The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-06-27

body would have Deen SaVeQ, IN Gne OGneI
case, if he had kept to his religion his morals
would have been saved.
There are aged people who would have
been dead twenty-five years ago but for the
defenses and the equipoise OF religion. You
have no more natural resistance than hun
dreds of reople who lie in the cemeteries to
day, slain by their own vices. The doctors
made their case as kind and pleasant as they
could, and it was called congestion of th!s
brain, or something else, but the snakes and
the bluehies that seemed to crawl over the
pillow in the sight of the delirious patient
showed what was the matter with him. You,
the aged Christian man, walked along by
that unhappy one until you came to thu
golden pillar of Christian life. That is al
the difference between you. Oh, II this re
lieion is a protest against all forms Of dissi
patton, then it is an illustrious friend OF
longevity. "With long life will I satisfy
him"
Again, religion is friend Of longevity II
the TACT that it takes the worry out OF oul
temporalities. It is not work that kills men
Christian he makes over to God not only his
affections but his family, his business, MI
reputation, his body, his mind, his soul
everything Industrious he will be, but
never worrying, becauge God Is managing
his affairs. How can he worry about busl
ness when in answer to his prayers God tells
him when to buy and when to SO l. and If he
gain that is best, and if he lose that is best?
Suppose you had a supernatural neighbor
who'came in and said: "Sir, want you to
friend; Icould fall back on SIC, ,OOO, 900; 1 can
forssee panic ten years; hold the control
ling stock in thirty of the best monetary in
stitut1ons Of New York; whenever you are
in trouble call on me and will help you,
YOU can have my money and you can have
my influence; here is my hand in pledge for
it." How much would you worry about
business? Why, YOU would say: CPL do tho
best I can, and then I'll depend on my
friends generosity for the rest"
Christian business man. God says to him:
"I own New York and London and st;
Petersburg and Pekin, and Australia and
California are mine; can foresee panic
million years; have all the resources Of the
universe, and am your fast friend; when
you get in business trouble or any other
trouble, call on me and I will help; here is
my hand in pledge of onnipotent deliver
ance." How much should that man worry?
Not much. What lion will dare to put his
paw on that Daniel. Is there not rest in
this! Is there not an eternal vacation in
this!
"Oh,n you say. "here is a man who asked
God for a blessing in certain enterprise,
and he lost five thousand dollars in it. Ex-
plain that" 1 will. Yonder is factory,
and one wheel is going north and the other
wheel is going south, and one wheel plays
laterally and the other plays vertically. l
20 to the manufacturer and say: 20 manu-
your machinery is contradiction.
Why do you not make all the wheels go one
way2 WELL" he says, 81 made them to goin
opposite directions on purpose, and they pro-
iuce the right result. You go downstairs
and examine the carpets we are turning out
in this establishment and you will sea-" /
20 down on the other hoor and see
the carpets, and am obliged to confess that
though the wheels in that factory 60 in op-
posite directions they turn out beautiful re-
suit; and while I am standing there looking
at the exquisite fabric an old Scripture
passage comes into my mind: "All things
God" Is there not rest in thats Is there
not tonic in that! Is there not longevity in
shat2
Suppose man is all the time worried
about his reputation. One man says he lies,
another says he is stupid, another says he is
dishonest, and half dozen printing estab-
lishments attack him. and he is IL great
state of excitement and worry and fume, and
cannot sleep; but religion comes to him and
says: "Man, God is on your side: he will
take care Of your reputation; if God be for
you, who can be against .you"' How much
should that man worry about his reputation?
Not much. If that broker who some years
ago in Wall street, after he had lost money,
sat down and wrote farewell let
ter to his wife before he blew his
brains out-if instead of taking out Of his
pocket pistol he had taken out we'll read
New Testament there would have been one
less suicide. Oh, nervous and feverish people
of the world, try this almighty sedative.
You will live twenty five years longer under
its soothing power. It is not chloral that
the Gospel Of Jesus Christ. "With long life
will satisfy him"
Again, practical religion is friend OF
longevity in the fact that it removes all cor
roding care about future existence. Every
man wants to know what is to become OF
him. If you get on board of rail train you
want to know at what depot it is going to
stop; if you get on board ship you want to
know into what harbor it is going to run, and
if you shall tell me you have no interest in
what is to be your future destiny, l would IN
not believe you. Before I had this matter
settled with reference to my future existence
the question almost worried me into ruined
health. The anxieties men have upon this
subject put together would make martyr
dom. This is state Of awful unhealthiness.
There are people who fret themselves to death
for fear of dying
I want to take the strain off your nerves
and the depression OFF your soul, and make
two or three experiments. Experiment first:
When you go out of this world it does not
make any difference whether you have been
good or bad, OF whether you believed truth
or error, you will 60 straight to glory. "Im-
possible" you say; ''my common sense as
well as my religion teaches that the bad and
the good cannot live together forever. You
give me no comfort in that experiment" ="
Experiment the second: When you leave this
world you will 60 into an intermediate
state where you can get converted
and prepared for heaven. Impossible" you
say; "as the tree falleth so it must lie, and
cannot postpone to an intermediate state
reformation which ought to have been ef-
fected in this state" Experiment the third;
There is no future world; when man dies
that is the last of him. Do not worry about
what you are to do in another state of being;
yoa will not do anything "Impossible,
you say; "there is something that tells me
that death is not the appendix, but the pref
ace; there is something that tells me that on
this side Of the grave I only get started, and
that I shall go on forever; my power tc
think says forever my affections say for.
ever my capacity to enjoy or suffer, for
ever.'"
Well, you defeat me in my three expert.
ments. have only one more to make. and
if you defeat me in that am exhausted A
mighty One on knoll back Of Jerusalem one
day-the skies filled with forked hghtnings
and the earth filed with volcanic disturb
ances-turned His pale and agouized face
toward the heavens and said: II take the
sins and sorrows of the ages into my OWL
heart. am the expiation. Witness earth
and heaven an hell, am the expiation.
And the hammer struck him, and the spears