The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1892-01-27

ulybeu. ;ouG my Le4G suggests u DoIter lQo6.
The Lord who turned back that day from
sunrise Is willing to do the same thing for
all Of US. The tbeologians who stick to- old re-
Hgious technicalities until they become sopo-
rifles would not call it anything but couver-
sion. Icallit a change from going toward sun
down to going toward sunrise. That man
who never tries to unbuckle the clasp Of evil
habit and who keeps all the sins Of the past
and the present f~reighting him and who
ignores the one redemption made by the
examine the sundial he will find that the
shadow is going forward and he is on the
way to shutdown. His day Is on the road to
night. All the watches that tick. all the
clocks that strike, all the sand glasses that
empty themselves, all the shadows that nov
on all the sundials indicate the approach Of
darkness. But now, in answer to prayer, as
in my text the change was in answer to.
prayer, the pardoniny Lord reverses things
sunset. He turns the other way. The Captain,
Of salvation gives him the military command.
Attention. Right about FACET He was
marching toward Indifference, marching
toward hardness Of heart, marching toward
prayerlessnessI marching toward sin, march
ing toward gloom, marching toward death.
Now be turns and marches toward peace,
marches toward light and marches toward
comfort and marches toward high hope and
marches toward a triumph stupendous and.
everlasting. toward hosannas that ever hoist.
and hallelujahs that ever roll. Now II that
is not the turning Of the shadow on the dial,
Of Ahaz from going toward shutdown. to CO.
ing toward sunrise, what is it?
/ have seen day break over Mount. Blanc
and the Matterhorn, over the heights or
Lebanon. over Mount Washington, over
the Sierra Nevadas, and mid-Atlantic; the
morning after q departed storm. when the
pillows were liquid Alps and liquid Sierra
Nevadas, but the sunrise Of the soul Is more
effulgent and more transporting. 1t bathes-
all the heights Of the soul, and lluminss all
the depths of the soul, and whelms all the
faculties, all the aspirations. all the ambi-
tions, ali the hopes with a light that sick
ness cannot eclipse, or death extinguish,
or eternity do anything but augment and
magnify. I preach the sunrise. As L look
at that retrograde movement Of the shadow
on Ahaz's dial, I remember that it was q
sign that Hezekiah was going to get well
and he got well. So Ihave to- tell all you
who are by the grace Of God having your
dav turned from decline toward night to
assent toward morning, that you are going
to get well, we'll of ell your sins, well OF all
your sorrows, we'll Of all your earthly dis
tresses. Sunrise!
But, says one, all that you say may be
true but that does not hinder the horrors OF
dissolution. Why, you who are the Lords
are not going to die. All that the grave
gets of you as compared with your chief,
your immortal nature, is as the clippings OF
your finger nails as compared With your
the edge Of your thumb nail and cut off that
which Is no uss but rather a hindrance, you
do not mourn over the departure OF that
fragment which flies away. Death Will be
only the scissoring of Of that which
could be Of no use, and the soul has
no funeral over that which would be
an awful nuisance If we could not
get rid Of it. This body as it now Is,
what q failure it would make Of heaven II
our departing soul had to be burdened with
iti Ia the next world. While others there go
ten thousand miles a minute we would AXE
about an hour to walk four mies' ana WINE
our ueiphbor immortals could see q hundred
miles we could see only ten miles. and the
1estest and the healthiest Of our bodies Il
saen there would make It necessary to open
IN heaven an asylum for cripples. No, no;
one of the best possible things q will nap
nan to us will BE- the sloughing OF OF this
body when we have no more use for 1t In It's
present state. When it shall come up In la
resurrected form we will be very glad 70 get
It back again, but not as 1t Is now "ltn is
limitations and bedwarfments innumeraoia
Sunrise!
There shall I battle my weary soul
In seas of heavenly rest,
And not q wave OF trouble roll
Ac 80 my peaceful breast,
sunrisal out not like one Of those morn.
fnes after you had gone to bed ate OF QUO
sleep well, and you get up cnlleo q
yawning and the morning oatn 10 q reguS
sion and you feel like saying to ~ morning.
ann shining into your window, u DO not sse
what YOU find to smile about; your Drlgng-
ness ia to me q mockery." But the lnrusn
of the next world will be a morning after q
sound sleep. q sleep that nothing can as
tnrh and you will rise, the sunshine IN your
faces: and in your first morning Il heaven
von will wade down into the sea OF glass,
mingled with fire, the foam oil hre
with a splendor you never saw ON eartn,ano
the rolling waves are doxologias, and the
rocks of that shore are golden and tne
nebbles of that beach ara pearl, and tne skles
Ihat arch the scene are q CONVINCING OF
ali the colors that St. Jehn saw on the wal
~ baaven-the crimson and the blue, ana
the saffron, and the orange, and the purple,
and the gold, and thu green u on
those skies in shape Of ~sarlauds, OF banners
Of ladders Of chariots, Of crown ,or tnrones'
what a s1nr1se! Do Won not feel its warmth
on vour faces Scoyille McC ullum, the dying
how Of our Sunday. school, uttered what shall
he the peroration Of this sermon, Throw
back the shutters and let the sun In" ana
60 the shadow of Ahaz's sundial turns IRON
sunset to sunrise.