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DEATH OF MISS MAY R. COLE
MAN.
We were deeply pained to learn, while
on our trip West, in June, of the sa# event
indicated by our head line, which occur
red on the 7th of June at the residence of
her aunt, Mrs. Nancy Coleman, of Feas-
terville, S. C. We had known May from
her infancy up to the time of her death,
a little more than eighteen years. Her
father dying in the Confederate army, not
far from, and we believe a little before her
birth, left her in the hands of a good and
affectionate mother, who reared her very
tenderly till she was fifteen years of age,
when her mother was taken away by
death. Having been thus raised by a mo
ther who very seldom left her own hearth
stone, it was natural that Mary should be
of a quiet and retiring disposition; and
when left without a mother, it was also
natural that she should become reserved
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in her manner, which she did. This
caused her young and inexperienced asso
ciates to regard her as being of a rather
cold temperament. But in this they mis
judged her. She was possessed of warm
affections, but cultivated a prudent and
proper reserve for one situated as she was,
not bestowing her affection where she
was not sure there was an object worthy
of it. She was.of a very studious dispo
sition, and coveted a good education as an
object of paramount desire and of prime
iW£A5Y\ f «3-tiee. Could she have lived she
would have proved an ornament to her
sex and a blessing to the world. But it
could not be. Death claimed her as his
own, and her womanly form now sleeps
in the grave, while her friends rejoice,
amid their sorrow for their own loss, to
believe that she is now a dweller in that
lovely clime, the inhabitant of which shall
not say, “ I am sick.”
Mary was a member of the Universal-
ist church at Feasterville, and as she was
the first grown-up young person of our
faith who has died in that community
since the war, it is natural that her death
should have created quite a void in our
religious circle there. In view of the sur
roundings, the writer of this, on the 4th
Sunday in June volunteered a memorial
service in our church there, in honor of
our beloved departed young sister,who, in
his affections, occupied almost the place of
a daughter. May the memory of her vir
tues stimulate her surviving friends to
emulate her example. If so, she will
not have lived and died in vain.
YE SHALL KNOW THEM BY
THEIR FRUITS.
This declaration of Christ is just as
applicable to systems of faith as to indi
vidual character. Applied to the doc
trine of endless torture it condemns that
doctrine with an overthrow more signal
and complete, if such a thing were possi
ble, than that of the cities of the plain.
Mr. Buckle, in his history of civiliza
tion in England, exhibits‘some of the
fruits of the teachings of the Scotch
theologians in the seventeenth and eigh
teenth centuries that would disgrace an
average Hottentot. After giving an ac
count of some of their doings, he adds:
“As if this were not enough, they tried
to extirpate another affection, even more
sacred and more devoted still. They laid
their rude and merciless hands on the
holiest passion of which our nature is
capable, the love of a mother for her son.
Into that sanctuary they dared to intrude;
into that they thrust their gaunt and un
gentle forms. If a mother held opinions
of which they disapproved, they did not
scruple to invade her household, take
away her children, and forbid her to hold
communication with them. Or if, per
chance her son had incurred their dis
pleasure, they were not satisfied with
forcible separation, but they labored to
corrupt her heart, and harden it against
her child, so that she might be privy to
the act. In one of these cases mentioned
in the records of the church of Glasgow,
the Kirk-session of that town summoned
before them a woman, merely because
she had received into her house her own
son, after the clergy had excommunicated
him. So effectually did they work upon
her mind, that they induced her to promise,
not only that she would shut her door
against the child, but that she would aid
in bringing him to punishment. She had
sinned in loving him; she had sinned,
even, in giving him shelter ; but, says the
record, “she promised not to do it again,
and to tell the magistrates when he conies
next to her.”
So just and forcible are the comments
of Mr. Buckle, on the above recorded
transaction of those who perpetrated this
outrage in the name of the religion of
Christ, upon every principle of which it
was a gross libel, that we prefer to give
them, rather than the expressions of in
dignant rebuke against such nefarious
transactions in so holy a name, which
spring up in our heart, and struggle for
utterance. Here are his words:
“ She promised not to do it again. She
promised to forget him whom she had
borne of her womb and sucked at her
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breast. She promised to forget her boy
who had oftentimes crept to her knees
and had slept in her bosom, and whose
tender frame she had watched over and
nursed. All the dearest associations of
the past, all that the most exquisite form
of human affection can give or receive,
all that delights the memory, all that
brightens the prospect of life,all vanished,
all passed away from the mind of this
poor woman, at the bidding of her
spiritual masters. Atone fell swoop all
were gone. So potent were the arts of
these men, that they persuaded the
mother to conspire against her son, that
she might deliver him up to them. They
defiled her nature by purging it of its
love. From that day hersoul was polluted.
She was lost to herself as well as to her
son. To hear of such things is enough
to make one’s blood surge again, and raise
a tempest in our inmost nature. But to
have seen them, to have lived in the
midst of them, and yet not to have re
belled against them, is utterly inconceiv
able, and proves in how complete a thral
dom the Scotch were held, and how
thoroughly their minds, as well as their
bodies, were enslaved.”
—Our church or “ meeting house”
premises should be made attractive, so
as to express an interest in them such
as must be felt by all who appreciate
their religious privileges. The expend
iture of a little money, but especially the
bestowal of a little care, would rescue
many of the surrouudings from a melan
choly with which time and neglect have
invested them. About couutry places
trees should not be wanting, and if the
parishoners plant flowers and shrubbery
about the doors and yards they will add
greatly to the appearance of the sur
rouudings. It is not too much to say
that such care, besides the pleasure it
would afford those interested in it,
would produce results excellent enough
to give it a place among the moans of
grace.
—There is abundant evidence that he
who would do the most effective work in
leading sinful men into a knowledge of
the truth, must first thoroughly know the
truth. This is not simply au intellectual
process. The heart, asWell as the mind,
must have experienced—that is, tried and
proved-—what is meant by the saying,
“ Thy word is truth.” Christian Advocate.
—Luck is ever waiting for something
to turn up. Labor, with keen eyes and
strong will, will turn up something. Luck
lies iu bed, and wishes the postman
would bring him the news of a legacy.
Labor turns out at six o’clock, and, with
busy pen, or ringing hammer, lays the
foundation of a competence. Luck
whines. Labor whistles. Luck relies on
chance ; Labor, on character.— Cobden.
—Life becomes a work of art when it
is all directed to one aim, all arranged
according to a plan, and all thorougnly
executed. Christianity alone can make
life high art, because italoue fulfills these
conditions. It gives high aim to all our
activity, fills it with a noble spirit, and
teaches us to execute it thoroughly and
perfectly.—J. F. Clauke.