The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-04-16

II never will 60 on the water again unless
can run one Of the White Star line" Shall
the engineer of lightning express, who at
the station misread the telegram of the train
dispatcher and went into. collision. and for
that has been put down to the work of
engineering on freight train, say: Il
never will again mount an engine un-
less can run a vestibule express?" Take
what you have of opportunity left. Do your
best with what remains. Your shortest VIM
ter day is worth more to you than can be the
longest day of previous summer. Your
opportunity now, as compared with previous
opportunities, may be small as a rat terrier
compared with the lion which at Matabosa,
fatally wounded by the gun of David Liy-
ingstone in its death agony leaped upon the
missionary explorer and with its jaws crushed
the bone Of his arm to splinters, and then
rolled over and expired, but, Better is
living dog than dead lion"
MY text also means that the condition OF
the most wretched man alive IS better than
that of the most favored sinners departed.
The chance Of these last is gone. Where they
are they cannot make any earthly assets
available. After Charlemagne was dead he
was set in an ornamented sepulcher on
golden throne, and crown was put on his
cold brow, and q scepter in his stiff hand,
but that gave him no dominion in the next
world. One Of the most intensely interest
ing things saw last winter in Egypt was
Pharaoh Of olden times, the very Pharaoh
who oppressed the Israelites. The lnscrlp-
tions on his sarcophagus and the writing on
his mummy bandages prove beyond contro-
versy that he was the Pharaoh OF Bible times.
Ali the Psychologists and the explorations
agree that it Is the old scoundrel himself
Visible are the very teeth with which he
gnashed against the Israelitish brick makers
There are the sockets of the merciless eyes
with which he looked upon the overburdened
people Of God. There is the hair that foatej
in the breeze of the Red Sea. There are the
very lips with which he commanded them to
make bricks without straw. Thousands OF
years afterward, when the wrappings of the
mummy were unrolled, old Pharoah lifted up
his arm as If in imploration, but his skinny
bones cannot again clutch his shattered
sceptre. He is q dead lion. And is not any
man now living, in the fact that he has op
portunity of repentance and salvation, better
off than any of those departed ones who, by
authority or possessions Of influence, were
positively leonine and yet wicked?
What q thing to congratulate you on Is
your life! Why, it is worth more than all
the gems Of tie universe kindled into ona
precious stone I am alive! What does that
mean? Why, it means that I still have all
ing others to be saved. To be alive! Why
it means that have yet another chance to
correct MY past mistakes and make sure
work for heaven. Alive, are we? Come, let
us celebrate it by new resolutions, new self
examination, new conservation and q new
career. The smallest and most Insignificant
to-dayis worth to US more than five hundred
yesterdays. Taking advantage of the pres.
ent, let us get pardon for all the past and
security for all the future. Where are our
forgiven sins? I don't know. God don't
know either. He says: "Your sins and In.
iauities will remember no more"
What encouragement in the text for all
Christian workers. Despair of no ones sal.
vation. While there is life there is hope.
When in England young lady asked for q
class in Sunday school, the superintendent
said, "Better go out on the street and get
your own class" She brought in ragged
and filthy boy. The superintendent gave
him good apparel. In few Sundays he
absented himself. Inquiry discovered that
in street fight he had his decent apparel
torn of. He was brought in and second
time respectfully clad. After few Sunday:
he again disappeared, and it was found that
he was again ragged and wretched. "Then, "
said the teacher, I'VE can do nothing with
him." But the superintendent fitted him up
again and started him again.
After awhile the gospel took hold of him
and his heart changed. He started for the
ministry and became foreign missionary,
and on heather grounds lived and translated
the Scriptures, and preached, until among
the most illustrious names of the church on
earth and in heaven is the name OF glorious
Robert Morrison. Go forth and save the lost,
and remember however deprave1, however
ragged, and however filthy and undone
oniII 80 O ic nr q JvN
worth an effort would rather have thell
opportunity than any that will ever be given
to those who lived in magnificent sin anc
splendid unrighteousness and then wrap their
gorgeous tapestry around them and without a
prayer expired Better is living dog than
8 dead lion.
In the great day it will bs found that the
last shall be first. There are in the grog
shops and in the haunts Of iniquity to-day
those who will yet be models Of holiness and
preach Christ to the people. In yonder group
of young men who came here with no useful
purpose, there is one who will yet live for
Christ and perhaps die for him. In pulpit
stood stranger preaching, and he said:
1.-THE last time was in this church was fif-
teen years ago, and the circumstances were
peculiar. Three young men had come e1-
pecting to disturb the service, and they had
stones in their pockets which they expected
to hurl at the preacher One of the young
men referred to refused to take part in the
assault, and the others, in disgust at his cow
ardice, left the building One of the three
was hanged for forgery. Another isin prison,
condemned to death for murder. was the
third, but the grace Of God saved me-"
My hearers, give no one up. The case may
seem desperate, but the grace of God likes to
undertake dead lift. Iproclaim it this day
to all the people-Free Grace! Living and
dying, be that my theme-Free Grace!
Sound it across the continent sound it across
the seas-Free Grace! Spell out those words
in flowers, lift them in arches, build them in
thrones, roll them in oratorios--Free Grace
That will yet Edenize the earth and people
heaven with nations redeemed. Free race
Salvation Oh, the joyful sound.
TITS pleasant to our ears,
A sovereign balm for every wound.
A cordial for our fears.
Buried in sorrow ard in sin
At deaths dark door we lay,
But we arise by grace divine
N hna