The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1876-04-06


for many year an honest conflict with
Satan for the souls and bodies of sundry
poor Cornishmen; and was justly res.
pected and beloved Of the bishop and
other clerical brethren of his diocese.
The eldest son OF a wealthy gentleman,
whose ambition he disappointed by
choosing the Church, he had proved his
sincerity, and lost much, so far as this
world was concerned. Is it not terrible
to think that, after all, the sacrifice was
unavailing?
A good-looking, muscular. genial
large, and naturally buoyant fellow, al
ways refined and punctilious in his coz
! duct, as a man of the world or as a Chrisr
/ tian, had you asked a church-warden O.
even the village doctor, twenty years be
1 fore, whether Mr. Craven would have two
attacks of delirium hemenS, sink to the
I lowest depths of immortality, and die raw
/ ing in hospital. you would probably
have been put down as fit for some such
| fate yourself Yet it is certain that all
this happened-happened to a man en-
circled by the purest home influences,
and by his work brought into daily con-
tact with the ideas and principles Of
! Christianity.
Twice he had fallen, and twice repent
ed. The woman whose noble affections
he had wronged forgave him, struggled
steadily for his redemption, helped to
conceal his sin, and then watched him
with the weariIess wariness of heart
broken love.
Tragedies like these are all around US
How flesh and blood can endure the
strain put upon them v souls so glori-
ously uplifted above the standard of hu-
manity, | can not even fancy. Bruised
and beaten, wronged and trampled un-
der foot, utterly betrayed by periured
caitiff, there is yet love of woman which
can endure There is yet a love of
woman which, looking down from its
pure height of goodness on the foul
wreckage below, will fly to gather up
and cherish in its bosom the last shreds
Of perverted affection.
When the death of the Rev. Quintus
Craven, NJ A, in the East End hospital,
was announced at st. Jacobs vicarage,
the noble mother gathered her children
together, and told them that their father
was dead. Then she began to recall him
to them as he once was, manly, gentle
and good She told them of his early
virtues, and besought them with tears to
remember him thus. Shutting within
her heart the carking agony of her des-
pair, she went away quietly by herself to
London TO claim the dead and bury him
decently, where no one but she should
find him.
Next to her heart was a letter, written
in a trembling hand, in one of the fits of
remorse which had succeeded to his last
outrage upon her affection. | have read
the letter. 1t ran thus:
"MY DEAR, DEAR WIFE,-I write to you out
OF the deepest depths OF sorrow and remorse.
Why / do il can not tell. My state is inde-
scrbable. / suffer the very pains Of hell ~
know / am i'm the bonds Of iniquity. yet can
not shake myself free. can not even bring
myself TO say, Il would be better again II
could All that has passed from me-. My
brain is confused, and my conscience hardened
beyond recovery. Every day have TO endure
an awful penalty in seeing the grief OF the
poor, lovely, innocent creature to whom have
brought ruin and disgrace.....My mind recalls
things vaguely. look upon the past as an ex-
shore he knows he shall never again All
those sweet years with you, those jealous
intellectual holy converse, the love / bore
our children All me! can not write about
hopelessness OF relief. Two lines from The |
Raven are ever in my brain, ringing in relent- |
less tones;
tell me, implore!
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."'
"There Is no hope. / am riveted In fatal /
chain. 1 can not even with blood get free.
"Catharine, you will hardly believe me, but |
false to YOU, whatever has happened. You /
came before me now spotless and holy-my |
yond forgiveness; but Catharine, you have |
never ceased to be the one day-star of my ex- !
istence......
"How the Devil laid hold Of me, It is lmpossi- |
BILE for me to describe. / never was wild /
drinker at Trinity, as have known several |
plary clergymen. When / married you / was a 4
temperate man, as things went, always being /
other Clergy, but never consciously exceeding. i
At home, you are aware, we principally drank |
times after a specially hard days work / had /
my tumbler Of spirits. can recollect no par /
ticuar time when began 70 feel the thirst. IL /
unwatchful souls. The struggle in me when /
began to feel rs power was fierce and long; / /
have spent half a right upon my knees weakly |
crying 10 be delivered, and yet hardly wishing /
IL. / broke of, you remember, for six months /
me- thinking it injured my health, and that a 1
little did me good. You did not know that / |
had long since passed the mark of a little / /
took il ali the time, and wherever could get it |
in visiting my partshioneTs, and in driving /
about the country at inns And so 1t went on I;
first with beer and wines, then with spirits,
until, confess TO you before God Catharine, |
could not, to save my life, pass place where
knew IL was to be had or purchased, without
stopping TO get IL. SO unappeasable grew the
craving that, 1 own 10 You, have had my glass
of toddy of an evening with you, and after that
have taken TO bed with me a bottle of brandy,
and consumed 1t before morning unknown TO
you. / was strong. was never drunk in the
ordinary sense, but always under the fatal in
fiuence--..
"a
scientiously, and hoped for the best. Then I
found had to resort to equivocation and To
tricks to conceal from you and Others the grow
ing habit. Prayers soon became forms to my
scared conscience, and principles gave way to
the desires of the flesh. My mind seemed pow
erless to resist; and as 1 drew away from the
anchor OF hope L felt myself driven, as by a
tempest / could not Withstand, into dark seas
OF passion and sin. God help me! can not
tell you all. Twice, you remember, my awful
thirst and guilty desires took me away from
you a short time into excesses that only the
Devil can know or conceive. Yet, Catharine,
you hid IL all-you lorgave IL. / drew again
the breath of life, and there seemed hope Of re-
covery for me, when the Devil threw in my
way that poor girl. You know how she took to
us all-how innocent she was-how she wished
to be a good church woman, and take her share
in parish work She said her mother wished
IL. Catharine, seemed to be mpelled by n
sistless power to that sin. How successfully,
alas! and with what terrible results to us and
to her !".....
This was what Catharine Craven car
ried near her heart when she won't to
claim her husbands dishonored body.