Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-03-20

Of God, and that night, though their victim
lay N lakewood Cemetery, / was told that
they blasphemed, and they drank, aud they
gambled. and there was not one less
customer in all the houses of iniquity. This
destroyed man was a Samson in physical
strength, but Delilah sheared him, and the
Philistiues of evil companionship dug his
eyes out aud threw him into the prison of
evil habits But in the hour of his death he
rose up and took hold of the two pillared
curses of God against drunkenness and UNI
cleanness and threw himself forward, until
down upon him and his companions there
came the thunders Of an eternal catastrophe
Again any amusement that gives you q
distaste for domestic life is bad. How many
bright domestic circles have been broken up
by sinful amusementsl The father went Off
the mother went of, the child went Off.
There are to-day the fragments before me OF
blasted households Oh, if you have wan
dered away, would like to charm you back
by the sound of that one word, home" Do
you not know that you have but little more
time to give to domestic welfareS Do you
not see, father, that your children are soon
TO go out into the world, and all the influence
for good you are to have over them you must
have nowl Death will break in on your con-
jugal relations, and. alas IL you have to
stand over the grave OF one who persisted
from your neglect
| saw a hayward husband standing at the
deathbed of his Christian wife, and saw her
point to q ring on her finger, and heard her
say to her husband, do you see that ring|
He replied, Eyes, | see it," "Well, said
She do you remember who put il there"
yes said he, Il put it there" and all the
past seemed to rush upon him. BY the MEM
DRY OF that day when in the pres ence of men
and angels, you promised to be faithful 10
Joy and sorrow, and in sickness and in health;
by the memory OF those pleasant hours when
you sat together in your new home taking
Of a bright future; by the cradle and the
joyful hour when our life was spared ana
another given; by that sick bed, when the
little one lifted up the voice and called Tor
help and you knew he must die, 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 stones OF
heavenly love, is the brief but expressive
record of births and deaths; by the neglects
of the past and by the agonies OF the future;
by a Judgment day, when husbands ana
wives. parents and children, in immortal
groups, will stand to be caught up in shining
array or to shrink down into darkness; by
all that, beg you to give to home your best
affections.
All, my friends, there is an hour coming
when our past life will probably pass before
us i'm review. 1t will be our last hour: IL
from our death pillow we have to look back
and see a life spent in sinful amusement
there will be dart that will strike through
our soul sharper than the dagger with which
Virginius slew his child. The iniquities and
rioting through which we have passed will
come upon us, weird and skeleton as Meg
Merrilies. Death, the old Shylock will de.
mand aud take the remaining pound OF
Aesh, and the remaining drop OF blood, and
upon our last opportunity for repentance,
and our last chance for beaven the curtain
will forever drOp.