The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-01-15


hands over it lest it be blown out. What an
humble beginning! Bullock at that same man
when He has entered heaven No crown able
to express His royalty. No palace able to ex-
press His wealth. No sceptre able to express
His power and His dominion. Drinking from
the fountain that drips from the everlasting
Rock. Among the harpers harping with their
harps. On sea Of glass mingled with fire.
Before the throne of God, to 60 no more out
forever. The spark Of grace that Christ had
to keep both hands over lest it come to ex-
glory and immortality. What humble start
ingl What glorious consummation!
The New Testament Church was on a
small scale. Fishermen watched it. Against
the uprising walls crashed Internal enginery.
The world said anathema. Ten thousand
people reioiced at every seeming defeat, and
said: AHA! ahal so we would have it,"
Martyrs on fire cried: Chow long, O Lord,
how long% Very humble starting, but SEQ
the difference at the conspmmation, when
Christ with His almighty arm has struck off
the last chain of human bondage, and
Himalaya shall bs Mount Zion; and
Pyrenees Moriah; and oceans, the walking
place of Him who trod the wave cliffs OF
stormed Tiberias and island shall call to
island, sea to sea, continent to continent, and
the song Of the worlds redemption rising
the heavens, like great sounding board,
shall strike back the shout Of salvation to
the earth until itrebounds again to the throne
Of God, ana all heaven, rising on their
thrones, boat time with their scepters. Oh
what an humble beginningl What glorious
ending! Throne linked to manger, heavenly
mansions to stable.
My subject also impresses me with the ef-
feet of Christ's mission upward and down.
ward. Glory, to God, peace to man. When
God sent His Son into the world, angels dis
covered something new in God, something
they had never seen before. Not power, not
wisdom, not love. They knew all that be-
fore. But when God sent His Son into this
world then the angels saw the spirit of self
denial in God, the spirit Of self. sacrifice in
God. 1t is easier to love an angel on His
throne than thief on the cross, a seraph
in his worship than an adulteress in her
crime. When the angels saw God-the God
who would not allow the most insignificant
angel in heaven to be hurt-give up His Son,
His Son, His only, only Son, they saw
before, and do not wonder that when Christ
started out en that pilgrimage the angels in
heaven clapped their wings in triumph and
called on all the hosts Of heaven to help them
celebrate it, and sang so loud that the Beth
lohem shepherds heard it: "Glory to God in
the highest"
But it was also to be mission Of peace to
man. Infinite ess-accumulated de-
pravity. How could they ever come TO-
gether! The Gospel bridges over the dis
tance. 1t brings God to us. 1t takes us to
God. God in u.s. and we in God Atone
menS Atonement! Justice satisfied, sins
forgiven, eternal life secured, heaven built
on n mangor.
But it was also to be the pacifcation OF all
individual and international animosities.
What q sound this word Of peace had in the
Roman Empire that boasted of the number
of people it had massacred, that prided itself
ION the number Of the slain, that relolced
at the trembling provinces. Sicily and Cor
sca and Sardinia and Macedonia and Egypt
had bowed to her sword and crouched at the
CRY of her war eagles. She gave her chief
honor to Scipio and Fabius and Casar-all
men Of blood. What contempt they must
have had there for the pennless, unarmed
Christ in the garb of Nazarine. starting out
to conquer all nations. There never was a
place on Garth where that word peace sounded
so Extensively to the ears of the multitude as in
the Roman Empire. They did not want peace.
The greatest music they ever heard was tho
clanlling chains of their captives. If all the
gathered together it would upbear a navy.
The club that struck Abel to the earth has its
echo in the butcheries Of oil ages. Edmund
Burke, who gave no wild statistics, said that
shers had been sp,nt in slaughter thirty-lve
thousand millions Of dollars, or what would
be equal to that; but he had not seen into
onr times, when in our own day, in America,
we expended three thousand millions of dol
lars in civil war.
Oh, if we could now take our position on
some high point and see the worlds armies
march pastl What spectacle it would be!
There 90 the hosts of Israel through scora
Of Red seas-one of water, the rest Of blood.
There go Cyrus and his army, with infuriate
yell rejoicing over the fall of the gates OF
Babylon. There goes Alexander, leading
but himself, the earth reeing with the bat
tie cash Of Arbela and Persepolis. There
goes Ferdinand Cortes, leaving his buthered
enemies on the table lands once fra
grant with vanilla and covered over
with groves of Towering cacao. There
goes the great Frenchman, leading his army
down through Egypt like ono of its plaques,
and up through Russia like one of its own icy
blasts Yonder is the grave trench under the
shadow of Sebastopol. There are the ruins
of Delhi and Allahabad, and yonder are the
under Havelock avenging the inSulted flag Of
Britain; while cut right through the heart Of
nv native land is trench in which there lie
one million Northern and Southern dead
Oh, the tearsl Oh, the blood Oh, the long
marches Oh, the hospital wounds! Oh, the
martyrdom! Oh, the death! But brighter
than the light which flashed on all these
swords and shields and musketry is the light
shat fell on Bethlehem, and louder than the
bray Of the trumpets, and the neighing of the
chargers, and the crash Of the walls, and the
Of fl,a 1uip nioc 10 10
that unrolls this moment from the sky,
sweet as though all tho bells of heaven
rung jubilee: ''Peace on earth good will
toward men," Oh, when will the day come
God hasten it!-when the swords shall be
turned into plowshares and tho fortresses
shall be remodeled into churches, and the
men of blood battling for renown shall be-
come good soldiers Of Jesus Christ, and the
cannon now striking down whole columns of
death shall thunder the victories Of tho
truth
wnen we think OF the whole world saved
we are apt to think Of the few people that
now inhabit it. Only very few compared
with the populations to come. And what a
small part cultivated. Do you know it has
been authentically estimated that three
fourths of Europe is yet oil barrenness,
and that nine hundred and nnety-one
one-thousandth part Of the entire
globe is uncultivated? This is all
to be cultivated, all inhabited and
oil gospelized. Oh, what tears Of
repentance when nations begin to weep! Oh
what supplications when continents begin tc
pray! Oh, what rejoicing when hemispheres
begin to sing! Churches will worship on the
places where this very hour smokes tile blood
of human sacrifice, and wandering through
the snake infested junglcs of Africa Christ's
heel will bruise the serpent's head. Oh, when
tho trumpet Of salvation shall be sounded
everywhere and tho nations arc re-
deemed, a light will fall upon
every town brighter than that which