The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-10-06

p.cseu oF tTippleu p!J SN a. Atseu.o'S>i ouu Seo
what, by the special help of God, you can
accomplish.
The skilled horsemen stood around Bu-
cenhalus, unable to mount or manage him, so
wild was the steel But Alexander noticed
that the sight of his own shadow seemed to
disturb the horse So Alexander clutched
him bv the bride and turned his head away
from the shadow and toward the sun aud
the horses agitation was gone ant Alexander
mounted him and rode off to the astonish-
ment OF all who stood by. And what you
people need is to have your sight turned
away from the shadows of your earthly lot,
over which you have so long pondered, and
your head turned toward the sun, the
glorious sun of gospel consolation and Chris
tian hope and spiritual triumph.
And then remember that all physical dis
advantages will after awhile vanish. Let
those who have been rheumatiSmed out OF
foot or cataracted out OF an eve or by the
perpetual roar of our cities thundered out OF
an ear, look forward to the day when this
old tenement house Of flesh will come down
and q better one shall bo rebuilded. The
resurrection morning will provide you with
a better outfit. Either the uustrung, worn-
out, blunted and crippled organs will be SO re-
constructed that you will hardly know them,
or an entirely new set of eyes and ears an feet
will be given you. Just what 1t means ny
corruption putting on interruption we dc
not know, save that it will be glory ineffable;
no limping in heaven, no straining OF the
eyesight to see things little way off; nc
putting of the hand behind the ear to double
the capacity Of the tympanum; but facultle.
perfect, all the KEYS of the instrument attuncd
for the sweep of the fingers of ecstasy. But
until that day Of resumption comes let us
bear each others burdens and so fulill the
law of Christ.
Another form of disadvantag ge under which
many labor is lack of early education. There
will be no excuse for ignorance in the next
generation. FREQ schools and illimltable op-
portunity of education will make Ignorance
crime. believe in compulsory education,
aud those parents who neglect to put their
children under educational advantages have
but one right left, and that is the psniten-
tiary. Bat there are multitudes Of men and
women in mid life who had no opportunity.
Free schools had not yet been established, and
vast multitudes hal little or no school at
all. They feel it when, as Christian men,
they come to speak or pray in religious as
semblies or public occasions, patriotic or po
litical OF educational They are silent. be.
cause they do not feel competent. They
owe nothing to English grammar or
not know participle from pronoun If
they met it'many times day. Many OF the
most successful merchants Of America and
men in high political places cannot write an
accurate letter on any theme. They are
completely dependent upon clerks and depu-
ties and stenographers to make things right.
knew literary man who in other years in
Washington make his fortune by writing
speeches for congressman or fixing them up
for the ,Congr,essi0nal Record after they
were delivered. The millionaire illlteracy
oe tbio corntru IL hayop5 rnaoSiiramoOt
Now, suppose man finds himself in mid
life without education, what is he to doa DO
the best he can. The most effective layman
in a former pastoral charge that
ever heard speak on religious
themes could within five minutes of
exhortation break all the laws of English
grammar and if he left any law unfractured
he would complete the work Of lingual devas-
tation in the prayer with which he followed
it But would rather have him pray for
me if were sick or in trouble than any
Christian man know Of, and in that church
all the people preferred him in exhortation
aud prayer to all others. Whys Because he was
so thoroughly pious and had such power with
God he was Irresistible, and as he went on in
his prayers, sinners repented and saints
shouted for joy, and the bereaved seemed to
get back their dead in celestial companion
ship. And when he had stopped praying,
aQu dS SOOu DIS l COulu Wtpo ouu VI NY eySS
enough tears to see the closing hymn
ended the meeting fearful that some long.
winded, prayer meeting bore would pull us
down from the seventh heaven. Not word
have to say against accuracy Of speech or
fine elocution or high mental culture. Get
all these you can. But do say to those who
were brought up in the day of poor school
houses and ignorant schoolmasters and no
opportunity, you may have so much
Of God in your soul and SO much OF
heaven in your everyday life that
YOU will be miehtier for good than
many who went through all the curriculum
of Harvard or Yale or Oxford. yet never
graduated in the school of Christ. When yoa
get up to the gate of heaven no one will ask
you whether you can parse the first chapter
Of Genesis, hut whether you have learned
the fear OF the Lord which is the beginning
of wisdom: nor whether you know how to
square the circle, but whether you have lived
q square life in round world. Mount Zi.n
is higher than Mount Parnassus.
But what other multitudes there are under
other disadvantages Here is a Christian
woman whose husband thinks'rsligion sham,
and while the wifo prays the children one
way the husband swears them another. Or
here is a Christian man who is trying to do
his best for God and the church and his wife
holds him back and says on the way home
from prayer. meeting where he gave testi-
mony for Christ: "What fool you made of
yourself! I hope hereafter you will
keep still" And when he would be
criticizes him for not giving fifty cents.
I must do Justice and publicly thank God
that never proposed at home to give any
thing for any cause of humanity or religion
but the other partner i'll the domestic firm
approved it. And when it seemel beyond
my ability, and faith in God was necessary.
she had three fourths the faith. But know
men who, when they contribute to charita.
BILE objects, are afraid that the wife will find
it out. What withering curse sucA
woman must be to q good man..
Then there are others under the great dis.
advantage of poverty. Who ought to get
little means. But they pay more You buy
ccal by the ton. They buy it by the bucket.
You buy -four by the barrel. They buy it
by the pound. You get apparel cheap be-
cause YOU pay cash. They pay dear because
they have to get trusted. And the Bible was
right when it said "The destruction Of the
poor is their poverty"
Then there are those who made mistake
in early life and that oyershadows all their
days. "Do you not know that that tman was
once in prisonF is whispered. Or do you
know that thatman once attempted sui :ide'"
Or "Do you know that that man once
abscondedl" Or "Do you know that that
man was once discharged for dishonestyf
Perhaps there was only one wrong deed in
the mans life and that one act hauntS the SUBJ
sequent halfcentury of his exiStence.
Others have unfortunate predominen e Of
some mental faculty and their rashness
throws them into wild enterprises. or their
trepidation makes them decline great oppor-
tunites, or there is vein OF melancholy in
their disposition that defeats them, or they
have an endowment of over mirth that gives
the impression OF insincerity.