The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-10-24
,.,,I .toodo Il, ipKou,ant and tSefOro God, Tou


win be better of If you save that woman
There is another exploit that you can do,
and that is to save child A child does not
seem to amount to much. 1t is nearly year
old before it can walk at ALL For the 1rst
wear and half it cannot speak word. For
the first ten years it would starve il it had 20
earn its own food. For the first fifteen
wears its opinion on any subject is abso-
lutely valuefess. And then there are so
many of them. Myl what lots OF childrenl
And some people have contempt for chill
dren. They are good for nothing but 70
wear out the carpets and break I things an1 ana
estimate Of child is quite different
from that mothers estimate who lost
her child this summer. They took 1T TO
the salt air of the seashore and to
the tonic air IF the mountains, but
no help came, and the brief paragraph 'of It's
life is ended. Suppose that life could I've re.
stored by purchase: how much Would snai m
the Jewels from her fingers and neck and
bureau and put them down. And it told that
that was not enough, she would take her
house and make over the deed for It, and II
that were not enough she would caA In all
her investments and put down all her mort
cages and bonds; and If told that were not
all nv property, and if I can have that child
back 1 will now pledge that will toll with
nv own hands and carry with my own Shoul-
ders in any kini Of hard work, and live
in cellar and die in garret only give
me back chat lost darling" am glad tna1
there are those who know something OF tne
value of a child. Its possibilities are
tremendous What will those hands yet do!
Where will those feet yet walk? Toward
what destiny will that never-dying soul be-
take itselfa Shall those lips be the throne Of
blasphemy or benedlction? Come, all ye
surveyors Of the earth, and bring link and
chain and measure if you can its possible
possessions Come. all ye astronomers of the
earth, with your telescopes, and tell US II you
can see the range Of its eternal flight. Come,
all We chronologists, and calculate the de-
cades on decades, the centuries on centuries,
the cycles on cycles, the eternities on eter-
mites of its lifetime. Oh, to save q
child! Am not right in putting that among
the great exploits! Yes, it beats the other
two, for if you save the child you save the
man or you save the woman. Get the first
twenty years Of that boy or girl all right and
I guess you have got manhood or womanhoed
all right, and their entire earthly and eternal
career all right. But what are you going to
do with those children who are worse of
than if their father or mother had died the
day they were born? There are tens OF
thousands OF such. Their parentage was
against them. Their name is against them.
Their nerves and muscles contaminated by
the irsbriety or disso!uteness of their parents.
they are practically at their birth laid
out on plank in the middle of the Atlantic
Oce an in an equinoctial gale and told to make
for shore. The first greeting they get from
the world is to be called a brat or ragamufhn
or wharf-rat What to do with them is
the question often asked. There IS another
question quite rs pertinent. AMI that
hat OF
us? They will ten or eleven years
from now have as many votes as
the same number of well-born children. and
they will hand this land over to anarchy and
political damnation just as sure as we neglect
them. Suppose we each one OF US save boy
or a girl You can do it. Will you! will
Take a cake of perfumed soap and fne-
toothed comb, and New Testament and a
little candy and prayer, and piece of cake
and faith in God and common sense, and be-
gin this afternoon.
But how shall we get ready for one Or all
of these three exploits? We shall make q
dead failure if in our own strength we try 10
save man or woman or child. But my
text suggests where we are to get equipment.
The PEOPLE that do know their God shall be
strong, and do exploits" We must know
Him through Jesus Christ in our own saliva
tion. and then we shall have His help in the
salvation of Others And while you are
saving strangers you may save some OF your
own kin. You think your brothers and Sis
ters and children and grandchildren all safe
but they are not dead, and no one is safe till
he is dead. On'the English coast there was IS
wild storm and wreck in the offing, and the
tbs Sbs usual leader Of the Sailors crew.
not to be found, and they went without him
and brought back all the shipwrscked people
except one. By this time Harry, the leader
Of the crew, appeared and sad: "Why ,tHl d1o
YOU leave that onea" The answer was: he
Sonid not help himself at all and we could
not get him into the boat" Man the
Iifeboat.n shouted Harry. 'tand we
will 90 for that one" "No," said his aged
mother standing by, ''you must rot 60.
lost your father in storm like this ana
your brother Will went off six Years ago anu
have not heard word from Will since ne
left, and 1 don't know where he is, and
what has happened to him, poor Will,
and I cannot let you also 80 for am
old and dependent on you." His reply was
WMother, I must go and save that one man,
and il am lost God will take care OF you IN
your old days" The lifeboat put out, and
after an awful struggle with the sea they
picked the poor fellow out of the rigging
lust in time to save his life, and started
for the shore And as they came WITHIN
speaking distance, Harry. just before ne
1--WE saved him, and tell mother it was vas
brother Will" Oh, yes, my friends, let
us start out to save some one for time
and for eternity, some man, and soms
woman, and some child. And VINO
knows but it may, directly or lndlrect!y, %
the salvation of one of our own kindred, ana
that will be an exploit worthy OF celebration
when the world itself is shipwrecked and the
sun has gone out like a spark from smltten
anu;l and all the stars are deAdl