The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1885-12-09

My subject also impresses me with the fact
thai strength may do a great deal of damage
ii it is misdirected. To pay one miserable
bet which this man had lost he rob- and Stays
thirty people. As near as I can tell much of
his life was spent in wickedness, and he is a
type of a large class of people in all ages who
either giants in body, or giants in mind, OF
giants in social position, or giants in wealth,
use that strength for making the world
worse instead Of making it better. Those
small men in a community who do wrong
effect but little evil. those small men who
go through your store, your shop, your
factory, your banking house loafing and
swearing and betouling the air with their
breath and insulting your floor with their in
i~quitous saliva and de%nouncing God and de-
nouncing the church, they do not do much
harm, they are So insignificant. But these
powerful men who stick their pens of sarcasm
and hate into the Christian religion, these
men who throw vitriol on ourlitora:ure, these
men of wealth who sanction crime and in
iquity and make honor and truth and justice
bow before their golden scepters-look out
for them! / suppose there were hundreds of
infidels in Paris, Edinburgh and London in the
middle and the latter part of the last century,
but they did not do a great deal OF harm.
There were giants in those days though, who
did harm. Who can estimate the soul havoc
wrought by Rousseau going forward with
the very enthusiasm of iniquity, and with his
fiery Imagination affecting all the impulsive
natures Of his tina! Or wrought by David
Hume, who spent his lifetime as a spider
spends the summer in weaving silken webs TO
catch the unwaryi Or by Voltaire who mar
shaled q host Of sceptics in his time and led
them on down into a deeper darkness! CIR
wrought by Gibbcn who showed in
his writings an uncontrollab.e hate
against Christianity, and i'll that book
which gives a fascinating account OF tie de-
cline and fall of the Roman empire throws
all his genius into al attempt to exaggerate
the faults Of the Christian disciples while he
gives a sparseness of attention to the Chris
tian heroes of whom the world was not
worthy, a sparseness of attention to those
noble men and women for which that author
can never be forgiven. 1 a MEN OF nerve
men of muscle, men of social position, men
Of financial power to know that that strength
may be made a crown tor them on earth and
be q crown for them in heaven, while those
who bedragglo that power into sin
and those who use their iniu.
ence for Ubiquitous purposes, God
will at last thunder his condemnation upon
them on the day when millionaire and pauper
and master and slave and king and subject
shall stand side by side, and money-bags and
judicial ermine and royal robe shall DO rlven
of the lightning of the Lord God Almighty.
MY SuOJeCC ulSO lllpIeSoeS il Will JAN
fact that a giant may be overthrown by. a
sorceress. Delilah started all those evil intlu.
ences which terminated in the bringing OF
the temple Of Dagon down around Simpsons
ears, and in all the ages how many giants
through impure destinations have been
ungianted! 1t seems to me that it Is
time that the pulpit and platform and print,
ing press speak out more distinctly against
the impurities OF modern society. Prudery
- -: ,o, tEnop1f email nf oil
for you might arouse adverse criticism; you
might make things worse instead of making
them better. If you touch the subject at all
do so in glittering generalities, for the them'
is not appropriate for polite ears; )" while from
the heavens a voice comes SAYING, Cry
aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like q
trumpet. Show my peop,e their transgres
sions, and the house of Egypt their sins:
The trouble is that when people t %rIss
over them the destinations Of bellies
lettres and make attractive that which ought
to be repulsive. Lord Byron in Childe Har.
old adorns this crime until it looks like q
MAY queen. Michelet, the French author, in
his ESSAYS treats of the crime until it glows
like the rising sun, when it ought to be made
loathsome as a smallpox hospital. There are
influences abroad to day which If unresisGed
by pulpit and platform and printing. press
WILL LuIh . oAo
Sodom and Gomorah,. fit only for the
storm of fire and birthstone that over
whelmed the cities of the plain.
While you sit in your quiet Christian
homes composed with all moral restraints,
you do not realize that there is q gulf of in:
iuuity surrounding you north, south, east and
west. This moment while l speak there are
hundreds OF men and womb going over the
awful plunge Of all impure life, and while
CRY to God for mercy in their behalf, I charge
ali Christian men and women to marshal all
divine and gracious influences for the defence
Of the homes and tine churches and the ma
ton. There is a %banqueting hall that you
may not have heard described. You
know all about the feast Of Ahasuerus
with q thousand lords. You know
all about the carnival of Belshazzar, where
the blood of the murdered king spurted in
tho faces Of the banqueters. You know all
about the wassail and the intoxication and
the rioting of the feast over which presided
Esopus, before whom was brought q plate OF
food that cost four hundred thousand dollars.
But there is another %banqueting hall, and its
ceiling is fretted With fire, and its floors are
tesselated with fire and its walls are but
tresses Of fire, and its songs are songs Of fire,
and Solomon referred to it when he said
cher guests are in the depths of hell" We
are in American society to-day reaping
the harvest Of FREQ Lovism which
was sowed ten or fifteen or twenty years ago
the gospel OF Free Lovism which was preached
on all the platforms in America. or nearly
all of them, and alas! in some Of the pulpits
the gospel of Free Lovism which seems tx
indicate that every man ought to have SOM
QUE else's wife, and every woman some one:
elSe's husband - Free Lovism which has
given to this country one thousand cases OF
divorce a y~ear-Free Lovism which has given
to one county in Indiana eleven cases of di
vorce in one day before dinner! Free
Lovism which has aroused in all this
land, brought up in all this land cases of
elopement, North, South, East and West, so
that you can hardly take up q paper now
that you do not see in it some account Of an
elopement. The fact is there are thousands
of people in America to-day who do not like
the Christian institution of marriage, and I
wish they would elope, tho wretches Of one
Sax taking the wretch es Of the other sex, and
starting tomorrow morning for the great
Sahara desert until the simeon shall sweep
over them seven feet Of sand, and in the
next five . hundred years no passing
caravan bring back one miserable
bon, Of their carcases. Never until society
shall 60 back to the Bible, which e~ulogizes
, purity and curses with an infinite curse un.
cleanliness-never until that time comes will
these evils be %extirpated from society. Sam
son was not the only giant ungianted-
Ny subject also impresses me with the fact
thai the greatest physical strength must
crumble and give way. That this man of the
text was mighty the lion knew, that Philis-
tines knew, everybody knew. Oh! how
strong he was. He could fight back
these enemies, but death was too
much for him. He may have
had a longer grave and a wider grave than
you and | have. but the tomb was his ter
pninus What chn11 fha hoAv or6 tho co,,ll o