Sword and shield. (Clinton, Miss.) 1885-1888, 1885-06-13
Luther Benson.


has been among us, and the impres
sion lie made upon the people of oul
community while here, will live in
the distant years ofthe future. After
lecturlng in CarrolltOn on Thurs
day and Friday nights to the largest
audiences that has assembled in that
town for many years, and in Winona
on Saturday night, he came here
and lectured i'll the Baptist church
on Sunday night to one Of the largest
audiences that ever convened in that
spacious room, and to a crowded
house on Monday night. We have
heard him five times first in the
sroat rrausio hall i1a-4ho -sasin Expo
sltion building at New Orleans, and
secondly and thirdly at Carrollton,
and twice at Walden, and candor
compels us to say that the fifth and
last lectule that we heard him deliv-
er was the best. To say that he
electrified and held his audience in
rapt attention throughout the two
hours he spoke, is to give but a faint
idea of his lofty eloquence. lie de.
livered, at the rate Of about two
hundred words per minute, perfect
volume of sparkling, glitterlng, scin-
tillating truths that penetrated the
hearts, shone and frightened in the
faces of his hearers, whose counten-
ance would change in accordance
with every varying thought as they
fell from his lips; now lighted up
with mirth as he sent forth flashes of
wit like electric light across the hrm-
ament, then the sweetly sad, calm,
halo OF his pathos would settle upon
them like the gentle twilight Of a
soft summers eve, then with eyes
riyeted upon the speaker, their
thoughts and souls would climb to
the azure heights to which he led
them, on and up as he rose in his
flights Of eloquence toward the pos
sibilities of man and the goodness of
God. 1t has been the pleasure of
the writer to hear the versatile and
magnetic DIR, Talmage, the rarely
gifted and inspired DR.. Deems, the
silver tongued George w. Balm, of
Kentucky, the mastery and elo-
quent Jefferson Davis and many
other orators of our day, but we have
never heard Luther Benson's equal.
None SO chains the attention of his
audiences or carries them with such
delightful raDidity oyer the beautiful
and ever rorJin5 hefls of his elo-
quence. His illustrations are forci-
bic and convincing, his arguments
unanswerable and his appeals to the
finer feelings and impulses of human
nature irresistible. He set in mo-
ton the latent powers of goodness in
the hearts of his hearers and gently
leads them out and up to high and
honorable plane of activity, and
leaving all the better for having
heard him. There are thousands Of
homes in America to-dsy that are in
debted to Luther Benson for their
happiness, and there are thousands
of good and useful men now leading
honorable and exemplary lives, who
but for him would be filling drunk
ards graves or reeling and stagger-
ing down to drunkard's doom.
His own sad and terrible experience
is held up as a warning to others to
shun the tempting fluid that mocks
and the liquid poison that destroys
the faculties Of the body and black
ems and damns the soul, but in
touching appeals he asks for the
prayers of his hearers that God may
continue to give him grace and
strength to hold out in his struggles
for a nobler and better life. Surely
none but the never-failing arm of an
allwise and merciful God could raise
one from such a pitiable condition
to the majestic heights as He has
raised this man and placed him out
and high up yonder as great bea-
con light for the wrecked and storm
beaten lives that lie out upon the
great sea of life around him. May
he continue steadfast and immoyable
in his resolves, and may his light
burn with ever increasing brilliancy
until the soft twilight in the evening
of IN honorable old age, and then
may the clouds which close in bis
departure be lined with the golden
hues of perfect peace and the rising
sun of bllssful eternity.
III. @. WILLIAMSON.