The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1891-02-05

agony of body and soul he cries out,
sit biteth like a serpent, and it stingeth
like am adder" How bright II was at
the start How black II was at the
lastl
Here is man who begins to read
corrupt novels. ''rhey are so charm
ing" says he, 81 will go out and see
for myself whether all these things are
So" He opens the gate of a sinful life,
He goes in. A sinful sprite meets him
with her wand. She waves her wand,
and it is all enchantment. Why, ii
seems as II the angels of God had
poured out phials of perfume in the
atmospheric AS he walks ON he finds
the hills becoming more radiant with
foliage and the ravines more resonant
with the falling water Oh, what a
charming landscape he seesl But that
sinful sprite with her wand meets him
again; but now she reverses the wand,
and all the enchantment is gone The
cup is full Of poison. The fruit turns
to ashes. All the leaves of the bower
are forked tongues of kissing serpents,
The flowing fountains fall back in n
dead pool, stenchful with corruption,
The Turing songs become curses and
screams Of demoniac laughter. Lost
spirits gather about him, and feel for
his heart, and beckon him on with
Hail, brother Hail, blasted spirit,
hailw He tries to get out, He comes
to the front door where he entered, and
tries to push it back, but the door turns
against him, and in the jar of that
shutting door he hears these words
''This night is Belshazzar, the king of
the Chaldeans, slain" Sin may open
bright as the morning. 1t ends dark
as the night
DEATH AT THE FEAST.
learn further from this subject that
Death sometimes breaks in upon ban
quet. Why did he not go down to the
prisons in Babylon1 There were people
there that would like to have died. /
suppose there were men and women in
torture in that city who would have
welcomed Death. But he comes to the
palace, and just at the time when the
mirth is dashing to the tiptop pitch
Death breaks in at the banquet. We
have often seen the same thing illus
trated. Here is young man just come
from college. He is kind. He is low
ing. He is enthusiastic. He is elo-
quent. BY one spring he may bound
to heights toward which many men
have been struggling for years. A pro-
fession opens before him. He is estab-
lished in the law His friends cheer
him. Eminent men encourage him.
After while you may see him stand
ing in the United States senate or NOV
ing popular assemblage by his elo-
quence, as trees are moved in whirl-
wind. Some night he retires early. A
fever is on him. Delirium, like reck-
less charioteer seizes the reius of his
intellect. Father and mother stand
by, and see the tides of his life going
out to the great ocean. The banquet
is coming to an end. The lights of
thought and mirth and eloquence are
being extinguished. The garlands are
snatched from the brow. The vision is
gone. Death at the banquet.
We saw the same thing, on q larger
scale, illustrated at the last war in this
country. Our whole nation had been
sitting at a national banquet-north,
south, east and west. What grain was
there but we grew it on our hills.
What invention was there but our
rivers must turn the new wheel and
rattle the strange shuttle What warm
furs but our traders must bring them
from the Arctic. What fish but our
nets must sweep them for the markets.
What music but it must sing in our
halls. What eloquence but it must
speak in our senates.
Ho! to the national banquet, reach
ing from mountain TO mountain, and
from sea to seal To prepare that ban
quet the sheepfolds and the aviaries of
the country sent their best treasures
The orchards piled up on the table
their sweetest fruits. The presses
burst out with new wines. To sit at
that table came the yeomanry of New
Hampshire, and the lumbermen of
Maine, and the Carohnian from the
rice fields, and the western emigrant
from the pines of Oregon, and we were
all brothers -brothers at banquet
Suddenly the feast ended.
What meant those mounds thrown
up at Chickamauga, Shiloh, Atlanta,
Gettysburg, South Mountain What
meant those golden grain fields, turned
into a pasturing ground for cavalry
horses? What meant the corn fields
quilted with the wheels of the heavy
supply train2 Why those rivers OF
tears, those lakes of blood? God was
angry Justice must come A hand
writing on the wall The nation had
been weighed and found wanting.
Darkness! Darkness! Woe to the
north! Woe to the south Woe to the
east. Woe to the west Death at the
| banquet!
THE DEATH OF THE WICKED.
| have also to learn from the subject
that the, destruction of the vicious and
of those who despise God will be very
sudden. The wave of mirth had dashed
to the highest point when that Assyrian
army broke through. 1t was unexpect-
ed. Suddenly, almost always, comes
the doom of those who despise God and
defy the laws of men. How was it at
the deluge2 Do you suppose it came
through long northeast storm. so that
people for days before were sure it was
coming2 No; l suppose the morning
was bright; that calmness brooded on
the waters; that beauty sat enthroned
on the hills, when suddenly the heav.
ems burst, and the mountains sank like
anchors into the sea that dashed clear
over the Andes and the Himalayas
The Red sea was divided The Egyp
tians tried to cross it. There could be
no danger. The Israelites had just
gone through. Where they had gone
/