The Yale expositor., 1898-11-11

ally showed out and ignored and push
ed away. Now. what a dilapidated
home Is hisl A dissipated life always
shows itself in faded window curtains,
and impoverished wardrobe, and de-
jected surroundings, and in broken
palings of the garden fence, and the
unhinged gate. and the dislocated door,
bell, and the disappearance OF vile ana
children from scenes among when
they shone the brightest, and laughea
the gladdest. II any man was ever
down, that husband and father Is
down. The fact is, he got into a
wrestle with Evil that pushed ana
pulled and contorted and exhausted
him worse than any Olympian game
ever treated a Grecian. and he was
thrown. Thrown out of prosperity In
to gloom. Thrown out of good asso-
citation into bad. Thrown out OF
health into invalidism. Thrown out
OF happiness into misery. But one
day, while Sinking through one OF the
back streets, not wishing to be recog-
nized, good thought crosses his mind,
for he has heard of men flung nat ris-
ing again. Arriving at his house. he
calls his wife In and shuts the door
and says: MARY, / am going to do
differently. This is not what l prom
ised you when we were married. You
have been very patient with me, and
have borne everything, although l
would haVa had piohf IN nOninlaln
II you had left me and gone home to
your fathers house. 1t seems to me
that once or twice, when l was not
myself, / struck you, and several times,
l know, I called you hard names. Now
l want you to forgive me-" Help
your" she says; bless your soul! OF
course / will help you. ! knew you
didn't mean it when you treated me
roughly. All that is in the past.
Never refer to 1t again. Today let us
begin anew" Sympathizing friends
come around and kind business people
help the man to something to do, so
that he can again earn a living The
children soon have clothing so that
they can go to school. The old songs
which the wife sang years ago come
back to her memory, and she sings
them over again at the cradle, or while
preparing the MONDAY meal. Domes
tic resurrection! He comes home
earlier than he used to, and he Is glad
to spend the evening playing games
with the children or helping them with
arithmetic or grammar lessons which
are little too hard. Time passes on,
and some outsider suggests to him that
he is not getting as much out of life
as he ought, and proposes an occa-
slonal visit to scenes of worldliness
and dissipation. He consents to go
once, and, after much solicitation,
twice. Then his old habit comes back.
He says he has been belated, and could
not get back until midnight. He had
to see some Western merchant that
had arrived and talk of business with
him before he got out of town. Kind
ness and geniality again quit the dis
position OF that husband and father.
The wife's heart breaks in a new place.
That man goes into a second wrestle
with evil habit and is flung. and all
hell cackles at the moral defeat. Il
told you SOL" say many people who
have no faith in the reformation OF
fallen man. II told you SOL You made
a great fuss about his restored home,
but / knew it would not last. You
can't trust these fellows who have
once gone wrong" So with this I'M
fortunate, things get worse and worse,
and his family have to give up the
house, and the last valuable goes to
the pawnbroker's shop. But that I'M
fortunate man is sauntering along the
street one Sunday night, and he goes
up to a church door, and the congre-
cation are singing the second hymn,
the one just before sermon, and 1t is
William Cowper's glorious hymn
There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Emanuel's veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.