The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-12-12
Again: taking the SUGGESTION of the text.


window of summer night. and all the
hands. young and old. are against it. Tt is
half bird and half mouse. 1t seems made
partly to walk and partly to fly. and does
neither we'll: and becomes an emblem Of
those Christians who trv to cling to earth
and heaven mt the samtcime. They want TO
walk on earth in worldliness, and vet fly to.
ward heaven in spirituality: and their soul,
between feet and wings. is perpleSed. Oh.
my brethren, be one thing or the other!
Choose the world, if you prefer it; and sec
how many dollars You can win. and how
much applause you can gain, and how large
q business you can establish, and how grand
house you can build, and how fast
span of horses you can drive You
may he prospercd until you can fail for five
hundred thousand dollars. instead Of having
the disgrace of failing for only ten thousand
as some unents,rrrising peonle DO: 1t is is
or twenty years to lie called ono
of the solid men of Brooklyn or Boston, and
then. to make your fortune last as long as
possible, we will give You splendid funeral,
and you shall have twenty-five carriages fol-
lowing you, with somebody in the most
of them, and your coffin shall have
silver handles on the sides. and we
will mourn for you in splendid pocket
handkerchiefs bound with Grape. and bonn
across the parlor. so thet all the company
may stand upon it, and we viii! writo our
letters for the next six months on paper edged
with black But my friends. your worldly
fortunes will not last. I will buy out now
all that you will be worth in worldly estate
seventy-five years from now. l have tho
money in my pocket with which to do it.
Here it is! Two cents 1t is large sum to
offer for all you will possess; at the
close Of years a Cheese Do thas shs
choose heaven. That estate lies partly op
this side of the river, but mostly on the
other. 1t is ever accommodating The pros
pect Of it makes one independent
Of earthly misfortunes, so that Rogers,
the martyr, slept SO soundly the night before
his burning, they violently shook him in
order to get him awake in time Tor
the execution; and Paul exults at the
thought of the "joy unspeakable and
full Of glory" Oh, choose earth or Heaven
Make up your mind whether you will walls
in earthly joys, or fly with heavenly ex'
pectations. Be not bat. fit neither to walk
nor fly, having just enough OF heaven ts
spoil the world, and SO much Of the
world as to spoil heaven. Christ says
that your present condition nauseates him to
positive sickness: Because thou art
sps% nsRsf thee cOa out of NOR my moush sS In the
ruins of Pompeii there was found petrltied
woman, who, instead of trying to fly from
the destroyed city, had spent her. time in
gathering up her jewels. She saved neither
multitudes making the same mistake.
In trying to get earth and heaven, they
lcse both. "Ye cannot serve God and
Mammon." Be one thing or the other.
Tread the earth like lion, or mount the air
lya ho onla fp.r 70
have in abomination among the fowls, the
bat"
Again: taking the suggestion Of the text,
drive out the chameleon from your soul.
There is some difference among good men as
to the name of this creeping thing
which God pronounced unciean, but shall
take the opinion which seems best suited
to my purpose. The chameleon is reptile,
chiefly known by its changeableness of color,
taking the color of the thing next to it, some
times brown, sometimes red, ana
sometimes gray, but always the color
Of its surroundings, type OF that class
Of Christians who are now one thing In re-
dyious faith, and now another. just to suit
always taking their color of
religious belief from the man they are talk
ng TO- They 60 to ons place, and are first
rate Unitariars. "Jesus was good man,
but nothing more" They 60 to Princeton,
and they are Trinitarians, almost willing to
die for. the divinity of Jesus. Among the
punishment: and going among those of
opposite belief, announce that there IS
q hell with a gusto that makes you
think they are glad Of it. Drive out that
unclean chameleon from your soul. Do not
be ever changing the color Of your faith. MY
friends, liberal Christianity, falsely so-called,
believes in nothing g.5o God i Hm any'nTqg Tbgs
Bible to be believed in so far as you
like it. Heaven grand mixing up Of Neros
and Pauls. The man who dies by suicide in
his right mind in 1883. beating into glory by
ten years the Christian man who dies a
Christian death in 1898; the suicide proving
himself wiser than the Christian. Oh. my
friends, let us try to believe in something.
An infidel was called to the bedside of his
daughter The daughter said: "Father,
which shall believe, you or mother? Mother
took the religion of Christ, and died in its
embrace. You say that religion is humbug.
Now I am going to die, and l am very much
oerplexed; shall l believe you, or take the
belief of my mother.' The father said:
"Choose yourself" She said: No; am too
weak to choose for myself; want you to
choose for me-" "Well," said the father,
"Mary, I think you had better take the
religion of your mother" The time will come
when we snail have to believe something We
can not afford to he on the fence in religion.
Truth and error are set opposite to each
other. The one is infinitely right, and the
other infinitely wrong. On the Judgment
day we must give an account OF what we
believed as we'll as for what we acted.
The difference between believing truth
paradise aud pariltion. beg yon, in the
light of the Bible, and on your knees be-
fore God, to form your religious opin-
ion and then stick to it, though business COM
panlonS scoff, and wits carcature, and the
air crackles with the fires of martyrdom.
Surely truths in behalf of which Christ
died, and angels Of God trooped forth, and
the whole universe is marshaled, are worth
living for aud worth dying for. Amidst the
most unclean things is this everchanging
chameleon of religious theory. Away with
the reptile! God abhorS it with all all.con-
suming adherence.
Once more: take the suggestion OF the
text, and drive out the snail from your soul.
God has declared it unclean. 1t is an animal
to be found everywhere between the coldeSt
north and the hottest south. There are
fifteen hundred species of the snail. They
have no backbone, and they are so slow that
their movement is almost imperceptible. You
see snail in one place to-day; go tomorrow
and you will find it has advanced only few
inches. 1t becomes an emblem Of that large
class Of Christian people who 60 to work
with slowness and sluggishness that IS Won
derful. They are stopped by every little OBJ
stacle, because, like the snail, they have no
backbone. Others mount up on eagles wings
but they 60 at snail's pace.
O. child of God, arouse! We have
apotheosized Prudence AMI Caution long
enough. Prudence is beautiful grace, but
of all the family Of Christian graces I