The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-06-24

I pray you, therefore. gentlemen. in your
brave and honest thinking, TO iook WIN
breath has been the healing OF the nations.
Draw near to 1t ms to great creed. shining IN
historic usefulness ana IusahedI IN gioTiSi1s cia
ilZatiOn and mellowed humanity, and bet
tered living and hallowed dying: And then
know that the hands that would batter ana
but, having robbed life of its color and the
heart ofits anchor and hope, they stand emp
ty and unresponsive before the yearning
souls that they have stranded upon despa1i1m p IT.
than this. Surely no man can fall to come
with reverence to examine the faith on wh1ch
the centuries have rested hope: surely no
around this old Bible on which his mother
rested her wrlnkled but beautiful hands,
while winged on Its promises her sweet ana
no man who ever loved and lost a woman can
simple creed that lit with tender hope the
last shSdGWs NJ h,v That gathered on the
There are two things that should be sacred
to the tread of thought-our country and our
God. We do not ask you It to accept them hem
is the single favor that they ask: Fairness
and courtesy In approach and Investigation as
Thorough as It may be free. NO more @ noble ., IN,
Bacon's. and Bacon never said nobler thing
than this "A little learning drives men Off
from God. A deeper knowledge brings them
home" Truth will triumph as 1t always does
and the Church OF God will live.
For eighteen hundred years men have been
saying that the Church OF God was waning
massacred its defenders and piliaged its tenn
plies, but IL lived on. Herod prosecuted Its
innocents and PLATE crucified Its Lord, but
history has pilloried Herod and the infamy,
and Plate Is linked to the glory of the cross.
Nero and Caligula drenched Its Pickering
life in blood, but II lived on. Tom Paine ana
Voltaire delueed 1t with infdel Ink, and as
meut was washed whittier than snow, and the
scornful shafts fell harmless from Its shield.
Bloody Bill Cunningham plunged his sword
into its Scottish body. but the blood OF its
martyrs made the seed OF the Church. 1t has
survived the shock of all its ancient foes,
and 1t will not perish before Its modern en-.
has mocked IL In golden sentences, but It
| lives. The rhetorical eagle has beaked Its I'M
potent protests against the granite sdee.
The scientific probe has been laid necessarily
| against Its roots, and yet to-day, while
thousand voices beat the air with mocking
| cymbals and rend reason with enhancing
| soph istries, serene and changeless as when
glory of God, and the Church of Christ, mil
| liant and glorious, comes marching down
the bettered centuries shouting halleluJah
| for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!
This may seem to you, young gentlemen,
a strange direction for commencement talk.
But AIN tired OF empty platitudes, and IT
seems TO me high time that the protest OF
the world should join the protest OF the
Church, and the voice OF manhood speak ad-
Jutant to the pulpits appeal against fiippan..
cy and the lack of fnith. The problems OF
the world are oil before you, but that man
does most who locks himself to some sepa.
rate problem and stands as the. champion OF
| especial truth. And If you stand here with
your loins glrded, your eyes bright and your
maiden swords waiting to be flashed in noble
conflict, would seek manly and essential
warfare, let me tell you that In all your lives
you will never join braver battle than
when you fling down the instant gage to
those who scof at our fathers faith, and you
Will never win nobler victory than when
you carry to a Christian home the laurelled
truth plucked from tn insolent crest OF the
infidel.
. n.,v ,nor. ,or,orrov, ,r, o,os. roor. ,.ou,,sts
nG lew " more our ciass yruIrs
amu @ te" , & ~ .L ia'n nea' % ,h VIZ ~ a
Tin Lhe .i'e ;n'ou W VI tie oesa' 'He tntoy u .o
i"e P'ss !" e"'h Pu''o Vi Tue iu'u'e sna' '"Ar''
few more to.morrows- and then comes The strife,
Which God has ordained as the struggle Of life,
Not the hry-day OF yOuth gives the hero his fame,
The last crown he wins is glorious name.
| A fo,r mara ,,.uorrows-ond what tben tbe fate
Whic, the fnture must hiring either esrlv or lste,
r nr owes tbrnngh the vol nf the vis,n mioht see
q, III ,his ha tha utsi nohIe and yr.a
1'' '''' ~ WV ''''''' '"' "'' '"'
Bishop Galioway's Eloquent Sermon.
n,
,SpARrANbuhS. June TO 1 9Hy Mss SeEuu EoI
Ine commencement exercises OF WoHofo Coi-