The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1891-03-25

his wife, my dear. thele IS nothin5
there" He went on and said. Just
where you sit now, Mr.. Talmage. my
mother sat. She said to me: Henry,
l do wish you would do better l got
out of beG, put my arms around her, and
said, Mother, | want to do better. |
have been trying to do better. Won't
YOU heap me to do better? You used 20
help me- No mistake about it. no de-
lusion. I saw her-the cap and the
apron and the spectacles. just as she
used to look twenty years ago;-but [
do wish YOU would take these strings
away. They annoy me so. | can hard
ly talk. Won't you take them away"
| Knelt down and prayed, conscious OF
the fact that he did not realize what |
was saying. L got up. IsaId. Good
bye; hope you will be better soon"
He said. ''Good-hYe, goodbye" !"
That night his soul went to the God
who gave It. Arrangements were made
for the obsequles. Some said, Don't
bring him IN the church; he was too dis
solute." Oh" I said, bring him.
He was good friend Of mine while he
was alive, and l shall stand by him now
that he is dead. Bring him to the
church."
AS sat IN the pulpit and saw his body
coming up through the aisle, | felt as II
| could weep tears of blood. l told the
people that day, This man had his viz
lures, and good many Of them. He
had his faults and a good many OF them.
Buff there is any man ir this audience
who is without sin, let him cast the first
stone at this coffin-!id." On one side
the pulpit sat that little child, rosy,
sweet-taced. as beautiful rs any little
child that sat at your table this morning.
Warrant you. She looked up wlstiully,
not knowing the full sorrows OF an or
phan child. Oh, her countenance haunts
Lac to-day, like some sweet face looking
upon US through horrld dream. On
the other side of the pulpit were the men
wh) had DESTROYED him. There they sat.
hard-visaged, Sole Of them pale from
exhausting disease, some of them flush
ed until it seemed as if the fires OF lil'-
ouity famed through the cheek and
cracked the lips. They were the men
who had done the work. They were the
len who had bound him hand and foot:
They had kindled the fires. They had
poured the wormwood and gall into that
Orphans cup. Did they weep: No.
Did they sigh repentlngly: No. Did
they say, what pity that such brave
man should be slain ?" No, no: not one
bloated hand was lifted to wipe q tea:
from a bloated cheek. They sat and
looked at the coffin like vultures gazing
at the carcass of a lamb whose heart
they had ripped out! 1 cried in their
ears as plainly as l could There is a
God and iudgment-day !" Did they
tremble? Oh no. TO. They went back
from the house of God, and that night.
though their victim lay in OakSood
GENE cry, was told that they BIAS
pnemed, and they drank, and they gam
bled, and there was not one less custom
er in all the houses Of iniquitv. This
DESTROYED man was a Samson in physI-
cal strength. but Delilah sheared him.
and the Phllistines ofevil companionshlp
dug his eyes out and threw him into the
prison OF evil habits. But IN the hour
of his death he rose up and took hold of
the two plllared curses of God against
drunkenness and uncleanness, and threw
himself forward, until Gown upon him
and his companions there came the
thunders Of an eternal catastrophe.
Again: any amusement that gives you
a distastie for domestic lifeis bad. How
many bright domestic circles have been
broken up by sinful amusements! The
fasher went off. the mother went OFT.
the child went off. There are to-day
the fragments before me OF blasted
households. Oh, if you have wandered
awav, I would like to charm you back
bv the sound of that one word Home. "
Do YOU not know that you have but
little more time TO give to domestic
welfare? Do you not see. father, that
YOU children are soon to GO out into
the world, and all the influence 1or good
you are to have over them you must
have now9 Death will break IN on your
coniugal relations. and, alas, ifyou have
to stand over the grave o. one who per-
ished from your neglect!
I saw wayward husband standing
at the deathbed Of his Christian wife,
andI saw her point to a ring on her
finger. and heard her say to her husband.
:sDo YOU see that rlng?" He replied,
Eyes: L see it," WelF' said She, do
you remember who putt there?" Yes, "
said be, II put it there" and all the
past seemed to rush upon hem. BY the
memory of that day when, in the pres,
ence of men and augels, you promised
to be faithful in Joy and so row, and IN
sickness and in health; by the memory
of those pleasant hours when you sat
together in your new home talking OF a
bright future; by the cradle and the
joyful hour when one life was spared
and another given; by that slck-bed
when the little one lifted up the hands
and called for help, and you knew he
must die, and he put one arm around
each of your necks and brought you very
near together in that dying kiss; by the
little grave in Greenwood that you never
think of without a rush OF tears: by the
family Bible, where amidst stores o.
heavenly love, is the brief but expires
sive record of births and deaths: by the
neglects OF the past, and by the agonies
Ct the future: by a Judgment day. when
husbands and wives, parents and chill
dren, in immortal groups. Will stand
to be caught up in shining array, or &c
shrink down into darkness; by all that
I beg you give to home your best aztec
tions.
All. my friends, there in an hour com
ing when our past life will probably
pass before US in review. 1t will be oul
last hour. If from our death-piliow we
have to look back and see life spent
in sinful amusement, there vii! be &
dart that will strike through cur sou
sharper than TIE dagger with wh!c;
Virgnius slew his child. The memory
OF the past will make us quake like