The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1892-10-27
Our religion may not demand that

cases may mean nothing but mere form
believe in most cases it means, "Oh,
thou of tho suffering cross of Calvary,
have mercy on me and accept my graft
tude." Prefer your own form of relig-
ion by all means, but do not depreciate
the religious forms of others. From all
l can learn there were several good
people before we where born, and ]
rather expect there will be several left
after we are dead. l have travelled in
many lands, but / tell you plainly, as l
told Emperor Alexander Ill in the pal.
ace at Peterhoff, that had never been
so impressed with the fidelity to their
religion of any people as by what had
seen in Russia, and especially among
her public men.
L said respectfully to a Russian
when l saw him cross himself, "What
do you do that for?" son." he said,
mercv on meY" / hold in my hand
something very suggestive. What does
that black and uncomely thing look
like? That is what is called hunger
blead from RusSia that is what mil
lions Of people lived on for months be-
fore help came from England, Scotland,
Ireland and America; that is a mix
ture which seems to have III it not one
grain ofSustenance. 1t is a mixture of
pig weed and chatf and the sWeepings
OF stables. That's something which, if
dropped in the street, your dog or cat
might sniff, at, but would not eat. That
was the only food on which millions of
men and women lived.
IOumuSt look at that hunger bread of
RuSsia before you can get proper ap-
probation of what an attractive and
beautiful thing good loaf of bread is.
1t Is 50 common to us we cannot realize
It's meaning. Stop and look at it in q
bakery window or see it on your fami-
~ table, mean an honest loaf of
bread, white as a bali Of packed snow,
with crust brown as the autumnal
woods, and for keen appetite more
aromatic than ilOwers-a loaf Of bread
as you remember it in childhood, when
the knife in the hand of your father or
mother cut clean through, from crust
to crust, and put before you, not a quar-.
ter or slice or Il half slice, but full,
round slice, and another, just suited to
boy always ready to eat and for the
most time hungry, even in well sup.
pied house. L remember, and you re-
member, if you had a healthy childhood
Just how it tasted. My! My! Plum pud-
uing does not taste rs good now Is that
plain bread then. 1t was then bread at
the table, and bread between meals,
and bread before breakfaat, and bread
before going to bed.
Why does not some poet ring Il canto
on loaf Of bread, or some modern
haphael paint it, or some historian tell
lts history? Noticed all over like we'd
ding cake, or dotted like many articles
II food, pretentious and with, fantastic
ingredients, but that grandest product
OF the earth; that richest yield of the
flour mill; that best bcnediction of Il
hot oven--a God given Loaf OF bread
But the rhythem OF it, the luxury Of it :,
the meaning of il, the bencdiction Of
It, the divine mercy Of it, only those
know WHO have seen a famine. No
wonder Christ put his food into the
sacrament and sad of a broken loaf OF
bread, "rhiS Is my body" Thank God
that ever saw that transcendent and
compact Kindness Of the infinite Coda
Loaf OF bread. And it was Onr Joy this
summer to hand over ShiplOad of ma
tcrlal for Gladdening many thousands
OF Russians with such bcatitude.
| But have bGcn asked by good peo-
pie i'll Great Britain and America, again
and again, Why did not the prosperous
people OF Russia stop that suffering
| themselves, making it useless for other
nations help? And | am always glad
when l hear the question asked, be-
| cause it gives me an opportunity Of ex-
planning. Have you any idea what it
requires TO iced twenty million people?
| There Is only one being in the universe
who can do it, and that Is the Being who
this morning breakfasted sixteen hun
dred million of human race. The nobili-
| ty OF Russia have not only contributed
most lavishly, but many of them went
down and staiu for months amid the
ghastllness, and the horror, and the
typhusfever, and smallpox that they
might administer to the suffering.
The emperor has made larger con-
trlbutlonS toward this relief fund than
any monarch ever made for any cause
since the world stood, and the superb
Kindness written all over the faces of
emperor and empress and crown prince
is demonstrated in what they have al.
ready done and are doing for the suffer-
ers III their own country. When a few
days ago l read in the papers that the
emperor and empress, hearing an eXplo-
sion, stopped the royal rail train to find
out what accident had occurred. and
the empress knelt down by, the side of
Il wounded lAborer and held his head
until pillows and blankets could be
brought, and the two wunded men were
put upon the royal train to be carried
to place where they could be better
cared for, | said to my wife, Just like
her.
When saw a few days ago in the
papers that the emperor and empress
had walked through the wards of the
most virulent cholera, talking with the
patients. shaking hands with them and
cheering them up, it was no surprise
to me. for said to myself, "That is inst
like them" Any one who has ever
seen the royal family will believe any,
thing in the way of kindness ascribed
to them, aud will join me in the execra-
tlon OF that too prevalent opinion that
a tyrant IL on the throne of Russia. If
God spares my life will yet show by
fnc's beyond dispute that the most
slandercd and Systematically lied
about nation on earth is Russia, and
that no ruler ever lived more for the
elevation of his people in education and
morals and religion than Alexander the
Ihird. 80 | put all the three prayers
together-God save the president of the
| | nJfpI nl a., 4