The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-09-08

you have enough anyhow for a hundre1
years. But a black Providence comes and
this investment fails, and that investment
goes under, and misfortune is adde1 to mis-
fortune, until ali your property is gone, and
then you begin to cry to God. Now you look
for help from Heaven. Now you see the in
sufficiency OF this world; now you are brought
very near to God, and your hopes Of Heaven
are bright 1t was thu black Providence
that saved you. It was the white Provi.
dence that DESTROYED you. 1t was
the Providence so full of harshness aud dis
sonance that brought the greatest mercy to
your sonl. 1t was raven: it was a raven.
A child is born in your house. Your friends
send their congratulations. The elder chill
dren stand with amazed look at the new.
conner and ask manv questions genealogical
and chronological Great brightness in that
house. That little one has its two feet planted
in the very centre of your affection, and with
its two bands it takes hold OF your very soul;
but one of the three scourges Of children:
scarlet fever, or Group, or diphtheria, blasts
all that scene The clustering, the strange
cross the room; all that has ceased.
As the great friend Of children
comes to the cradle and stoops
down and puts His arms around your little
one and folds it to His heart and walks away
into the bower Of everlasting summer, your
eyes follow and follow, and you keep looking
that way: and when once you thought OF
Heaven once week, now you think OF it all
the time, and you are purer and more tender
than you used to be, and you are waiting for
the day to break. Oh, how changed! You
are better man than you were before that
trouble; you are a better woman. 1t Is not
eyotistical for you to say it: you are better
What brought that blsssing9 It was trouble
that cast its shadow on your heart; trouble
that cast its shadow on short grave and
trouble that cast its shadow on your home
black-winged trouble. 1t was raven; it was
raven. Dear Lord, teach my people that it
is not the dark Providence that is so
destructive as the white Providence, and
that sswhom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,
and scourgeth every one whom He recsiv-
eth" and that when trouble comes, it is not
because God has q gruige against you, but
because he love,you and wants to bring you
nearer to Him, and lift you up to higher ra-
diation and on grander platform. On, chill
dren Of God, get out Of your despondencies;
fling your SORROWS to the winds. God never
had so many ravens as He has now. Some
times. perhaps, under the cares OF life you
feel like my little child Of four years, who
under childish erole1ity said one day: II
wish could 60 to Heaven and see God and
time you will 60 and pick the flowers. Until
that time, pray. I suppose Elijah prayed
all the time. Tremendous work ahead OF him,
tremendous work behind him. And what you
want ask for I put it in the boldeSt shape,
and I risk my eternity on the truth Of it,
when I say, ask Of God in the right way for
what you want and you will get it-if its
best for you. o, the mercies Of God! Some-
times we cannot understand them. They
come this morning; thsy alight on the plat
form: they alight on the edges of the CALLER
les; they alight on the back Of the pewa,
bringing food from God for all your souls.
rqyens Mrs. Pishy we'll bk kn0wn Son
husband widow with half
dollar and a cottage She was palsied,
AMI had mother ninety years OF age to take
care of. It was marvellous how that woman
got of God, in the way Of temporal supply,
everything she asked for, 80 that the servant:
the hired servant in the house, notice. it and
used to speak of it. One morning they arose
from prayer and the servant said to her:
"Whv, YOU have forgotten to ask for coal.
and the coal is out" They stood there and
asked God for coal, and in an hour the door
swung open and the hired servant said: "Coals
come.h A man who had never done that thing
before, and never did it a gain, hearing that
that woman was in straitened circumstances
thought it would bs good thing to send
coal. You do not und ,rstand it. l do.
Ravensi Ravensl You have a right, my
brother my sister, to take Gods care OF
YOU in the past as evidence that He is gE &
to take care of you in the future. Is it not a
wonderful thing that all your life, for two or
three times day. God has given you food?
look upon it as a wondsr that all my life.
thres times day, God has given
me food, save once, and then l
was lost on the mountains at noon. But that
very morning and that very night met the
ravens. Oh that you might feel so much the
goodness of God that you could trust Him
for the two lives, the life you are now living,
and the life which every tick Of the watch
and every stroke Of the clock informs you Is
approaching. Look down and you see moth
ing but your own spiritual deformities: look
back and you see nothing but wasted oppor-
tunity; look forward and YOU see nothing
but fearful Judgment and fiery indigna-
ton: but look up and you see the
whipt shoulders Of an intsrcsding Christ, and
the face of a pardoning God, and the irradia-
tion Of an opening Heaven. Take this food
for your so,il to-day. 1t comes now into all
your hearts, and the only question I want to
ask is. how mauy Of these people are going to
take God for the;r portion here and their
portion hereafter, going to trust Him now,
for the food Of the body, and trust him also
for the food Of the soul9 Amid the clatter OF
the hoofs and amid the clang of the wheels OF
the judgment chariot, ths whole subject will
be demonstrated