The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-10-16

MANNING CLA..
F.! ticsm was the Delilah that shore his locks
off, and all the Philistines Of doubt and.
darkness and despair were upon him. He
died in a very prison OF unbellef, his eyes
| out.
Far back in the country diStrlctS-luSt
where purposely omit to say-there was
! born one whose fame will last as long as
American institutions. His name was the
terror of all enemies of free government,
He stood, the admired of millions; the ma
tion uncovered in his presence and when he,
spoke Senates sat breathless under the;
spell. The plotters against good govern
ment attempted to bind him with green
withes and weavehis locks in web, yet he!
| walked forth from the enthrallment, not
| knowing he had burst a bond. But from
| the wine cup there arose a destroying spirit.
that came forth to capture his soul He
| drank until his eyes grew dim and his knees
knocked together and his strength failed.
| Exhausted with lifelong dissipatlons, he
| went home to die. Ministers pronounced
eloquent eulogiums, and poets sung, and
SSkGlCucu, duu SCuIpIO1S SlllSSlCO eilS3
| majestic form into marble and the world
| wept, but everywhere it was known that it
was strong drink that came like the Infamous
Delilah and his locks were shorn.
From the Island of Corsica there started
forth a nature charged with unparalleled
energies to make thrones tremble and con-
vulse the earth. Piedmont, Naples, Ba!
varia Germany, Italy, Austria and England
rose up to crush the rising man. At the
plunge of his bayonets bastiles burst open.
The earth groaned with the agonies Of
Rivoli, Austerlitz Saragossa, and Eylau.
Five million men slain in his wars. Crowns
were showered at his feet, and kingdoms
nosted triumphal arches to let him pass
under, and Europe was lighted up
at the conhagration of consuming
cities. He could almost have made
causeway of human benes between
Lisbon and Moscow. No power short
of omnipotent God could arrest him. But
out of the ocean Of human blood there arose
spirit in which the conqueror found more
| than a match. The very ambition that had:
rocked the world was now TO be his de-
stroyer. 1t grasped for too much, and in its
effort lost all. He reached up after the
sceptar of universal dominion, but slipped
| and fell back into desolation and Danish;
ment The American ship damaged of the
storm, today puts up in st. Helena. and
the crew go to see the spot where the French
exile expired in loneliness and disgrace, the
mightiest of all Samsons shorn of his locks
by ambition, that most merciless Of all De-
hlahs.
have not time to enumerate. Evil asso-
Citations, sudden successes. spendthrl1t
habits, miserly proclivites, and dissipations
are the names of some Of the shears with
which men are every day made powerless.
They have strewn the earth with the car
casses Of giants and filled the prison house
with destroyed Samsous, who sit grinding
the mills Of despair. their locks shorn and
their eyes out. If parents only knew TO
what temptation their children were sub
1ected they would be more earnest in their
prayers and more careful about their eX-
ample. No young man escapes having the
pathway Of sin pictured in bright colors be
fore him.
the city of Philadelphia was mere lad.
l stopped at hotel, and l remember in the.
eventide corrupt man piled me with his
Internal art. He saw | was green. He
wanted to show me the sights Of the town.
He painted the path of sin until it looked
like emerald, but was afraid of him. /
showed back from the basilisk. l made up
my mind he was basilisk. I remember
how he reeled his chair round in front Of
me and with a concentrated and diabolical
effort attempted to destroy my soul; but
here were good angels in the air that night.
1t was no good resolution on my part, but 1t
was the all-encompassing grace Of good
God that delivered me. BeWareI beware!
y young man.
There is a way that sec~:cth right unto \
man. bnt the end thereof is death If all the
victims of an impure life in all lands and
ages could be gathered together, they would
make host vaster than that which Xerxes
hnIt
across India, than William the Conqueror
led across England, than Abou-Bekr led
across Syria; and il they could be stretched
out in single file across this continent, l
think the vanguard vi the host would stand
on the beach of the Pacific while yet the
rear guard stood on the beach OF the Allan
tic.
say this not because expect to reclaim
any one that has gone astray in this fearful
path, but because l want to utter warning
for those who still maintain their integrity.
The cases of reclamation of those who have
given themselves fully up to an impure life
are so few, probably you do not know one
Of them. have seen good many start out
on that road. How many have | seen come
back! Not one that l now think Of. 1t
seems as if the spell of death is on them and
no human voice or the voice of God can
break the spell. Their feet arc hoppled,
their wrists are handcuffed. They have
around them glrdle OF reptiles punched at
the waist, fastening them to an iron doom;
every time they breathe the forked tongues
strike them and they strain TO break away
until the tendons snap and the blood eXudes,
and amidst their contortionS they cry out:
Take me back to my father's house. Where
is mother! Take Ele home. Take NE home"
Do stand before man to-day the locks
Of whose Strenghth are being toyed with,
let me tell you to escape lest the shears Of
destruction take your moral and your
spiritual integrity. DO you not see your
sandals beginning to curl on that red hot
paths This day in the name of Almighty
God tear of the beautifying veil and the
embroidered mantle Of this old hag OF
iniquity, and show you the ulcers and the
bloody ichor and the caucered lip and part
ing Joints and the macerated limbs and the
wriggling putrefactiou, and l cry out, 0,
horror of horrors. In the stiffness Of this
Sabbath hour l lift warning. Remember
it is much easier to form bad habits than TO
get clear of them; in one minute OF time
YOU may get into Il sin from which all
eternity can not get YOU out.
o, that the voice of Gods truth might
drown the voice Of Delilah. Come into the
ways of pleasantneSS and the paths or peace,
and by the grace of ] pardonlng God start
for thrones of honor and dominion upon
which you may reign, rather than travel
the road to dungeon where the destroyed
grind in the mills of despair, their LOCKS
shorn and their eyes out