The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-11-06


full, tender, blessed cross still stands. On it
we hang all our hopes: beneath it we put
down all our sins; in the light of it we e1-
pect to make the rest of our pilgrimage.
Within sight of such sacrifice, who can feel
he has it hard? In the sight of such SYM
the darkness that may come down upon him?
Jesus ivesl The loving, patient, sympathiz-
ing, mighty Jesus! 1t shall not be told on
earth, or in hell, or in heaven, that three He
brew children had the Son Of God beside
them in the fire, and that whole church was
forsaken by the Lord when they went
through furnace about two hundred feet
vida
o Lord Jesus! shall we take out Of Thy
hand the flowers and the fruits, and the
brightness and the joys and then turn away
because Thou dost give US one cup Of bitter
ness to drink? Oh, no, Jesus! we will drink
it dry. But how it is changed Blessed Je-
sus, what has Thou put into the cup to
sweeten it? Why, it has become the wine of
heaven, and our souls grow strong. I come
now, and place both Of my feet deep down
into the blackened ashes Of our consumed
church, and cry out with an exhilaration
that never felt since the day of my souls
emancipation, Victory! victory! through
our Lord Jesus Christm
Your harps, ye trembling saints,
Down from the willows take,
Loud to the praise Of love divine
Bid every string awake.
olcity that have already referred to. We
are in the Academy to-day, not because
we have no other place to go. Last Sab
bath morning at 9 o'clock we had but one
church; now we have about thirty, all at
our disposal. Their pastors and their
trustees say: "You may take our main
audience rooms, you may take our lecture
rooms, you may take our church parlors, you
may baptize in our baptisteries, and sit on
larger hearted ministers or larger hearted
churches anywhere than in Brooklyn, tell me
where they are, that I may 60 and see them
befors die. The millennium has come Peo-
pie keep wondering when it is coming. 1t
has como. The lion and the lamb lie down
together, and the tiger eats straw like an OK.
I should like to have seen two Of the
ing through that great fire on Scher-
merhorn street last Sabbath. I am
sure the swords would have melted, and they
who welded them have learned war no more
can never say word against any other de-
nomination Of Christians. I thank God I
never have been tempted to do it. cannot
be sectarian. have been told / ought to
be, and I have tried to be- but have not
enough material in me to make such
done, there comes fire, or something else,
and all is gone. The angels Of God shake out
on this air. ''Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace, good will toward men,"
do not know but I see on the horizon the
first gleam Of the morning which shall unite
all denominations in one organization, dis
tinguished only by the locality as in apostolic
times. It was then the Church Of Thyatira,
and the Church Of Thessalonica, and the
(,h,,rcl, of pfi apd tho Church of Tor oli-
cea. So do not know but that in the future
history and not far of either, it may be SIM
ply distinction of locality, and not Of creed,
as the Church of New York, the Church Of
Brooklyn, the Church Of Boston, the Church
of Charleston, the Church of Madras, the
Church Of Constantinople, the Church of
America.
My dear brethren, we cannot afford to be
severely divided. Standing in front Of the
great foes Of our common Christianity, we
want to put OH the whole armor Of God and
march down in solid column, shoulder to
shoulder! one commander! one triumph!
The trumpet gives a martial strain
Q Israel! grid thee from the nshti
Arise, the combat to maintain;
Arise, and put thy foes to flight.
Wo also feel reinforced by the thought
that we are on the way to heaven that can
never burn down. Fires may sweep through
other cities-but am glad to know that the
New Jerusalem is fireproof. There will be
no engines rushing through those streets;
there will bo no temples consumed in that
city. Coming to the doors of that Church.
and not cries Of fire. Oh, my dear brother
and sister! if this short lane of life
comes up so soon to that blessed place, what
is the use Of our worrying? l have felt
good many times this last week like Father
Taylor the sailor preacher. He got In
long sentence while he was preaching one
day, and lost himself and could not find his
way out Of the sentence He stopped and
said: Brethren, have lost the nominative
Of this sentence, and things are generally
mixed up, but am bound for the kingdom
anyhow"
And during this last week, when saw the
rushing to and fro and the excitement, said
to myself: II do not know just where we
shall start again, but I am bound for the
kingdom anyhow" I do not want to 60
lust vet. want to be pastor Of this people
until I am about eighty. nine years of age,
but have sometimes thought that there are
such glories ahead that may be persuaded
to 20 q little earlier-for instance, at eighty
two or three; but really think that, II we
could have an appreciation Of what God has
in reserve for us, we would want to 60,
stepping right out Of the Academy Of Music
into the glories Of the skies.
ALI that is a good land. Why, they tell
me that in that land they never have a heart
ache. They tell me that man might walk
five hundred years in that land and never
see tear or hear sigh. They tell me that
our friends who have left us and gone there
their feet are radiant as the sun, and that
they take hold of the hand of Jesus familiar
ly, and that they open that hand and see in
the palm Of it healed wound that must
have been very cruel before it was healed.
And they tell me that there is no winter
there, and that they never get hungry or
cold, and that the sewing girl never wades
through the snow bank to her daily toll, and
that the clock never strikes twelve for the
night, but only twelve for the day.
See that light in the window. I wondow
who set it there. "Oh~ you say: my
father that went into glory must have set
that light in the window" No; guess
again. MY mother, who died fifteen years
ago in Jesus, think must have set that light
there" No; guess again. You say: MY
darling little child, that last summer I put
Ssvs Sc eaf as sfe there the Wind Window No.
guess again. Jesus set it there; and He
will keep it burning until the
day wo put our finger on the
latch of the door and go in to be at
home forever Oh! when my sight gets black
ment. when in the last weariness cannot
take another step, just help me put my foot
on that doorsill. When my ear catches no
more the voices Of wife and child, let me go
right in, to have my deafness cured by the
stroke of the harpers whose fingers fly over
the strings with the anthems of the free.
Heaven never burns down! The fires Of
the last day, that are already kndled in the
heart of the earth, but are hidden because
God keeps down the hatches-those internal
aroc 1rill aftar while Lrealc thro,Inl, thu