The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-05-14

fire or clutch with their fingers of ice. Ever
lasting peace is declared between the t1ercest
elements of nature and the good man. They
may in their fury seem to be lndlscrlminate,
shifting down the righteous with the wicked,
yet they cannot damage the Chris,
his body. The wintry blast that howls
about Your dwelling, you may call
your brother, and the south wind COM
ing up on June day by way of a flower gar
den, you may call your sister. Though so
mighty in circumference and diameter, the
sun and the moon have special charge con-
corning you. "The sun shall not unite thea
by day, nor the moon by night" Elements
and forces hidden in the earth are now har-
messed and at work in producing for you food
and clothing. Some grain field that you
never saw presented you this day with your
morning meal The great earth and the
heavens are the busy loom at work for you;
and shooting light, and silvery stream, and
sharp lightning are only woven threads in
the great loom, with Gods foot on the shut
tie. The same spirit that converted your soul
has also converted the elements from enmlty
toward you into inviolable friendship, and
furthest star and deepest cavern, regions OF
everlasting cold as we'll as climes of eternal
summer, all have mission of good, director
indirect, for your spirit.
Now infer from this that the study Of
natural objects will increase our religious
knowledge. If David and Job and John and
Paul could not afford to let go without obser-
vation one passing cloud, or rift Of snow, or
spring blossom, you cannot afford to let them
20 without study. Men and women of God
most eminent in all ages for faith and zeal
INDUCED in such Observation-Disclosures and
Baxter and Doddridge and Hannah More.
That man is not worthy the name of Chris
tian who saunters listlessly among these
magnificent disclosures of divine power
around, beneath and above US, stupid and
uninstructed.
They are not worthy to live in desert, for
that has its fountains and palm trees; nor IN
regions of everlasting ice for even there the
stars kindle their lights, and auroras flash
and huge iceoergs shiver in the morning
light, and Gods power sits upon them as
upon a great white throne Yet there are
Christians in the church who look upon all
such tendencies of mind and heart as soft
sentimentalities, and because they believe
this printed revelation of God are content to
be infidels in regard to all that has been
written in this great book OF the universe,
written in letters of stars, in paragraphs OF
consultations and illustrated with sunset
and thunder cloud and spring morning,
infer, also, the transcendent Importance
of Christs religion. Nothing is so far down,
and nothing is so high up, and nothing so far
out but God makes it pay tax to the Chris
tian religion. If snow and tempest and
dragon ara expected to praise God, suppose
you He expects no homage from your soul?
When God has written His truth upon every
thing around you, suppose you He did not
mean you to open your eyes and read it'
Finally, 1 learn from this subject what an
honorable position the Christian occupies
&c n n a..
ture but it is made to edify, defend and in
struct him. Hold up your heads, sons and
daughters of the Lord Almighty, that l may
see how you bear your honors. Though now
YOU may think yourself unbefriended, this
springs soft wind, and next summers harvest
Of barley, and next autumn's glowing fruits,
and next winters storms, all seasons all ele-
ments zephyr and euroclydon, roses breath
and thundercloud, cleaning light and thick
darkness, are sworn to defend yorl and CO.
horts of angels would fly to deliver you from
peril, and the great God would unsheath His
sword and arm the universe in your cause
rather than that harm should touch you with
one Of its lightest fingers. "As the mountains
around about Jerusalem, so the Lord is
around about His people from this time forth
for eyermore."
Oh for more sympathy with the natural
world, and then we should always have
Bible open before us, and we could take les-
son from the most festing circumstances, as
when storm came down upon England
Charles Wesley sat in room watching it
through an open window, and, frightened by
the lightning and the thunder, little bird
few in and nestled in the bosom OF the sacred
poet and, as he gently stroked it and felt the
wild beating of its heart. he turned to his
desk and wrote that hymn which will bs
sung while the world lasts:
Jesus, lover of my soul.
Let me to Thy bosom fly.
While the pillows near me roll.
While the tempest still is high;
Hide. me- o my Saviour. hide.
Till the storm of life be past,
Safe into the haven guide,
Q receive my sOul at last.