The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-11-13


pendencc uron God until we get into
trouble. Has riding with my little
child - Dad, and She asked If
She T. :. I said: Certainly
+ the rcins to her. and l
had 10 :r,..:r:. the glee with which She
drove Bat after awhile 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 tome,
and said: Il think you had better take
charge of the horse SO We are all
children; and on this road of life we
like to drive. 1t gives one such an ap-
pearance Of superiority and power. 1t
looks big. But after a 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 arc
willing that God should take the relnS
and drive. All, my friends. we get upset
SO often because we do not hand over tho
reinS soon enough.
Can you not tell when you hear man
pray. whether he has ever had any
trouble? l can. The cadence, the
phraseology indicate it. Why dowomen
pray better than men? Because they
have had more trouble. Before a 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 in
formation that must be highly sratify-
incs He then comes down gradually over
beautiful tablelands to ''forever and ever
amen" But after a man has had trouble,
prayer is with him taking hold of the
arln of God and crying out for help. l
have heard earnest prayers on two or
three occasions that l remember.
Once, on the Cincinnati express train.
going at forty miles the hour, and the
train jumped the track, and We were
near a 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 back of tho seats and cried
out, 80 God, save u.s. There was an
other time, about eight hundred miles
out at sea, on laundering steamer,
after the last ifeboat had been split
finer than kindling wood. They prayed
then. Why is it you SO often hear peo-
pie, in reciting the last experience Of
some friend, say: He made the most
beautiful prayer 7 ever hcarG?" What
makes it beautiful? 1t is the earnest
ness of it. Oh, tell you man is in
earnest when his stripped and naked
soul wades out in the SoundlcsS, shore
less. bottomless ocean of eternity.
1t is trouble, my friends, that makes
as feel our dependence upon God. We
do not know our own weakness or Gods S
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 unfor-
tunate in business. He has to raise a
good deal of money, and raiseit quickly
He horrowS on word and note all he can
borrow. After awhile he ruts mort
gage On his house. After awhile he puts
. second mortgage on his house. Then
he puts lien on his furniture. Then he
makes over his life insurance. Then he
assigns all his property. Then he gees
to his father-in-law and asks for help.
Well, having failed everywhere. COM
pietely failed, he gets down on his knees
and says: 80, Lord. l have tried every
body and every thing. now help me out
Of this financial trouble" He makes
God the last resort instead OF the first
resort. There are men who have paid
ten cents on dollar who could have
paid hundred cents on ! dollar II they
had gone to God in time. Why, You dc
not know who the Lord is. He is not
an autocrat seated far up in palace,
from which He merges once 4 year. pre-
ceded by heralds Swinging swords to
clear the way. No. But Father, will
ing at our call. to stand by us in every
crisis and predicament of life.
tell you what some of you business
men make me thiSk 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 his own fortuAe. He
goes far away, falls sick, gets out Of
money. He sends for the hotel keeper
where he is staying, asking for lenlcnce.
and the answer he gets is: If you don t
pay us Saturday night You will be re-
moved to the hospital" The young man
No help. He writes to banker who
was friend of his deceased father. No
relief. He writes to an old schoolmate.
but-gcts no help. Saturday nightcomes,
and he is moved to the hospital.
Getting there he is frenzied with grief.
and he borrows sheet of paper and q
postage stamp and he sits down and he
writes home, saving: Dear mother,
am sick unto death. Come" 1t is ten
minutes Of ten o'clock when She gets
the letter. At ten O'Clock the train
starts. She is FIVE minutes from the
depot She gets there in time to have
five minutes to spare. She wonders why
a train that can go thirty miles an hour
can not 60 sixty miles ar hour. She
rushes into the hospital: She says: "My
SON, wndu 0oeS all JnIs mean: why
didn't you send for me? You sent to
everybody but me. You knew l could
and would help you. Is this the reward
l 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 financial perpleX-
ity, YOU call on the banker, you call on
the broker, you call on your creditors,
YOU call on your lawyer for legal coun-
sci; you call upon everybody, and wheI
you can not get any help, then you so to
God. You say:
80 Lord, come to Thee, Help me
now out of my perpleNity.' And the
Lord comes, though it is the eleventh
hour. He says: why did you not send
for me before? As one whom his moth
er comforteth. SO will comfort you" 1t
is to throw us back upon an all comfort
ing 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 setapart by having watef sprinkled
on their hands, feet aud 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 great many young people around
and we laugh when they laugh, and
we romp when they romp, and wo sing
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 almost o;nnlpotenS IN
comfort. Why? She has boen through
it all. At seven o'clock in the morning
She goes over to comfort a young mother