The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-06-05

ana TO all pictures OF COIllHS disaster Lney
cry out, "Who cares" and to the counsel
of some Christian friend. "Who are you?"'
Your sports are merely means to an end.
They are alleviations and helps. The arm
of toll IS the only arm strong enough to
bring up the bucket out of the deep we'll
of pleasure. Amusement is the only bow
er where business and philanthropy rest
while on their way to stirring achieve
ments. Amusements are merely the vines
that grow about the anvil of toll and the
blossoming of the hammers.
I 20 further and saw that all those
amusements are wrong which lead into bad
company. If you 60 to any place where
you have to associate with the intemper-
ate, with the unclean, with the abandoned,
however we'll they may be dressed, in the
name of God quit it. They will despoil
your nature.
I had a friend in the West - a rare
friend. He was one of the first to well
come me to nv new home To fine per.
sonal appearance he added a generosity,
frankness and ardor of nature that made
me love him like a brother. But I saw
evil people gathering around him. They
came up from the saloons, from the
gambling hells. They piled him with
thousand arts. They seized upon his 30.
cial nature, and he could not stand the
charm. They drove him Oh the rocks, like
q ship, full winged, shivering on the break.
ers. I used to admonish him. | would
say, "Now, I wish you would quit those
bad habits and become a Christian"
"Oh," he would reply, "'I would like to,
I would like to, but l have gone SO far
I don't think there is any way back" In
his moments of repentance he would 80
home and take his little girl of eight
hor
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 spirit,
he would 90 out to the inhaming cup and
the house of shame like fool to the cor
rection of the stocks.
I was summoned to his deathbed; I
fastened; I 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" I sat down. He said: Last
night I saw my mother, who has been dead
twenty years, and she sat just where you
sit now. It was no dream, ! was wide
awake. There YES no. no deluslon ss3oi.,,, in ., the
see you. Wife, I wish you would take
these strings off me. There are strings
spun all around nv body. I wish you
would take them off me-" I saw it was
delirium. "Oh," replied his wife, "my
dear. there is nothing there; there is
nothing there" He went on and said
"Just where you sit, Mr.. Talmsge, my
mother sat. She said to me, Henry, I
do wish you would do better / got out
of bed, put my arms around her and
said: Mother, I 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; l
saw here-the cap and the apron and the
spectacles-just as she used to look TWEEN,
ty years ago. But I do wish you would
so I can hardly talk. Won't YOU take
them away?" I knelt down and prayed,
conscious Of the fact that he did not
realize what I was saying. got up.
said: "Goo1by! I hope you will be better
soon" He said, "Goodby, goodby" ,
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," said, 'bring him. He
was a good friend of mine while he was
alive, and I shall stand by him now that
he is dead. Bring him to the church,
As I sat in the pulpit and saw his
body coming up through the aisle felt
as il 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 good many OF them.
But if there is any man in this audience slce
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, I warrant you. She looked up wist::
fully, not knowing the full sorrows OF
an orphan child.
oh, her countenance haunts me to-day
like some sweet face looking upon US
through a horrid dream! On the other
side OF the pulpit were the men who had
destroyed him. There they sat, hard ,vls-
aged, some of them pale from exhaustlng
disease, some of them flushed until 1T
seemed as if the fires of iniquity famed
through the cheek and cracked the lips.
They were the men who had done the
work. They were the men who had bound
him hand and foot. They had klndled the
gall into that orphans cup. Did they
No. Did they say: "W6at q pity that
such brave man should be slainE" No,
no. Not one bloated hand was lifted to
wipe a tear from o bloated cheek. They
sat and looked at the coffin like vultures
gazing at the carcass of lamb whose
heart they had ripped out! cried in
their ears as plainly as I could: There
is a God and a 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 ceme-
terry, I was told that they blasphemed,
and they drank, and they gambled, and
there was not one less customer IN all the
houses of iniquity.
This destroyed man was Samson In
physical strength, but Delilah sheared him,
and the Philistines of evil companionshlp
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 pillarcd 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 lie 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, 1 would
like to charm you back to the sound OF
that one word "home."
I saw wayward husband standing at
the deathbed of his Christian wife, and
1 saw her point to a ring on her finger
and heard her say to her husband: DO
YOU see that ring?" He replied: "Yes,
see it,, "Well," said she, do you re,
member who put it there?", Yes" said
he, II put it there" And all the past
seemed to rust upon HIM. by the mem
ory of that day when, in the presence
faithful in joy and sorrow and in sick.
ness and in health; by the memory of
those pleasant hours when you sat to-
sether in your new home talking of a
Bright future; by the cradle and the joyful
hn,ar ,uhen one life was spared and an.