The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-05-09

| 400 fveS there were woods waving and
| fountains playing, the verdure, the foliage,
the glory looking as II mountain were on
the wing. On the tip top king walking
| looking up at birds brought from distant
lands, and drinking out Of tankards OF solid
gold, or looking OFF over rivers and lakes up
| on nations subdued and tributary, crying: us
| not this great Babylon which have builtf'
What battering ram smote the walls What
plowshare upturned the gardensl What ar
my shattered the brazen gatesa What
long, fierce blast Of storm put out this
light which Illuminated the world What
crash of discord drove down the music
that poured from palace window and gar
den grove, and called the banqueters to their
revel and tho dancers to their feet2 walk
upon the scene of desolation to find an an
swer and pick up pieces Of bitumen and
brick and broken pottery, the remains OF
Babylon; and as in tho silence Of the night
hear the surging Of that billow Of desola-
ton which rolls over the scene, hear the
wild waves saying: Babylon was proud.
Babylon was impure Babylon was star,
but BY sin she turned to wormwood and has
fallen"
From the prosecutions Of the Pilgrim
Fathers and the Huguenots in other lands
God set upon these shores nation. The
council fires of the aborigines went out in
the greater light Of free government. The
sound of the war whoop was exchanged for
the thousand wheels Of enterprise and pro-
gress. The mild winters, the fruitful sum-
mers, the healthful skies charmed from other
lands a rece OF hardy men who loved God
and wanted to be free. Before the wood
mans az forests fell and rose again into
ships masts and churches pillars Cities
on the banks Of lakes begin to rival
cities by the sea- The land quakes with
the rush Of the rail car and the
waters are churned white with the
steamers wheel Fabulous bushels OF western
wheat meet on the way fabulous tons Of
eastern coal Furs from the north pass on
the rivers fruits from the south. And trad
ing in the same market is Maine lumberman
and South Carolina rice merchant and Ohio
farmer and Alaska fur dealer. And churches
and schools and asylums scatter light and
love and mercy and salvation upon tO,OJo,-
600 Of people
pray that our nation may not copy the
crimes of the nations that have persisted, and
our cup of blessing turn to wormwood and
like them we 60 down. l am by nature and
by grace an optimist, and expect that this
country will continue to advance until the
world shall put on millennial era and when
Christ comes again He will set His throne
somewhere between the Alleghenies and the
Sierra Nevadas But be not deceived Our
only safety is in Righteousness toward God
and justice toward man. Ii we forget the
goodness OF the Lord to this land, and break
His Sabbaths, and improve not by the dire
disasters that have again and again come to
us as a people, and welearn saving lesson
neither from civil war nor raging epidemic,
nor drought, nor mildew, nor scourge Of locust
and grasshopper, if the political corruption
which has poisoned the fountains Of public
virtue and beslimed the high places Of author
ity, making free government at times hiss
ing and byword in all the earth; If the
drunkenness and licentiousness that stagger
and blaspheme in the streets Of our great
cities, as though they were reaching after the
fame of a Corinth and Sodom are not re-
pented of, we will yet see the smoke Of our
nations ruin; the pillars Of our national and
state capitals will fall more disastrously
than when Sampson pulled down Dagon;
and future historians will record upon the
page bedewed with generous tears the story
chat the free nation Of the west arose in
splendor which made the world stare 1t
had magnificent possibilities It forgot God.
It hated Justice. 1t hugged its crime. It
halted on its high march. It reeled under
the blow Of calamity. 1t fell. And as it
was going down all despotisns 1t earth
from the top of bloody thrones began to
shout: "Aha, so would we have it." while
struggling and oppressed peoples looked out
from dungeon bars with tears and groans
and cries Of untold agony, the scorn of those
and the woe Of those uniting in the exclama-
tion: "Look yonder! There fell great star
from heaven, burning as it were lamp,
and it fell upon tho third part Of the rivers
and upon the fountains Of waters; and the
name Of the star IL called Wormwood!"