The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1901-05-23


amusements are wrong which lead into bad
company. III you go to any place where
you have to associate with the intemper-
ate, with the unclean, with the abandoned,
however. well they may be dressed, in the
name Of God quit IL. They will despoil
your nature.
had a friend in the West - rare
friend. He was one of the first to well
come me to my new home. To fine per-
sonal appearance he added a generosity,
frankness and nrdor of nature that made
me. love him like brother. But I saw
evil people gathering around him. They
came up from the saloons, from the
gambling hells. They piled him with a
thousand arts. They seized upon his So
cial nature, and he could not stand the
charm. They drove him on the rocks, like
ship, full winged, shivering on the break
ers. | used to admonish him. / would
say, Now, l wish. you would quit those
bad habits and become a Christian"
oh" he would reply, II would like to,
l would like to, but I have gone SO far
Il don't think there is any way back" In
his moments of repentance he would go
home and take his little girl of eight
years and embrace her convulsively, and
cover her with adornments, and strew
around her pictures and toys and every
thing that could make her happy, and
then, as though bounded by an evil spiris,
he would go out to the inhaming cup and
the house of shame like fool to the cor
rection Of the stocks.
l was summoned to his deathoed; /
FASTENED; l entered the ROOM | found
him, to my surprise, lying in full every
day dress on the top of the couch. put
out my hand. He grasped it excitedly
and said; "Sit down, Mr.. Talmage; right
there" sat down. He said: Last
night saw my mother, who has been dead
twpntu nd ba tttat xx-har
sit now. It was no dream, I was wide
awake. There was no deusion in the
matter. saw her Just as plainly as I
see you, Wife. l wish you would take
these strings off me. There are strings
spun all around my body. wish you
would take them off me-" l saw it was
delirium. "Oh," replied his wife, "my
nothing therep He went on and said:
"Just where you sit, Mr.. Talmage, my
mother sat. She said to me, Henry, /
do wish you would do better got out
of bed, put my arms around her and
said: Mother, want to do better. 1
have been trying to do better. Won't you
help me to do better? You used to help
me| No mistake about it; no delusion.
saw here-the cap and the apron and the
spectacles-just as she used to look twen-
ty. years ago. But l do wish you would
take these strings away. Thev annoy me
so 1 can hardly talk. Won't you take
them away" | knelt down and prayed,
conscious of the fact that he did not
realize what I was saying. I got up. I
said: "Goodby! l hope you will be better
soon" He said, "Goodby, goodbv!"
That night his soul went up to the God
who gave it. Arrangements were made
for the obsequies. Some said: Don't
bring him in the church, He was too
dissolute." "Oh,". I said, bring him. He
was a good friend of mine while he was
alive, and I shall stand by him now that
As I sat in the pulpit and saw his
body coming up through the aisle | felt
as il l could weep tears of blood. told
the people that day: This man had his
virtues and good many Of them. He
had his faults and a good many of them.
But il there is any man in this audience
who is without sin let him cast the first
stone at this coffin lid" One one side
of the pulpit sat that little child, rosy,
sweet faced, as beautiful as any little
child that sat at your table this morn
ing. warrant you. She looked up wist.
fully, not knowing the full sorrows OF
an orphan child.
This destroyed man was a Samson in
physical strength, but Delilah sheared him,
and the Philistines Of evil companionship
dug his eyes out and threw him into the
of his death he rose up and took hold
of the two pillared curses of God against
drunkenness and uncleanness and threw
himself forward until down upon him
and his companions there came the thun-
ders of an eternal catastrophe.
Again, any amusement that gives you
a distaste for domestic life is bad. How
many bright domestic circles have been
broken up by sinful amusements! The
father went off, the mother went off, the
child went off. There are to-day frag-
ments before me of blasted households.
Oh, if you have wandered away, would
like to charm pyou back to the sound of
that ono word home"
l saw a wayward husband standing at
the deathbed of his Christian wife, and
l saw. her point to ring on her finger
and heard her say to her husband: "Do
see it, @Weii,s said she, do you re.
member who put it theres' Eyes, said
he, Il put it there" And all the past
seemed to rush upon him. By the mem
ory of that day when, in the presence
Of men and angels, you promised to be
ness and in health; by the memory of
those pleasant hours when you sat to-
gether in your new home talking of a
bright future; by the cradle and the joyful
hour when one life was spared and an
other gwen; by that sickbed, when the
little one lifted up 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
without rush of tears; by the family BIZ
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 judgment day, when husbands and
wives, parents and children, in immor-
tai groups, will stand to be caught up
in shining array or to shrink down into
darkness-by all that beg you give to
home your best affections.
All, my friends, there is an hour COM
ing when our past life viii probably pass
before us in review. 1t will be our last
hour. If from our death pillow we have
to look back and see a life spent in sim
full amusement, there will be a dart that
will strike through our soul sharper than
the dagger with which Virginius 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 Merrilies. Death, the old Shylock,
will demand and take the remaining pound
of flesh and the remaining drop OF blood,
and upon our last opportunity for re-
pentance and our last chance for heaven
the curtain will forever drop.
Tho JudGe's Charro Comes First.
A new law in Montana will tend to