The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-05-03
ache or It's heart hutter. hear great
dAal ahnnt hlack m ana riohfa md ChinaI

mans rights, and Indians rights, and
woman's rights. Would to God that some.
body would rise to plead for childreni
rights! The Carthagenians used to sacri.
fee their children by putting them into
the arms OF an idol which thrust forth iti
hand. The child was put into the arms oil
the idol, and no sooner touched the aimi
the art Of the mothers to keep the children,
smiling and laughing until the moment
they died. There may be a fascination
and hilarity about the styles OF educa-
tionof which, am speaking, but 1t Is only
laughter at the moment OF sacrifice.
Would God there were only one Jeph-
thah's daughter
Again, there are many,parents who are
sacrificing their children with wrong sys-
tenn Of discipline-too great rigor or too
great leniency. There are children IN fami-
lies who rule the household. The nigh
chair in Which the infant sits Is the throne,
and tho rattle Is :he sceptre. and the other
children make up the parliament where
father and mother have no votel Such
children come up to be miscreants. There
Is no chance in this world for child that
has never learned to mind. Such people
become the botheration of the church OF
that do not learn to obey human authority
are unwilling to learn to obey divine au-
thority. Children will not respect parents
whose authority they do not respect. Who
are these young men that swagger through
the street with their thumbs In their vest
4 talking about their father as "the old
man, "'the governor" "the SQUIRE" "the
old chap" or their mother as "the old
woman" They are those who in youth, in
childhood, never learned to respect au-
thorlty. Ell, having heard that his sons
had died In their wickedness, fell over back
\ ward and broke his neck and died. Well
he might! What Is life to q father whose
sons are debauched? The dust of the val
| ley is pleasant to his taste, and the driving
rains that drip through the roof OF the
sepulcher are sweeter than the wines OF
Helbon.
In our day most boys start out with no
Idea higher than the all encompassing dol
| lar. They start In an age which boasts It
can scratch the Lords Prayer on ten cent
piece and the Ten Commandants on ten
cent piece. Children are taught to reduce
| morals and religion, time and eternity, TO
vulgar fractions. It seems to be their chief
attainment that ten cents make dime and
ten dimes make dollar. How to get
money is only equaled bythei other art
how to keep 1t. Tell me, ye who know,
out In life with such perverted sentimental
again with the downfall OF such people. II
had q drop Of blood on the tip Of pen,
would tell you by what awful tragedy many
OF the youth OF this country are ruined.
Further on, thousands and tens OF thou
sands Of the daughters OF America are
sacrificed to worldliness. They are taught
to be In sympathy with all the artiacIalties
of society. They are inducted into all the
hollowness Of what Is called fashionable
RI hof
tory Is dry, but that fifty cent stories OF
| adventurous love are delicious. With
capacity that might have rivaled q Flor
ence Nightingale In heavenly ministries or
made the fathers house glad with 1lial
and slsterly demeanor, their life is waste,
their beauty curse, their eternity de.
molition.
In the siege OF Charleston, during our
| Civil War, lieutenant Of the army stood
on the floor beside the daughter OF the ex..
| Governor OF the State Of South Carolina,
They were taking the vows Of marriage.
bombshell struck the roof, dropped intq
the group. and nine were wounded and
slain, among the wounded to death the
| BRIDE While the bridegroom knelt on the
carpet trying to stanch the wounds tha
bride demanded that the ceremony be COM
pleted, that she might take the VOWS be-
fore her departure, and when the minister
said: "Wilt thou be faithful unto
death2" with her dying lips she said:
II will" and In two hours she had de-
parted. That was the slaughter and the
sacrifice OF the body, but at thousands
of marriage altars there are daughters
slain for time and slain for eternity.
It is not marriage. 1t Is massacre.
Af1anced to some one who is only waiting
until his father dies so he can get the prop
erty; then little while they swing around
In the circles, brilliant circles; then the
property Is gone, and, having no power to
earn livelihood, the twaln'sink into some
corner OF society, the husband an idler and
a sot, the wife drudge, slave and q
sacrifice. Ah, spare your denunciations
from Jephthah's head and expend them all
on this wholesale modern martyrdom!
I lit up my voice against the sacrifice Of
children. I look out OF my window on
Sabbath, and see group Of children un-
washed, uncombed, un-Christianized. Who
cares for them3 Who prays for them? Who
utters to them one kind word? When the
clty, missionary. passing along the park
him swearing, he said to him: "My son,
stop swearlngl You ought to go to tho
house OF God to-day. You ought to be
good. You ought to be Christian" The
lad looked up In his face and said: "Ahl It
Is easy for you to talk, well clothed as you
are and we'll fed. But We chaps haln't got
no chance" Who lifts them to the altar
for baptism? Who goes forth to snatch
them up from crime and death and woe7
Who to-day will go forth and bring them
into schools and churches? No, heap them
up, great piles OF rags and wretchedness
and filth. Put underneath them the fires
of sacrifice, stir up the blaze, put on more
fagots, and, while we sit In the churches
with folded arms and Indifference, crime
and disease and death will 90 on with the
agonizlng sacrifice.
During the early French revolution at
BourGes there was q company OF boys who
used to train every day as young solIers,
and they carried fag,, AMI they had on
trembiel We are growing up" Nightly
suggestiveI This generation Is passing of,
and a mightier generation Is coming on.
Will they be the foes oftyranny, the foes
O; sin and tho foes OF death, or Will they
be the foes OF God? They are coming
upl I congratulate all parents who are
doing their best to keep their children
away from the altar OF sacrifice: Your
prayers. are going to be answered. Your
but they will come back again. A voice
comes from the throne to-day, encourag-
ing you-"I will be u God to thee and to
thy seed after thee" And, though when
you lay your head In death there may be
some wanderer OF the family far away from
God, and you may be twenty years IN
heaven before salvation shall come to bis
heart, he will be brought into the king.
dom, and before the throne OF God you
viii rel oIce that you were faithful. Come
at last, though SO long postponed his COM
Ing. Come at lastl
congratulate all those who are toiling
for the outcast and the wandering. Your
work will soon be over, but the influence
you are setting IN motion will never stop.
Long after you have been garnsred for
the skies, your prayers. your teachings