Vol. IL SANFORD, NORTH CAROLINA, SATURDAY, AUGUST II, 1888. No. 50.. J W**1 T lAmwur KArflNlr!! ■ j1 V? Zi-•■■' '•■ v wtwmr . ' Ji, tftERE’S KNOCKING AT THE GATE. • ^Perched and Gat an4 Nettling Mora.1* >T 0. J. Bti JOBS', J*., tlNIYERSITY « VIRGINIA. ■ * . ... Just after the killing of Dnir rv —can in that matchless play ef ShSke %peare. Lady Mackbeth, who before has had the ‘access dud passage of remorse stopped’ begins to have '‘compunctious Yisltings of ffatfere.” ^The fiendish character departs. Pear fend anxiety lieasa upon the mind. "‘‘The damned spot” will not out. _. All the perfumes will not sweeten that' bloody hand. . Thus reeking with blood and her mind beset with terrors she hears “knocking at the g“«>” . • What is the knocking? The hor ror of the dark deed repeating itself in the soul, the conjuring of a bloody imagination full of “the deep dam nation of his taking off.-" Peace has departed nevermore to return to that troubled niind. The darkness that brings rest to- the innocenjt oomes to her laden kith horrors. Noise is approaching danger and, Si lence is dreadful. Bemorse rends the soul. It is in this condition that ' she, standing in the room, stained with the blood of the murdered king, imagines knocking at the- gate. What a sound was that! now real! how awful to the guilty mind in the ■still night to hear that ■knocking—■ knocking. And bear in mind that nothing was krtOeking. It was •only the.,agitation of a soul upon which crime had set its seal, a soul tempest tossed with no bitven of rest. This is always the fate of guilt. It may escnpe the law, the censure ■and even the observation of men, but in every guilty soul there is an executioner whose vigilance Buffers no escape and whose punishment aurpasses all the tortures invented by men. It is conscience* the trou bler of the waters and the god of the billows of the abul. Men sometiiries cause vice to take the place of virtue. When they •deal out the rewards of thediscriinina tious in favor of the deserving are not always very marked, WrOflg •doers not only often escape punish ment bnt frequently wear the laur els. Corruption stalks along the the great highways with confidence. But when the Grkat God of heav en speaks there is ao confusion of .judgement. The good, the true, the pure then wear the crowns—the bad, the false, the corrupt are turned ■away. — It is the same principle, that dwells in the soul, justice, whose, verdict upon evil is remorse. lie that hides a dark soul dnd foul thought* Benighted under the mkUiuypsun., JjUfhseU 1* his own dungeon. Then how priceless is integrity! How smooth arid Calm are the wa ters upon which its bark glides along!—-How sweet and pure the breezes which fan its sails. It is “the immediate jewel of the soul.” The ■sweetest flowers bloom along the path of virtue-. The contrast is the chief person nge in the late great tragedy enact ed at Washington, which sent a thrill of horror through oilr nation, is striking and instructive. The dy ing President by the sea side with composure “heard the great waves breaking upon the farther shore and felt upon his already Wasted hrrtw the breath of the eterrtal inorn." The wretched assassin, the foulest product of the age, alone, face to face, with the awful crime, in cowardly fear awaiting the grinding of the gods, drinking tke cup of bitter Woes, the shadows thickeningarourtd him, heard and still hears that dreadful sound, thnt knockiiig-knoekitiy — , knocking. The agony may end UtYe but what then-. Who can tell — what doom is in reserve for the wretch in the great realms where — Justice reigns supreme? : What, still knocking? “What, will these hands never be clean ?'V “This mind torture ja jiot confined .to the low and the base. Rrutus. the “noblest Roman of them all,” . whoae alipRh Cmw's ride wae.^hc ■» - , -. ' ..r T* most unlnndest cut of all1 —wag he quite ' at rest while still reek? ing with the blood of his “best, lov er?” Tke jwrat English dramatist portrays the meeting of the celebra ted assassin and the spirit of his vic tim in which the brave' Old Roman is suddenly otefwhelined with a sense of the enormity of, his crime and he at trfiee becomes a plebian and a eoward. Alone, in his tent Mtm Itrutu*,—How 111 this taper burn*! ITaJ who comes here? ■_ — I tiltjftk. It is the weakness of mine eyes. That shapes this monstrous apparition It comes upon mo:—Art thou anything? A rt thou somo some angel or some devil That^niak’st my blood cola and my ltijjj ta Speak to me, what thou art. Oho»t of CVre/Mir.—.Xhy^MTl spirit, Brutus. Hr «f thou? Ghoul:—To toll tlice thou shalt see me at PhU lpl, ^ “Then^ilack despair. ,ThG shadow of a starless night was thrown Over the world In which. Ac -moved alone Does this inward trouble only come when blood has been shed? The vulture eiits into the soul of the wrong doer of every grade. It was ■the ghost of a wasted life, that haunt ed that wayward genius Edgar Allen Poe. With mind as luminous as the stars, he became a vagabond and an Qutcdst. Atleast he Wds brought face to face with the dread accuser. His own genius paints the scene. In the itfnely night titne he hears the tapping-rapping at his chamber door, I n stalks a_stately raven bird of evil omen from “night’s Plutoriian shore.” Who can mis take the import of this appaliug ap parition? The soul of the poet is preying upon itself, and torture be gins. It wag this that, PercfierfgBoli a bust 01 Palaa Just atfcmj my Chamber door. Perched and uat and nothing more, This was the fowl Whoise firey eyes now burned iu his bosoms core. Take thy beak from out mv heart, and Take tiiv fori* from off my floor, Quoth the liaven, ‘-Nevermore.” But this is shade. The picture of human life has ntany bright and beauteous colors. How sweet the truth, that life may be free from these tOffclrs and sceptres! What a perfect illustration is the life of our lovely poet Longfellow! Emerson, his friend and contemporary Whose memory age had dimmed, *i the funeral forgot the poet’s fiaifie,but he did not forget that there was a “pure and beautiful soul.” How pleasing sacred and' inspiring memory of such a life! When it is done we gather up thy beams and place them in memory and they continue to give ns light, like The spent shafts of the setting sun That aye gathered when the day is (lone And placed again In Its golden quiver. ^ Though all may not run the srttoOth course dfelirmgfel low and have in an equal degree the rewards that come of a pure, nohle and dutiful life, it is still well with us when misfortunes befall if we can only say with the bereaved Cardinal Wolsey, -my roDo And my Integrity to heavea la all 1 dare now cull my own. ArAthw Democrat on the Third Party. _jKx/«fc*§s Correspondence.) Editor Central Express.—Sir: Will you be so kind as to allow space in your valuable columns for a few wofds in regard to the political sen tunent of ; the prohibition, of third party in this the southern part of Chatham county. Many of us in this part of our county are highly in favor of W. T, Walker for our next Governor, owing to his temperance or prohibition principles; in other words we are strictly pro hibitionists. Hence, I feel it my bounden dutyto vote against him and do everything in my power to get others to do the same; feeling assur ed that there is no chance of his election, and, that every vote cast for him. is a step in the right direction to set hack the cause of prohibition at least five or ten years. Therefore, I am too loyal and too much interested in a cause so grand and of so much importance to do any thing that would jeopar dise or impede its progress, We are prohibitionists in deed and in truth, hot merely because'some one else ad vocates it or for the name, hut for the good of the cause and the party. Consequently, I do not just yet propose to let imprudence and haste destroy all of my former ef forts for the grand cause of which 1 have worked so hard. This may sound strange to some, though 1 do not propose auy explanation in regard to my views, believing that the most obtuse mind can appre hend ttiy meaning. - l’ours respectfully, - T. M. Johnson-. -- ^Osgood, N. 0,,- Aug; 7th, -mk tH£ BIBLE. A Biblical Address by one of Moore jW County's College Student’s. ' (Express Correspondence.) The product of the modern press almost defies estimate. ’ - rr 1 In I88|! t^eJS#ibrary i>f ^Congress acknowledged 8302 deposits schedul ed as books. * , There are 15.000 periodicals in our 6wn”country alone. But of all books the Bible is the greatest. It was written within the space of 4,000 years. The greatest intellects, aided by divine inspiration wrote this Book. If should be interesting to us because it is a history of the world—the dwelling place of us all and all of our ancestors. Again it should interest us be cause it is a history of our own race from its first appearance tell the death of Chiist, and it Contains prophecies about what is to befall us in the last days. - But it should especially interest us hecanse it is a history of Christ. All books are written with pur pose ambhave a centre of attraction. This book has the grandest centre of attraction of any ever yet pub lished, for Christ as it were is file hero of this Book. The Bible affords us the clearest insight into that complex thing known as human nature. \ It gives us a clear graphic ac count of creation, and of the flood which deluged the earth, the Jews also, God’s own chosen people. In portrtiying simple and affect ing scenes it stands alone. For example the story of Moses and of Ruth and of Mordeeas. Its characters are for the most part models of virtue, charity, mor ality and integrity. The faith of Abraham, the pa tience of Job, the sweet strains of David, the unsurpassed wisdom of Solomon, the prophetic visions of Jaremiah and Esekiel. The simplicity for the most part of the new testament is all portray ed with a simple grandeur which we look in vain for elsewhere. The works of Shakespeare are master-pieces. Men have spent their whole lives studying them. Vol umes have been written to prove that Shakespeare neverNyrote them all, hut that Bacon wrote them. All however grant the universal popularity of the works usually attributed to Shakespeare. But the Bible has beeu read in thousands of places and by thous ands of people who never heard of Shakespeare. In the Temple, by the Jordan, at Bethlehem, alt over/Palestine and all over Asia, in the Islands of the sea, in every land and beneath every sky has this blessed Book been read. It enlarges aur views and elevates our thoughts. How tender and touching are all of its words of hope and comfort. We are wanderers from (iod. The Bible is a letter written from God to us. How w'e should delight to read this letter written to us from our Father. When first the world was formed and fashioned in the most perfect manner, it stood forth the ‘ ideal world. Man, tne crowning glory or tne world was placed in it—the perfect man. „ Thus we have an ideal world and an ideal: man. Then the sun, moon, world and stars rolled on in their proper spheres ia perfect harmony. In all the universe there was no discord. When suddenly there is a jar, a discord. What is the matter? Gur world is wrong!! Ilad sin ned! You know, when any musical in strument is out of tune instead of making harmony it makes discord: So it was with our world. Christ left Royal Palace and Throne and came to attune our dis cordant earth. He did it, bat at the cost of his life. J' “ '■ ' Front Genesis to Revelation we find the impress of Christ op every page. All the old testament tells of him and prefaces his coming. —The new testament tells of him while he was on earth. Aside iron* its divine inspiration and the plan of salvation, the Bible interests us os a mere boook. Do you wish .for narrative. Where can yon find better than in this book. Do you desire stories of thrilling adventure and hair-breadth escapes? These can 1«5 found )>-. re. • ’fkryoti desire .fngSgfe. bssmtifu! djsdoftl‘Se?''"iWfthin tills Book” you can find that which is simple and as smooth as the crystal brook. Do you desire philosophical dis course? There are depths in. the! Bible which no giant minds, no towering intellects have ever yet fathomed. v Like the deep and mighty river flowing with undisturbed tranquili ty, while here and there upon its placid bosom in beautifuL. repose rests a pure white flower, soft leaves sparkling Witlrthcsi I very water, the Bilile is a grand story, flowing on in its unbroken course, while here and there is a beautiful story felling some great truth. Do you wish to learn music? In the Bible there are musical passages which have never been equalized. In your imaginative thinking the grand orchestras of David, the sweet singer of Israel and Solomon his son—we can almost feel the chords of our souls thnll with pleasure as we listen to the grand strains filling the air with sweetest melody. The Bible is suited to all classes, the learned and ignorant—the la borer as well as king. All other books perish by the ruthless stroke of time, but the Bible is a gem which nothing can destroy. Read I it and let it be your teacher andj