The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-05-15

brain of her universities, the wheat Of her
prairies, the rice Of her savannas, the two
great ocean beaches-the one reaching from
Bafin's bay to Terra del Fuego, and the
other from Behring straits to Cape Horn
and all the normal and temporal and spiritual
and everlasting interests Of population
vast beyond all human computation? Who
shall have the hemisphere? You and I will
decide that. or help to decide it by conscien-
tious vote, by earnest prayer, by maintenance
of Christian institutions, by support Of great
philanthropies, by putting body, mind and
soul on the right side of all moral, religious
and national movements.
All! it will not be long before it will not
make any difference to you or TO me what be-
comes of this continent, SO far as earthly COM
fort is concerned. All we will want Of it will
be seven feet by three, and that will take in
the largest, and there will be room and to
spare. That is all Of this country we will need
very soon-the youngest of us. But we have
an anxiety about tie welfare and the happi-
ness of the generations that are coming on,
and it will bee grand thing if, when the arch
angels trumpet sounds, we find that our sep
ulcher. like the one Joseph of Arimathea pro-
vided for Christ is in the midst of garden.
One of the seven wonders of the world was
the white marble watch tower Of Pharos of
Egypt. Sostratus, the architect and sculptor.
after building that watch tower cut his name
and to please the King he put the morarch;s
name on the outside of the plastering; and
the storms beat and the seas dashed in their
fury, and they washed of ths plastering, and
they washed it out, and they washed it
down, but the name of Sostratus was deep
cut in the imperishable rock. So across the
face Of this nation there have been great
many names written, across our finances,
across our religions, names worthy
of remembrance, names written on the
architecture Of our churches, and our
schools, and our ssylums and our homes
Of mercy, but God is the architect Of this
continent, and he was the sculptor Of all its
grandeurs, and long after; through the wash
Of the ages and the tempests of centuries, all
other names shall be obliterated, the Divine
signature and Divine name will be brighter
and brighter as the millenniums 60 by, and
the world shall see that the God who made
this continent has redeemed it by His grace
from all its sorrows and from all its crimes.
Have you faith in such thing as that?
After all the chariots have been unwheeled,
and after all the war chargers have been
crippled, the charicts which Elisha saw on
the morning of his peril will roll on in tri-
unph, followed by all the armies of heaven
Oh white horses. God could Go it without us,
but He will not. The weakest Of us, the
faintest Of us the smallest Drained Of us,
shall have part in the triumph. We may
not have our name like the name Of Sos
tratus, cut in imperishahle rock and conspic-
uous for centuries, but We shall be remem-
bered in better place than that, even in the
heart Of Him who came TO redeem us and re-
deem the world, and cur names will be seen
close to the signature Of His wound, for as
to-day He throws out His arms toward us He
says: 'iBehold, have craven thee on the
palms on My hand" By the mightisst Of all
agencies, the potency of prayer, beg you
seek our national welfare.
Some time ago there were 4, GOO, 600 letters
in the dead letter postofice at Washing ton
letters that lost their way-but not one
prayer ever directed to the heart Of God mis-
carried The way is all clear for the ascent
Of your supplications heaTenward in behalf
of this nation. Before the postal communl-
cation was so easy, and long ago, on rock
one hundred feet high on the coast Of Eng
and in great letters on the side Of the rock, so
it could be seen far out at sea, were the
words: "Postofice;;" and when ships came by,
a boat put out to take and fetch letters. And
so sacred were those deposits Of affection in
that barrel that no lock was ever put upon
that barrel, although it contained messages
for America, and Europe, and Asia, and
Africa, and all the islands Of the sea- Many
storm tossed sailor, homesick, got message
Of kindness by that rock, and many home
stead heard good news from boy long gone.
Would that all the heights Of our national
prosperity were in Interchange of sympathies
prayers going up meeting blessings coming
down! Postal celestial not by storm STRUCK
rock on wintry coast, but by tie Rock Of
Ages