Smyrna times., 1881-07-13

| reasoned, was what | would like to have |
done toward me, if one whom I loved |
were to be found dead in distant city
among strangers. In the course of the |
day an answer came from the father say
ing that he wished the body dcccntly |
buried, and he would write further by |
mail, A few friends in tho city, who saw
the same facts i'll the paper, came to me,
and we carried out the fathers wishes. |
finding grave in the family cemetery of !
one Of the friends ! soon received a sad
letter from the father, 1t was the old
story, a son, well beloved in the sight of
his mother, had fallen into evil WAYS.
| broken through all the strong bands of
holy love, dcfied parental authority, Joined
! himself to wicked companions, and had
gone away into far country to waste his
substance il riotous living, Exhausted in
body and mind and means, he had reached
New York, and here, i'll the lonely wretch
edness of q midnight hour of remorsc and
despair, he had killed himself. His par
ents are both dead now, or | would not
tell you this wrctched tale.
1t is not improbable that thousand
young men are at this moment leading the
lives Of prodigals in the city of New
York PrOdigals from home blessed with
plenty, with religion, and with love. And
III all these cases they have been lured
away by the use of Intoxicating drinks
Other vices have their victims, and often
these other vices are the effects of those
, associations which drinking has induced,
This Scotch prodigal son was a young
drUnkard. My friends prodigal son was
, a young drunkard. And there's are Rachels.
heart broken mothers, in all lands, wailing
because their sons are prodigal drunk
ards
+. Have the promises failed? Has God
forgotten to be gracious? Is there no
= balm in Gilcad, no physician to cure this
t universal plague?
e 1t is vain TO scrutinize the mysteries OF
: Gods inscrutable providence, We behold
q his goodness and his severity too. l can
). not tell you why, in his Infinite love and
5 power and wisdom, he permits evil, or the
! ! evil one, to be. 1t does not help the
! matter to tell me that
Il Behind a frOwning providence
e He hides smiling facs"
: 1t is faith, not evidence, that enables me
/. to say his ways are wonderful in gOodnes:
d when they seem to be all against the
: wishes Of his saints. Therefore we mus
i bow down, or lie in the dust and adore
g the sovereignty of Him whose ways arr
Il past finding out.
e But are Gods ways harder to be under
e stood than the cruel wickedness of tina
n degenerate son who pierces his parents
4. hearts with the base ingratitude and mon
IS strOus sinfulness of apOstasy and crime
- Suicide is awful, but how much worse thai
" self-murder is the sin of him who rend
r the heartstrings of his father and mOthe
N by his own folly and shame!
u "HOw can | do this great wickednes
Il and sin against God?" cried Joseph whel
ID he, young man, was tempted. HoV
id can any human being sin against parenta
N love? But of all the prodigal sons nov
I living in misery in New York, many c
ID them-the most of them-have the gull
r of parricide on their souls. They hav
III slain the happiness of the parents tina
:! bore them.
ce None of these prOdigals will be reache
T. by these reprOaohes, But in ten thousan
y, homes into which this letter will find il
- " way there are boys yet untouched by tn
ne tempter: dear, good, lovely boys, withou
ur a thought that they will ever be like tn
monsters that are now in the horrows
So Ua intemperance, fastening down to tn
he drunkard's DOOM Unto you, O boy
dear boys, to you | write. This Scotc
son who came here from the family alta
with n prayer in his hand, signed by bot
father and mother, imploring him to |
orr pure and true and good, and then twiC
o. murdered himself,-this suicide impels m
to plead with you to shun his'sin and h
lis fate.
ge The dead boy in the Morgue the son
to my Southern friend, cold, stark, dead
he his youthful beauty, in his blood shed b
is his own hand, is before me as I write, an
EN- hear his voice rising from the marb
re. slab on which he lay in his nakedness an
ad shame, implOring you, the sons of piol
srs parents, not to come to the place whel
m, his miserable career ON earth has four
in its miserable end. IRENEUs.
on 90
oh COMPLICATED DIsEAsEs.-A prominel