The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1884-10-22
BILL ARP.
The Cotton Crop this Season not 40
EncouraGing-Obey the Law.

Encouragin9-Obey the Law.
The prospect is not bright. We were
counting on twice as much cotton as we
are going to get I don't plant cotton,
but my tenants does, and thought I
would get enough rent to pay my taxes
and put blinds to the house, but wont,
and tho blinds must go. It is hard on
me, but it is harder on Roland, for he
has worked faithfully and had high
hopes OF being able to buy another
mule. Roland is. a cheerful man and
nevev complains. He compares himself
to those who are worse off. When I
sympathized with him about the long
drouth cutting off his cotton, he said ::
well, Its not 50 bad as it might be, for
/ made q good corn crop and plenty Of
wheat and oats, and l don't owe as
much as some Of tha nabors. 1 don't
owe more than l can pay" How much
do you owe said I.
Only two dollars said he.
Iwish everybody was as we'll off as
Roland. I travelled with a man from
York in South Carolina the other day,
and he said his people owed enough for
guano to take all their cotton, and there
wasn't enough made in his county to
make shirt apiece for the people who
made it, "but then" said he we are having
mighty good meetings going on, and
always noticed that it took = power Of
religion to do folks under trouhle-more
religion in adversely than prosperity and
they always get it." That's so reckon
The good book says: Humble thyself
unto the mighty hand Of God," but a
man can't do it with pocket full Of
money. He may be ever so much in
clined that way. but man who has no
wants unsupplicd can't get down to it
and wrcstle in prayer and take under
holt like one who is in the low grounds
Of sorrow. The rich man feels secure
and independent whether it rains or not
The only thing he wants it to rain for is
to lay the dust and cool the air so he can
feel better in his skin. But the poor
farmer looks to the clouds for q living
and he never looks up without feeling
his dependence upon Him who made
them and who sends the rain upon the
just and the unjust. It's not ut all i'm
possible for q rich man to reverence his
Maker, and do good with his money and
have peaceful conscience. Job is a
notable example, and we have them
about nowadays, ever and anon, but still
they IRE scarce. 1t looks like the more
the Lord gives man the more he ought
to love him, but he don't and it is the
same way with parent and his children.
Poor folks children love their parents
better than rich folks children. and the
best Christians know Of are among the
poor and the afflicted Rich mems chill
dren stand around waiting Tor the old
man to die. They don't think they arc,
but they are. and they catch themselves
figureing many time about their share,
and what they will get when the old
man dies. DR.. Hageod preached ser
mon at our town not long ago. and with
solemn earnestness declared that it was
perilous thing for father to lay up
money for his children. "For many
long years." said he, II have been an ed
ucator Of tho boys Of this land. have
loved them and watched them and tried
to guide them by precept and example,
and / say now with solemn conviction,
that there is no danger, no peril, no
temptation so fatal to youth as riches
Many boys come to college as beneficial
ries many come whose parents are
toiling and struggling to give them al
education, and many como whose pa
rents are rich, and their children nevsr
know want. 1t is this last class only
that have ever given US trouble or anxi-
ETY.. From this class all the expulsions
come, and not long ago we had to expel
one Of them who was only sixeeen years
old for being q habitual drunkard. |
/ keep roll Of our graduates and watch
them from year to year after they leave
US, and it is only this class who come to
grief and make up record either of in
dolence or Of shame. OF course there
are many noble exceptions, and only
allude to the contrast in general"
This vas the substance Of the doc
tors declaration, and wish every parent
in the land could have heard it, AID re.
allied the solemn emphasis with which
he said it, for DR.. Hagood knows. He
has opportunity to know. Poor boys
make the best citizens. They obey the
law, and they work and toll for an hon.
est living. Riches are bcset with many
perils. A man can pile up and keep on
piling if he wants but let him look out
for breakers. Not long ago passed by
a princely mansion in al large city, and
asked my friend what has become OF
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