A Short Life and a Merry One
"A SHORT life and a merry one!" is the exclamation of the man who has deliberately surrendered himself to a life of guilty pleasure. He who utters it proclaims himself the most reckless of fools, since he declares it to be his deliberate choice to give eternity as the price of a day's indulgence. Against such folly the awful thunders of eternity mutter unutterable condemnation; and when the day of passionate indulgence is past and the soul of the sensualist awakens in perdition to a perception that he has actually thrown away immortal happiness for a day of unsatisfying delight, those fearful thunders will awaken echoes within his soul that will torture and terrify him forever. The refrains of his moans will be, "I have destroyed myself!" —Zion's Herald.