The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1881-12-08

bite the souls of men with death. Yet |
how carelessly and fearlesslv do young /
men handle and play with this insidi-
Gus
SEED OF PERDITION,
never seeming to reflect that death is
! in it, till it grows to dragons power,
and strikes its fatal tooth into the
| heart, and they lie branded and par
alyzed with death. How many a
Young man who had genius, talents,
/ and most noble sentiments cleaning
| in every part and feature of his con-
stitution, has played and fondled
with this dreadful worm, and Rugged
it to his breast until it cut and eat
away so many holes that nothing was
left Genius had sifted through. Tai
ent had leaked out. Every noble SEN
timent and redeeming quality was
lost, until now, like an old fetid and
beshredded garment, he swings and
sways in the uuwhOlesOme winds of
beastliness and stupid passiOn-an
object for inteuscst darlington
deepest pity and unutterable grief
Oh if all the souls that once were
bright and noble, OVER whose pros
poets fond fathers hung with pride,
and piOus mothers watched with
many a prayer and many AN expand
ing hope, but who have yielded and
, yielded to this deadly worm with fiery
teeth, until it had intersected and de-
vOured and befUulcd every bone and
fiber and artery Cf true manhood. If
all these poor, besOtted and inebria-
= ted souls were gathered up from every
quarter of the earth and piled up in
! the great square of heaven, they
Z n gy.h a md
mountain of besotted and becindered
rags of writing, death, despair and
shame, as would make black night
through all the city of God, and throw
its sable shade athwart the river of
life and astounded angels shrinking
back into the suburbs would point
2 with trembling fingers at the hideOus
= pile. and whisper with pale lips:
? Behold! these once were men-hu-
2 man beings-sOuls immOrtal-fOrmed
! and winged by heaven to fly at infinite
2 and reach it, there where seraphs
t gather Immortality" But seeI
THAT DREADFUL WORM
, which poisons and destroys whatever
f, it may touch, has so destroyed and
blackened them that they are no long
er men, no longer human beings, no
I blasted and besotted ruins, fit only 10
be wrapped around the awful axis Oh
which the globe of everlasting dark
ness hangs and turns" How many
young men in this community have
been rendered for perditiOn by this
! same internal moth Young men that
! might have done great things-that
Z might have won name Of lasting
=, honor and extended usefulness-that
] might at least have been a source of
comfort and support to fathers, moth
! ers and sisters that loved them and
y centered in them many a hope. But
the time did come when fathers looked
upon them with the hollow eyes and
set expression which betokened that all
I hope was dead and mothers and sis
{ / tiers, their bOsoms rent and splintcTed
: with despair and grief, sighed and
: wept that they had given birth or
called them brother. How many are
to-day pressing down the same dark
path, with the same black future, like
: a threatening cloud of thunder, NUT
tering its aminOus curse against them.
But still they heed it nOt-still 90 on
still veuturS one cast Of the die after
., another. till the last is thrown and all
is lost, and every hope that had hith-
erto chung to them is shrivelled to de-
Z spair. Oh. Young man,if you are tam
> pering with the wine cup, if you have
realized a growing fondness for the 50
= cial glass, beg you, In the name Of
:, God. in the name of all that should be
loved and hOnOred in father, mother,
sister. brother-cast it aside; avoid It
I as though YOU knew it "biteth like an
Il adder and stingeth like a serpent"
Don't say that YOU are strong enough
I
Won viii be able to throw off its pow
er whenever YOU may choose. Nil
: lions that are Tonight in hell have
said and thought the same.
\ PRESUMPTION AND INDULGENCE
p have laid in the dust Of untimely
e death thousands Of heads as clear and
. cool as vours, and they have shivered
+ many will and blasted many a soul
= as strong and noble as your own.
n Look at that young man of stalwart
: form and noble face This IS no Ilction
d of Imagination. It is an awful fact
n that almost every man has looked up
e on in real life. He has Deeu coHse-
j Grated to God IN the name of the
= Father. the Son and the Holy Ghost
IA His head has been baptized with The
e hoDcful tears ard kisses Of maternal
love and pure devotion. But gong
" out into the world he thinks that he
e can stand and walk alone. He soon
o is charmed into the circles Of the gay.
t, He is dazzled by the glitter Of the
a fashionable world. One by one the
lessons of his childhood fade away.
d Like Samson he is bound with seven
t green withes. Intemperance binds
him, and, drunk as a beast, be trails
i his hound in the dust. Stung by a
f sense of shame-goaded, remOrseful
. recollections of a motheI's tender adj