Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-10-10

veIopment, sometimes In intellectual at
tainment sometimes in heart force, somes
times in social position, sometimes in
financial accumulation; and there
is always sharp shears ready
to destroy it Every day there
are Samsons ungianted. I saw
young man start in life under the
most cheering advantages. His acute
mind was at home in all scientific domin.
ion. He reached not only all rugged at
tainments, but by delicate appreciation he
could catch the tinge of the cloud and the
sparkle of the wave and the diapason OF
the thunder. He walked forth in life head
and shoulders above others in mental
stature. He could wrestle with giants in
opposing systems of philosophy and carry
of the gates of opposing schools and
smite the enemies of truth hip and thigh
with great slaughter. But he began to
tamper with brilliant free thinking.
Modern theories of the soul threw over
him their Establishments. Skepticism was
the Delilah that shore his locks off and all
the Philistines of doubt and darkness and
despair were upon him. He died in q very
prison of unbelief, his eyes out.
Far back in the country districts-just
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
nation uncovered in his presence, and
when he spoke Senates sat breathless I'M
der the spell. The plotters against good
government attempted to bind him with
green withes and weave his locks in a
web, yet he walked forth from the thrall-
dom, not knowing he had burst bond
But from the wine cup there arose a de-
stroying spirit that came forth to capture
his soul. He drank until his eye grew
dim and his knees knocked together and
his strength failed. Exhausted with life
long dissiDations, he went home to die.
Ministers pronounced eloquent euiogi-
ums, and poets sang, and painters
sketched. and sculptors chiseled the ma
jestic 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 En-
gland 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 hoisted triumphal arches
to let him pass under, and Europe was
lighted up at the confagration of consum-
ing cities. He could almost have made a
causeway of human bones between Lisbon
and Moscow. No power short of omnipres-
ent God could arrest him. But out of the
ocean of human blood there arose a spirit
in which the conqueror found more than
match. The very ambition that had
rocked the world was now to be his de-
strcyer 1t grasped for too much and in
its efforts lost all. He reached up after
the scepter of universal dominion, but
slipped and fell back into desoation and
Punishment The American ship, dam
aged of the storm, to-day puts up in st.
Helena and the crew go up to see the spot
where the French exile expired in
loneliness and disgrace, the mightiest OF
all Samsons shorn of his locks by ambi-
ton. that most merciless of all Delilahs.
have not time to enumerate. Evil as
habits, misery proclivities and dissipa-
ton are the names of some Of the shears
with which men are every day made
powerless. They have strewn the earth
with the carcasses of giants and filed the
great prison house with destroyed Sam
sons, who sit grinding the mills OF
despair, their locks shorn and their eyes
out. If parents only knew to what tempta-
a. oLs fa6 ~
would be more earnest in their prayers
and more careful about their example. No
young man escapes having the pathway
of sin pictured in bright colors to him.
The first time l ever saw a city-it was
the city of Philadelphia was mere
lad. stopped at hotel and remember
in the eventide a corrupt man piled me
with is Internal art. He saw Twas green.
He wanted to show me the sights of the
town. He painted the path of sin until it
looked like emerald, but l was afraid of
him. showed back from the basilisk. ]
made up my mind he was a basilisk.
remember how he wheeled his chair round
! in front of me and with concentrated
and diabolical effort attempted to destroy
my soul; but there were good angels in
the air that night. 1t was no good resolu-
ton on my part, but it was the all en-
comprising grace of a good God that de-
livered me- Bewarel beware! . young
man!
There is a way that seemeth right unto
a man, but the end thereof is death. II
all the victims Of an impure life in all
lands and ages could be gathered to-
gether. they would make a host vaster
than that which Xerxes led across the
IL 4 s,
than William the Conqueror led across
England. than Abou-Bek led across
Syria; and if they could be stretched out
in single file across this continent l think
the vanguard of the host would stand on
the beach of the Pacific while yet the rear
guard stood on the beach of the Atlantic.
say this not because 1 expect to re-
claim any one that has gone astray in this
| fearful path, but because want to utter
a 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. l have seen
a good many start out on that road. How
many have 1 seen come back? Not one
that l now think of. 1t seems as if the
spsl of death is on them and no
human voice or the voice of God
can break the spell. Their feet are
hoppled; their wrists are handcuffed
They have around tn EN- a girdle 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 fathers house.
Where is mother! Take me home! Take
me homev
Do stand before a man to-day the locks