Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1891-01-31
with appalling directuess at the king.

with appalling directness at the king
crimes.
SINS BANQUET AND ITS END.
Another lesson that comes TO us
There Is q great difference between TIT
opening OF the banquet OF sin and 1t!
close. Young man, il you had looked
in upon the banquet in the trst lev
hours, you would have wished you mac
been invited there and could sit at TIT
feast. Oh! the grandeur OF Belshazzar'
feast! YOU would have said; but yol
look in ut the close OF the banquet ant
your blood curdles with horror. The
king OF terror has there ghastliel
banquet; human blood is the wine ant
diving groans are the music. Sin has
made itself king In the earth. 1t has
crowned itself. 1t has spread ban
ouet. 1t invites all the world to come
to it. III
II has hung in its banqueting hal
the spoils of all Kingdoms and the ban.
ners of all nations. 1t has gathered
from all music. 1t has strewn. from III
wealth and tables, and the floors and
the arches. And yet how often is thai
banquet broken up and how horrible Il
its end. Ever and anon there is hand
writing on the wall. A king falls. A
great culprit is arrested. The knees Of
wickedness knock together. Gods
judgement. like an armed host, breaks
in upon the banquet and that night Is
Belshazzar, the king o the Chaldeans,
slain. 80,
Here is a young man who says: 81
cannot see why they make such FUSS
about the intoxicating cup. Why, 1t il
exhilarating! 1t makes me fell well.
can talk better think better, feel better
l can not see why people have such
prejudice against IT," A few years pass
and he wakes up and finds himself in
the clutches OF an evil habit which he
tries to break, but can not: and he cries
out, "Oh, Lord God! help me-. 1t seems
as though God would not hear his pray.
err: and in his agony OF body and soul
he cries out, 1T biteth like serpent and
stingeth like an adder" How bright
it was at the start! How black 1t was
at the last!
Here is man who begins to read cor.
rupt novels. "They are so charming,
he saws, II will 60 out and see whether
all these things are So" He opens the
gate of sinful life. He goes in. A
sinful sprite meets him with her wand.
She waves her wand and it is all en-
chantment. Why, it seems as If the
angles of God had poured out phials OF
perfume in the atmosphere. AS he
walks on he finds the hills becoming
more radiant with foliage and the ra-
vines more resonant with the falling
water. o, what charming landscape
he sees.
THE AWAKENING MOST HORRIBLE.
But that sinful sprite, with her sinful
reverses her wand, and all the enchant-
ment is gone. The cupis full OF poison.
The fruit turns to ashes. All the leaves
OF the bower are forked tongues OF his
sing serpents. The flowing fountains
fall back dead in q pool, stenchful with
corruption. The Turing songs become
curses and screams Of demoniac laugh
ter. Lost spirits gather about him and
feel for his heart, and beckon him on
with Hail, brother! Hail, blasted spirit,
hailm He tries to get out. He comes
to the front door where he entered, and
tries to push it back, butt the door turns
against him, and in the jar Of that shut
ting door he hears these words: This
night is Belshazzar, the king OF the
Chaldeans, slain" Sin may open bright
as the morning; its end dark as the
night.
/ learn further from this subject that
death sometimes breaks in upon ban
quet. Why did he not go down to the
prisons in Babylon? There were people
there that would like to have died. l
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 illustrat-
ed. Here young man just comes from
college. He is kind. He Is loving.
He is enthusiastic. He is eloquent. BY
one spring he may bound to heights
toward which many men have oecn
struggling for years. A profession
opens before him. He is established In
the law. His friends cheer him. Emil
nent men encourage him. After awhile
you may see him standing in the United
states senate, or moving popular
assemblage by his eloquence as trees
are moved by whirlwind. Some night
he retires early. A fever is on him.
Delirium, like a reckless charioteer,
sezies his intellect. Father and moth
er stand by and see the tides of his life
going out 10 the great ocean. The ban
quet is coming to an end. The lights
OF thought, and mirth, and eloquence
are being extinguished. The garlands
ARE being snatchedfrom the brow. The
vision is gone. Death at the banquet.
AMERICAS HOUR OF RECKONING.
We saw the same thing on a larger
scale, illustrated in the last war Of this
country. Our whole nation had been
setting at national banquet-north,
south, east and west. What grain was
there, but we grew it on our hills.