The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-05-26
zast assamhlaea lika thisa Only here and

spend the morning Of your days in devouring
the prey, the probability ls that you will
never divide the spoil in the evening hour.
He who postpones until old age the religion
Of Jesus Christ, postpones it forever. Where
are the men who. thirty years ago, resolved
it off certain number Of years
They mover got to be old. The
railroad collision or the steamboat
explosion or the slip on the ice or the falling
ladder or the sudden cold put an end to their
opportunities They have never had an op-
portunity since and never will have an OPP
portunity again. They locked the door Of
away the keys; and if they could now break
jail and come up shrieking to this audience,
! I dom think they would take two minutes to
| persuade us all to repentance. They chased the
| world and they died in the chase. The ewounded
tiger turned on them. They failed to take the
game that they pursued. Mounted on swift
courser they leapsd the hedge, but the courser
| fell on them and crushed them. Proposing to
! barter their soul for the world they lost both
| and got neither.
While this is an encouragement to old peo-
pie who are yet unpardoned, it is no encour.
agement to the young who are putting of
| the day of grace This doctrine that the old
may be repentaut is to be taken cautiously.
It is medicine that kills or cures. The same
medicine given to different patients in one
case saves life and in the other destroys it:
life may cure the old man while it kills the
Young. Be cautious in taking it.
Again, my subject is descriptive OF those
who come to q sudden and radical change.
You have noticed how short a time it is from
morning to night in winter-eight or ten
hours. You know that winter day has a
very brief lne The heart of the longest day
beats twenty-four times and then it IS dead:
How quick the transition in the character OF
these Benjamiuites! "1n the morning they
shall shall ui divids tn tho SPOIL" Is it possible
that there shall be such a trans.
formation In any Of our characters!
Yes, a man may be at seven o'clock in the
morning an all-devouring worldllng, and at
seven o'clock at night he may be a peaceful
distributive Christian. Conversion Is in
Simultaneous. Aman passes into the kingdom
Of God quicker than down the sky runs the
zig-zag lightning. 4 man may be anxious
about his soul for great many years; that
pray great while; that does not make him
Christian A man may resolve on the retor-
nation of his character and have that reso-
luton going on great while; that does not
make him Christian. But the very instant
when he filings his soul on the mercy OF
Jesus Christ, that instant is lustratlon,
emancipation, resurrection. Up to that
after that point he is going in the right d.
rection. Before that moment he IS child
sin: after that moment be is child Of God.
Before that moment, hellward; after that
moment, heavenward. Before that moment,
devouring the prey; after that moment, d.
viding the spoil Five minutes is as good
as five years, My hearer, you know very
well that the best things you have done you
have done in flash. You made up. your
or to invest or to stop or to start.
If you had missed that one chance you
would have missel it forever Now just as
precipitate and quick and spontaneous will
be the ransom of your soul. This morning
YOU are making calculation. You are on
the track of some financial or social game.
With your pen or pencil you are pursuing IT,
This very morning you are devourlng the
prey; but tonight you will be in different
mood. You find that all heaven is offered you.
You wonder how you can get it for yourself
and family. You wonder what resources IT
will give you now and hereafter. You are
dividing peace and comfort and satisfaction
and Christian reward in your soul. You are
dividing the spoil.
On Sabbath night at the close Of the SER
vice, said to some persons: "When did you
first become serious about your sou" and
they told me: 'To-night." And I said to
da and they a ss Es gfS'" nSn An
said to still others: "When did you resolve
to serve the Lord all the days of your life?'
and they said: "To-night." I saw by their
apparel that when the grace Of God struck
them they were devouring the prey; but l
saw also in the flood of joyful tears. and in
the kindling raptures on their brow, and IN
their exhilarant and transporting utterances
that they were dividing the spoil At night
with ons touch of electricity all these lights
blaze. Oh, ! would to God that the darkness
OF your souls might be broken up, and that
by one quick, overwhelming, instantaneous
flash of Illumination you might be brought
into the light and the liberty of the sons OF
God! =.
You see that religion is a different thing
from what some of you people supposed.
You thought it was deca dence; you thought
religion was emaciation; you thought it was
highway robbery; thatitstruck one down and
left him half dead that it plucked out the
eyes; that it plucked out the plumes of the
soul; that it broke the wing and crushed the
beak as it came clawing with its black talous
through the air. No, that is not religion. What
is religion? It is dividing the SPOIL. 1T tax
ing defenseless soul and panoplying it for
eternal conquest. 1t is the distribution or
prizes by the Kings hand; every medal
stamped with coronation. 1t is an exhil-
aration, an expansion. It is imparadisaJion.
It is enthronement. Religion makes man
master of earth, and death, and hell. 1t
goes forth to gather the medals Of victory
won by Prince Emmanuel, and the dladems
Of heaven and the glories of realms terres-
trial and celestial, and then, after
ranging all worlds for everything that IS
resplendent, it divides the spoil What was
it that James Tnrner, the famous English
evangelist was doing when in his dying
moment he said: ''Christ is ALL Christ is
allr' Why, he was entering into light; he
was rounding the Cape of Good Hope; he
was dividing the spoil What was the aged
Christian Quakeress doing when at eighty
wears of age she arose in the meeting one
day and said THE time of my departure
is come. NV grave clothes are falling off. r.
She was dividing the spoil.
'sShe longed with wings to fly away.
And mix with that eternal day."
What is Daniel now doing, the lion tamer'
and Elijah who was drawn by the flaming
coursersa and Paul, the rattling of whose
chains made kings quake? and all the other
:lotinea Where are theys Dividing the spoil.
"Ten thousand times ten thousand,
In sparkling raiment bright,
The armies Of the ransomed saints
Throng up the sleeps of light.
"'Tis finished all is finished,
Their fight with death and sin;
Lift high your golden gates
And let the victors in."
Oh, what a grand thing it is to be a Chris
tian! We begin on earth to divide the spoil,
but the distribution will not be completed to
al eternity. There is poverty-struck soul,
there is businsss-despoiledl soul, there is