The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-03-25

man VINO does not Work does not
know how to play. III God had intended
us to do nothing but laugh he would not
have given us shoulders with which to
lift, and hands with which to work, and
brains with which to think. The amuse-
ments of life are merely the orchestra
playing while the great tragedy of life
plunges through it's five acis-infancy
childhood, manhood, old age and death
Then exit the last earthly opportunity.
Enter the overwhelming realities of an
eternal world.
20 further, and say that all these
amusements are wrong which lead into
bad company. If YOU 90 to any place
where you have to associate with the in
temperate, with the unclean, with the
abandoned, however we'll they may be
dressed, in the name of God quit it. They
will despoil yonr nature. They will I'M
dermine your moral character. They will
drop you when you are destroyed. They
will give not one cent to support your
children when you are dead. They will
weep not one tear at your burial. They
will chuckle over your damnation.
| had a friend at the West-a rare
friend. He was one of the first to well
come me to my new home. To fine per-
sonal appearance he added q generosity,
frankness and ardor of nature that made
me love him like a brother. But i saw
evil people gathering around him. They
came up from the saloons, from the gamb-
ling bells. They piled him with thou
sand arts. They sliced upon his social
nature, and he could not stand the charm.
They drove him on the rocks like ship
ful-winged, shivering ON the breakers. /
used to admonish him. | would say, "Now,
i wish you would quit these bad habits,
and become a Christian" "0h," he
would reply. II would ike to; but l have
gone go far / don't think there is any way
back" In his moments of repentance he
would 60 home and take his little girl OF
eight years and embrace her convulsively,
and cover her with adOrnments, and strew
around her pictures and toys. and every
thing that could make her happy; and
then, as though bounded by an evil spirit,
he would go out to the enhaming cup and
to the house OF shame, like a fool to the
correction of the stocks.
/ was summoned to his death-bed. /
fastened. l entered the room. found
him, TO my surprise, lying in full everyday
dress ON the top of the couch. l put out
my hand. He grasped it excitedIy, and
said, "Sit down, Mr.. Talmage, right there"
] sat down. He said: Last night l saw
my mother, who has been dead twenty
years, and she sat just where you sit now.
1t was no dream. l was wide awake.
There was no deiusion in the matter. L
saw her just as plainly as | see you. Wife.
] wish you would take these strings off of
me. There are strings spun all around my
body. l wish YOU would take them off OF
me-" / saw it was delirium. "Oh," re-
piled the wife, "my dear, there is nothing
there, there is nothing there" He went
on and said: "Just where you sit, Mr..
Talmage, my mother sat. She said to me:
Henry, do wish you would do better
/ got out OF bed, put my arms around
her and said, Mother, i want to
do better. / have been trying to DO
better. Won't you help me to do better?
it, no delusion. l saw her-the cap and
the apron and the spectacles, just as she
looked twenty years ago, but | do wish
you would take the strings away. They
annoy me so. can hardly talk. Won't
you take them away?" / knelt down and
prayed, conscious of the fact that he did
not realize what was saying. got up.
j said: "Good-by | hope you will be bet
ter soon.' He said: "Good-by, good-by."
That night his soul went to the God who
gave it. Arrangements were made for
| the obsequies. Some said, Don't bring
| him in the church; he was too dissolute."
| 'Oh." l said, 'bring him. He was good
| friend OF mine while he was alive,
and shall stand by him now that he is
dead. Bring him to the church"
L sat in the pulpit and saw his body COM
ing up through the aisle, felt as if l
could weep tears of blood. / told the peo-
pie that day, This man had his virtues
and and good many of them. He had
| his faults and good many of them. But
| ii there is any man in this audience who is
without sin, let him cast the first stone at
this coffin lid" On one side the pulpit sat
that little child, rosy, sweet-iaced, as
beautiful as any little child that sat at
| your table this morning, 1 warrant YOU.
She looked up wistiully, not knowing the
| full sorrows OF an orphan child Oh, her
countenance haunts me to-day, like some
sweet face looking upon us through horrid
dream. Onihe other side of the pulpit were
| the men who had destroyed him. There
they sat. hard-visaged, some of them pals
| from eXhausting disease, some of them
| flushed until it seemed as the fires of in
| iquity famed through the cheek and
! cracked the lips. They were the men
who had done the work. They were the
men who had bound him hand and foot.
| They had kindled the fires. They had
| poured wormwOod and gall into that
orphans cup. Did they weep? No. Did
! they sigh repentingly? No. Did they
say: what pity that such brave
man should be slain?" No, no; not one
| bloated hand was lifted to wipe a tear
| from a bloated cheek. They sat and
| looked at the coffin like vultures gaz-
| ing at the carcass OF lamb whose heart
they had ripped out l cried in their
ears as plainly as l could: There is
God and a judgment dayp Did they
| tremble? Oh. no, no. They went back
from the house of God, and that night,
] though their victim lay in lakewood ceme-
terry, 1 was told that they blasphemed,
and they drank, and they gambled, and
there was not one less customer in all the
houses of iniquty. This destroyed man
was Sampson in physical strength, but
| Delilah sheared him, and the Philistines
| of evil companionship dug his eyes out
and threw him into the prison of evil
habits. But in the hour of his death he
rose up and took hold of the pillared
| curses OF God against drunkenness and un-
| cleanness, and threw himself forward, IN
| til down upon him and his drunken COM
| panions there came the thunders of an
eternal catastrophe.
Again: Any amusement that gives you
distaste for domestic life is bad. How
/ many bright domestic circles have been
broken uD by sinful amusements. The
father went off, the mother went off, the