The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-12-24

There comes warrior on his way 70 the bar
racks, carrying that kind Of sword which
the world has forgotten how to make
blade, which the interlacings Of &
color changing at every new turn OF the
light, many coIors coming and going and In
the blade so keen 1t could cut IN j
twain an object without making the lower
partof the object tremble, with an elasticity
that could not be broken, though you brought
the point Of the sword clear back to the q
hilt, and having watered appearance
which made the blade seem as though just
dipped IN clear fountain, q triumph OF cut
lery which thousand modern foundrymen
and chemists have attempted in vain to fmi-
named after this city, figures Of animals and
fruits and landscapes here being first wrought
into siIk-damasks. And specimens Of da-
by which in this city steel and
iron were trst graved, and then the groves
filled with wire Of gold-damaskeening. But
stand back or be run over. for here are atths
gates Of the city laden caravans from Aleppo
In ore direction, and from Jerusalem In an.
other direction, and caravans Of all nations
paying toll to the supremacy. Great is.Dar ;
mascus!
But what most stirs my soul Is neither
chariot nor caravan nor bazar nor palaca
but blind man passing along the street.
small Of stature and Insignificant In personal
appearance. Oh, yes: we have seen him be-
fore. BE was one Of that cavalcade coming
from Jerusalem to Damascus to kill Chris
tians and we saw him and his horse tumble
up there on the road some distance out OF the
city, and he got up blind. Yes it is Saul Of
Tarsus now going along this street called
Straight. he Is led by his friends, for hs
cannot see his hand before his face, unto TIE {
house Of Judas; not Judas the bad, but JUDAS Z
thegood. In another part of this city one !.
Ananias, not Ananias the liar, but
Ananias the Christian, is told by
the Lord to 20 to this house
Of Judas on Straight street and put his hands
on the blind eyes Of Saul that his sight might ,
return. "Oh," said Ananias, 81 dare not GO;
that Saul Is a terrible fellow. he hlll
Christians and he will kill me-" go, said
the Lord, and Ananias went. There sits in
blindness that tremendous prosecutor. AZ
was q great nature crushed. he had started
for the city Of Damascus for the one purposeoi
assassinating Christs followers, but since
that fall from his horse he has entirely
changed. Ananias steps up to the aghtlaa
man, puts his right thumb on one eye and
the left thumb on the other eye, and in an
outburst Of sympathy and love and fattt
says: Brother SAUL Brother SAUL ths
Lord, even Jesus that appeared unto thee II
the way as thou camest has semi
me that thou mayst receive thy sight and
be filled with the Holy Ghost."' Instantly
something like scales fell from the bline
mans eyes and he arose from that seat the
mightiest evapgel of all the ages, a Sir VIII
lam Hamilton for metaphysical Analysis a.
John Milton for sublimity OF thought,
Whitefsld for popular eloquence, Q Johr Z
Howard for widespread philanthropy but
more than all of them put together inspired,
thunderbolted, multipotent, apostolic Did
Judas, the kind host Of this blind man, OF
Ananias the visitor, see scales drop from
the sightless eyes? think not But Paul
knew they had fallen, and that Is all that
happens to any Of us when we are converted.
The binding scales drop from our eyes and
we see things differently. "a
A Christian woman, missionary among q
most degraded tribe, whose religion was
never to wash or improve personal appear
ance, was trying to persuade one OF thoss
heathen women not only OF need OF cnange
of heart but change OF habits, which wouia
result in change Of appearance but the enor1
failed until the missionary had placed IN hei
own hallway looking glass, and when ths
barbaric woman passing through the haH
saw herself in the mirror for the tirst time,
she exclaimed, "Can it be possible look i1Re
that?n and appalled, at her own appearance
she renounced her old religion and asked % J
be instructed in the Christian religion. And
so we feel that we are all right in our sinful
and unchanged condition until the scales fal
from our ewes, and in the looking glass of
Gods word we see ourselves as we really are,
until divine grace transforms US.
Thereare many people in this house to-day
as blind as Paul was before Ananias touched
his ewes, And there are many here from
whose ewes the scales have already fallen.
You see all subjects aud all things dlnerent-
ly--God and Christ and eternity, and youH
own immortal spirit Sometimes the scales
do not all fall at once. When was poy.
at Mount Pleasant, one Sunday afternoon
reading bod iridge's 'sRiss and Progress Of
Relioion in the Soul" that afternoon some
of the scales fell from my eyes and lsaw
little. After had been in the ministry about
a wear. one Sunday afternoon in the village
parsonage reading the Bible story OF the Syro-
Phenician's faith, other scales fell from
INV ewes and T saw bstter. Two Sunday
evenings ago, while preparing for the even
ing service in New York, 1 plckei up
book that did not remember to nave seen
before, and after hal read page about
reconsecration to God I think the remain.
inc scales fell from my eyes. Shall not
ol1r visit to Damascus to-day result, Ike /,
PauI,s visit. in vision to the blind and IN
creased vision for those who saw somewhat
before?
I was reading Of a painters child VINO os,
came blind In infancy. But after the cnlld
WAS nearly grown surgeon remover tne
blindness. When told that this could be done,
the child's thought, her mother being deaa,
was She would bs able to see her fatner, VINO
had watched over her with great tenderness;
When night came she was in raptures ana
ran her hands over her fathers face, ana
shut hsr ewes as If to assure herself that this
was really the father whom she had only
known by touch, and now looking upon
him. noble man as he was in appearance as
we'll as in reality, she cried out: 0usb 70
think that had this father so many years
and never knew himT As great and greaIer
is the SOULS joyful surprise when the scales
fall from The eyes and the long spiritual
darkness is ended, and we look up into our
Fathers face always radiant and loving, put .
now for the first revealed, and our nmnonssS
forever gone, we cry, "Abba Fatherp
To each one Of this vast multituoe OF
auditors I say as Ananias did to Saul o,
Tarsas when his sympathetic fingers Goucneo
the closed eyelids: Brother Saul! brotnes
Saul! The Lord even Jesus that appearea
INTO thee in the way that thou camest, naSa
sent me that thou mightest receive my SSas
and be filed with the Holy Ghost"
WHILE the Germans were laying
sege to Paris about twenty years ago,
L.