The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1880-05-06


change that has come over our friend
when he remembers the circumstance!
under which he parted with him {
few short years ago
After leaving Virginia, and pro
ceeding to St. Louis, Horace had de
voted himself to his profession. Ma
turaly gifted, and being a close stu
dent, he rapidly rose at the bar. For
Il year or two, he avoided society,
seeming to cherish some hidden grief
too sacred for the careless eye of the
stranger.
At the end of that time he became
associated witha young man several
years his senior, of talent, fortune, and
position, but of very diszipated habits.
He at first refused all the solicitations
Of his companion to enter the gaieties
of life. He remembered his VOW, and
the counsel of that mother whose
spirit he believed was now in heaven.
and determined to keep himself from
the paths of the destroyer.
All, would that he had thought, ere
he chose so ungodly man as his in
innate associate, upon the wise mans
warning question, Can a man take fire
in his bosom, and not be burned?"
As seductive influences were in
creased around him, is it strange that
without the grace Of God, his firmness
in resisting temptation should waver.
Relying on the strength of his own
will, the fxedness of his purpose, he
had still not prayed for devine help,
and so he entered at last on a career Of
folly and dissipation.
In boyhood his parents had ever
warned him of the danger of card
playing, They had never allowed the
social game to be played in their
family "merely for amusement" for
they were convinced that a taste con-.
tracted in youth might growwith years,
and lead to ruinous results; and were
not willing to risk their cbildron's vel
fare for this world and the next. In
the fashionable circles Of society in
which he now mingled, cards wrere a
principal source Of amusement; and
often when the midnight hour was
told, young ladies and gentlemen bent
eagerly over the card-table, not play
ing for gold, it is true, but wasting
that which is far more prccious-g gold
en- moments of time, for which alas,
they forget their responsibility to God.
Having yielded to the fascination of
playing for amusement, it seemed less
sinful to visit some of the resorts in
the city for fast young men, and so,
ere we met him on the occasion be-
fore alluded to, he had become familiar
with these huants of wickedness and
vice.
We know that some advocates for
indulgence in these so-caIled 'fnnoce1t
amusements" may deeply blame Hor-
arce Tor weakness in thus allowing
himself to be led away from the path
of rectitude; but speak gently kind
friend, think on the fraiiity of man;
and pray rather as our Lord taught
his disciples, ''Iead us not into temp
tation, but deliver us from evil"
The demoralizing effect of the thea
ire and the fashionable dance ,also, were
but too apparent in the changed char
acter of the young man, and we turn
from him mournfully, fearfully, lest
for his own waywardness, he be left to
tread the road to ruin, after all the
early religious instruction with which
he was favored.
It may be wonderedif he had ceased
to love and revere the memory of his
mother. Oh no! often would her an
gel-form seem beckoning him away to
higher and better life, but he had no
power of his own to break assunder
the bands that bound him captive to
sin. Nor had he yet tasted Of the
bitterness of earthly pleasure, nor
realized that
Fair as the syren, but false as her song,
Are the worlds painted shadows, that lure
us along"
He had already won for himself an
enviable reputation. This, with his
position in society, and remarkably
prepossesing personal appearance and
manners, made him a general favor
ite in his adopted city, and in
worldly sense, it seemed that the
prophecies Of n brilliant future, made
for him in boyhood, would be fulfilled.
Still he was climbing upward bearing
his "banner with the strange device
EXCELSIOR"
(TO BE CONTINUED
At Home and Abroad.