The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1899-03-22
and garden grorc anc called taa b2a:
L.

and garden gfG-c anC called taG ban
Qretors to their rcvel and Tic dancers
TO their feet? walk upcn the scene
Of desolation to find IN answer ana pick
up pieces, OF bitumcn and bri@S and bro
Ken pottery. the remains Of Ba5yloa.
hear the wild waves saying. Baby
lon was proud Babylon was impure.
Babylon was star, but by sin She
turned 10 wormw sod and has fallen.
From the prosecutions Of the pilgrim
fathers and the Uugenotsi in other lands
God SET these shores a nation. The
couuci, fires Of the aborigines went out
in the create light OF 4 free govern
ment. The sound Of the warhcop was
exchanged for the thousand wheels OF
enterprise and progress. The mild
winters, the fruitful summers, the
healthful skies, charmed from other
lauds race of hardy men, who loved
God and wanted to be free. Before the
woodmau's ak forests fell and rose
again into ships masts and churches
pillars. Cities On the banks CT lakes
began tn riyal cities by the sea. The
land Quakes with the rush Of the rail
car, and the waters are churned white
with the steamers wheel. Fabulous
bushels of western wheat meet on the
way fabulous tons Of eastern coal. turs
from the north pass op the rivers fruits
from the south, and trading in the same
market are Maine lumberman and South
Carolins rice merchant and Ohio farm
er and Alaska $ar dealer, and churches
and schools and asylems scatter light
and love aad rlcicy and salvation upon
20, 0JV. Gee people.
pray that our nation may not cypy
the crimes Of nations that have perish
ed: that our cup of blessing turn not to
wormwood and We go down. | am by
nature and by grace az optlmiSt. and l
expect that this country will continue
to advance uutii the world shall reach
the millepuial era. Cur only safety Is
in righteousness toward God aud JUS
ticc toward man. If we forget the
goodness Of the Lord to this land and
| break his Sabbaths. aRd improve not By
the dire disasters that have again and
again come to US as people, and We
learn saving lesson neither from. ciyll
war nor raging epidemic, nor drought
nor mildew, nor scourge Of locust and
grasshopper; if the political corruption
which has poisoned the fountains OF
,,,,bI;. ,-;r,nn and hns]imed the high
| places Of authority, making free govern
ment at times a Kissing and byword IN
all the earth; if the drunkenness and
RIGHTEOUSNESS that stagger and bias
; phewe in the streets Of our great ''''
as though they we're reaching at! "r
fame Of Corinth and sodom, ,,""t
rcpented Of We Will yet see tie sn.o:.e ii
our nations ruin; the pillars Of Q = na-
tional and state capitois will fal. more
disastrously than when Samson :e!!ed
down Dagon. and future hiS:oriaLs will
! record upon the page bedewed with
generous texas the story that the free
nation Of the west arose IN spi2ndoI
| which made the world stare. !; had
magnlhceGt possibilities; IL loTgot Noc ;
it hated justice; it hugged It's crimes; 1t
halted on its high march; it feelGd IN
der the blow Of calamity; it fell, and as
it was going down al the despotisms OF
earth from the top Of bloody thrones
began to shout: aha! So would We
have it,, while struggling and oppress,
ed peoples looked out from dungeon
! bars, with tears and groans and cries OF
untold agony, the scorn Of those aud
the wee Of these uniting II the excla-
nation: Look yonder, There fell a
eseat star from heaven, burning as II
we're lamp, and it fell upon the thlrd
part Of the rivers and upon the foun
tains Of waters, and the name OF the
star is called Wormwood:'