St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-01-02

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"You have a beautiful garden" He re.
piled: eyes, but it will perish" found
out afterward that his son was a vaga-
bond, and was not surprised at it. You
can not groan men into decency, but you
can groan them out of it.
Pray ye that your fight be not in the winter
Arm yourself against the especial temp
| tatiODs of this season. Poets and painters
have represented Satan as horned and
| hoofed. If | were 4 poet | should describe
him with manners polished to the last per-
| lection; hair flowing in graceful ringlets;
| eye little bloodshot, but floating in be-
| witchin9 lunSuor; hands soft and dia-
| monded; step light and artistic; voice
mellow as q flute: boot elegantly shaped :;
conversation facile, carefully toned and
Frenchy: breath perfunled until it would
seem That nothing had ever touched his
lips save balm and myrrh But his heart
| would encase with the scales of mon
ster, then fill with pride, with beastlness
of desire, with recklessness, with hypocrisy,
with death Then [ would have him touched
with some rod of disenchantment
until his two eyes would become the cold
come the foam of raging intoxication, and
to his feet the spring Of the panther, and
his soft hand would become the clammy
hand of q wasted skeleton: while sud
denly from his heart would burst in crack
ling and all-devouring fury the unquench
able flame, and in the affected lisp of his
tongue would come the hiss of the worm
that never dies. But, until disenchanted,
nothing but myrrh and balm and ringlet
and diamond and f1utelike voice and con-
versation aromatic, facile and Frenchy.
Otis beautiful to see young man living
life ofpurity standing upright where thou.
sands of other young men fall! You will
move i'll honorable circles all your days
and some old friend of your father will
meet you and say: "My son, how glad ]
am to see you looks so WELL Just like your
father, for all the world. l thought you
would turn out well when l used to hold
you on my knee
But here is Il young man who takes the
other route. The voices of sin charm him
away. He reads bad books, lives in vi
cious circles, loses the glow from his cheek.
the sparkle from his eye, and the purity
from his soul. The good shun him.
Down he goes, little by little.
They who knew him when he came
to town, while yet lingering on his
head was pure mothers blessing, and on
his lip the dew of pure sisters kiss, now
pass him and say: "What an awful
wreckw His eyes bleared with frequent
carousals, his cheek bruised in the grog-
shop fight, his lip swollen with evil indul-
gences.
Look out what you say to him; for
triie he will take your life. Lower down
and lower down until, outcast of God and
man, he lies in the alms-hou blotch Of
loathsomeness and pain. Sometimes he
calls out for God, and then for more drink.
Now he prays, now curses, now laughs as
fends laugh. Then bites his nails
to the quick. Then runs both
hands through the shock of hair that hangs
about his head like the name of wild
beast. Then shivers until the cot shakes
with unutterable terror. Then, with up
lifted fists, fights back the devils or clutches
the serpents that seem winding him in
their coils. Then asks for water which is
consumed by his cracked lips.
Going his round some morning the sur
geon finds him dead. Straighten the
limbs. You need not try to comb out |
out or shove back the matted locks |
Wrap him in sheet. Put him in a box. |
Two men will carry it down to the wagon |
ut the door. With chalk write on the Sop |
Of the box the name of the destroyed.
Do you know who it is:
That is you. Oh, man, if, yielding to
the temptations to dissipated life, you &C
out and perish.
There is way that seemeth bright and
'air and beautiful, but the end thereof is
leath.
Devote these December, January and
February evenings to high pursuits, in
locent amusements, intelligent, social
les and Christian attachments. Do not
waste this winter. We shall soon have
een the last snow shower, and passed
lp into the companionship of him whose
alment is white as snow-as no fuller on
arth can Written it. To the right-hearted
he winter nights of earth will soon end in
he June morning of heaven.
The river of God from under the throne
lever freezes over. The foliage of life's
air tree is never frost-bitten. The festi-
ais and hilarities and family gatherings
f Christmas times on earth will give way
o the larger reunions, and the brighter
ghts, and the gladder scenes, and the
weeter garlands and the richer Hastings
f the great holiday of heaven.