The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-08-21

Now, the world sometimes takes after them !;
the newspapers take after them; pub
lie opinion takes after them = and
the unfortunate man is lied about until
all the dictionary of Billingsgate is
exhausted on him. You often see a man
whom you know to be good and pure, and
honest, set upon by the world, and mauled by
whole communities, while vicious men take ON
o supercilious air in condemnation of him; as
though Lord Jeffreys should write an essay on
gentIeness or Henry VIII talk about purity,
or Herod take to blessing little children.
Now, a certain amount of persecution rouses
mans defiance, stirs his blood for magnifi-
cent battle, and makes him fifty times more
man than he would have been without the
persecution. So it was with the great
reformer when he said II win
not be put down / will he heard" And so it
was with Willard, the preacher, in the time Of
Louis HI. When Louis XI. sent word to him
that unless he stopped preaching in that style
he would throw him into the river he replied:
"Tell the king that j will reach heaven sooner
by water than he will reach it by fast horses"
A certain amount of persecution is a tonic and
inspiration, but too much Of it, and too long
continued, becomes the rock BOzeZ, throwing
dark shadow over a mans life. What is he
to do then? Go home, you say. Good advice,
that. That Is just the place for man to 20
when the world abuses him.
Go home. Blessed be God for
our quiet and sympathetic homes. But there
is many q man who has the reputation OF hay
ing n home when he has none. Through un-
thinlengness or precipitation, there are many
matches made that ought never to have been
made. An officiating priest cannot alone
unite couple. The Lord Almighty must
proclaim banns. There is many homo in
which there is no sympathy, and no happiness,
and no good cheer. The Camor Of the battle
may not have been heard outside, but God
knows, notwithstanding all the playing OF the
"Weddng March," and all the odors of the
orange blossoms, and the benedicton of the
officiating PASTOR there has been no marriage,
Sometimes men have awakened to find on
one side of them the rock of persecution and
on the other side the rock Of domestic iufelic
ity. What shall such an one do? DO as JON
athan did climb. Get up the heights Of Cod
consolation, from which we may look down in
triumph upon outside persecution and home
trouble. While good and great Ohm Wesley
was being silenced by the magistrates, and
having his name written on the board fences
of London in doggerel, at that very time his
wife was making him as miserable as she
could-acting as though she were possessed
with tho devil, as | suppose she
was; never doing him a kindness until
the day she ran away, so that he wrote in his
diary these words: 81 did not forsake her. L
have not dismissed her; [ will not recall her."
Planting one foot John Wesley did, upon out
side persecution, and the other foot on home
trouble, he climbed up into the heights of
Christian Joy, and after preaching forty thou
sand sermons, and travelling two hundred and
seventy thousand miles, reached the heights of
cnougk-"a sharp rock on the one side, and
sharp rock on the other
Again, that woman stands III the crisis of
the text, who has bereavement and q struggle
for livelihood at the Same time. Without
mentioning names, l speak from observation.
Ah it is hard thing for woman to make an
honest living, even when her heart is not
troubled, and she has fair check and the
magnetism of an exquisite presence But
now the husband, or the father, is dead. The
~ clupplipe nj do1l
that was left in the savings bank;
and wan and wasted with weeping
and watching, She goes forth-a grave,
a hearse, a coffin, behind her-to contend for
her existence and the existence OF her chill
dren. When ] see such a battle as that open
shut my eyes at the ghastlmess Of the spec
tacle. Men sit with embroidered slippers and
write heartlesS essays about wOmeus wages );
but that question is made up OF tears and
blood, and there is more blood than tears. Oh,
give wome free access to all the realms whore
she can get a livelihood, from the telegraph
Office 10 tho pulpit Let mems wages be cut
down before hers are cut down. Men have
iron in their souls and can stand it,. Make the
way free to her of the broken heart. May
God put into my hand the cold, bitter cup of
privatiOn, and give me nothing but window
less hut for shelter for many years, rather than
that after am dead there should go out from
my home into the pitiless world Woman's
arm to fight the Gettysburg, the Austorlitz,
the Waterloo Of life for bread.
And yet how many women there are seated
between the rock of bereavement on the one
side, ana the rock of destituton on the other
BoZeZ and SenCh interloCking their shadow
and dropping them upon her miserable way
"There is q sharp rock on the one side,
and a sharp rock on the other side" What
are such to do? Somehow, let them climb up
into tho heights of the glorious promise:
Leave thy fatherless children; will preserve
them alive, and let thy widows trust in me. ="
Or get up into the heights OF that other glori-
GUS promise: 1.-THE Lord preserveth the
stranger and relieveth the widow and the
fathcrless" Q! We sowing women on starv-
ing wages. o! yc widows turned out from the
once beautiful home, o We female teachers,
kept on nggardly stiped. OF We despaiTing
woman, seeking in vain for work, wandering
along the docks, and thinking to
throw Yourself into the river last
night. o ye women of weak nerves and ach-
ing sides, and short breath and broken hearts,
you need something more than human SYM
pathy; You need the sympathy of God
Climb up into His arms. lie knows it all, and
He loves you moro than father, or mother, or
husband ever could or ever did and instead of
sitting down, wrnging your hands in despair,
you had better begin 10 CLIMB. There arc
heights Of consolation for you, though now
''there is a sharp rock on the one side and q
sharp rock ON the other side"
Again, that man is in the crisis of the text
who has n wasted life on tho one side and an
Illuminated eternity on the other Though a
man may all his life nave cultivated dellbora-
ton and selfpoise, il he gets into that posi-
tion all his self-posessOn is gone There are
all the wrong thoughts of his existence, all
the wrong deeds, all the wrong words-Strata
above strata, granite. ponderous, ovorshadow-
ing. That rock / call Bozez. On the other
side are all the retributions of the future, the
thrones of Judgment the eternal ages angry
with his long defiance. That rock | call
Seneh. Between these two rocks Lord Byron
persisted, aud Alcibiados persisted, and
horod perished and ten thousand times
ten thousand have persisted. O man inn
mortal, man. redeemed, man blood bought,
climb up ont Of those shadows. Climb up 10y
the way of the cross. Have Your wasted life
forgiven; have your eternal life secured. This
morning Just take one look TO the past and see
what il has been, and take one look TO the
future and see what It threatens to be. You
can afford to lose your health, you can afford
to lose your property, you can afford TO lose
your reputation; hut YOU cannot afford to loose
your soul. That bright, cleaning,
glorious, precious, eternal possession
YOU must carry aloft in the
day when the earth burns ~ and the heavens
burst.
You sce from my subject that when n man
goes into the safety aud peace OF the Gospel
he does not demoan himself There is nothing
in religion that leads to meanross or unmauh-