Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1896-08-21

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One unholy intimacy will fill your soul with
moral distemper In all the ages OF the
church there has not been an instance where
man kept one evil associate and was re-
formed
When man deliberately chooses bad as
ISOLATION because he likes 1t, that man has
started on the road down. Oh, do not care
what you call it, that association will des-
poll your SOUL After you are destroyed,
body, mind and soul, what will they do for
your what will they do oryour family? They
will not give one cent to support your chill
dren after you are dead. They will not weep
one tear at your burial. They will chuckle
over your damnation.
had rare friend at the West. He was
full Of welcome when went there to live.
He had splendid personal appearance. There
Is not q grander looking person In this house
to-day than he was; and TO this grand per-
sonal appearance he added all geniality and
all kindness of soul-tender as child,
beautiful and loving nature, and l loved
him as brother; but saw evil people COM
Ing up around him, evil men coming up
| from bad places of amusement, and they
seized hold Of his social and genial nature,
and they began to drag him down. and he
went further and further.
used to say to him. "Now why don't you
stop lUtS6 Udu UbUltS duu DcCOul0 u OuIlS~
han?" for 1 talked with him Just as I would
talk with brother, and he understood me,
and understood him. l said, "Why don't
you give up these things and become Chris
LAM" "Oh." he said to me One day. lean
Ing over his counier-just after had asked
him for hundred dollars to help educate a
young man for the ministry, and he had
given me the money before L had the story
half told-"if it will do the young man any
good here is a hundred dollars" Right
after that conversation I said, NOW, you
ARE splendid fellow; why don't you give
up your bad habits and be Christian?"
"Ob," he said, as the tears ran down his
cheeks, II can't. should like to be Chris
lan. You see, 1 have got these habits on me
so. sir. can't get rid Of them. have been
going wrong longer than you would think
for, and can't stop"
Sometimes, inthe moments of repentance,
he would so to his home and embrace his
little girl of eigdt years convusivey to his
heart, and he would cover her with adorn-
ments and strew toys and pictures all about
her, and then from her beautiful presence
Tho beautiful presence of his little child-he
would 90 to the intoxicating cup. and to the
house OF shame, as fool to the correction
stocks; and there these bad men kept pus b.
ing him on, ship, ful!-winged, crashing
into the breakers.
was called to his deathbeJ. ] fastened,
and when I got into the room was sur
prised to find him in full everyday dress ly-
Ing on the top of the couch. 1 put out my
hand aud he greeted me very cordially. He
said: "N0w, Mr.. Talmage, sit down right
there" 1 sat down and he said; "Last
night, just where you sit now. saw my
mother, though she has been dead twenty
years-yes, sir; just where you sit now she
sat- l couldn't have been miataken. I was
us wide awake as 1 am now. She sat Just
where you sit. Wife, wish you would take
these strings off that they are weaving
around me; l wish you would take them off,
they annoy me very mucn in this converse
tion." | saw he was in delirium. His wife
said: "There is nothing there, my dear; there
is nothing there"
Then he resumed the conversation, and
said: Eyes, my mother sat just where you
sit now. l knew her. She had the same
Spectacles, and the same cap and the same
O56n her, Tust us sac D1Eed twenty years
ago-she has been dead now twenty ears.
And sitting there she said to me, Roswell,
wish you would do BETTER and got up out
of bed, and 1 knelt beside her and said,
Mother, wish 1 could-I wish l could do
BETTER would like to do better. Won't you
YOU help me now, motherY" But soon
said. "Now we will pray" knet to pray.
He did not realize anything [ said, l sup
pose. Then 1 got up and said "Good-byl
good-by" That night he went to God.
Arrangements for the obsequies were be-
ing made, and they said, ooh. it won't do to
bring him 10 the church; he has been so dis
solute." 1 said, Bring him, bring him. he
stood by me when he was alive, and I'll
stand by him when he Is dead. Bring him
into the church. The Sabbath came. AS 1
stood in the pulpit and saw his body coming
up the aisle, felt as if / could weep tears OF
blood. ] stood there that day and 1 said,
:This man had his virtues and good many
ofthem; he had his faults, and good many
of them but let that man in this assembly
who is without sin cast the first stone on this
coffin lid"
On the one side of the pulpit sat the beau
tifui child, as radiant and sweet faced as any
child that sat at your table this morning.
She knew not the sorrows of an orphan
child; she was not old enough to realize
them. Sometimes when think ofthat awful
scene. her face haunts me like beautiful
face through horrid dream. On the other
side OF the pulpit sat the man who had de-
stroyed him. They had put the wormwood
and the gall into that orphans cup. They
pushed him off the preclpice. 1 stood there
and told them that there was God and
Judgment and hell for those who destroyed
their fellows. Did they weep? Oh, no, not
one tear. Did they sigh reDentingly? Not one
sigh. Did they say, "What pity that we
destroyed bim?" Oh, no. They sat and
gezed at the coffin as vultures at the carcass
of lamb whose heart they had ripped out.
That night, though my friend lay in lakewood
Cemetery, 1 heard afterward that these men
d. - hot TIT.
ing themselves and destroying others.
Gather up all the energies OF body, mind
and soul, and appealing to God for success,
declare this day everlasting war against all
1rnking habits, ali gaming practices, all
houses of sin. Half-and-half work will
amount to nothing 1t must be Waterloo
Shrink back now, and you are lost! Push
on. and you are saved! A Spartan General
fell at the very moment OF victory, but he
dipped his finger in his blood and wrote on
rock, near which he was dying, "Sparta'
has conquered" Though your struggle to
get rid of sin may seem 10 be almost death
struggle, you can dip your finger In
your own blood and write on the Rock oil
Ages "victcry through our Lord Jesus
Christ"
Oh. what glorious news it would be forl
some of these young men to send home to-
their parents in the country! They go to
the postoflce every day or to see if there
are any letters from you. How anxious
they are to hearl Nothing would please
them half so much as the news you might
send home tomorrow that you had given
your heart to God. know how it is in the
country. The night comes en-. The cattle
stand under the rack through which burst
the trusses of hay. The horses, just having
frisked up through the meadow at the night
fall. stand knee deep in the bright straw
that invites them TO lie down and rest. The
porch of the howell is full of fowl. In the
old farm house at night no candle IS