The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-06-18

tNcHeSS Ia IOSntI InOuSdluS anu tens
of thousands into ruin.
Eve just tasted the fruit. She was
curious to find out how ii tasted, n
that curiosity blasted her n blasted
all nations. So there are clergymen in
this day, inspired by unhealthful in
(! quisitiveness, who have tried to look
through the keyhole Of Gods myser-
ies-mysteries that We're barred and
bolted from all human inspection-aLd
they ha &c wrenched their whole moral
nature out Of joint by trying to pluck
fruit from branches beyond their reach,
or have come out on limbs Of the tree
from which they have tumbled into
uln without remedy. A thousand trees
Of religious knowledge from which we
may eat and get advantage, but from
certain trees Of mystery how many
have plucked their ruin. Election, free
agency, trinity, resurrection-in the
discussion of these subjects hundreds
and thousands of people ruin the soul.
There are men who actually have been
kept out Of the kingdom Of heaven be-
cause they could not understand who
Melchisedec was not.
FORBIDDEN FRUIT.
oh. how many have been destroyed
| by an unhealthful inquisitiveness. 1t is
seen in all directions. There are those
who stand with the eye stareand mouth
| cape of curiosity. They are the first to
hear a falsehOod. build it another story
high and two wings to it. About other
| peoples apparel, about other peoples
business, about other peoples financial
| condition, about other peoples affairs,
| they are c~veranXiOus. Every nice piece
of gossip stops at their door, and they
| fatten and luxuriate in the endless
round of the great world Of title tattle.
They invite and sumptuously entertain
al their house Colonel TWaddle and Es-
| Quire Chitchat and Governor Smalltalk.
! Whoever hath an inuendo, whoever
| hath Il scandal, whoever hath available
| secret. let him come and sacrifice it TO
| this goddess of splutter. Thousands of
| Adams and Ewes do nothing but eat
fruit that does not belong to them. Men
quite We'll now as mathe1naticians
failing in this computation of moral
| algebra: Good sense plus good breeding,
minus curiosity, equals minding your
own affairs.
| Then how many young men through
curiosity go through the whole realm
of French novels, to see whether they
are really as bad as mOralists have pro-
nOunced them. They come near the
verge of the precipice just to look off.
They want to see how far it really is
down, but they lose their balance while
they look and fall into remediless ruin,
or, catching themselves, m up,
bleeding and CHASTITY, on the rock, glib
boring with curses or ~grOaning ineffec-
tual prayer. BY all means III
healthful inquisitiveness, by all means
discOurage~ill regulated curiosity.
This subject also impreSSeS me with
the fact that fruits that are sweet to
the taste may a~fterWard produce great
agony. Forbidden fruit for Eve was so
pleasant she invited her husband also to
take of it, but her baniSment from
paradise and 5000 years of sorrow, and
WretchedneSS. and war, and woe paid
for that luxury. Sin may be very sweet
at the start, and it may induce great
Wretchedness afterWard.T The cup OF SIN
is sparkling at the top, but there IS
death at the bottom. Intoxication has
great exhilaration for awhile, and it
films the blood, and it makes a man
see five stars where others can see only
one star. and it makes the poor man
rich, and turns cheeks which are white
red as roses: but what about the
dreams that come after. when he seems
falling from great heights, or is pros
trated by other fancied disasters, and
the perspiratiOn stands on the fore
head-the night dew of everlasting
darkness-and he is ground under the
horrible hOOf of nightmares Shrieklng
with lipS that crackle with all cOnSum-
ing torture? REJOICE, 0 young man,
in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer
thee in the days of thy youth, but
know thou that for all these Things
God will bring thee into JUDGMENT.
Sweet at the start. horrible at the last.
Go into that hall of revelry, where I'M
godly mirth staggers and blasphemes.
Listen to the senseless gable. See the
last trace of intelligence dashed out
from faces made in Gods own image.
Aha, aha" says the FOSTERING 1neDr1-
ate. This is joy for you. Fill nigh
your cups, my boys. I drink to my
wife's misery and my children's rags
and my Gods defiance And he knows
not that a fiend stirs the goblet in his
hand and that adders uncoil from the
dregs and thurst their froth on the
rim. The Philistines jeered and laugh
ed and shouted at Samson. Oh, they
wanted him to make sport for them,
and he made sport for them. How
bright and gay was the scene for a III
tie while. After awhile the giant puts
one hand against this pillar and the
other hand against that pillar and
bows himself, and 5000 merrymakers
are mashed like grapes in a wine press.
Sin raptures at the start, awful at the
last.
A GREAT TRANSMISSION.
That one Eden1c tranSSreSSlon ulu Hol
seem to be much. but it struck a blow
which TO this day makes the earth
stagger. To find out the consequences
of that one sin you would have to COM
pei the world to throw open all its
prison doors and display the crlme,and
throw open all it's hospitals n display
the disease, and throw open all the IN
sane asylums and show the wretched-
! ness, and open all the sepulchers and
show the dead, and open all the doors
of the lost world and show the damn
ed. That one Edenic transgression
stretched chords of misery across the
heart Of the world and struck them
with dolorous wailing, and it has seated
the plaques upon the air and the ship
wrecks upon the tempest and fastened,
like a leech, famine to the heart of the
sick and dying nations. Beautiful at
the start, horrible at the last. Oh, how
many have experienced it!
Are there here those who are yotarieS
Of pleasure? Let me warn you, my
brother. Your pleasure boat is far from
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