The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-04-03

first question | ask him is: "Do You feel your
self to be sinner" If be say: "Well l.
yes" the heSitancy makes me feol that that
man wants ride on Nehemiah's horSo by
midnight through the ruins-in b. the cato
of his affections, out by the cato Of his will:
and before he has got through with that
midnight ride he will drop the reigns on the
horses neck, and will take his right
hand and smtc on his heart and say:
God 10 merciful to me a sinner;;h
and before he has stabbed his horse ho
will take his feot out Of the stirrups, and he
will slide down on the ground, and he will
knssl, crying: Have mercy on me, o God,
saccording to Thy loving kindness, according
unto tho multitude of Thy tender mercies
blot out my transgressions, for l acknnwl-
edge my transgressions and my sins
are ever before Thee" Ah, my friends.
you see this is not a complimentary
gospel. That is what makes some peo.
pie so mad. 1t comes to man OF million
dollars and impenitent in his sins and says:
"You're pauper." 1t comes to woman of
fairest cheek who has never repented, and
says: "You're sinner" 1t comes to man
priding himself on his independence and says:
you're bound hand and foot by the devil. !"
It comes to our entire race and says: You're
Satan sometimes says to me: Why
do you preach that truth! Why
don't you preach GOSPEL with
no repentance in it, Why don't you hattsr
mems hearts SO that you mako them feel all
right? Why don't you preach q humani-
tartan gospel with no repentance in it, say
ing nothing about the ruin, talking all the
time about redemption!" I say: "Get thee
behind me, Satan" I would rather
twenty thousand the wrong way.
Tho rodemntjon of the oosDp1 is q nar-
feet farce if there is no ruin. ''The whole
need not physician, but they that are sick. 1"
"If any one though he be an angel from
heaven, preach by any other gospel than
this" says the apostle, "let him be accursed."
There must be the midnight ride over the
ruins before Jerusalem can be built. There
must be the clicking Of the hoofs before thore
Again. My subject gives me specimen
Of busy and triumphant sadness. II there
was any man in the world who had right
to nope and give up everything as lost, it
was Nehemiah. You say: "Hs was cup.
bearer in the palace of Shushan. and it was
q gran place" So i: was. The hall of that
palace was two hundred feet square,
and the roof hovered over thirty.six
marble pillars, each pillar sixty feat high:
and the intense blue of the sky, and
the deep green of the forest foliage. and
trembling in the upholstery. But, my
friends, you know very well that fine archi-
lecture will not put down homesickness.
Yot Nehemiah did not give up. Then when
you see him going among these desc.
lated streets, and by these dismantled
towers, and by the torn up grave of his
father, you would suppose that he would
have dismounted from his horse and gone to
his room and said: "Woe is mel My fathers
grave is torn up. The Temple is dishonored.
The walls are broken down. 1have no money
with which to rebuild. wish I had neve
been born. l wish I were deal" Not so says
Nehemiah. Although he had a grief so
intense that it excited the commentary of his
King, yet that. panniiess, expatriated
Nehemiah rouses himself up to rebuild tho
city. He gets his permission of absence. He
gets his passports. He hastens away to
Jerusalem. BY night on horseback he rides
through the ruins He overcomes the most
rsrocious opposition. He arouses the piety
and patriotism of the people, and in less than
two months, namely, in ffty-two days,
Jerusalem was rebuilt That's what l call
busy and triumphant sadness
My friends, the whole temptation is with
you, when you have trouble. to do just the
opposite to the behavior Of Nehemiah, and
that is to give up. You say: ~ have lost
my child and can never smile again You
have lost my property and
fallen into sin, and + never can start
again for a new life." If Satan can
make you form that resolution, and
make you keep it, he has ruined you.
Trouble is not sent to crush you, but to
arouse you, to animate you. to propol you.
The blacksmith does not thrust the iron into
the forge and then blow away with the bel.
Ia ~l @Lax, h,;po f1,a hNf s.ny, fhn
anvil and beat with stroke after stroke to
ruin the iron, but to prepare it for
a better use. Oh, that the Lord God
of Nehemiah would rouse up all
broken hearted people to rebuild. Whipped,
betrayed, shipwrecked, imprisoned Paul
went right on. The Italian martyr
Algerius Sits in his dungeon writing letter,
and be dates it "From the delectab!e orchard
of the Leonine prison. That is what call
triumphant sadness. Iknew a mother who
buried her baby on Friday and on Sabbath
appeared in the house of God and said:
''Give me class; give me Sabbath school
class l have no child now left ME,
and I would like to have class Of little
children. Give mo real poor children.
Give ME class OFF the back strSt."
That I say, is beautiful. That is tri-
umphant sadness. At o'clock this after
noon in beautiful parlor in Philadelphia
bo from ten to twenty destitute children OF
tho street. 1t has been so every Sabbath
afternoon at 3 o'clock for many years. Those
destitute children receive religious instruc.
tion, concluding with cakes and sandwiches.
How do know that that has been going on
for many years? I knew it in this way
That was the first home in Philadelphia
where l was called to comfort great sor.
row Thav Ind q SnIandi1 how and
he had been drowned at Long Branch.
The father and mother almost idolizsd
the boy, and the sob and shrek of that
father and mother as they hung over the
collin resound in my cars to day. Thsrr
seemed to be no use Of praying, for when J
knslt down to pray, the outcry in the room
drowned out all the pray. But the Lord
get their trouble. If you should go on the
snowiest winter afternoon into Laurel Hill!
you would find monument with the word
"Walter;' inscribed upon it, and wreath Of
fresh flowers around the name. think there
has not been an hour all these years, winter
or summer, when tlera was not wreath "f
:resh flowers around Walters na"'-
But the Christian mother who sends those
flowers there, having no child left, Sabbath
afternoons others ten or twenty of the lost
ones of the street. That is beautiful. That
10 "hdp COLL puSy S1no VI iuupuauu odoAsSo.
Here is man who has lost his property. He
does not 60 to hard drinking. He does not
destroy his own life. He comes and says:
Harness me for Christian work My
moneys gone. have no treasures
OH earth. l want treasures in heaven. I
have a voice and heart to serve God" You
say that that man has failed He has not
fsiled-he has triumphel. Oh, wish I
could persuade all tho people who have any
kind OF trouble never to Give ND | wish thew
would look at the midnight rider of the text,
and that the four hoofs of that
beast on which Nehemiah rode
might cut to pieces all your
discouragements and harlships and
trials. Give up Who is going to give up,