The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-01-20

between you and him. The self-preservative
power of the Christian religion! I tell you
Christianity is the mightiest of all the friends
Of longevity.
Again: the Christian religion is the friend
of long life in the fact that it takes the worry
kills people; it is worry. When man be-
comes a real, genuine Christian he not only
makes over to God his affections, but he puts
in His hands his family, his property, his
reputation, his body, his mind, his soul
everything. Industrious he will be. of course.
but he feels at the same time that God is
managing. How can a real Christian
man worry about business when in on
swer to prayer God tells him when to buy
and when to sell, and if he gain that is best,
and if he lose that is best. I know
scores of business men who are kept in COM
plete equipoise by the grace Of God, and all
through the panics that have bothered other
men and flung other men, they have been
calm and imperturbed. Not because they
had any stronger nerves than other men, but
because they had God to help shem. Sup
came to you and said: "Now, when you get
into any kind of trouble draw on me; con-
troll the stock of thirty-fve of the finest none
tary institutions of this country. I can fall
back at any moment upon $50, ,0O0, 900 of re-
sources. If you get in any business trouble,
or any other kind of trouble, come
to me. You shall have my name,
my influence, my money" How much would
you worry? Not much. You would say: "I'lI
do as well as I can and then my friend Will
help me through" Now, God promises more
than that. He says: 'look here, I own all
New York, Brooklyn, London, st. Peters
burg, Moscow-all the silver Of Nevada, all
the gold of Australia and California-all tho
earth and all the heavens Now, fall back
upon me when you have any trouble. Will
see you through And here l pledge you
eternal and omnipotent fidelity" How
much ought that man worry! Not much.
paw on that Daniel Take the thermometer
and put it in Shadrach's furnace and it will
not 90 up to more than seventy-fve degrees
Oh, what q tonic, what equipoise, what
health, what long life in such q religion But
you say: ''Here is man who asked Gods
blessing on business enterprise and he lost
$1,000. Explain that" l will explain it.
There is factory and some of the wheels
turn to the north and some turn to the south,
laterally I 60 into the factory and
I say: aOh, manufacturer, your machinery
here is contradiction. Why don't you make
all the wheels 60 one way!" He laughs at me
and says: "Why make them 60 this way on
purpose. You 60 to our storeroom and see
the carpets we are turning out" 60 into
the storeroom and I see the exquisite work
all this machinery is making though, some OF
the wheels 60 this way and some go that way,
and while I am admiring the work an old
Scripture passage comes into my mind: AL
things work together for good to them that
love God" It does not make any difference
whether they work this way, or that way;
they work together for good. So in regard
to a mans reputation. Somebody says you
are dishonest, somebody says you are liar,
somebody says you are stupid. During the
course Of ones life think almost every man
gets misrepresented and gets prosecuted
citement, fuming and fretting, trying to
stop this and rushing in to get that cor
rected. Is that the way! No; Hear the
voice of God saying to you: "Ohl Christian
man, am on your side" If God be for you
who can be against YOU? will see
you through Gont worry
If that broker on Wall street, whoa few years
ago when he had lost all his money, sat down
and wrote letter to his wife telling her he
was going to blow his brains out, had pulled
out Of his pocket instead Of pistol well-worn
new testament, there would have been one
less case of suicide. Oh, business man! as
near as I can tell about you, what you want
is not choral, not morphine, but the soothing
grace of God, and you can have it, and you
can have it now. And again. The Christian
religion is friend of long life in the fact that
it takes all corroding care away in regard to
ourfuture existence. Every sensible man wants
to know what is going to become Of him. lfyon
take rail train, you want to know into what
depot it will run. If you go on board ship
YOU want to know into what harbor it will
sail. If you tell me that you have no inter-
est in your future existence would in as po-
lite way as possible tell you did not be-
ieve you. Every person is interested IN the
question of future existence. Until l got
that question Of eternal destiny settled In
my own mind, it almost worried me
into unhealth. There are people,
great many people who think and worry SO
much on these subjects, that If you would
put all their worriment together it would
amount to martyrdom. know people who
are so afraid of the thought that they worry
themselves to death Now, am going to
try on you three or four experiments to take
this strain off of your nervous system and to
pertinent the first: When you 60 out Of this
iife whether you have been good or bad,
whether you believed truth or error, you
will go straight to glory. You say, "thats
absurd. I can accept no such doctrine
as that know that roads going in opposite
directions cannot come out in the same place,
and know, my common sense tells me, that
the good and the bad, the clean and the un-
clean, the right and the wrong cannot be in
accord and eternal amity. l reject your T, ex-
pertinent" Experiment the second. When
YOU 90 out of this life you will go into an
intermediate state where you can get things
fixed up, and you can repent there, and you
can get converted there. "Absurd," t" you say,
81 accept no such doctrine as that. /
cannot postpone to a realm OF which 1
know so little, or know nothing, questions
that pertain to my life here and questions
that may be decided here A bird in the
hand is worth two in the bush Ihave IN op-
portunity now. I do not know about the in.
termediate state reject your experiment"
Experiment the third: When you 60 out OF
this life that will be tho last of you. The
mind is only superior part of the body, and
when your life on earth ends you end. Ex-
tinct. Do not discuss what you Will DO IN
the future state. You will not do any
thing When your earthly life ends your
one. t'There is something that tells
me that I am immortal My power
to think says forever My affections say
forever My capacity to enjoy or suffer
says forever" Well, you have rejected
three of my experiments. I have but one
more experiment., and if you reject that am
exhausted. A mighty one on knoll back OF
Jerusalem one day, the heavens full of forked
turbance, looked with His pale and agonized
face into the heavens, and said; II take the
sins and the sorrows Of the world
in my heart. I am the expiation.
Witness heaven and earth and hell,
I am the expiation." And the hammers
struck Him, and the spears punctured Him,
and the clouds thundcred ''the wages of sin is
death. The soul that sinneth it shall die. I
will by no means clear the guilty" For half
ON hour there was silence. Then the lightnngss