The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1890-12-24

Thirty years from now the foremost
men in ali occupations and professions
will be those who are this hour in aw-
full struggle of early life, many Of them
without five dollars to their name. So
in spiritual life it takes a course OF
bereavements, prosecutions, slcknesSeS
and losses to develop stalwart Christian
character. l got letter few days
ago SAYING Il have hardly seen we'll
day since | was born, and could rot
write my own name until / was 81
years of age, and am very poor; but
am, by the grace of God, the happiest
man in Chicago"
The Bible speaks of the SHOWS of
Lebanon, and at this season OF the year
the SHOWS there must be tremendous.
The deepest snow ever seen IN America
would be in significant compared with
the mildeSt winter of SHOWS on those
Lebanon mountains. The cedars catch
that skyfull of crystals on their brow
and on their long arms. Piled up in
great heaps are those SHOWS, enough to
crush other trees to the ground, split
ting the branches from the trunk leav-
ing them rent and torn, never to rise.
But what do the cedarS care for these
SHOWS on Lebanon? They look up to the
winter skies and say: 'SnoW on
Empty the white heavens upon us, and
when this storm is passed let other
professions of tempest try to bury us
in their fury. We have for nye hun
dred winters been accustomed to this,
and for the next five hundred winters
we will cheerfullytahe all you have o
send, for that is the way we develop
our strength, and that is the way we
serve God and teach all ages how to en-
dure and conquer" So | say: Good
cheer to all people who are showed
under Put your faith in God and you
will come out gloriously. Others may
be stunted growths, or weak jumpers
on the lower levels Of spirituality, but
YOU are going to be Lebanon cedarS.
At last it will be said of such as you :
"These are they who come out of great
tribulation and had their robes washed
and made white in the blood of the
lamb"
THE GREAT MANS FALL.
But while crossing over these noun
tains of Lebanon l bethink myself of
what an exciting scene it must be when
one of the cedars does fall. 1t does not
20 down like other trees with a slight
crackle that hardly makes the woods
man look up, or a hawk flutter from
neighboring bough. When a cedar
falls it is the great event in the calen-
dar of the mountains. The aXmen fly.
eli nj tn
The partridges swoop to the valley for
escape. The neighboring trees go down
under the awfnl weight Of the descend
ing monarch. The rocks are moved
out of their places, and the earth trem-
bles as from miles around all ravines
send back their sympathetic echoes.
Crash !! crash :! crash So when the
great cedars of worldly or Christian in
fluence fall it is something terrific.
Within the past few years how many
mighty and overtopping men have
gone down! There seems now to be
an epidemic of moral disaster. The
moral world, thG religious world. the
political world, the commercial world,
are quaking with the fall Of Lebanon
cedars. 1t is awful. We are compelled
to cry out with Zechariah, the pro-
phet, "Howl, firtrees, for the cedar is
fallen y Some of the smaller trees are
glad of it.
When some great dealer in stock goes
down the small dealers clap their hands
and say, Good for him !" When a
great political leader goes down the
small politicians clap their hands and
say, "Just as l expected - When
great minister of religion falls many
little ministers laugh up their sleeves
and think themselves somehow ad-
vantaged. Ah, beloved brethren, no
one makes anything out of moral ship
wreck. Not a willow by the rivers of
Damascus, not sycamore on the
plains of Jericho, not an olive tree in
all Palestine is helped by the t III OF
Lebanon cedar. Better weep and pray
and tremble and listen to Pauls advice
to the Galatians when he says, Con
sidering thyself lest thou also be temp
ted" No man is safe dntil he is dead
unless he be divinely protected. \
greater thinker than Lord Francis Ba-
con the world never saw, and he chang
ed the worlds mode of thinking for all
time-hls "Noyum Organum" a mir
acle Of literature. With S3S,0O0 salary
and estates worth millions and from
the highest judicial bench OF the world,
he goes down under the power of brl-
berry and confessed his crime and was
sentenced to the Tower and the Scorn
of centuries. Howl, fir tree, for the
cedar is fallen
,rI ,-Ar1o>-e To Pl,sr IN HIS SRADOW
In my journey up and down PaleS-
tine and Syria nothing more impressed
me than the trees-the terebinths, the
sycamorts, the tamarisks, the oleanders,
the mulberrys, the olives, the myrtles,
the palms, the cedars-all of them eX-
planatory OF so much of the Scriptures.
And the time is coming when, through
an improved arbori-culture, the round
world shall be circumferenced, engrid-
led, embosomed, emparadised in shade
trees and fruit trees and flower trees.
Isaiah declares in one place, The glory
of Lebanon shall be given unto it" and
in another place: "All the trees of the
field shall clap their hands. Instead of
the thorn shall come up the fir tree.
Instead of the briar shall come up the
myrtle tree" On, grandest arbore-
scence of all time. Begin Begin
Oh, l am so glad that the holy land
of heaven, like the holy land Of Pales-
tine and Syria, is great place for
trees, an orchard of them, grove of
them, a forest of them. St. John saw
them along the streets, and on both
sides of the river. and every month
they yielded great crop of fruit. Iou
know what an imposing appearance
trees give to city on earth, but how it
exalts my idea of heaven when St
John describes the city on high as hay
ing its streets and its rivers lined with
them. Oh, the trees the trees The
jasper walls, the fountains, the temples
were not enough. There would have
been something wanting yet SO to
complete all that pomp and splendor |
behold the up branching trees OF life.
Not like those stripped. trees now
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