The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-01-30

mind and soul the thrill Of joy which God
has handed down in the chalices OF the golden
Sabbath.
With what revulsion and with what pity
we must look out on that large class Of per
sons in our day who would throw discredit
upon the Lords day. There are two things
which Christian people ought never to give
up: the one is the Bible, the other is the Sab
hath. Take away one. and you take both.
Take either, and farewell to Christianity in
this country, farewell to our civil and relig-
ious liberties. When they 60, all go He who
has ever spent Sunday in Paris, or Antwerp,
or Rome, if he be an intelligent Christian.
will pray God that the day will never come
when the Sabbath Of Continental Europe shall
put its foot upon our shores. I had friend
in Syracuse who lived to be 100 wears Of age.
He said to me. in his ninetv-ninth year: II
went across the mountains in the early his
tory Of this country. Sabbath morning came.
We were beyond the reach of civilization.
NV comrades were all going out for an e1cur-
sion. | said: No. won't go: it is Sunday
why. thev laughed. Thew said: we haven't
have brought it with me over the noun
tains.'"
There are two or three ways In which we
can war against Sabbath. breaking usages In
this day; and the first thing is to get
our children right upon this subject, and
teach them that the Sabbath day Is the
holiest of all the days, and the best and the
gladdest. Unless you teach your child under
the paternal roof to keep the Lords day,
there are nine hundred and ninety chances
out of thousand it will never learn to keep
the Sabbath. You may think to shirk re-
sDonsibiity in the matter, and send your
child tn the Sabbath.school and the house Of
God; that will not relieve the matter
want to tell you. in the name OF Christ, my
Maker and my Judge. that your example
thoy get elsewhere: and if you disregard the
Lords day yourself, or in any wise throw
contempt upon it, you are blasting your
children with an infinite curse. It is q
rough truth. I know. told in a rough way;
hut it is Gods truth, nevertheless. Your
child may 20 on to seventy or eighty years
of age, but that child will never get over the
awful disadvantage Of having had Sab
bath-breaking father or Sabbath breaking
mother. It is the joy OF many Of us that we
can look back to an early home where God
was honored, and when the Sabbath came 1t
was a day Of great conservation and JOY.
We remember the old faces around the table
that Sabbath morning Our hearts melt
when we think Of those blessed associations
and we may have been off and committed
many indiscretions and done many wrong
things: but the day will never come when
we forget the early home in which Gods day
was regarded, and father and mother told
us to keep holy the Sabbath.
There is another way in which we can war
against the Sabbath usages Of the
country at this time, and that is by making
our houses Of worship attractive and the re.
l;gious services inspiring. I plead not for a
gorgeous audience chamber: plead not TOR
groined rafters or magnificent fresco; but
do plead for comfortable churches, home-like
churches-places where the church-going
population behave as they ought to. Make
the church welcome to all, however poorly
clad they may be. or whatever may have
been their past history; for I think the
Church of God is not so much made for yov
who could have churches in your own house,
but for the vast population of our great
cities, who are treading on toward death
with no voice Of mercy to arrest them.
All! when the prodigal comes into
the church. do not stare at him as
though he had no right to come. Give
him the best seat you can find for him,
Sometimes man wakes up from his sin, and
he says: "I'll go to the house OF God." Per-
haps he comes from one motive. perhaps
from another He finds the church dark
and the Christian people frigid land there
are no people on earth who can be more
frigid than Christian people when they try,
and the music is dull and he never comes
again. Suppose one Of these men enters
the church. As he comes in he hears song
which his mother sang when he was a boy;
he remembers it. He sits down, and some
one hands him book, open at
"Jerusalem. my happy home,
Name ever lear to me-"
"Yes.n he saws, 81 have heard that many
times" He sees cheerful Christian people
there every mans face psalm Of thanksglV-
inc to God. He saws: "Do you have this so
every Sunday. I have heard that the house
of God was doleful place, and Christians
were lugubrious and repellingi have really
enjoyed myselfm The next Sap6ath tne man
is again in the same place. Tears OF re-
pentauce start down his cheek; he begins to
pray; and when the communion table IS
spread he sits at 1t, and some one reaches over
and saws: II am surprised to find you here
thought you didn't believe in such thlngsI
"Ah!n he says, IL have been captured,
came in one day, and found you were al SO
loving and cheerful here that l concluded
l would come among you Where thou goes5
| will go: thy people shall be my people, and
thy God my God. Where thou dlest "lu
die, and there will be buried"
All: you can't drive men out OF their . u.s.
but you can coax them out-you can charm
them out.
would to God that we could all come to
q higher appreciation OF this Sabbath herl.
tage We can not count the treasures OF
one Christian Sabbath. 1t spreads out over
us the two wings of the archangel OF mercy.
Oh, blessed Sabbath! blessed Sabbath! They
scoff q great deal about the old Purltanlc
Sabbaths and there is a wonderful amount
of wit expended upon that subject now-the
Sabbaths they used to have in New England
never lived in New England. but l would
rather trust the old Puritanc Sabbath, with
all its faults, than this modern Sabbath.
which is fast becoming no Sabbath at all. II
our modern Sabbatism shall produce as stall
wart Christian character as the old New
ENGLAND Puritanic Sabbatism. l shall be
satisfied, and shall be surprised.
Oh, blessed day! blessed day! should
like to die some Sabbath morning when the
air is full of church music and the bells are
ringing Leaving my home group with
diving blessing, 1 should like to look oH upon
some Christian assemblage chanting the
praises of God as went up to join the one
hundred and forty and four thousand and
the thousands of thousands standing around
the throne of Jesus Hark! hear the bell
of the old kirk on the hill side of heaven. lt
is a wedding-bell, for behold the Bride groom
cometh. It victor's bell for we are more
than conquerors through Him who hath
owed us. It is q Sabbath-bell. for II calls
the nations Of earth AID heaven to everlast-
ing repose.
"Oh when, thou city Of my God,
Shall thy courts ascend?
Where congregations ne'er break up,
And Sabbaths have no end"