Children, obey your parents in all things; for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord.—Bible.
Onan evening in July, 18–, as several youths, from twelve to eighteen years of age, were standing at the corner of a street in the little village of B——, Rufus Taylor, one of their companions, came up to them and said, “Come, boys, let’s go and take a cool bath—’tis terribly warm.”
Rufus had been positively forbidden by his parents to go bathing without their consent; but, thinking they would never know anything about it, he came up to the group of boys and made the preceding proposition.
They all, with one consent, agreed to it, and soon were on their way to the bay.
Arriving at their famous bathing spot, and undressing in a few moments, they soon plunged into the cooling water, and swam to an island, a few hundred yards distant.
Rufus alone remained on the shore.
He was afraid to attempt swimming such a long distance, as he had but recently learned to swim. But, collecting all his courage, he followed his comrades, and cried out that he would overtake them or bedamned!What an awful word to proceed from the lips of a boy twelve years old! He had not swum more than fifty yards, when his strength failed, and he sank beneath the blue waves of the roaring ocean. Every effort was made by his friends to save him, but they were all in vain.
Let his untimely end be a solemn warning to boys who are in the habit of disobeying their parents.
May it teach a lesson, also, to those who indulge in the use of profane language. Rufus did not think that hisdamnationwas so near at hand, when he uttered that awful curse.
He was hurried into the presence of his Maker without one moment’s warning, and with the profane expression still lingering on his lips.
Who can tell the unutterable anguish of his parents when the intelligence of the death of their only son—their disobedient boy—reached their ears? His father, on being told that his son was drowned, exclaimed, “Oh, my disobedient son! I told him not to go bathing without my consent. Would to God I had died for him!”