The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1891-01-17

ing by the casket of a dead child for or,
night exerts the artist to his utmost, but whC
is sufficient to put upon canvas a mother fol
six months of midnights guarding her whole
family, dead and gibbeted upon the mount
aims.
Go home. Rizpah! You must be awfully
tired. You are sacrificing your reason and
your life for those whom you can never
bring back again to your bosom. As l say
that from the darkest midnight of the cen
fury RZpah turns upon me and cries: ''How
dare you tell me to go home? am a moth
err l am not tired. You might as well ex
pect God to get tired as for a mother to e
tired. cared for those boys when they Ia
on NV breast in infancy. and will not fo
sake them now that they are dead. Inter
rupt me not. There stoops an eagle that
must drive back with my agonized cry
There is panther l must beat back with M
clubr - >
Do you know what that scene by our road
side In Palestine makes me think off 1t is no
unusual scene. Right here in these three
cities by the American saacoast there are a
thousand cases this moment worse than that.
Mothers watching boys that the rum saloon.
that annex of hell has gibbeted in a living
death. Boys hung in chains of evil habit
they cannot break. The father may 90 tc
sleep after waiting until II o'clock at night
Tor the ruined boy to come home, and giving
It up, he may say: Mother, come to bed;
theres no use sitting up any longer" But
mother will not go to bed. tits o'clock in the
morning. 1t is half-past l. 1t is o'clock
lie Is haIr-past when he comes staggering
through the hall
DO you say that young man is vet alive.
No; he is dead. Dead to his fathers en-.
treaties. Dead to his mothers prayers Dead
to the family altar where he was reared
70 nlI fBf., ,Ats1 -
spired him. Twice dead. Only a corpse OF
what he once was. Gibbeted before God and
man and angels and devils. Chained in q
father is asleep, his brothers are asleep. hi,
sisters are asleep; but his motheris watching
MIN, watching him in the night After he
has gone to bed and fallen into a drunken
sleep, his mother will 60 up to his room anc
see that he Is properly covered, and bsfor,
she turns out the light will put kiss upor
his bloated lips, Mother, why don't you &c
70 bed? All" she says Il cannot 60 te
bed. am Rizpah watching the slainr'
And what are the political parties OF tni.
country doing for such cases? They are tax
ing care not to hurt the feelings of the
Jackals and buzzards that roost on the
shelves of the grog shops and boot above tn,
dead. ! am often asked to what political |
party belong and now declare my opin. |
Ion OF the political parties today. Each one |
Is worse than the other and the only consola, /
uon In regard to them is that thew have
putref1ed until they have no more power to
ro'. On, that comparatively tame scene up
on which Rizpah lookedl American mother.
hood and American wifehood this moment
are looking upon seventy of the slain. upon
seven hundred of the slain. upon seventy
thousand OF the slain. Woe! woe! woe,
MY only consolation on this subject is that
oreign capitalists are buying up the Ameri
an brewerles. The present owners see that
he doom of that business is coming as surely
IS that God is not dead. They are unloading
lpon foreign capitalists, and when we can
ret these breweries into the hands of people
living on the other side of the sea our politi.
al parties will cease to be afraid of the
iquor traffic. and at their conventions nomi-
ating Presidential candidates will put in
heir platform plank as big as the biggest
flank OF the biggest ocean steamer, saying: |
Resolved unanimously that we always have
zen and always will be opposed to alcohol
sm."
But l must spur on our Arab steel. and
ere We come in sight of Beeroth, said to be
he place where Joseph and Mary missed the
oy Jesus on the way from Jerusalem to
ational festival Where is nv child,
esus:" says Mary. where is nv CHILD,
esus" says Joseph. Among the thousands
nat are returning from Jerusalem they
bought that certainly He was walking on in
ne crowd. They described Him, saving:
He is twelve years old, and of light com
lexion and blue eyes. A lost childr Great
xcitement in all the crowd. Nothing SO
'irs folks as the news that child is lost.
1all not forget the scene when, in q great
ntdoor meeting, was preaching and some
cf> IL 80 n 4
hid was lost. We went on with the relig.
JUS service, but all our minds were on the
st child.
After while man brought on the plat
,rm beautiful little tot that looked like
lece Of heaven dropped down, and said
Here is that child" And forgot all thai
was preaching about, and lifted the chilc
my shoulder and said, Here is the lost
hid, and the mother will come and get he,
ght away, or / will take her home and ado
er to my own broodw And some cried anc
me shouted, and amid all that crowd in
antly detected the mother. Everybody
Id to get out of her way or be walked over
ats were nothing and shoulders were moth
g and heads were nothing in her pathway
Id realized something OF what must have
zen Mary's anxiety when she lost Jesus, anc
hat her g.adness when she found her boy il
g temple of Jerusalem talking with tnos,
ministers of religion, Shammai, Hille
I'd Betirah.
bear down on you to-day with a mighty
mfort. Mary and Joseph said: Where i
IT Jesusy and you say: Where is John,
where is Henry, or where is George
ell. l shorld not wonder if You found him
ter while Where. In the same place
here Joseph and Mary found their boy-in
temple. What do l mean by that. ]
IAN you do your duty toward God and to-
'rd your child and you will find him after
While 10 the kingdom OF Christ. Will yor ,
7. Il do not have any way of infiuencinp ,
: childy l answer you have the most
line Of influence open right be,
q you. AS you write letter, and ther.
; two or three routes by which it NAV
but you want it to go the quickest
,te, and you put on it via Southampton"