The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-11-26
It is haIf-past 2 when he comes staggering

treaties. Dead to his mothers prayers. Dead
to the family altar where he was reared.
Dead to all the noble ambitions that once in
spired him. Twice dead. Only corpse of
what he once was. Gibbeted before God and
man and angels and devils. Chained in
death that will not loosen its cold grasp. His
father is asleep, his brothers are asleep his
sisters are asleep; but his motheris watching
him, watching him in the night After be
has gone to bed and fallen into drunken
sleep, his mother will go up to his room and
see that he is properly covered, and before
she turns out the light will put kiss upon
his bloated lips. Mother, why don't you go
to bedf "Ahr she says. II cannot go to
bed am Rizoah watGhng the slainp nr t,,s
country doing for such cases? They are TAX.
ing care not to hurt the feelings Of the
iackas and buzzards that roost on the
shelves of the grog shops and hoot above the
dead. am often asked to what political
party belong and I now declare my opin-
ion Of the political parties to-day. Each one
is worse than the other and the only consola-
ton in regard to them is that they have
putrefled until they have no more power to
rot. Oh, that comparatively tame scene up.
on which Rizpah lookeil American mother.
bood and American wifehood this moment
are looking upon seventy Of the slain, upon
seven hundred Of the slain, upon seventy
thousand OF the slain. Woe! woe! woe!
NV only consolation on this subject is that
foreign capitalists are buying up the Amerl-
can breweries The present owners see that
the doom or that business IS coming as surely
as that God is not dead. They are unloading
upon foreign capitalists and when we can
get these breweries into the hands Of people
living on the other side of the sea our politi-
cal parties will cease to be afraid of the
liquor traffic, and at their conventions noml-
mating Presidential candidates will put in
their platform plank as big as the biggest
plank Of the biggest ocean steamer, saying:
''Resolved unanimously that we always have
been and always will be opposed to alcohol
ism"
But must spur on our Arab steed, and
here we come III sight of Beeroth, said to be
the place where Joseph and Mary missed the
boy Jesus on the way from Jerusalem to
Nazareth, going home now from great
national festival. 'Where is my child,
Jesussn says Mary. "Where is my child,
Jesusf" says Joseph. Among the thousands
that are returning from Jerusalem they
thought UnaJ certainly he was walking on in
the crowd. They described Him, saying:
ssHe is twelve years old, and of light COM
plexion and blue eyes, A lost child!' Great
excitement in all the crowd. Nothing so
stirs folks as the news that child is lost. l
shall not forget the scene when, in great
outdoor meeting, I was preaching, and some
one stepped on the platform and said that
child was lost. We went on with the relig-
ious service, but all our minds were on the
lost child.
After while man brought on the plat
form beautiful little tot that looked like
piece ef heaven dropped down, aud said,
There is that child" And forgot all that
was preaching aoout, and lifted the child
to nv shoulder and said, "Here is the lost
child, and the mother will come and get her
right away, or will take her home and add
her to nv own broodp' And some cried and
some shouted, and amid all that crowd in.
stantly detected the mother. Everybody
had to get out of her way or be walked over.
Hats were nothing and shoulders We're moth
ing and heads were nothing in her pathway,
and realized something Of what must have
been Marys anxiety when she lost Jesus, and
what her gladness when she found her boy in
the temple Of Jerusalem talking with those
old ministers Of religion, Shammai, Hillel
and Betirah.
Ibear down on you to-day with a mighty
comfort. Mary and Joseph said: wv here IS
our Jesus" and you say: ''Where u Johni
or where is Henry3 or where is George?
Well, should not wonder if you found him
after while. Where? In the same place
where Joseph and Mary found their boy-in
the temple. What do I mean by that?
mean you do your duty toward God and to-
ward your child and you will find him after
a while in the kingdom Of Christ. Will you
say, "I do not have any way or influencing
nv child?" I answer you have the most
tremendous line Of influence open right be
fore you. As you write lcoter, and there
are two or three routes By which it may
go, but you want it to so the quickest
route, and you put on it ''via Southampton, I"
or 'via San Francisco" or ''via Marseilles" !"
the throne of God" How long will such q
good wish take to get to its destinationl
Not quite as long as the millionth part Of
second. I will prove it. The promise IS:
tiBefore they call T will answer" That
means at your first motion toward such
prayerful exercise the blessing will coma, and
# the PRAYER be made at 10 o'clock at night
it will be answered five minutes before ten.
"Before they call will answer"
Well, you say, | am clear discouraged
about my son, and am getting on in years,
and fear will not live to see him convert
ed. Perhaps not. Nevertheless think you
will find him in the temple, the heavenly
temple. There has not been an hour In
heaven the last one hundred years when pa
rents in glory had not had announced to
them the salvation Of children whom they
lett in this world proaigate. We often have
to soy "Iforgot, " but God has never yet once
said II forgot" 1t may be after the grass
of thirty summers has gresned the top OF
YOUR grave that your son may be found IN the
earthly temple 1t may be fifty years from
now when some morning the towers are chin
ing the mathis to the glori6ei in heaven that
which kas mo need OF caudle or OF sun, for
the Lord God and the Lamb are the light
thereof"
Cheer up, Christian father and motharl
| Cheer up! Where Joseph and Mary found
their boy you will find yours-in the temple.
You see, God could not afford to do other
wise One of the things He has positively
promised in the Bible is that He will answer
earnest and believing prayer. Failing to DO
that He would wreck His own throne, and
the foundation of His palace would give
way, and the bank of heaven would suspend
payment, and the dark word, "repudiatlon, "
would be written across the sky, and the
eternal government would be disbanded and
| God Himself would become an exile. keeI
| on with your prayer, and you will yet hnd
your child in the temple, either ths temple
here or the temple above.
Out on the western prairies was happy
| but isolated home. Father, mother and
| child. By the sale Of cattle quite largo
sum of money was one night in that cabin.
and the father was away. A robber who had
heard of the money one night looked in at
the window, and the wife and mother OF
that home saw him and she was helpless.
Her child by ner side, she knslt down and
prayed among other things for all prodigals
who were wandering up and down the world
The robber heard her prayer and was over.
whelmed and entered the cabin and knelt
beside her and began to pray. Hehad coIne
to rob that house, but the prayer Of that
woman for prodigals reminded him Of his
mother and her prayers before he became
vagabond and from that hour be began new
life. Years after that woman was in a city
in q oraat audience and the orator VINO came