Her senses faded, and she would have fallen
from her seat but for the support of the partition against
which she leaned. Fortunately, the women near her were too much
occupied with the narrative to notice her condition. Many of them
wept silently, with their handkerchiefs pressed over their mouths.
The first shock of death-like faintness passed away, and she clung
to the speaker's voice, as if its sound alone could give her
strength to sit still and listen further.
"Deserted by his friends, unable to stay his feet on the evil
path," he continued, "the young man left his home and went to a
city in another State. But here it was easier to find associates
in evil than tender hearts that might help him back to good. He
was tired of life, and the hope of a speedier death hardened him in
his courses. But, my friends, Death never comes to those who
wickedly seek him. The Lord withholds destruction from the hands
that are madly outstretched to grasp it, and forces His pity and
forgiveness on the unwilling soul. Finding that it was the
principle of LIFE which grew stronger within him, the young man
at last meditated an awful crime.
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