The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1909-02-19

know not what they do.
"Your crime, awful as it is, must
be set before you, in the hope that
it may do YOU and the community
good. To creep upon a poor woman
in her own cabin, in the stiffness of
night, with her nursing at her feet,
her first-born wrapped in infantile
innocent slrmber by her side, when
hands were preparing the scanty por-
tion Of vegetables for iher and their
food. and to shoot her as a wild
beast. hardly has a parallel in the an
mails Of crime.
"When to this is added the fact
that the guilty wretch who committed
this deed was her seducer, the father
Of her little ones, where, oh where,
shall we find another as foul blot
on humanity.
ITO you, at least, her person ought
to have been sacred. For you, she
had made herself the guilty, degarded
| being to whom beauty was reproach,
character Was infamy, and affection
| was hatred. For you, she had left a
fathers house and plenty, and had
become dependent on almost charity
for food and covering. To you, she
had given the pledges of her love in
the starving, degraded children
around her! How could you, young
man, shay her, who had THUS given
her all to you? How could you, level
your gun at the head, which had Of
ten been pillowed, in guilty affection
upon your bosom? Remember, beg
YOU 10 remember, that her blood will
sink YOU forever into everlasting tor
ments unless you can feel that mercy
your Saviour's dying mercy, has re-
moved the guilty weight of it from
your soul.
''It is necessary, too, young man,
for your own sake and that Of tine
section Of the country (Pea Ridge, of
Union District) from which you came
that it should be said, I fear your
crime is the consequence of the gross
Immortality and vice, which has too
much there abounded. Female vir-
tue. has there. I am told, lost its ap-
propriate value. Seduction is not re-
earded as a crime; and concubinage,
is not at all rare and disgraceful. Will
you not, as you approach the gallows,
say with me, Shame upon such a
static of things You will be, most
probably, the first white man hanged
in Union District; and fearful will be
the commentary Of your fate, upon
such a state of morals.
"Is it true that you and the de-
ceased were once members Of the
same religious community? Can it
be that YOU forgot that the weak and
lovely being at your side, was your
sister in the house Of your Master,
and that violating her confidence, YOU
Snatched a crown Of peace from her
head, to place upon it one Of shame!
Oh! if these things be 50, think upon
them-ponder them night and day for
they demand fearful reckoning and
account.
From YOU I turn and with me [
hope You will in thought also 60, to !
the house of your parents. What is
there? Peace! No, oh no! [ can, in
imagination, hear your young wife
frantically asking to be allowed to
share YOUR prison solitude; your
mother, like Rachael, weeping for her
children and would not be comforted
for they were not; your father, once
respectable, now broken down and la
menting like David for Absalom, 'Oh,
my son, would to God that l had died
for thee.' Who has caused this scene
Of mourning? Must l say, guilty
Young man. thou art the man!
Sad and Awful Thoughts.
Sad and awful as all these
thoughts and "reminiscences may be,
they are as nothing. to that, which
IS before you! Death, a shameful
death. in few days must be met and
suffered. Oh. Young man, do not die
forever
''God is before YOU, as He ever has
been. willing 40 be gracious. He still
points You to the atonement offered
on Calvary. He still says, Wash and
be clean.
Il have no doubt that, although
murderer like Massey, you may yet
have his hope Of pardon and peace. |
have heard with great pleasure that,
YOU have, as You believe, experienced |
that hope.
"Be not deceived! Wrestle contln-
ually. like good old Jacob with the
| .,oo1 of tho coyonant and SaV like