The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1889-01-03
Life Twice Wasted.

hODelG OueVlOt udb IeceuLly tlauslattu
from German writing q remarkable
story, which, although wholly work Of
the Imagination, conveys significant
meaning to every reader.
It purports to be the life history of the
son of Saxon peasant, born in aqualid
poverty and reared in ignorance. No
CLEAN of intelligence, Of knowledge, or
even of rational amusement, lightened
the mouotonous twilight of his days.
He lived the life of boys and young men
Of his class, but growing more brutal in
his tastes as the years passed.
When he rehched middle age there
came a change. he went to great city,
fortune favored him, and at last he be-
came wealthy. But he himself was
unchanged. He knew no higher use for
money than to spend it'in gratifying the
lower passions and debasing tastes which
had been nursed in his early life.
Still he was spared, and his body seem.
ed to set at naught the ordinary law Of
nature that every man shall suffer for the
abuse of his own appetites. But at last
even his iron frame yielded. In extreme
old age, on his ninetieth birthday, he was
confronted by death.
The grim enemy appeared to him, so
the story runs, as visible presence, and
summoned him to the retfibution await.
ing one who had misspent his life.
The old man begged to live his life
over again, pleading that his birth and
childhood, in poverty and vice, had
given him no chance to know God, or to
serve Him. If he could have another
chance, he would devote his life to good
works and to service of God. The pray.
er WAS granted, for the first time in the
history of the world. He was suffered
to live his life over again.
He died, and was born again as the
son of powerful nobleman. He recel-
lected distinctly his first life, and knew,
too, that to him had been given, through
Gods infinite mercy and patience, this
chance to redeem its errors, and save
himself from punishment.
He has now wealth, youth and the
homage of the world. he holds the full
cup Of worldly pleasure to his lips, and
again he drinks deeply of it. he does
not forget his purpose to live new and
better life, buthe delays beginning.
"Yet another day and I will repent"
he says. "Yet q day to enjoy life:
Then I will devote myself to God and all
good things"
The days pass; the weeks, the years.
He grows more vicious as each carries up
its black record to heaven. His first life
had been evil chiefly to himself. His
second life is stained with foul crimes
against others. At last he commits q
murder he slays his nearest friend.
Appalled,, the terrified wretch drives
the knife into his own heart and gives
back his soul, still foul and stained, to
God.
The folly Of the man who thus, for idle,
trivial pleasures, wasted the opportunity
granted to him, astonishes and dismays
ever reader Of his wild tale. But does
the reader think of his own folly who has
but one life to live !? :.
aBeware," says the Arab proverb,
chow thou dealest with God or thy broth.
er. For thou shalt never meet him at
the same crossing of the ways again"
To every man or woman who comes
into the world God gives the opportunity
to enter at death into higher, nobler,
happier life. One sells his chances for
fame, another for money, q third for gay
clothes and vapid, fashionable folly, and
yet another for sensual indulgence.
One day blank wall lshuts down across
the path. Here lies the mans body, 8
lump of decaying matter. His frame
passes like the forgotten sound ofyester.
days wind what do the rich garments or
what does aelfish indulgence count for
now to him? :.
Alas must such q human history be
repeated over and over again, and the
living take no warning from the dead?