The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-03-03
,onortion as the subject Is great or small

proportion as the subject Is great or small
upon which one perpetually dwells Is decided
whether the intellect is enlarged or belittled.
Can you imagine anything more belittling
for man than thinking on questions OF cos
tune or Of worldly preferment? have seen
men on the street whose elaboration Of ap-
parel implied two hours preparation. After
q man has gone through that process for sew
eral years, which one Of McA1listers magni-
flying glasses will be powerful enough to dis.
cover his character with the naked eye?
Can you imagine anything more be,
ittling for woman than to have her mlnd
constantly on questions Of costume! Why
they all end in idiocy Ihaye seen men p! t.;s at
summer watering places exhausted IN this
discipleship OF fashion until they were hollow
of CT est and meagre of limb and sallow OF
cheek and had no animation except when they
flew across the room to pick up lady's fan
simpering along the corridors the very COM
pliments they simpered twenty years ago. =.
But I have not touched the chief evil. 1t
keeps multitudes out Of heaven. The hrst
thunder from Sinai declared: ''Thou shalt
have no other gods before me-. ana ana
some of you will have to decide between
the goddess Of this world and the Christians
God. Heaven has great many beautiful
seats, but not one for devotee OF this world
That place is for those who thought more OF
their souls than Of their bodies. Why, II
some of YOU got there, with your e1trava-
CANT fondness for the world, you would be
putting French roof on the house OF many
mansions" and introducing the patterns OF
Butterick's Delineator. Give up this world,
or give up heaven. What would you do stand
to build chapels for the poor? or beside that
woman in Boston, who, in Faneuil Hall on New
Years Day fed 800 children Of the street, ,and
then, as sort Of doxology, at the close gave
each one q pair Of shoes? or beside these
modern Dofcases who have consecrated their
needle to the Lord, eternal rewards coming
for every stitch they take? Oh, the stupen-
dous wretchedness Of these devotees OF the
world. Why, you will always find some one
who has brighter array, or more palata al resi- 81
dence, or lavender kid gloves Of tighter fit.
will be sorry you did not buy
something else and wear that Then all
these frets will bring crows feet to your
temples before they should come, and when
you die you will have a miserable time.
have seen those sons and daughters OF the
world EXPIRE and I never sow one die well.
Their apparel was all put away, fever to be
seen again. There they lay on the crumpled
pillow, all the trappngs off, and 1;ia Just IT, Two
coming eternity. I tried to pacify them,
but they were so exhausted in the disciple
ship of the world that they could not ap-
preciate the Gospel. When I knelt by
their side to pray they mumbled ID
their prayers, expressing regrets for the past,
saying: "Oh, God; oh, Col; oh, GodW The
two ghastliest deathbeds on earth are, first,
the man who dies with delirium tremens.
Secondly, the woman who dies who has been
O. disciple of fashion. Oh, my friends, in the
last great day we will have to give an &C
oo,nt for what wa Uore as we'll aS for the re-
pentances with which our souls have been e1-
ercised. There we see coming up Beau Brum-
mel Of the last century without his cloak, like
which all England got cloak, and without
his cane, like which all England gotta cane, and
without his snuff-box, like which all Eng
land got q snuff-box-he, the fop of the age,
particular about everything but his morals.
Aaron Burr, without those letters which he
showed with pride down to old age, proving
his early wicked gallantries. And Absalom
without his hair, and Marchioness Pompador
without her titles, and Mrs. Reynolds who
was the bell of Wall street when that was the
centre of fashion, without her fripperies Of
vest,1re. And then they will go away in
great haggardness to eternal expatrlatlon,
While among the queens Of heavenly society
will be Vasht who wore modest veil before
the bacchanals, and Hannah who annually
made coat for Samuel at the temple, and
Grandmother Louis, the ancestress OF
Timothy, who initiated her virtues, ana
Mary, who gave Jesus Christ to the world,
and many of you, the wives and mothers ana
who will through great tribulations enter
into the kingdom of God. Christ declared
who would make up the royal family OF
heaven when he said: "Wnosoever doth the
will of God the same is my brother and sister
and mother!n