Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1895-04-25

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across the field of
Antietam just after the conflict?
The scene was so sickening,
shall not describe it, Every
valuable thing had been taken
from the bodies of the dead, for there
are always vultures lowering over and
around about an army, and they pick
up the watches and the memorandum
books, and the letters, and the daguer
reotypes, and the hats and the coats,
applying them to their own use. The
dead make no resistance. So there are
always camp followers going on and
after an army, as when Scott went
down into Mexico, as when Napoleon
marched up toward Moscow. as when
Won Moltke went to Sedan. There is
a similar scene in my text.
Saul and his army had been horribly
cut to pieces. Mount Gilboa was CHASTITY
with the dead. On the morrow the
stragglers came on to the field, and
they lifted the latchet of the helmet
from under the chin of the dead, and
they picked up the swords and bent
them on their knee to test the temper
Of the metal, and they opened the wal
let's and counted the coin. Saul lay
feet in length, and / suppose the cow
ardly Philistines to show their bravery.
leaped upon the trunk of his carcass,
and jeered at the fallen slain, and
whistled through the mouth Of his he'll
met. Before night those cormorants
had taken everything valuable from
the field: And it came to pass on the
morrow, when the Philistines came to
CIR he in "a fOlln1
and his three sons fallen in Mount Gill
boa
Before I get through to-day 1 will
show you that the same process is go
ing on all the world over, and every
day, and that when me have fallen,
Satan and the world, so far from pity
ing them or helping them, go to work
remorselessly to take what little there
is left, thus stripping the slain
There are tens of thousands Of young
men every year coming from the coun-
try to our great cities. They come with
brave hearts and grand expectations.
The country lads sit down in the village
grocery. with their feet on the iron rod
around the red-hot stove, in the even
ing, talking over the prospects of the
young man who has gone off to the
perhaps he may get along very we'll
and succeed, but the most of them pro-
phesy failure, for it is very hard to
think that those whom we knew in
boyhood will ever make any great sue
cess in the world.
But our young man has a fine posi-
ton in a dry-gOods store. The month
is over. He gets his wages. He is not
tn
belonging to himself. He is little ex
cited, and does not know exactly what
to do with it, and he spends it in some
place where he ought not. Soon there
come up new companions and acquaint-
ances from the bar-rooms and the sa-
looms of the city. Soon that young man
begins to waver in the battle of tempta
ton, and soon his soul goes down. In
a few months, or few years, he has
fallen. He is morally dead. He is
mere corpse of what he once was. The
harpies of sin snuff up the faint and
come on the field. His garments grad
ually give out. He has pawned his
watch. His health is failing him. His
credit perishes. He is too poor to stay
in the city, and he is too poor to pay
his way home to the country. Down!
CITY now stick to him so closely? Is it
TO help him back to moral and spirit
nal life? Oh, no! will tell you why
thew STAY; they are Philistines stripping
the slain.
Do not look where point, but yonder
stands a man who once had beautiful
home in this city. His house had ele-
CANT furniture, his children were beau
tifully clad, his name was synonymous
with honor and usefulness; but evil
habit knocked at his front door. Where
Is the piano? Sold to pay the rent.
Where is the hat-rack? Sold to meet
the butchers bill. Where are the car
pets? Sold to get bread. Where is the
wardrobe? Sold to get rum. Where
are the daughters? Working their.
fingers off in trying to keep the family
together. Worse and worse until every
thing is gone.
Who is that going up the front steps
of that house? That is creditor, hop
ing to find some chair or bed that has
not been levied upon. Who are those
two gentlemen now going up the front
steps? The one is a constable, the other
the sheriff Why do they go there?
The unfortunate is morally dead. Why
the crediturs, and the constables, and
the sheriffs go there. They are, some
on their own account, and some on &C
count of the law, stripping the slain.
An ex-member of congress, one of
the most eloquent that ever stood in
the house of representatives, said in
his last moments: This is the end. /
am dying-dying on a borrowed bed,
covered by borrowed sheet, in house
built by public charity. Bury me under
that tree in the middle of the field,
where shall not be crowded, for I have
been crowded all my life." Where were
the jolly politicians and the dissipating
comrades, who had been with him,
laughing at his jokes, applauding his
eloquence, and plunging him into sin?
They have left. Why? His money is
gone, his reputation is gone, his wit is
gone, his clothes are gone, everything is
gone. Why should they stay any long
err? They have completed their work.
They have stripped the slain.
There is another way, however, of do
ing that same work. Here Is man
who, through his sin, is PROSTATE. He
acknowledges that he has done wrong.
Now is the time for you to go to that
man and say: Thousands Of people
have been as far astray as you are.