The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1896-09-26

your ancestry was. Heauny Ior hh yVui
WOUNDS. Pardon for all your guilt. Com
fort for all your troubles.
Then. also, l counsel you il you want to
get hack to quit all your bad associations.
One unhoiy intimacy will fill your soul with
mora! 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 n man deliberately chooses bad as
ISOLATION because he likes it, that man has
started on the road down. Oh, do not care
what You call it, that association Will ces-
poi! YOUR soul. After you are destroyed,
body. mind and soul, what will they 90 Tor
you? what will they do for your family They
will not give one cent to support your chill
| dren after you are dead. Thy will not weep
| one tear at your burial. They will chuckie
| over your damnation.
/ had rare friend at the West. He was
| full of welcome when l vent there to live
He had splendid personal appearance. There
| is not grander looking person In this house
| to-day than he was; and to this grand per-
sonal appearance he added all genfality and
all Kindness OF soul-tender as child.
beautiful and loving nature, and l loved
him as a brother; but saw evil people CON-
| ing up around him, evil men coming up
from bad places of amusement, and they
| saizel hold OF his social aud 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 these bad habits aud become Chris
tian?'' for talked with him just as I would
talk with brother, and he understood me,
and I understood him. 1 said, "Why don't
Won give ND these things and become Chris
fiapY' "Oh." he said to me one day, lean
| ing over his counter-iust after l had asKed
| him for hundred dollars to help educate a
young man for the ministry, and ne nad
| given me the money before l had the story
| half told-"if 1t will do the young man any
good here Is a hundred dollars" Right
after that conversation / said, NOW, you
are a splendid fellow; why don't you give
up YOUR bad habits and be Christian
ooh" he said, rs the tears ran down his
cheeks, IT can't. should like to be Chris
tan. You see, have got these habits on me
so. sir. can't get rid Of them. l have been
going wrong longer than you would mink
for, and can't STOP"
Sometimes, in the moments of repentance,
he would 20 to his home and embrace his
little girl OF eight years convulsively to his
heart. and he would cover her with adorn-
nents and strew toys and pictures all about
her. and then from her beautiful presence
the beautiful presence OF his little child-he
| would 20 to the Intoxicating cup. aud to the
house Of shame, as a fool to the correction
stocks; and there these bad men kept pus b.
ing him on, a ship, full-winged, crashing
Into the breakers.
was called to his deathbel. 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. put out my
hand aud he greeted me very cordially. He
said: ''Now, Mr.. Talmage, sit down right
there" / sat down and he said: Last
night, Just where you sit now. saw my
mother, though she has been dead twenty
years-yes, cir; just where you sit now she
sat- i couldn't have been mistaken. I was
as wide awake as I am now. She sat just
where you sit. Wife, wish you would take
these strings of that they are weaving
around me; wish you would take them OF;
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
spectacles and the same cap and the same
aproE and the same dress. 1t must have
been her, Just as she looked twenty years
ago-she has been dead now twenty , ears.
And sitting there she said TO me, Roswell, l
wish you would do letter; and got up out
of bed, and / kuelt beside her and said,
Mother, wish / could-I wish / could do
help me? You used to help me. Why can't
you help me now, mother?'" But soon I
said. SHOW we win pray" knelt to pray.
He did not realize anything l said, sup
pose. Then 1 got up and said "Good-by!
good-byr' That night he went to God.
Arrangements for the obsequies were be-
ing made, and they said, "Oh. it won't do to
bring him TO the church; he has been SO dis
solute." 1 said, bring him, bring him; he
stood by me when he was alive. and Pu
stand by him when he is dead. Bring him
into he church." The Sabbath came. As ]
stood in the pulpit and saw his body coming
up the aisle, felt as If could weep tears Of
blood. Istood there that day and said,
':This man had his rtues, aud a 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 ths one side of the pulpit sat the beau
tifnl 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 NORWOOD
and the gall into that orphans cup. They
pushed him off the precipioe. Istood there
and told them that there was a God and
judgment and a hell for those who destroyed
their fellows. Did they weep2 Oh, no. moi
one tear. Did they sigh repentingly9 Not one
sigh. Did they say. "What pity that We
DESTROYED hln?" Oh, no. They sat and
gazed at the cofiin az vultures at the carcass
OF a lamb whose heart they had ripped out
That might, though my friend lay In Oakwoot
Cemetery, heard afterward that these mer
went right on with their iniquities, destroy
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
drinking habits, all 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
a rock. near which he was dying, "Sparta
has conquered" Though your struggle to
get rid Of sin may seem to be almost death
struggle, you can dip your finger il
your own blood and write on the Rock Of
Ages "Victory through our Lord Jesu!
Christi
Oh, what glorious news it would be fol
some of these young men to send home tc
their parents in the country! They go tt
! the postoflce every day or to see II Their
, are any letters from you. How anxious
! they are to hear! Nothing would please
them half so much as the news you nigh
send home tomorrow that you had givel
country. The night comes on. The cattl
stand under the rack through which burs
! the trusses of hay. The horses, Just havin
, frisked up through the meadow at the night
: fall, stand knee deep in the bright stray
. thar invites them TO lie down and rest Tn