The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-08-25

you had been invited there and could sit at
the feast 'Oh, the grandeur Ut Belshazzar's
FEAST" you would have said; but you
look in at the close Of the banquet
and your blood curdles with horror.
The King OF Terrors has there ghastlier
banquet: human blood is the wine and dying
groans are the music Sin has made itself
King in the earth. 1t has crowned itself. It
has spread banquet. 1t invites all the
world to come to it! 1t has hung in its BAN
quoting hall the spoils Of all kingdoms and
the banners Of all natly1s It has strewn
from its wealth the tables and floors and
arches. And yet how often is that banquet
broken up and how horrible is its end. Ever
and anon there is handwriting on the wall.
A King falls. A great culprit is arrested.
The knees Of wickedness knock together.
Gods Judgment, like an armed host, breaks
in upon the banquet, and that night is Bel
shazzar, the King of the Chaldeans, slain.
Here is young man who says: 81 can
not see why they make such fuss about the
intoxicating cup. Why, it is exhilarating.
1t makes me feel we'll. | can talk better,
think better, feel better. I cannot see why
people have such prejudice against it." A
few years PASS on and he wakes up and finds
himself in the clutches of an evil habit which
he tries to break, bat cannot; and he cries
out: "Oh Lord God, help mel" Itseems as
IN an agony Of body and soul he cries out4
s'It biteth like serpent and it stingeth like
an adder" How bright it was at the start!
How black it was at the lastl
Here is man who begins to read French
novels, "They are so charming" be says; II
these things are So" He opens the gate Of q
sinful life. He goes in. A sinful sprite meets
him with her wand. She waves her wand,
and it is all enchantment. Why, it seems as
if the angels Of God had poured out phials
Of perfume in the atmosphere: As he walks
on he finds the hills becoming more radl-
ant with foliage, and the rnyines more
resonant with the falling water. on, what
a charming landscape he sees! But that
sinful sprits with her wand meets him
again; and now she reverses the wand
and all the enchantment is gone. The cup
is full of poison. The fruit turns to ashes.
ALI the leaves Of the bower are forked
tongues Of Kissing serpents. The flowing
fountains fall back in dead pool stenchful
with corruption. The Turing songs become
curses and screams Of demoniac laughter.
Lost spirits gather about him and feel for
his heart, and beckon him on with: Hail,
brother! Hail, blasted spirit, hail!' He
tries to get out. He comes to the front door
where he entered and tries to push it back,
but the door turns against him; Dad In the
jar Of that shutting door he heirs these
words: "This night is Balshazzar, the King
of the Chaldeans, slain!' Sin may open
bright as the morning; it closes dark ss the
night.
5. learn further from this subject that
death sometimes breaks in upon banquet.
Why did he not 60 down to the prisons in
Babylon? There were people there that
would like to have died. I suppose there
were men and women in torture in that city
who wouli have welcomed death But he
comes to the palace, and just at the time
when the. mirth is: dashing to 1.-The tiptop
pitch, death breaks in at the banquet. We
have often seen ths same thing illustrated.
Here is young man just come from COL
lege He is kind. He is loving. He is en-
thusiastic. He is eloquent By one spring
he may bound to heights toward which many
men have been struggling for years. A pro-
fession opens before him. He is established
in the Law. His friends cheer him. Eminent
men encourage him After awhile you may
see him standing in the American Senate, or
moving a popular assemblage by his elo-
quence, as trees are moved in a whirlwind.
Some night he retires early. A fever is on
him. Delirium, like reckless charioteer,
seizes the rens Of his intellect. Father and
mother stand by and see the tides Of life
going out to the great ocean. The banquet
is coming to an end The lights Of thought
and mirth and eloquence are being e1tin-
guished. The garlands are snatched from
the brow. The vision is gone
We saw the same thing on larger scale
illustrated at the last war in this country.
Our whole nation had been sitting at ma.
tional banquet-North, South, East and
West What grain was there but we grew
it on our hills? What invention was there
but our rivers must turn the new wheel and
rattle the strange shuttle? What warm furS
but our traders must bring them from
the Arctica What fish but that our
nets must sweep them for the markets!
What music but it must, sing in our
halls! What eloquence but it must
speak in our Seuatesa Ho to Ithe national
banquet, reaching from mountain to noun
tain and from sea to sea! To prepare that
banquet the sheepfolds and the ayiaries Of
tho country sent their best treasures. The
orchards piled up on the table their sweetest
fruits The presses burst out with new wines.
Te sit at that table came the yeomanry of
New Hampshire, and the lumberrnen Of
rice swamps, and the harvesters Of Wisconsin,
and the Western emigrant from the pines Of
Oregon; and we were all brothres-brothers
at a banquet. Suddenly the feast ended
What meant those mounds thrown up at
Chickahominy, Shiloh, Atlanta, Gettysburg,
South Mountain9 What meant those golden
grain fields turned into pasturing ground
for cavalry horses? What meant the corn
fields quilted with the wheels Of the heavy
those lakes Of blood! God was angry. JUS
tice must come A handwriting on the wall!
The nation had been weighed and found
wanting. Darkness Darkness! Woe to
the North! Woe to the South. Woe to thu
East! Woe to the West! Death at the BAN
quetl
4. have also to learn from the subject
that the destruction Of the vicious and Of
those who despise God will be very sudden.
point when that Assyrian army broke
through. 1t was unexpected. Suddenly, al
most always, comes the doom Of those who
despise God and defy the laws Of men, How
was it at the Deluge. Do you suppose it came
through long northwestern storm, so that
people for days before were sure it was COM
ingl No; suppose the morning was bright:
beauty sat enthroned on the hills, when sud-
denly the heavens burst and the mountains
sank like anchors into the sea, that dashed
clear over the Andes and the Himalayas.
The Red Sea was divided The Egyptians
tried to cross it. There could be no danger.
The Israelites had just gone through: where
they had gone, why not the Egyptiansl Oh,
pavement Of tinged shells and pearls, and on
either side q great wall of water, solid.
There can be no danger. Forward, great
host Of the Egyptians! Clap the cymbals
and blow the trumpets Of victory! After
them! We will catch them yet and they shall
be destroyed. But the walls of sol;dified
water begin to tremble. They rock. They
fall. The rushing waters! The shrek Of
drowning men! The swimming of the war
horses in va n for the shore! The strewing
OF the great host on the bottom Of the sea, or
pitched by the angry wave on the bcach-a