The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1891-02-11


about the Intoxicating cup. Why, it is
exhilarating. 1t makes me feel well.
can talk better, think better, feel bet
ter. can not see why people have
such prejudice against it." A few
years pass on. 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 mew 1t seems as though God
would not hear his prayer, and in al
agony of body and soul he cries out, ut
biteth like serpent and it stingeth like
an adder" How bright it was at the
start! How black it was at the last!
Here is man who begins to read cor
rupt novels 'They are so charming!
says he; 81 will go out and see for my
self whether all these things are So"
He opens the gate of sinful life. He
goes in. sinful sprite meets him
with her wand. She waves her wand,
and it is all enchantment. Why, it
seems as if the angels of God had pour
ed out phials Of perfume on the atmos-
phere. AS he walks on he finds the
hills becoming more radiant with foil.
} age and the ravines more resonant with
the falling water. Oh! what q charm
ing landscape he sees! But the 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 SER
: penis. The flowing fountains fall back
, in a dead pool, stenchful with corrup-
/ ton. 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
5 Hail, brother! Hail, blasted spirit,
Hailv' He tried to get out. He comes to
the front door where he entered, and
l tries to push it back, but the door turns
!: against him. and in the jar Of that shut
l ting door he hears these words: "This
night is Belshazzar, the King Of the
r Chaldeans, slain" Sin may open bright
D as the morning. 1t ends as dark as
: night!
9 learn further from this subject that
: death sometimes breaks in upon ban
+ quet. Why did he not go down to the
e prisons in Babylon? There were peo-
l. pie there who would like to have died.
:. l suppose there were men and women
+ in torture in that city who would have
b welcomed death. But he comes to the
: palace; and just at the time when the
l. mirth is dashing to the tip-top pitch,
n death breaks III at the banquet. We
# have often seen the same thing illus
trated. Here is young man just come
IS from college. He is kind. He is low
r ing. He is enthusiastic. He is elo.
l. quent. By one spring he may bound tc
n heights toward which many men have
It been struggling for years. A profes.
l. sion opens before him. He is estab
II lished in the law. His friends cheer
It him. Eminent men encourage him
l After awhile you may see him standing
J? in the United States Senate, or moving
II a popular assemblage by his eloquence
u as trees are moved in whirlwind
e Some night he retires early, fever is
y on him, delirium, like reckless
s. charioteer, seizes the reins Of his intel
!" lect. Father and mother stand by anG
II see the tides of his life going out to the
p great ocean. The banquet is coming K
J an end. ' The lights of thought and
m mirth and eloquence are being extin
d guished. The garlands are snatchet
is from the brow. The vision is gone
re Death at the banquet.
'e We saw the same thing, on larger
S. scale, illustrated at the last war in thi1
It country. Our whole nation had beer
D. sitting at a national banquet-North
~ South, East and West What grain wal
y there, but we grew it on our hills
t. What invention was there, but our riv
t. ers must turn the wheel, and rattle tn,
IN strange shuttle. What warm furs, bu
of our traders must bring them from tn
to Arctic. What fish, but our nets mus
So sweep them for the markets. What mu
&c sic, but it must sing in our halls VIVA
FL eloquence, but it must speak in our Sen
h. ates. Ho! to the national banquet, reach
10 ing from mountain to mountain, AM
b. from sea to sea! To prepare that ban
ed quet, the sheepfolds and the aviaries o
I'd the country sent their best treasures
id The orchards piled up on the table thei
IN sweetest fruits. The presses burst on
es with new wines. To sit at that tabl
xt came the yoemanry of New Hampshire
Se the lumbermen of Maine and the Care
nd linian from the rice-fields and the West
ern emigrant from the pines of Oregon
BY and we were all Observation-Disclosures at
lg banquet. Suddenly the feast ended
o. What meant those mounds thrown II
r. atChickamauga, Shiloh, Atlanta Getty.
he burg, South Mountain? What mean
nd those golden grain-fields turned into
en- pasturing-ground for cavalry horses
as What meant the corn-fields quilted wit
BY the wheels of the heavy supply train
e! Why those rivers of tears---those lake
ly Of blood? God was angry! Justice mus
ut come. A handwriting on the wall! Th
GU nation had been weighed and foun
of wanting. Darkness! Darkness! We
tn to the North! Woe to the South! We
he to the East! Woe to the West! Deaf
at at the banquet!
l have also to learn from this subie,
IS; that the destruction of the vicious, an
he of those who despise God, will be yer
its sudden. The wave of mirth had dashe
ed to th>highest point when that Assyria
wv army broke through. 1t was une,
ad pected. Suddenly, almost Away
he comes the doom of those who dcspis
lz- God onI 1afx- }ba 1,.,,e "a n