The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-05-08


of that wreStle with the rock as the most in
tercsting chapter in all his angelic lifetime.
D men and women with obstacles in the way,
/ tell you that those obstacles are only thrones
that you may after a while sit on. , Is the OBJ
stacle in your way sickness? Conquer it by
accomplishing more for God during your in
validism than many accomplish who have
never known an ailment. Are you perse-
cuted? By your uprightness and courage
heroism. Is it poverty? Conquer it by be-
ing happy in the companionship of the Lord
and Master, who in all His life owned but
siXty-two cents, and that He got from fish's
mouth and Immediately paid it oil out
in taxes to the Roman assessor, and
who would have been buried i'll pot
ter's field had not Joseph Of Arimathea con-
tributed place, for He who had not where
to lay His head during His life had borrowed
pillow for tho last slumber. There Is no
throne that you are sure to keep except
that which YOU make out of vanquished
obstacles An ungrateful Republic at tho
ballot box denied Horace Greeley the
highest place at the National Capital, but
could not keep him from rising from the steps
of New York printing office on which he
sat one chilly morning waiting for the boss
til he mounted the highest throne OF
American Journalism. He rolled back
the stone and sat upon it. A poor orphan
boy, picking up chips at Richmond,
Va, accosted by a passing sea Captain
and invited to come on board his vessel, drops
the chips and starts right away and is tossed
from port to port and, homeless and friend
less, wanders one day along fremont street,
Boston, and sees Park Street Church open
and, speaking Of it afterward on a great oc-
casion and using sailors vernacular, as was
usual with him, be says: II put in, I up
helm, unfurled sail and made for the gallery
and scud under bare poles to the corner pew.
Then hove to and came to anchor.
''The old man, DR.. Griffin, was just naming
his text. Pretty soon he unfurled the MAIN
sail, raised the topsal, IniI up the pennantS
to free breeze and tell you the old gospel
ship never sailed moro prosperously. The
salt spray flew in every direction, but moro
especially did it run down my cheeks.
dismounted or spiked, his various crafts
by which he led sinners captive were
all beached and the captain Of
the Lords's hosts rode forth, conquering and
to conquer" Before that sailor boy was
poverty but he conquered it; and orphanage,
but he conquered it; and ignorance, but he
conquered it; and the scott Of the world, but
he conquered it; and he rose till every sail
ors bethel in the world blessed him and great
anniversary platforms invited him, and
Daniel Webster and Charles Dickens and
Frederika Bremen, and poets. and orators,
and senators sat electrified at his feet, and
his gospelizing influence will go on until the
last jack tar is converted and the sea shall
give up its dead. All the obstacles of his life
seemed gathered into one great bowlder, but
Edward T. Taylor the world-renowned sail
ors' preacher, rolled back the stone and sat
upon it..
Yet do not make the mistake that many
do of sitting on it before it is rolled away.
away at it. If not before, then think
about 12 o'clock noon of resurrection
day you will see something worth seeing.
The general impression is that the
resurrection will take place in the morning.
The ascent to the skies will hardly occur
immediately. 1t will take some hours to form
the procession skyward and we will all want
to take look at this world before we leave
it forever and see the surroundings of the
couch where our bodies have long been Sleep
ing. On that Easter morning the marble.
whether it lay fat upon your grave or stood
up in monument will have to be jostled
and shaken and rolled aside by the
angel OF resurrection, and while waiting fo1'
Your kindred to gather and the procession to
form your resurrected body may sit IN holy
triumph upon that chiseled stone which
marked the place Of your protracted slumber.
On that day what q fragile thing will be
Aberdeen granite and column OF basalt
and the mortar which will rattle
out of the wall of vaults that have been sealed
thousand years, and the Tai, built for a
queen in India, 4 sepulcher two hundred and
sevcnty-fve feet high, and made Of jasper
and cornelian and turquois and lapis-lazuli
and amethyst and onyx and sapphire and
diamond, and which shall that day rain into
glittering dust on groves of banyan and
bamboo and palm. And oil under what
power? Ponlerous c"owbars welded
by giants? No. Thunderbolt cleaving
asunder the granite? No. Battering ram
swung against the walls of cemeteries? No.
Dynamite drilled under the foundations of
cenotaph and abbey? No. 1t will be done by
music. Nothing but music, sweet but all
penetrating music. The trumpet shall sound
You say that is figurative; how do you know?
But, whether literal or tigurativc, it means
music anyhow. The trumpet, that stirring, in
ciSive, mighty instrument, with natural
compass from G below the staff to L above,
blown above Sinai when the law was given,
blown around Jericho when the walls tumbled,
blown when Gideon discomGted the Midian.
ties, blown when the ancient Israeiites were
gathered for worship, to be blown for the
raising of the dead i'll the last great Easter.
w
awakened, kisses its eyes awake, does well.
But the trumpet, which when the dead ere
to be aroused kisses the ear awake docs
better. Be not surprised if the dead arc to
be awakened by music. Why, that is the
way now We raise the dead. Take the statis-
tics if YOU can, of the millions Of souls that
have been raised from the death of sin by
hymns. BY psalms, by solos, by anthems,
BY flutes 9y ynas yions sod by Tbgga 1bgens hosy ay
have been resurrected by Ira D. San
KEY, by Thomas Hastings, by William D.
Bradbury, by Lowell Mason, by motherly
lullabies, by church doxologies, by oratorios.
If we raise the dead now by music, I've not
surprised that on the last day the dead are to
be raised by music.
The trumpet shall soundl And that in
struiinent shall have plenty Of work to do on
the day mentioned. 1t will have to sound
through all the pyramids, which "a are only
names for sepulchers, and hberate the buried
kings. And through hypogean graves which
Graves @say Which were dug in rocks
and through the nine hundred wind
ing miles of catacombs under anc
around the Roman Campagna, where oyel
seven million human beings sleep. Anc
through all the crystal sarcophagl OF Allan
tic and Pacific and Mediterranean and Cas-
plan and Black Sea deeps. And over oil the
battle fields of continents, until oil the fallen
troops of the English and French
and Italian and German and Rus
sian and Persian and American and
/ the worlds battle fields an
swer the call. Marathon, come up Agin-
court, come up! Blenheim come up! Acre
come up! Hohenlinden, come up! Sedan,
come up! Gettysburg. come up! Near
| SharpsbIlrg during our Civil War when was
with some others under the auspices of the
Christian commission, looking after the
wounded, Federal and Confederate one moon
licht nioht I WAS whore I could look down