The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1890-07-16

q dagger and a gun, TO disturb Ine
meeting and to destroy it, but the
next day was found crying, ''Oh, any
great sins! Oh, my great Saviour!
ana for eleven years preached the
Gospel Of Christ to his fellow noun
: taineers, the last words on his dying
lips being, Free Grace." Oh, it was
free grace!
There is q man who was for ter
years hard d1~inker. The dreadful
appetite had sent down its roots
around the palate and the tongue,
and on down until they were inter
linked with the vitals of boIy, mind
and soul; but he has not taken any
stimulants for ten years. What did
that2 Not temperance societies; not
prohibition laws: not moral suaslon:
Conversion dld it. "Why, sir, said
one on whom the great change had
come. Il feel Just as though / were
somebody else There is sea cap
tain who swore all the way from New
! York to Havana and from Havana to
San Francisco, and when he was IN
port he was worse than when he was
on the sea. What power was it that
washed his tongue clean Of opportunities,
and made him psalm singer? Con-
version by the Holy Spirit. There
are thousands of people in this as
semblage today who are no more
what they once We're than water
| lily is night shade, or q morning
lark IS vulture OF day is night.
Now, if should demand that all
those people here present who have
felt the converting power of religion
should rise, so far from being asham-
ed, they would spring to their feet
with more alacrity than they ever
sprang to the dance, the tears ming
ling with their exhilaration as they
cried, :'We are witnesses!' And if
they tried to sing the old Gospel
hymn, they would break down with
emotion by the time they got to the
second line:
Ashamed Of Jesus, that dear Friend
On whom my hope OF heaven dep=Ed?
No. When plush. lie this my shame.
That no more revere His name.
When a man has trouble the world
comes in and says, ':Now get your
mind off this; go out and breathe the
fresh air; plunge deeper into busi-
ness" What poor advice! Get your
mind of it! When everything is up
turned with the bereavement, and
everything reminds you of what you
have lost. Get your mind off it!
They might as well advise you to
stop thinking. You cannot stop
thinking, and you cannot stop think
ing in that direction. Take walk
in the fresh all! Why, along that
very street, or that very road, she
once accompanied you. Out Of that
grass plat she plucked flowers, or
into that show window she looked,
fascinated, saying: ''Come see the
pictures" Go deeper into business?
Why, she was associated with all
your business ambition, and since
she has gone you have no ambition
left. Oh, this is clumsy world
when it tries to comfort broken
heart. can build Corlss engine,
I can paint Raphaels Madonna"
I can play a Beethoyen's 'Eroica
Symphony" as easy as this world can
comfort broken heart. And yet
you have been comforted. How was
it done? Did Christ come to you and
say, 'Get your mind of this; go out
and breathe fresh all; plunge deeper
into business?" No. There was a
minute when he came to you-per-
haps in the watches Of the night,
perhaps in your place of business,
perhaps along the streets-and He
breathcd something into your soul
that gave you peace, rest, infinite
quiet, so that you could take out the
photograph of the departed one and
look into the eyes and the face OF the
dear one, and say, 1T is all right;
she is better off; I would not call her
back. Lord, I thank Thee that Thou
hast comforted my poor heart.
In our sermons and in our lay ex-
hortations we are very apt, when we
want to bring Illustrations of dying
triumph, to go back to some distin-
guished personage-to q John Knox
or Harriet Newell. But I want you
for witnesses. I want to know If you
have ever seen anything to make you
believe that the religion ofChrist can
give composure in the final hour.
Now, in the courts, attorney, jury,
and Judge will never admit mere
hearsay. They demand that the wit
ness must have seen with his own
eyes or heard with his own ears, and
so I am critical in my examination
of you now; and I want to know
whether you have seen OF heard any
thing that makes you believe that
the religion of Christ gives compos-
ure in the final hour.
''Oh, yes," you say, Il saw my
father and mother depart. There
was great difference in their death
beds. Standing by the one we felt
more veneration. By the other, there
| was more tenderness" Before the
one, you bowed perhaps ID awe. In
the other case you felt as if you
| would Ike to 90 along with her. How
did they feel in that last hour? How
did they seem to act? Were they
very much frightened? Did they
take hold of this world with both
hands as though they did not want
to give it up2 s;Oh, nc" you say;
mo, remember as though it were
yesterday; she had kind word for
US all, and there We're few memen-
toes distributed among the children,
and then she told US how kind we
must be to our father in his loneli-
ness, and then she kissed us goodby
and went asleep as calmly as child
in cradle.
What made herso composed7 Natu-
,.o1 oo,,,,oua2 <.NO vO11 cov smother