Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-08-21

yet how oftcn. is that banquet broke
up and how horrible is its
end! Ever and anon there is a hand
writing on the wall. A king falls.
A great cuiprlt is arrested. The knees
OF wickedness knock together. Gods
Judgment, like an armed host, breaks
in upon the banquet, and that night is
~Bclshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans,
slain.
Here is a young man who says: Il
cannot see why they make such a fuss
about the intoxicating cup. Why, it is
exhilarating. 1t makes me feel well.
| can talk better, think better, feel
better. ! cannot sec why people have
such a 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 but cannot;
and he cries out: go Lord God, help
mev' 1t seems as though God would
not hear his prayer, and in al agony
OF body and soul he cries out: at
biteth like a serpent and it stingeth
like an adder" How bright it was at
the start! how black it WAS at the last!
Here is a man who begins to read
French novels. ''They are so charm
ing be says: IL will go out and see
FOR myself whether all these things are
80" Re opens the gate of a sinful
life. lie goes in, A sinful sprite meets
him with her wand. She waves her
wand and it is all cnchantment. 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 radiant with
foliage. and the r~avines more resonant
with the falling water. o, what Il
charming landscape he sees! But that
sinful sprite with her wand meets him
again; but now she reverses the wand
and Ill the enchantment is gone. The
cup is full! of poison. The fruit turns
to ashes. All the leaves of the bow
are forked tongues of kissing serpcnts.
The lowing fountains fall back in 4
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; and in the jar of that
shutting door he hears the words:
This night is Belshazzar the king of
49,. rl,I}n,,.c ,in;, - O., n,n
bright rs the morning; it closes dark
rs the night.
III. learn further from this subject
that Death sometimes breaks in upon a
banquet. Why did he not 90 down to
the prisons in Babylonp There were
people there hat would like to have
died. l suppose there were men and
women in torture in that city who
would have welcomed death. But he
comes to the palace, and just At the
time when the mirth is dashing to the
tip-top pitch
DEATH BREAKS IN
at the banquet. We have often seen
the same thing illustrated. Here is n
young man just come from college.
He is kind. He is loving. He
is enthusiastic. He is eloquent.
BY one spring he may bound
to heights toward which many men
have been struggling for years. A
profession opens before him. He is es-
tablished in the law. His friends cheer
him. Eminent men encourage MIN.
After awhile you may see him standing
in the American senate. or moving n
popular assemblage by his eloquence
as trees are moved in a whirlwind.
Some night he ~retires early. A fever
is on him. Delirium like n reckless
charioteer seizes the reins of his intel
lect. 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 extin-
guished. The garlands are snatched
from the brow. The vision is gone.
Death at the banquet!
We saw the ssme thing o a larger
scale illustrated at the last war in this
country. Our whole nation had
been sitting at a national 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 Arctic? What fish but II
nets must sweep them for the marketse
What music but il must sing in our
hallss What ~eloqucnce but it must
speak in our senatesp Ho! to the M
tionsl banquet reaching from oun
tain to mountain and from sea to sea!
TO prepare that banquet the sheep
folds and the aviaries of the country
sent their best treasures. The orchards
piled upon the table their sweetest
fruits. The presses burst out with
new wines. To SIX Mt that table came
the yeomanry of New Hampshire. and
the lumbermen of Maine. and the
tanned Carolinian from the rice
swainps, and the harvesters Of Wis
| consin, and the western emigral from
the pines Of Oregox, and we were Nil
Observation-Disclosures at a banquet. Sud
denly tho feast ended. What meant
those mounds thrown up at Chicka-
hominy, Shiloh, Atlanta, Gettysburg.
South Mountain? What meant those
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