The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-09-09

many of them. My, what lots of children!
And some people have contempt for children.
They are good for nothing but to woar cut
the carpets and break things and keep you
awake nights crying.
Well, your estimate of Child is quite
different from that mothers estimate VINO
| lost her child this summer. They took it
| to the salt air Of the seashore and to tio
| tonic air Of the mountains, but no helI
came, and the brief paragraph Of its life is
ended. Suppose that life could be restored
by purchase. how much would that be-
reaved mother give? She would take all
| the Jewels from her fingers and neck and
bureau and put them down. And If told
| that that was not enough she would take
| her house and make over the deed for it,
| and if that were not enough she would call
| in all her investments and put down all her
mortgages and bonds, and If told that were
| not enough she would say: II have made
over ell my property, and If can have that
child back viii now pledge that I will toll
with my own hands and carry with my own
shoulders in any kind Of hard work and live
in cellar ami die In garrett. Only give
me back that lost darling"
am glad that there are those who know
something of value Of child. Its posi-.
bilities are tremendous. What will those
hands yet do? Where will those feet yet
walk2 Toward what destiny will that never
diving soul betake itself2 Shall those lips be
the throne of blasphemy or benedictionf
Come chronoligists, and calculate the decades
on decades, the centuries on centuries of its
lifetime. On, to save child! Am I not
right in putting that among the great e1-
ploits!
But what are you going to do with those
children who are worse of than If their
father and mother had died the day, they
were born2 There are tens Of thousands OF
such. Their parentage was against them.
Their name is against them. The structure
of their skulls is against them. Their nerves
or dissoluteness Of their parents; they are
practically at their birth laid out on
blank in the middle Of the Atlantic Ocean,
in an equinoctial gale, AMI told to make fof
shore. What to do with them is the ques
ton often asked.
There is another question quite as peril
nent and that is What are they going to
do with us? They will, ten or eleven years
from low, have as many votes ns the same
number Of well born children, and they will
hand this land over to the anarchy and po-
litical dannation just as sure as we neglect
them. Suppose we each one OF us save boy
or save girl. You can do it. Will you?
will.
How shall we get ready for one or all
of these thres ekp ploitsP We shall make
dead failure IL In our own strength we try
to save q man or woman or child. But my
text suggests where we are to get equip
ment. "The people that do know Jnelr
God shall be strong and do exploits" We
must know Him through Jesus Christ in
our own salvation, and then we shall have
His help in the salvation OF others. And
while you are saving strangers you may
save some of your own kin. You think
your brothers and sisters AMI children and
Grandchildren all safe, but they are not
dead, and no one is safe till he is dead. On
the English coast there was wild storm
and a wreck in the offing, and the cry was,
"Man the ifeboatp But Harry, the usual
leader of the sailors crew, was not to bs
found, and they went without him., and
brought back all the shipwrecked people but
one. ,
By this time Harry, the leader Of the
crew, appeared and said, why did you
leave that one" The answer was, HE
could not help himself at all, and we could
not get him into the boat" MAN the life
boatIp shouted Harry, "an1 Wa will go for
that one" mo" said his aged mother,
standing by, "you must not go. l lost
your father in storm like this, and your
brother Will went off six years ago, and
have not heard word from VIII since ne
left, ana dOn KNOW WHERE uo u, pooi " -,
and cannot let you also go, for am OLD
and dependent on you." His reply was,
"Mother, must 60 and save that one man,
and if I am lost God will take care Of you in
your old days"
The lifeboat put out, and after an awful
struggle with the sea they picked the poor
fellow out of tho rigging just in time TO
save his life, and star5el for the shore.
As they came within speaking distance,
Harry cried out ave saved him, and
tell mother it vas brother Will" On,
yes, my friends, let us start out to save some
one for time and for eternity, some man,
some woman, some child. And who knows
but it may, directly or indirectly, be the
salvation of one of our own kindred, and
that will be an exploit worthy OF celebration
when the world itself is shipwrecked, and
the sun has gone out like spark from
smitten anvil, and all the stars are dead!