The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-12-31

| those intruderS who come WIN pao Iaces
and stories of distress and subscription
papers. The reasonthat God planted these CO.
dnrs in the Bible was to suggest to us that we
ought, in our religious character to be deep
like the CEDAR high like the cedar,
broad branched as the cedar A
traveller measured. the spread ofthe boughs
of one of these trees and found it one hum
dred and eleven feet from branch tip to
| branch tip, and have seen cedars OF Chris
tian character that through their prayers
and charities put out one branch to the ut
termost parts of Aherica, and another
branch to the uttermost parts OF Asia, and
these wide branched Christians will keep on
multiplying until all the earth is oVershad-
| owed With mercy.
| But mark you, these cedars Of Lebanon
could not grow if planted in mild climates
| and in soft air and in carefully watered gar
| deps They must have the gymnasium OF
| the midnight hurricane to develop their
arms. They must play the athlete with q
! thousand winters before their feet are right
ly planted and their foreheads rightly
lifted and their arms rightly museled; And
| if there he any other way for developing
| strong Christian character except by storms
| of trouble, mover heard of it. Call the roll
| of martyrs, call the roll Of the prophets,
| call the roll Of the apostles and see which OF
them had an easy time oft Which OF these
cedars grew in the warm valley? Not one oil
| thom. Honeysuckles thrive best on the south
side of the house, but cedars in Syrian
whirlwind.
Men and women who hear this or read
this, instead Of your grum bling because you
have it hard, thank God that you are in Just
the best school for making heroes and hero
| ines. 1t is true both for this world and the
| next. Rock that babyin cradle cushioned
and cauopied; graduate him from that into
a costly high chair and give him q gold
spoon; send him to school wrapped in furs
| enough for an Arctic explorer; send him
through college where he will not have to
study in order to get diploma because his
father~is rich; start him in q profession
where he begins with an Office, the floor COW
ered with Administer, and library OF books
| in Russia morocco. and m armed chair up
| hostered like throne, and an embroidered
ottoman upon which to put his twelve-dolar
CATERS, and then lay upon his table the best
! ivory cigarholder you can import from
Brussels and have standing obtside his door
apranclng spun that won the prize at the
horse fair, ann leave him estate enough in
] dependent of all struggle, and what will be-
come Of him? If he do not die early OF inan-
ition or dissipation he will live o useless life,
and die an unlamented death, and go into
| q loops eternity.
a Lebanon cedar John Milton on his
way up to the throne of the worlds sacred
poesy must sell his copyright of paradise
Lost" for S72 in three payments. And
| William Shakespeare on his way up to be
acknowledged the greatest dramatist Of oil
ages must ho.d horses at the door of the
London theatre for u sixpence, and Homer
must struggle through total blindness to
Immortality, and John Bunyan must cheer
| himself on the way up by making flute
| out Of his prison stool, and Canova, the
sculptor, must toll on through orphanage
| modelling lion in butter before he could
cut his statues in marble. And the great
| Stephenson must watch cows in the field
| for O few pennies and then become stoker,
and afterward mend clocks before he puts
the locomotive on its track and calls forth
| plaudits from parliaments and medals
| from kings. Abel Stevens is picked up
| neglected child of tn e street, and rises
through his consecrated genius to be one
of the most illustrious clergymen and his
torians of the century. And Bishop Janes
of the same church in toyhood worked his
passage from Ireland to America, and up
to q usefulness where, in the bishopric, he
! was second to no one who ever adorned 1t.
While in banistment Xenophon wrote his
| "Anabasis" and Thucydides his History
| OF the Peloponnesian War;" and Victor
Hugo must be exiled for many years to the
| island Of Guernsey before he can come to
| that height in the affections Of his country
men that crowds Champs Elysees and the
adjoining boulevards with one million
mourners as his hearse rolls down to the
old world, and it will keep you back and
keep you down and keep you under as long
| as it canl Hail sons and daughters OF the
| fire!
Thirty years from now the foremost men
I in all occupations and professions will be
| those who are this hour in awful struggle Of
early life, many Of them without five dollars
to their name. So in spiritual life it takes
course of bereavements, persecution, sick
nesses and losses to develop stalwart Chris.
ton character. I got letter O few days
ago saying: "1have hardly seen well day
since was born, and could not write my
own name until was so years of age, and
an very poor; but I nm, 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
thera must be tremendous. The deepest
snow ever seen in America would beinsignifi-
! can't compared with the mildest winter OF
SHOWS on those Lebanon mountains. The
cedars catch that skyful 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, splitting the
| branches from the trunk and leaving them
| rent and torn, never to rise. But what do
| the ceders care for these snows)n Lebanon?
| They look up to the winter skies and say:
/ "Snow on! Empty the white heavens upon
ua, and when this storm is passed let other
| professions Of tempest try to bury Us In
| their fury. We have for five hundred w;ntcrs
| been accustomed to this, and for the next
| five hundred winters we will cheer;ully take
| oil you have to send. for that is the way we
| develop our strength. and that is the way we
serve God and teach all ages how to endure
| and CONQUER" So say: Good cheer to oil
| people who are showed uude'! Put your
| faith in God and you will come out glori-
ously. Others may be stunted growths, or
weak jumpers on the lower lefe!s Of spirit
uality, but you are going TO be Lebanon ca-
| dars At last it will be said Of such
as you. "These are they who came ont ot
great tribulation and had their robes
washed and made white in the blood OF
the lamb"
But while crossing over these mountains
| Of Lebanon / bethink myself Of what an
exciting scene it must be when one OF the
cedars does fall. 1t does not go down like
other trees with a slight crackle that
| hardly makes the woodsman look up, or
| hawk futter from a neighboring bough.
When q cedar falls it is the great event in
the calendar of the mountains. The axmen
| fly. The wild beasts stink to their dens.
The partridges swoop to tie valley for es-
cape. The neighhoring trees go down under
| the awful weight of the descending monarch.
| The rocks are moved out of their places.
and the earth trembles as from miles around
all ravines send back their sympathetic
echoes. Crash! crash! crash! So when the
great cedars of the worldly or Christian
| influence fall it is something terrific. Within
the past few years how many mighty and
overtopp!ng mT1 have gone down. There
| eaoms now fo ha a n ani5emc in n M orol dsa aster