The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-10-01

that her tears landed on the lips Of our
kiss, and we held her half hour after on our
knee and would as soon think of slapping an
angel il the face as of even striking her with
the weight of our little finger. God is a
father. and while He has promised this world
scourgings, though they were to be for
thousand years or five thousand years, He
would if the world repented, substitute bene-
61cT1on and divine caress. God changed
His mind about Sodom six times. He had
determined on its destruction. Abraham
asked Him If He would not spare it if fifty
righteous people were found there; and, mar
rowing down the number, if forty-fve people
-s-e found there: if forty people; if thirty
people; if twenty people; if ten people were
Lord answered yes. Oh, why didn't Abra-
ham go on just two steps further and say If
five be found there and if one be found there,
for then for the sake of Lot, its one good
citizen, I think Sodom would have
been spared. Eight times does the Bible say
that God repented when He had promised
puniShments and withheld the stroke. Was
it slip of Paul's pen when he spoke Of Gods
cutting short the work in Righteousness No,
Paurs pen never slipped. There Is nothing
in the way Of prophecy to hinder the crusade
I have proposed for the last decade Of the
Nineteenth century.
The whole trouble is that we put of the
completion of the worlds redemption to such
long and indefinite distances. The old pro-
verb that what is everybody's business is
nobody's business" might be changed little
and be made truthfully to say what is
the gospel business of all the ages
is the gospel business Of no age. We
are 50 constituted we cannot get up
much enthusiasm about something five hum
dred years from now or thousand years
from now We are fighting at too long a
range That gun called the "Swamp
Angel was a nuisance. 1t shot six miles,
but It hardly ever hit anything. 1t did its
chief destructive work when it burst and killed
those who were setting it off. Short rangeis
the effective kind of work, whether it be for
worldly or religious purpose. Some man
with his eyes half shut drones out to me
as one day." that is, ten centuries are not
long for the Lord. But why Io you not
quote the previous sentence. which says that
one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years? That is, He could do the work Of ten
centuries in twenty-four hours. The
mightiest obstacle to Christian work
is the impression that the worlds evan
gelization is away off. And we take the tele-
scope and look on and on through centuries
we strain our vision and guess what they are,
and We call great conventions to guess what
they are, and we get down our heaviest theo-
logical works and balance our telescope on the
lid and look and look and finally conclude
that they are two beasts that we see, and the
one has hair and the other has wool and we
guess it must be the lion and the lamb
lying down together; In that great cradle
of poStponement and somnolence we rock the
church as though it werean impatient child
and say: "Hush, my dear, don't be impa-
tient Don't get excited by revivals! Don't
cryl Your Fathers comingl Don't get un-
easy! He will be here in two or three or ten
or twenty thousand years" And we act as
though we thought that when Macauley's
famous New zealander in the far distance Is
seated on a broken arch of London
bridge stretching the ruins Of st.
Paurs his grandchild might break in
thought the millennium ever would appear.
Men and women Of the eternal God! Sons
and daughters Of the Lord Almighty! We
may have it start in the decade that is soon
to commence and it will be done if We can
persuade the people between now and then to
get ready for the work.
What makes me think it can be done,
First, because God is ready. He needs no
long persuasion to do His work, for if he is
not willing that any should perish, he is not
decade shall perish; and the whole Bible is
chime of bells ringing out sCome come
come" and you need not go round
the earth to find out how much
He wants the world to come, but just to walk
around one stripped and bare and leafess
tree with two branches not arched, but hori-
zontal But He is waiting, as He said He
would, for the cooperation Of the church.
certainly has all the weaponry ready to cap
ture this world for the truth, all the
weapons of kindness OF devastation.
On the one hand the Gospel and
sunshine and power to orchardize and gard
enize the earth, and fountains swinging in
rainbow, and Chatsworthian verdure and
aromas poured out Of the walls Of heavens,
while on the other hand he has tie weaponry
of devastation, thunderbolt and conhagra-
ton and and, forces alanetary solar,
ooss ren sH thrown @ on stsS shs neck sRa' for S'a
second would leave consultations and
galades so many split and shivered wheels
on the boulevards Of heaven. And that God
is on our side, all on our side. Blessed be
His glorious name! Blessed was the hour
when through Jesus Christ my sinful soul
made peace with Him!
If vou continue to ask me why think that
the world can be saved il the final decade of
the Nineteenth century, reply because it Is
rot great undertaking, considering the num-
her Of workers that will 60 at it. if once
persuaded it can be done. We have
Sifted the five hundred million Of work
ers down to four hundred million and
three hundred million and two hum
dred million and one hundred million and to
fifty million. I went to work to cipher out
now many souls that number could bring to
God In ten years. If each one brought soul
every year, and if each soul so brought should
bring another each succeeding year. found
out, aided by professor in mathematics, that
we did not need anything like such number Of
workers enlisted. You see it is simply ques-
ton of mathematics and in geometrical pro-
gression. Then I gave to the learned pro-
lessor this problem: How many persons
would it require to start with if each one
brought a soul into the kingdom each year for
ten years and each one brought another each
succeed: :, ;ar, in order to have fourteen
hundr- million people saved or the population
of the eth atpresent? His answer was two
million hundred and fifty-four thousand
three h.! d and seventy-fve workers. So
you see a. when sifted the five hundred
million l. nal Christians of the earth down
to fifty m. 'on and stopped there, retained