The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-03-06

wounded on the field. and the aTbulances
had not come. Une Christian soldier lying
/ there a-dying under the starlight began 10
sing:
There is a land Of pure delight"
and when he came To the next line there
we're scores Of voices uniting:
Where saints immortal reign"
The song was caught up all through the
fields among the wounded, until it was said
there were at least ten thousand wounded
men reuniting their voices as they came to
the verse:
There everlasting spring abdes,
And never.witherinG flowers;
Death like narrow stream divides
That Heavenly land from ours"
O,itis great religion to live by, and it Is
great religion to die by. There is only
one heart-throb between you and that re-
ligion this morning. Just look into the face
of your pardoning God and surrender your
self for time and for eternity and he IS
yours and Heaven is yours, and all is yours.
Some OF you, like the young man Of the
text, have gone far astray. know not the
history, but you know it, you know It..
When young man went forth into life, the
| legend says, his guardian angel went forth
with him, and getting him into field the
guardian angel swept circle clear around
where the Young man stood. twas circle
OF virtue and honor, and he must not step
| beyond that circle. Armed foes came
down, but were obliged to halt at the
circle-they could not pass. But one day
temptress with diamond hand stretched
forth and crossed that circle with the
"a soul 4
by that one fell grip was brought beyond
the circle and died. Some Of you have
stepped beyond that circle. Would you not
like this day, by the grace of God, TO step
back. This, say to you. is your hour OF
salvation There was in the closing hours
of Queen Anne what is called tue clock
scene Flat down on the pillow, in helpless
sickness, she could not move her head or
move her hand. She was waiting for the
hour when the ministers Of state should
gather in angry contest, and, worried and
worn out by the coming hour, and IN the
momentAry absence Of the nurse, in the
power, the strange power which de!lrlum
sometimes gives one, she arose and stood in
front of the clock, and stood there watching
the clock when the nurse returned. The
nurse said: DO you see any thing peculiar
about that clockt" She made no answer,
but soon died There is clock scene in
every history. If some Of YOU would rise
from the bed Of Sethargy and come out from
your delirium of sin and look on the clock
Of Your destiny this morning, you would
sec and hear something you have not seen
or heard before, and every tick Of the min
ute, and every stroke Of the hour, and every
swing Of the pendulum would say: Now,
now, now, noww o, come home to your
fathers house. Come home, oh, prodlgai,
from the wilderness. Come home, come
home.
u.-But notice that when the prodigl
came there was the fathers Joy. He did not
greet him with any formal ''How do you
don he did not come out and say: You
are unfit to enter; 50 out and wash ln the
trough by the well, and then you can come
in; we have had enough trouble with you"
Ah!no. When the proprietor Of that es-
tate proclaimed festival, it was an outburst
Of fathers love and fathers Joy. God IS
your father. I have not much sympathy
with that description Of God sometimes
hear, as though he were Turkish Sultan,
hard and unsympathetic, and listening not
to the cry of his subjects. A man told me
he saw in one Of the Eastern lands king
riding along, and TWO men were IN alterca-
tion, and one charged the other with having
eaten his rice, and the king said: ''Ihen
slay the man, and by pest-uortem examlna-
ton find whether he has. e2ten the rice"
And he was slain. An! the cruelty OF
scene like that Our God Is not sultan,
not a czar, not despot, but a father-kind,
loving, iorgivipg and He makes all heaven
ring again when prodigal comes back. II
have no pleasure" he says. 'In the death OF
him that dieth."
II man does not get to heaven II is be-
cause he will not 60 there No difference
the color, no difference the history, no diff
ference the antecedents, 70 difference the
surroundings, no difference the sin. When
the white horses Of ChriSt's victory are
brought out to celebrate the eternal tri-
umph you may ride one OF them, and as
God is greater than all, His Joy is greater,
and when soul comes back there is in BIS
heart the surging OF an Infinite ocean CT
sladness, and to express that gladness 1t
takes ali the rivers of pleasure, and all the
thrones Of pomp, and all the ages OF eterni-
ty It is Joy deeper than all depths, and
higher than au height, and wider than all
width, and vaster than all imnensity. 1t
overtops, it undergirds, it oatweighs all the
united splerdor and JOY o. the universe.
Who can tell what Gods Joy iss
You remember reading the story OF the
A.ae. who on some great day OF festivity
scatte. &C silver and gold among the people,
and sent valuable presents to his courtiers; ;
but methinks when soul comes back, God IS
30 glad that to express his Joy he fings out
i ln ,ptn nd md nav
suns, and rolls among the white-robed an
thems Of the redeemed greater hallelu1ah,
while with q voice that reverberates among
the mountains Of frankiucense and is
echoed back fro N .Se everlasting gates, he
cries: This, my sou. was dead, and he is
alive again"
At the opening Of the Exposition in New
Orleans saw Mexican futist, and he
played the solo, and then afterward the
eight or ten bands OF music, accompanied
by the great organ, came in; but the sound
of that one flute as compared with all the
orchestra was greater shan all the combined
10y Of the universe when compared with
the resoundiug heart Of Almighty God
For ten years father went three times a
! day to the depot. His son went OF in aggra-
waiting circumstances, but the father said:
| He will come back" The strain was TOO
much and his mind parted. and three times
a day the father went. In the early morn
| ing he watched the train, its arrival the
stepping out of the passengers, and then
| the departure of the train. At noon he went
there again Watching the advance OF the
train, Watching the departure. At night,
there again; watching the coming, watching
the going for ten years. He was sure his
son would come back. God has been watch
ing and waiting for some Of you, my broth