Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1901-05-25
NUMBER 46.

who had done the work. They were the
men who had bou I'D him hand and
foot They had kindl ed the fires. They
had poured the. wor mwood and gall
into that orphans cup. Did they weep?
No. Did they sigh reDentingly? No.
Did they say, What a pity that such a
brave man should be slain" No, no.
Not one bloated hand was lifted TO
wipe a tear from bloated cheek. They
sat and looked at the coffin like yul-
lures gazing at the carcass Of a lamb
whose heart they had ripped out!
cried in their ears as plainly as could,
"There is a God and judgment day."
Did they tremble? Oh, no, no. They
went back from the house Of God, and
that night. though their victim lay In
Oakwood cemetery. | was told that
they blasphemed, and they drank, and
they gambled. and there was not one
less customer In all the houses Of in
iquity. This destroyed man was a
Samson in physical strength, but De-
lilah sheared him, and the Phillstnes
Of evil conipanionshlp dug his eyes out
and threw him into the prison Of evil
habits. But In the hour of his death
he rose up and took hold Of the two
pillared curses Of God against drunken
ness and uncleanness and threw him
self forward until down upon him and
his companions there came the thun-
ders Of an eternal catastrophe.
Cultivate Domestic joys.
Again. any amusement that gives
you dlstaste for domestic life is bad.
How many bright domestic circles
have been broken up by sinful amuse-
mentsl The father went off, the moth
er went off, the child went off. There
are today the fragments before me of
blasted households. Oh, If you have
wandered away. | would like to charm
you back to the sound Of that one
word "home." Do you not know that
you have but little more time to give
to domestic welfare? Do you not see.
father, that your children are soon to
60 out into the world. and all the in
1uence for good you are to have over
them you must have now? Death VIII
break in on your congenial relations,
and alas If you have to stand over the
grave Of one who perished from your
neglect!
I saw a wayward husband standing
at the deathbed of his Christian wife,
and | saw her point to q ring on her
III hoor1 hnr m hOr hl1S-
band. "Do you see that ring" He re-
piled, "Yes, see It. "Well," said she,
"do you remember who put it thereT
"Yes," said he, 81 put 1t there" And
all the past seemed to rush upon him.
BY the memory Of that day when. In
the presence of men and angels, you
promised to be faithful in Joy and sor-
row and In sickness and In health;
by the memory of those pleasant hours
when you sat together in your new
home talking Of bright future; by the
cradle and the joyful hour when one
life was spared and another given; by
that sickbed. when the little one lifted
I'D the hands and called for help, and
you knew he must die, and he put one
arm around each Of your necks and
brought you very near together in that
dying kiss; by the little grave in the
cemetery that you never think OF with
out a rush Of tears; by the family Bi-
BILE, where, amid stories of heavenly
love, is the brief but expressive record
of births and deaths: by the neglects
of the past and by the agonies of the
future; by a judgment day. when bus
bands and wives, parents and children.
in immortal groups. will stand to be
caught up In shining array OF to shrink
| down into darkness-by all that l beg
you give to home your best affections.
All, my friends, there Is an hour COM
ing when our past life will probably
, pass before us In review. 1t Will be
our last hour. II from our death pillow
we have TO look back and see life
spent In sinful amusement, there will
be a dart that will strike through our
soul sharper than the dagger with
which virglnius slew his child. The
memory of the past will make us quake
like Macbeth; the iniquities and rioting
through which we have passed will
, come upon US weird and skeleton as
Meg MerriIes. Death, the old Shy
. lock. will demand and take the remain
ing pound of flesh and the remaining
: drop Of blood, and upon our last oppor-
tunity for repentance and our last
/ chance for heaven the curtain will for
7 ever drop.
. Copyright, 1901. by Louis Kopsch, N. ~