I WANT to impress upon the minds of our young readers, the solemnity of not heeding, or disregarding friendly reproof. When I was a little boy about ten years old living in M., a family came along traveling in a wagon. They were moving to another part of the country, and as there was no railroad, they were obliged to travel in a wagon. In this family there was a little boy about my own age, who had a gun, and he was very fond of hunting ducks and geese. And as there was a great deal of this kind of game near our place, he was in the height of his glee for the two days they remained with us to rest their team. But he was very careless with his gun, and handled it as though it were a toy. My mother noticed this, and did not want me to be around him. She told him that a loaded gun was a very dangerous thing, and said he must be careful, specially while around the house, or he would shoot himself or someone else. She also told him she had known some sad accidents to happen from carelessness with guns. But he replied that he was not afraid, and there was no danger, for he had carried a gun almost from his babyhood and was not killed yet. As long as he remained, she repeated her warnings and cautions, but all were unheeded by him. Two days after they had left our place, they were driving along beside a stream, when this little boy saw some ducks, and went to the back end of the wagon to get his gun. The barrel was pointing out, so he pulled it toward him, but the hammer caught in some way, and set it off, and shot him through the stomach. He lived a little while to think of his carelessness, and of all those unheeded warnings. How solemn and true are the words of the wise uttered so long ago:
Now, dear children, you have often been warned in Sunday school, and elsewhere, about the danger of putting off the salvation of your soul. Death might carry you off. The Lord might come, and then you would be banished to that place of outer darkness, and would have a woeful eternity to think of those warnings and beseechings and loving entreaties of parents, Sunday school teachers and loved ones.
C. C. O.
ML 07/29/1900