The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-02-20

i
Raqucst.
1' "Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye In the
ways. and see, and ask for the Old paths,
There Is the good way, and walk therein,
and ye sball find rest for your souls"
Jeremiah, WIG.
y The Prophet Jeremiah lived 3. G.
660-6S0, and prophesied. during the
reign9 OF Josiah, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin
and zedekiah. He lived in an age of
great national and spiritual decline, and
his prophecies are either ~ exhortations
enings against sae impenitsnt and ineor. ,
rigible, or (3) lamentations over the ruin
aud desolation of Judea, that followed
the burning Of Jerusalem and tho can
tiyity of the Jews under Nebuchadnezzer,
King Of Babylon. He lived among o
people whose moral natures had been
Dlnnted and calloused by wan and idol
atriess, and who ioue6 th, ssays Of sin in
aotich they had been bor7, and rear d. His
prophecies-calling to reform and revival
TO forner piety and uprightness-grated
on the ear of both kings aud people. He
never delivered single message that wss
. acceptable to his countrymen. He never
preached sermon that did not render
him more unpopular. He endured re-
proach aud persecution. He was the
victim of murderous conspiracy, and was
more than once doomed to death, but
escaped at the last extremity by the in
terposition of friends. He describes him
self as one in sChosc. bones Me-suessage of
God burnt IKE fire, and had to DO delivered.
and yet when delivered they but stirred
the rage of an emasculated people, who,
rather than mend their lives, preferred to
kill the man of God, who faithfully told
them OF their sins.
The words Of my text seem to be q
special message from the God of Israel
to his wandering, lost, bowilderedp
Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the
ways, and see, and ask for the old paths,
where 10 the good way, and walk therein,
and ye shall ind rest for your souln."
~ The words "stand ye in the ways
und see" mean: come to q halt in your
journey, and coneider if ye be in the
right road. "Stand aud see,n look at
your guide-book, examine the Wsy-marks,
and you viii discoyor that you are out Of
the highway and have wandered in somo
by-path.
W Having stopped to consder-aa the
mariner would say, to get your bearings
You will surely discover that you have
gone wrong. What then? "Ask for the
old paths" Enquire for the true high
way. Find it as speedily as possible.
(S) And having found 10, without
further delay, "walk therein.h Beat a
retreat, set yourselves right, then "for-
ward" all along the line. "Walk there
4 in"--show the same eagerness to 20 right
that You did to go wrong.
~ What will ha the result e shi:s
change Of conduct? Eye shall find rest
for your souls"
I know that tho language is highly
figu,atiye and the imagery poetic, but I
81 think have given you the truo exposi-
y :ion. In plain Language, God exhorted
% his people to examine their position to-
8 wards Him-to make inventory Of their
past lives, to hunt up their Bibles and
81 bring. their liver into submission to its
If teachings, to go back to first principles
's in religion, and they would be q happier
- and better people. And as prophecy
was not given for ole people or age OK
clusively, but for all time and ali mon,
ne may with all propriety appropriate
this oxhortation TO ourselves and our
s time
& think the text is call to mo, al re-
sumption, addressed to men in 1879 A. @.
= as PROPERLY rs 626 3. o. History re-
( peats itself, sin and iniquity repeat them.
selves, and in this nineteenth century we
find suspension of morals just as did
M Jeremiah twenty-five hundred years ago
After an interval of sixteen years, We
have just had return tosrecie payments
IN the United States. Opinions differ as
to the advisability of this measure at this
time. / do not know; but do know
3 that moral forces that have been held in
suspension for many. years ought to Dc re
sun,cd. In truth, they ought never te
shaye been suspended; and, as they were
suspended, they ought to have been re
{ , sumed long ago, but % they have mo-
been fully resumed, tho work should bl
done ut once. q
=.8 SS;;i;fis, pvThhar5 viii say there mas beer
no moral suspension. May be not, bn
my observation is that the moral force.
81 operation among us before the wa
aye never been fully resumed. We ar,
sont to look at the results OF the war a.
hysical, social and political.
- It Is easy for Us to call up tho san
urinary fields and review the thousand
slain and wounded. We daily lool
pom the armless sleeve, the wooden leg
Ie SCARED face, the mnsilated hand, ant
member that those men now CROWN,
my, and bearing about them the mark
battle, were onee the living wall brist
Esig with bhnyOnots "along the Potomac.
nd 60 we contemplate the physical evil
the war. x
f2) We look upon the impoyerishet
adition of the old people of our land
lo once lived in easy af]uence. w
sve seen the whole social fabric throw
and broken by o mighty upheava
D have seen acme thousands of mil
5ns OF doiiars or property wasted. w
l,Ht the widows and orphans, aud be
I'D children descended from thusfrs
miles in the land grown sip in ignc
.ce and vice, whose patrimony, sWeT
Say by the war, arc left no means {
lcation. And we are familiar wit
social evils of ths war.
3) The changes wrought in the polit
sphere are moro marked thar thos
the social or physical. Several mi
nf pee IS aus .Iit, Ui
is, of low order OF intellect have bee
ed TO position and power, wholly II
1putible with their safety or the alfei
their siilera. Net capable OF 'apprt
ling liberty fhsy have turned i inl
ntiousa eissa INVOKING The torch an
they haee dotted our land swit
;it hoines!eads and smonfdering gfuiu
bnsts Of Habershan and Berria
Walton aud Hall have looked dow
sgazsE. Shelf nichaz "a the Gantgia Sta
lse, upon the iRrstche ed farres enacte
miserable nbortions, white and blacl
cllimSd TO be their auccessofs; ail
S. hgttaz Of Mr. l9fsffins md Hayna nj,