The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-07-22

When the Christian army was baslged at
Baziers. and drunken drummer came In at
midnight an4rang the alarm bell, not know
ing what he was doing, but waking up the
uosr m rrme 10 ugur une1r enemies rnaT mo-
ment arriving was it was accident?
When in one Of the Irish wars a starving
mother. flying with her starving child, sank
down and tainted on the rocks in the night
and her hand fell on warm bottle or MILK.
did that just happen so? God is either IN the
affairs of men or our religion is worth MOTH
ing at all, and you had better take 1t away
from us, and instead of this Bib.e which
teaches the doctrine, give us secular boox,
and let U.S. as the famous Mr.. Fox, the MEM
Der of parliament, in his last hour. cry OUT:
ssRead ms the eighth book of Virgil"
Oh. nv frienGs, let us rouse up to an ap.
preciation OF the fact that all the AFFAIRS OF
our life are under kings command and uI-
der a fathers watch. Alexander's war
horse, Bucepha!us, would allow anybody 70
mount him when he was embarrassed, oug Us
soon as they put on that war horse. bucepna-
lus, the saddle and trappings of the con-
queror he would allow no one but ALEXANDER
to touch him. And if a soulless horse Gould
have so much pride in his owner, shall not
we eimmortals exult in the fact that we are
owned by kings "Hath the rain father
Again my subject teaches me that Gods
dealings with us are inexplicable. Inat was
the original force of my text. Ihs ram was
q great mystery to the ancientS. ihey couo
not understand how the water should get
into the cloud, and getting there. how It
should be suspended, or falling, whyit should
come down in drops. Modern science comes
along and says there are two portions OF air
of different temperature, and they are
charged with moisture, aud the one portion
of air decreases in temperature 50 the water
NAV no longer be held in vapor, and 1T falls.
And they tells us that some Of the clouds
that look to be only as large as mans hand,
and to be almost quiet in the hea vens, ara
great mountains of mist four thousand feet
from base to top, and that they rush miles
minute.
But after all the brilliant experiments Of
Dr. James Hutton, and Saussure, and other
scientists there is an infinite mystery about
the rain There is an ocean of the unfath-
omable in every raindrop, and God says to-
day as He said in the time Of Job, 'If you
cannot understand one drop OF rain, co not
be surprised if Ny dealings with you are ln-
exphcable." Why does that aged man, de-
crepit, beggared, vicious, sicS of the world,
and the world sick of him, live on, while
here is man in mid life, consecratel to
God hard working, useful in every respect,
who dies? Why does that old gossip, ga6-
ding along the street about everybody's busi-
ness but her own, have such good health,
while the Christian mother, with flock of
little ones about her whom she is preparing
for usefulness and for heaven-the mother
who you think could not be spared au hour
from that housshold-why does she lie down
and die with cancer?
Why does that man, selfish to the co<e, 60
on adding fortune to fortune. consuming
everything on himself, continue to prosper,
while that man, who has been giving ten per
cent. of all his income to God and the church,
goes into bankruptcy? Before we make
stark fools of ourselves, let US stop pressing
this everlasting "why." Let US worship
where we cannot understand. Let a man
take that one question, "Why?" and follow
it far enough, and push it. and he will land
in wretchedness and perdition. We want in
our theology fewer interrogation marks and
more exclamation points. Heaven is the
place for explanation. Earth is the place for
trust. If you cannot understand so minute
thing as raindrop, how can you expect
to understand Gods dealings? Hath the
rain father?'
Again, my text makes me think that the
rain Of tears is OF divine origin. Great
clouds Of trouble sometimes hover over US.
They are black, and they are gorged, and
they are thunderous. They are more por-
tentious than Salvador or Claude ever
pdlnVtu-clouuS VI poFelIy, VI PefSeSuliol,
or Bereavement. They hover over U.s. and
they get darker and blacker, and after
awhile tear starts, and we think by au
extra pressure of the eyelid to stop it. 9th
ers follow, and after awhile there is show
er OF fearful emotion. Yea, there is a rain
Of tears. Hath that rain father%
"Oh," you say. "a tear is nothing but
drop Of limpid fluid secreted by the ZACH:
rymal gland it is only sign of weak eyes"
Great mistake. 1t is one OF the Lords rich
est benedictions to the world. There are
and at Utica, and at all the asylums of this
land, who were demented by the fact that
they could not cry at the right time. Said
q maniac in ons of our public institutions,
under gospel sermon that started the tears
"Do you see that tear? that j. the first l
have wept for twelve years. I think II will
help my brain"
There are a great many in the grave who
could not stand any longer under the glacier
of trouble If that glacier had only melted
into weeping they could have endured it.
There have been times in your life when you
would have given the world, if you had pos
sessed it. for one tear. You could Shrek,
you could blaspdeme, but you could not cry.
Have you never seen man holding the hand
of dead wife, who had been all the world
to him? The temples iyid with excitement.
the eye dry and frantic, no moisture on the
upper or lower lid. You saw there were
bolts of anger in the cloud, but NO rain: To
your Christian comfort he said Don't
there is hate Him; don't talk to me about
God;would He have left me and these mother
less children"
But few hours or days after, coming
across some lead pencil that she owned IN
life, or some letters which she wrote when
he was away from home, with an outcry that
appals, there bursts the fountain Of tears,
and as the sunlight of Gods consolation
strikes that fountain Of tears, you find GUS
that it is tender-hearted, mercifu!, pitiful
and al compassionate God who was the
Father of that rain. ''Oh," you say, sit is
absurd to think that God is going to watch
over tears" No, my friends. There are
three or four kinds of them that God counts,
bottles and eternizss. First, there are all
parental tears, and there are more OF these
than any other kind, because the most of
the race die in infancy, and that keeps pa
rents mourning all around the world. They
never get over it. They may live to shout
and sing afterward, but there is always a
corridor in the soul that is silent, thoug h it
once resoundad.
My parents never mentioned the death of
child who died fifty years before without a
tremor in the voice and sigh, oh, how deep
fetched 1t was better she should die. twas
mercy she should die She would have
been lifelong invalid. But you cannot argue
away parents grief How often you hear
the moan: 'Oh, my child, my childp Then
there are the filial tears Little children soon
get over the loss of parents. They are easily
diverted with new toy. But where is the
man that has come to thirty or forty or fifty
yearssof age who can think Of tbs old peo-
pie without having all the fountains Of his
soul stirred up? You may have had to take