The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-12-08

Through the yesterday Of ages,
Je U.s. thou hist been tie Same;
Through our own lifes checkered pages,
Still the one dear changeless Name;
Vel may we in thee confde,
Faithful Saviour, proved and Tired"
Gazing down tn far forever,
Brighter glows the one sweet Name,
Steadfast radiencs pal;ng never,
Jesus, Jesus! still the same,
Evermore "Thou shalt endure"
Our own Saviour, strong and ''Sure."
-Frances Ridley HaveraaL
Lessons from . Statue.
Many lessons will doubtless be drawn,
by press and pulpit, from the completion
OF the Bartholdi statute. There can be
no more apt or profitable suggestion than
that which is derived from its use as a
lighthouse, and its device of a human
form holding q lantern in its hand and
shedding light and safety over the ap-
proaches to our city. However noble q
work Of art it may be, and however fine
a memorial of international friendship
and heroic struggle for freedom won in
the past, it exists not simply to be
admired nor to aid remembrance, but to
do present and future work OF steady
helpfulness and enlightenment.
1t will stand prc-eminentiy as a mag
nifcent object lesson, known and read
of all men, of the divine ideal for one
and all of the disciples of Christ in
their places among men, GAS lights in
the world, holding forth the word Of
life." The true Christian is one who
illustrates the Bible as we'll as expert
ences its power, who holds it forth to
illuminate others as we'll as to light up
his own soul.
We cannot merge our individual re-
sponsibility in the aggregation of a
church. eye are," not light, but
'1ights in the world" Standing in the
pulpit or sitting in the pews; the child
among his playmates and schoolmates,
the parent or teacher under the
watchful gaze of little eyes; the
man of business and bargains, and
the man of leisure whom God has re-
leased from drudgery that he may enrich
others: Christian wives and mothers,
sons and daughters, shopmates and as-
sociates of ungodly men, whose daily
life and talk and prayers can do more
for them than hundred churches which
they never enter, or hundred preachers
whom they never hear; ofice-bearers in
the church, like uplifted lamps in the
Lords house, FURNISHED by a long ex-
perience and full of the consecrating oil
of the Spirit-all can and must let our
own particular light shine, that the
world may be the brighter for US, and
that men may be the better believe in
God and in his grace, which has wrought
ull OuE nOl no III uSs
What an illustrious name the divine
love has bestowed upon US, that we
should be called "children of light" 1t
means that we are born and nourished
on the word of life. Things born and
raised without sunlight are sickly, mon
strous and unclean. I sowed some
morning glory seeds one summer, intend
ing to train the vines on my piazza.
Some of them fell inside underneath the
stoop where there was scarcely any
light, and never any direct sun rays. But
they took root and sprang up. Seeing
them peep through the latticc-work, L
pulled them out and found that they had
grown several feet in length. But they
were miserable specimens of vines, pale,
yellow, nearly Likeness, and destitute of
the robust and healthy blood of plants.
Unless one has seen the like, he can
hardly realize the contrast between
these and the outside vines. They were
the pallid and unlovely children OF
the darkness, the others were the
green and climbing children of the
light.
Like torches kindled at larger and
central flame, we are the children of that
which kindled US. And torches are
thus lighted, that in turn they may
kindle and enlighten others. What
says st. Paul7 "For ye were sometime
darkness, but now arc light in the
Lord. the children of light.
For the fruits of the Spirit (he might
have said, the sunbeams which the re-
newed soul sheds forth are in all good
ness and Righteousness and truth" And
he speaks of the light as ''arlnor," or
weapons, which we are to put on in
order to remind US that from its very
nature light is aggressive, expu!sive OF
darkness, every ray an arrow shot into
the kingdom of night.
The stars are children of the light,
peeping out with clustering and cheru-
bic faces from the armament. And
Christians are the stars of this lower
sky, and are lit in vain unless, like tho
serene light OF stars, they cast u holy
and heavenly radiance upon the world.
Then shall they verify, both here and
hnrnnfter that crrrat SaYinn: WIheY that