The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-10-02

i Always finish work that you begin.
One thing finished is worth hundred
half done. The completion of an un-
dertaking yields more pleasure and
profit then dozens of plans. The man
who is always planning or scheming is
rarely, if ever, successful. He often
furnishes ideas for others, who 60 per.
sistently to work and finish what his
ideas suggested. "That was my idea
NV, plan,n We frequently hear some
one say but the man who carried it
ont was the one who benefited himself
and others. Do not begin what you
cannot finish. What you undertake
to do, do, and reap the reward of your
own ideas and skill.
This restless spirit is seen in the lit
tie boys and girls. "The child behaves
himself proudly against the ancient'
and the base against the honorable"
Disobedience to parents, however ugly
thing it may be, is we'll nigh univer-
sal. The spirit of the age is set against
everything, no matter how venerable
or how sacred. The fruits of this rest
less spirit is "God is giving US up to q
reprobate mind, to do those things
which are not convenient" Oul
country lis full of all unrighteousness,
fornication, wickedness, covetousness,
maliciousness." Men are fast losing
confidence in each other, and the
foundations of society are apparently
Iready to be RACED. Even the visible
Church is being converted into secu-
lar body in which parties are plotting
against each other. The pastoral rela-
ton has, to an alarming degree, ceased
to be regarded of divine origin and the
pastor is regarded as mere hireling
who may be dismissed at anytime.
There is, PERHAPS, not single congre-
CATION in tbiYfair land of ours but
which is in 4 discontented condition.
A feverish restlessness seems to be uni
versal. 1t has already done much
which has resulted in disturbing the
peace of society at large and the
Church in particular, and threatens the
overthrow of all our institutions both
civil and divine. II. II. 1a'eSby-
terian.
Pity often takes the place, in a large
soul, which indignation would have in
small one. The smaller minded man
grows indignant when he finds himself
sighted or treated unjustly by anoth-
er. The man of broader views and of
higher manhood has, in such a case,
real pity for the one who can bear him.
self so unworthily. II sometimes
feel" says DR.. Holmes, "as if W
ought to love the crippled souls with a
certain tenderness which we need not
waste on noble natures One who is
born with such congenital incapacity
that nothing can make gentleman OF
him, is entitled, not to our wrath, but
to our profoundest sympathy Lor
pity1." 1t is not pleasant for a wise
man to be jeered at by driveling ldl-
OF; but how much better it is to be the
one thus jeered at than the one who
Ijeers! 5. 3. Times.
Not what preacher says to his hear
ers, but what his hearers say to them
selves, is of the valve in influencing
those hearers lives. The mere utter
ance of truth in the ears of listener IS
of itself powerless, either for good or
evil. "What shall it profit a man."
says the preacher impressively, "if he
should gain the whole world and lose
his own soul?" Ninety-nine of his
hearers nod appreciatively, and listen
to hear something else equally good.
The hundredth nearer stops in his list
ening, repeats over to himself, "What
shall it protit-what shall it profit
me?" and receives an impress upon
his life as the result of his self-preach-
ed sermon. He is not yet master
workman in the craft of soul winners,
who has not learned the art of making
his hearers preach to themselves.
The Christian may innocently in
, .dulgc his taste to great expense, tor
the fine arts and the soft luNurles OF
, the world, when all the temporal and
: spiritual wants of every human being
are fully supplied.