The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-11-13


said: "Certainly."
handed over the reins to her, and had to
admire the glee with which she drove. But
after while we met team and we had to
turn out. The road was narrow, and it was
sheer down on both sides. She handed the
reins over to me, and said: II think you had
better take charge of the horsen So we are
all children; and on this road of life we like
to drive. It gives one such an appearance Of
superiority and power. 1t looks big. But
! after while we meet some obstacle, and we
! have to turn out, and the road is narrow,
and it is sheer down on both sides; and then
we are willing that God should take the
reins and drive. All! my friends, we get up
set so often because we do not hand over the
reins soon enough.
Can you not tell whnn. Enu Enar q n,an
pray, whether he has ever had any trouble?
can. The cadence, the phraseology indicate
it. Why do women pray better than men?
Because they have had more trouble. Be-
fore man has had any trouble. his prayers
are poetic, and he begins away up among the
sun, moon and stars, and gives the Lord
great deal of astronomical information that
must be highly gratifying. He then comes
on down gradually over beautifully table,
lands to forever and ever, amen" But af-
ter man has had trouble prayer is with
him taking hold of the arm of God and cry
ing out for help. have heard earnest pray
ers on two or three occasions that remen-
ber.
Once, on the Cincinnati express train,
| going at forty miles the hour, and the
train jumped the track, and we were
near n chasm eighty feet deep; and the
men who few minutes before had been
swearing and blaspheming God, began to
pull and jerk at the bell rope, and got
up on the backs of the seats and cried
out: 20 Cod save usm There was another
! fiYr,a about oirybt b,,pdrod r,,iloc or
on a foundering steamer, after the last
lifeboat had been split finer than kindling
wood. They prayed then. Why is it you
so often hear psople, in reciting the last e1-
perience of some friend, say: HE made the
most beautiful prayer I ever heard" What
makes it beautiful? 1t is the earnestness of
! it. Oh, tell you man Is in earnest when
his stripped and naked soul wades out in the
soundless shoreless, bottomless ocean Of
eternity.
It is trouble, my friends that makes us feel
our dependence upon God. We do not know
our own weakness or Gods strength until
! the last plank breaks. 1t is contemplate in
us when there is nothing else to take hold of,
that we catch hold of God only. A man is
! unfortunate in business. He has to raise
| great deal of money, and raise it quickly.
He borrows on word and note all he can bor-
row. After a while he puts a mortgage on
his house. After while he puts a second
mortgage on his house. Then he puts lien
on his furniture. Then he makes over his
life insurance. Then he assigns all his prop
erty. Then he goes to his father-iu-law and
asks for help!
Well having failed everywhere, COM
pletely failed, he gets down on his knees and
says 20 Lord, have tried everybody and
everything now help me out Of this finan-
cial trouble" He makes God the last resort
instead of the first resort. There are men
who have paid ten cents on a dollar who
could have paid a hundred cents on dollar
| if they had gone to God in time. Why, you
do not know who the Lord is. He is not an
autocrat seated far up in palace, from
which He emerges once year, preceded by
hsralds swinging swords to clear the way!
No. But Father willing, at our call, to
stand by us in every crisis and predicament
| Of life
tell you what some Of you business men
make me think Of. A young man goes off
from home to earn his fortune. He goes
with his mothers consent and benediction.
She has large wealth; but he wants to make
sick, gets out of money. He sends for the
/ hotel keeper where he Is staying, asking for
lenience, and the answer he gets is: IF you
don't pay up Saturday night you'll be re-
moved to the hospital" The young man
sends to a comrade in the same building. No
uelp. 11o WTlUcS 10 u DdukeF "uO W dS d
friend of his deceased father. No relief. He
writes to an old schoolmate, but gets no help.
Saturday night comes and he is removed to
the hospital.
Getting there, he is frenzied with grief; and
! he borrows sheet Of paper and a postage
stamp, and he sits down, and he writes home,
saying: Dear mother, I am sick unto death.
| Come" It is ten minutes of 10 o'clock when
she gets the letter. At 10 o'clock the train
| cfo Sho ic fiyyo rroinutoc from, tha darnt
She gets there in time to have five minutes to
spare. She wonders why train that can go
thirty miles an hour cannot 60 sixty miles an
hour. She rushes into the hospital. She says:
'tMy son, what does all this mean? Why didn't
you send for me? You sent to everybody but
me. You knew I could and would help you.
Is this the reward I get for my kindness to
you always?" She bundles him up, takes him
home, and gets him well very soon.
Now, some of you treat God just as that
young man treated his mother. When you
get into a financial perplexity, you call on the
banker, you call on the broker, you call on your
creditors, you call on your lawyer for legal
counsel; you call upon everybody, and when
you cannot get any help, then you go to God.
You say: 20 Lord come to Thee. Help
erd nOw eomss Ss RougR i IS se eleventh bour
He says: why did you not send for Me
before? As one whom mis- mother comforteth,
so will comfort you" 1t is to throw us back
upon an all comforting God that we have
this ministry Of tears.
Again, it is the use of trouble to capacitate
us for the office of sympathy. The priests,
under the old dispensation, were set apart by
having water sprinkled on their hands, feet
and head; and by the sprinkling OF tears
people are now set apart to the office of
sympathy. When we are in prosperity we
like to have a great many young people
around us, and we laugh when they laugh,
when they sing; but when we have trouble
we like plenty of old folks around. Why?
They know how to talk. Take an aged
mother, seventy years of age, and she is al
most omnipotent in comfort. Why? She
has been through it all At Z o'clock in the
morning she goes over to comfort young
mother who has just lost her babe.
Grandmother knows all about that trou-
BILE. Fifty years ago she felt it. At II
o'clock of that day she goes over to comfort
widowed soul. She knows all about that.
She has been walking in that dark valley
twenty years. At o'clock in the afternoon
! some one knocks at the door wanting bread.
She knows all about that. Two or three
times in her life she came to her last loaf.
At 10 o'clock that night she goes over to sit
I'D with some one severely sick. She knows
all about it. She knows all about fevers and
pleurisies and broken bones. She has been
doctoring all her life, spreading plasters, and
pouring out bitter drops and shaking up hot
pillows, and contriving things to tempt
poor ap ppetite. Doctors Abernethy and Rush
and Hosacx and Harvey were great doctors,
but the greatest doctor the world ever saw is
an old Christian woman. Dear me! Do We
not remember her about the room when we
were sick in our boyhood? Was there any
ono who could ever SO touch O sore without