The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1878-03-29
A LOST SOUL.

/ ~ east tennessee many years ago, ana
reported from memory by a young lady.
It is as follows: GA lost soul, a lost
soul two words of the most momentous
meaning, and when taken in connection
with those other two, eternal hell, how ex-
pressive of the utmost agony aud
profoundest depths of utter misery
] have tried to believe there was no hell,
and sought those passages of the bible
where the idea of hell is expressed, to
eliminate their meaning from the words
put there it stands, still burning in the
word Of God-eternal hell / do not
know where hell is, whether a place or
state of misery either is bad enough.
Whether it be deep dark cavern, filed
with gloom, were serpents hiss, and creep
from crack and Granny; of hollows deep,
and gloomy rills and rocks deep-Iiven,
where devils peep and creep, and goblins
dance on dingy hills, and fiery flames
Ooze out from assures deep, while dark
fends ride on dragons or whether it be
sphere whirllng through uncreated
space, volcanic world whirliDg on its
course erratic through etheral nothing, a
rocky sphere filled with gorges black
and cayerns squalid, covered with burn
ing lava and blackened scoria, abtrusely
cleaning through light, half dark
ness, half hazy light; or suppose there
is no hell, lost soul, what is it?
Bringing the word lost down to natural
things, lost ship in the midst of the
ocean, the compass overheard, the ends
rudder gone, sails in shreds, sailors un-
able to make their reckoning, the time
expired at port for their return-lost
lost at last sinking to oceans caves,
where mermsids stretch the sailor boys
limbs in his watery bed. Or take lost
child in the woods. A child goes out
to gather berries, goes on and on, round
that hill and up that hollow-crossing
and re-crossing his path, until he is
lost, and now he wanders on, sobbiDg,
lost lost weeping for his mother
there, the mother at home weeping for
her darling; until at last the weary
child, despairing and tired, lies down
and dies, while birds chirp and sing
above his sylvan death bed. But a lost
soul eternally lost, thrust out from
God, a spark formed for social COM
panionship, cast out from God COM
panionless while as star shines to star,
and even the comet, erratic ia its course,
as it crosses and re-crosses orbits and
ecliptics, whirling about in fiery circles
round the sun acknowledge one COM
mon center; as in the company of white.
robed saints together with the tall sons
of the morning. soul answers to soul in
the rapturous language of heaven, while
they swell their paeans TO Almighty God
this soul, lost eternally, is east forth
alone to wheel its dismal fight forever
through uncIeated space, whetting its
pinions on the tombstone of buried
hope, and screaming, lost LOST!
lost = There it goes, there, and
there, .there it goes that way, and
screams, lost! it comes this way
and screams, lost ! Anon, it discovers
a city with battlemeDted towers, and
gates with bolts and bars, and with all
the spirit-energy of its being seeks to
reach what looks to be heaven, but it
recedes and is gone. Fly on, thou
squealing spirit, until thou became a
speck of terror in iliimitable space My
friends, there is a beautiful country
separated from ours by a river, the
river of death, whose fetid fountains
spring from the blackened gorges OF the
mountains of SIN. This bank is swept
by the dark wing Of the spirit Of sin !;
the other is covered with beautiful
flowers, while magnificent trees bend
above through the waving branches of
which gIimpses may be caught of the
beautiful city of God. We know that
it is a beautiful country, for two men
have given the testimony; the one said
he saw "tbings not lawful to be ut
tered;" the other beheld great white
throne, and him that sat upon it." So
we suppose it 10 be a country ruled by
a king. Just below the city the wa
tiers of the river dash over a precipice
into a terrible chasm, while above those
falls, and just opposite the city, is the
crossing-place between our country and
that. II has been reported by tradition
that there was a boatman there once,
whose heathen name was Charon;
but If so he and his boat have long
since gone over the falls, or he has
grown old and fastened his boat on the
other side, and no longer obeYs the calls
from our shore. Two men only are now
known to have crossed in his boat-two
old men who rendered themselves noto-
rious in this werld by being better than
their fellows. All who pass from our
country to that, must new pass through
the water. Our Lord Jesus Christ him
self crossed over, and with bis own feet
measured the depth of the water, and
now for some he causes the waters to be
still, and they pass calmly over; for
others he rolls back the floods, and they
pass over dry-shod; while for others,
again, he causes the waters to deepen,
and the pillows roar and leap and dash
angrily along--but these he takes in his
arms, and clasping them close to his
bosom, bears them safely over. Thus the
good pass over; but the wicked, when
they come to the crossing, having no
guide, are swept downward by the cur
rent and dashed like bubbles over the
falls into the depths of perdition below,
their eye-balls rolling and strained to
catch the last faint glimmering ray OF
light that shall ever bless their sight"
Not very great many years ago an
old gentleman in Kentucky was met by
a friend who said Well, Colonel, you
dined with the governor yesterday; who
was there ?'' " Well, sir" replied the
colonel, throwing back his head, digging
his hands deep in his trousers pockets
and spreading wide his legs, there was
me, sir, and beside myself there were
four other high-toned, elegant gentleman
from Kentucky, a gentleman from Vir-