just sommanumeuts would
lose their stability. and the matchless
edifce of His works would be ruined,
desecrated. The righteous christian
does not doubt that He rode upon the
wings of the winds, and that with the
merciful He will show Himself merci-
full, and with the UPRIGHT man He also
will prove upright" All, no! His
faith pictures all these things upon his
God-loving heart n letters of light.
The stupendous work of love, the un-
erring guide to right He has given us,
called the Bible, is filled with match
less eloquence, and exquisite thoughts
that none but the inspired could have
conceived. That is grand argument
in favor of faith. Again. how came
these glittering worlds revolving in
fixed orbits, if tbs hand of a supreme
being did not fshion them? Is it
possible that king chance could have
thrown this green, peopled earth out
into immensity? IF so, why does it
traverse one fixed path for ages? Would
he not have decresd that the works of
his hands be compatible with his ma
ture, and SO planned that this world
should be wheeling here and there
just as his caprici,us fancy dictated ?
All ! this is grimfact that our chance
believing brothers will have to walk
around f; the argunentable cliff is rug
ged and inaccessible. 1t is truth
that STRIPS their chosen creed of its
pompous mysteriss, and leaves their
fallacious system model skeleton.
All! rigid unbefever, answer this
question, ye who believe we are child
ren of casualty, and that our actions
and deeds through life are governed
by contingency: If God is allied with
substance, and nature is Prince of the
Universe, why do our seasons fall so
gently and Systematically upon US? To
be in unison with your precious doc
trine we might expect, when all the
broad acres ofearth are rich and bloom
ing, to wake up some morn and find a
capital snow for wheat just fallen. All
the elements of nature are incOmpatl-
BILE with your creed. Ifbya a fortult-
Gus event the grand gulf stream sprung
into existence, it is not reasonable to
suppose that 0y another whim of nature
it will turn its genial waters from its
course toward the Caribbean sea and
flow backward to its mother Gulf of
Mexico. There, you chance disciples,
solve the intricate question. Aye,
were you to multiply all the wealth of
ancient lore, and all the cunning philo-
sophy that is to come forth with the
sons of the future it would be unavaIl-
able. You cannot coin logic out of a
subject devoid of principle, and cor
rect conclusion must be based upon
established truth. There is swift
coming retribution to those who wor-
ship accident as their sire, and accept
nature as their religion.
Mrs. Walker had determined to give
a party in compliment to DIR. Hays
departure, and the youth of the city
were on the 'q,a uire' in expectation