The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-05-21
draw a nne between reng1ol anu U1e Irarrur,s

in all, is about the ba5t book that the world
has ever seen? Do you know any book that
has as much in it? Do you not think. upon
the whole, that its influence has been bsneh-
cent? l come to you with both hanis e1-
tended toward you. In one hand have the
Bible and in the other have nothing. This
Bible III one nand 1 Will surrender forever
Just as soon as in my other hand you can put
back into the good old fashioned religion of
your fathers--to the God whom they wor-
SHIPPED, to the Bible they read, to the prom
ises on which they leaned, to the cross on
which they hung their eternal expectations
You have not been happy day since you
swung off; you will not be happy minute
until you swing back.
Again: There may T.. some Oh you who,
in the attempt after Christian life, will
have to run against powerful. passions and
appetites. Perhaps it is disposition to
anger that you have to contend against;
and perhaps, while in very serious mood,
you hear Of something that makes you feel
that you must swear or die I know
Christian man who was once 50 exasperatsd
that he said to mean customer: VI cannot
swear at you myself, for I am a member
of the church; but if you will go down
stairs nv partner in business will swear at
YOU" All your good resolutions hereto
fore have been torn to tatters by explosion
of temper. Now there is no harm In get
ting mad if you only get mad at sin. You
need to bride and saddle those hot breathed
passions, and with them ride down injus-
lice and wrong. There are a thousand
things in the world that we ought to bs
mad at. There is no harm in getting red
hot if you only bring to the forge that
which needs hammering. A man who has
no power of righteous indignation is an
imbecile. But be sure it is a righteous in
dignation, and not petulancy that blurs
and unravels and depetss the soul.
There is large class of parsons in mid-life
who have still in them appetites that
were aroused in early manhood, at a time
when they prided themselves on being
''little fast, I" high livers," "fres AMI easy"
';hail fellows we'll met" They are now paying,
in compound interest, for troubles they
are trying to escape, and you wiu-yet
very narrowly, 'tas with the skin of your
teeth" God and your own soul only know
what the struggle is. Omnipotent graca
has pulled out many soul that was deeper
in the mira than you are. They line the
beach of heaven-ths multitude whom God
has rescued from the thrall Of suicidal
habits If you this day turn yoar back on the
wrong and start anew, Col will help you.
Ch, the weakness Of human help! Men will
sympathize for while, and then turn you
off. If you ask for their their pardon, they
will give it, AMI say they will try you again;
but, falling away again under the power Of
temptation, they cast you Of forever. But
God foryives seventy timsS ssven; yea, ssven
hundred times; yea though this be thu ten
thousandth time, He is moro earnest, moro
sympathetic, more helpful, this last time than
when you took your first misstep.
If, with all the influences favorable for
right life men make 80 many mistakes, how
much harder it is when, for instance, some
appetite thrusts its iron grapple iEto the roots
OF the tongue, and pulls man down with
hands of destruction! If under such circun-
stances, he break away, there will be no sport
in the undertaking, no holiday enjoyment,
but struggle in which the wrestlers move
from side to side, and bend and twist and
watch for an opportunity to get in a heavier
stroke, until with one final effort, in which
the muscles are disten1ed, and the veins
stand out, and the blood starts, the swarthy
habit falls under the knee of the victories
capped at last as ''with the skin Of his teeth"
The ship Emma, bound from Gottenburg
" Harwich, was sailing on, when the man on
Gne 100 souJ saw sonotainy that h, pro.
nounced vessel bottom up. Thare was
something on it that looked like sea-yull,
but was afterward found to bs waving
handkerchief. In thu small boat thu crsT
pushed out to the wreck, aud founi that it
had been digging their way out Through the
bottom of the ship When thu vessel cau-
sized they had no means of escape. The
captain took his penknife aud dug away
through the planks until his knife broke.
Then an old nail was found, with which they
attempted to scrape their way out of the
darkness, each one working until his hand
was well nigh paralyzed and he sank back
faint and sick. After long and tedious work
fIa 1icrbf IT, LaL
ship. A handkerchief was hoistei. Help
came. They were taken on board ths vessel
and saved. Did ever men come 50 near a
watery grave without dropping into it?
How narrowly they escaped!-sscaped only
with the skin Of their teeth"
There are men who have been capsized Of
evil passions, and capsizsi mid-ocsan, and
they are thousand miles away from any
shore Of help. They have for years bssn try
ing to dig their way out. They have besn
digging away and digging away, bnt they
can never bs delivered unless they will hoist
some signal Of distress. However weak and fee
bic it may be, Christ will see il, and bear down
upon the helpless craft and tnke them on
board, and it will be known in earth and in
heaven how narrowly they eScaped-"es-
capped as with the skin of their teeth"
There are others who in attempting to
come to God must run between great
many business perplexities. IT a man 60
over to business at 10 o'clock in the morn
ing and comes away at o'clocSi in the at
ternoon, he has some time for religion; but
how shall you find time for religious COZ
temptation when you are driven from sun
rise to sunset, and have been for five years
going bohind in business, and are frequent
ly dunned by creditors whom you cannot
pay, and when, from Monday morning I'M
ca Id,
that you cannot meet? You walk day by
day in uncertainties that have kept yoM
brain on fire for thu past three years. Som'
with less business troubles than you haU
gone crazy. The clerk has heard a noise il
the back counting-room, and gone in, and
found the chief man of the firm a ravina
maniac; or the wife has heard the bang oil
a pistol in the back parlor, and gone in,
stumbling over the dead body Of her hus'
banda suicide. There are in this hous'
to-day thr,s hundred men pursued, har.
ness perplexities and which way to turf
next they do not know. Now God will moi
be hard on you. He knows what obstacle,
are in the way Of your being a Christian,
ani your first effort in the right direction
He will crown with success Do not lei
Satan, with cotton bales and kegs, and hogs.
heads and counters and stocks of unstable
goods, block up your way to heaven. Gather
up all your energies. Tighten the girdle
about your loins. Take an agonizing look
into the face Of God, and then say: "Here
goes one grand effort for life eternalw and
then bound away for heaven, escaping as
with the skin Of your teeth"
In the last day it will be found that Hugh
Latimer and John Knox and Huss and Rid
ley were not the greatest martyrs, but Chris
tian men who went up incorrupt from tn,
contaminations and perple1ities Of Wal
street, W.lter street, Pearl street. Broad