The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1892-09-14

of of shoes on holy ground. You can tell
from the way they talk they could have
made better world than this, and that the
God of the Bible shocks every sanse or pro-
priety. They talk OF the love OF God in
way that shows YOU they believe it does not
make any difference how bad man is here,
he will come 10 st the shining gate. They
talk Of the love OF God 10 su n way Wnlcn
| shows you they think it IS general Jsll de-
livery for all the abandoned and the scoun-
drelism OF the universe. No punishment
hereafter for any wrong done here.
This Bible gives two descriptions OF Got,
| and they are Just opposite, and they ara
both true. In one place tne Bible says Goa
is love. In another place the Bible says Goa
is consuming fire. The explanation Is
plain as plain eau be. God through Cnrls1
Is love. God out OF Christ is fire. To WIN
the one ami to escape the other we have only
70 throw ourselves, body, mind AMI soul in
to Christs keeping. NO" says Irrever-
ance. "I want no atonemenr, 1 want no par
don. / want no intervention; 1 will go up an
| facs God, and will challenge Him, and l
will defy Him, AMI I will ask Him what be
| wants to do with me-" So the finite con-
| fronts the infinite, so tack hammer tries 70
| break thuuderbolt, so the breath OF human
nostrils dehes the everlasting Goas "nas S SnS
herarchs Of heaven bow the head and oena
the knee as the Kings chariot goes by, ana
tn, archangel turns away because he cannon
endure the splendor, and the cho rus OF az
the empires OF heaven comes IN WIN iun
diapason, "Holy, holy, holy"
Reverence tor snam, reverence for the OLD
merely because it is old, reverence Tor STU
pidity however learned, reverence ior in-
CAPACITY. however finely iEauqurated, nave
n1ne. But we want moro reverence for
God. more reverence for the sacraraentS,
more reverence for the Bible, more rever-
ence for the pure more reverence for the
GOOD. Reverence q characteristic OF all
great natures. You hear it in the roll OF
the master oratorios. You see it in the
Raphaels and Titians and Ghirlandijos, You
study it in the architecture Of the Ahohahs
about God. Do not joke about death Do
not make fun of the Bible. Do not deride
the Eternal. The brightest and mightiest
seraph cannot look unabashed upon Him.
Involuntarily the wings come up. "Wlth
twain he covered his face"
Another seraphic posture in the text. The
seraph must not always stand still. He
must move and 1t must be wlthoue ciunlsl-
ness. There must he celebrity and beauty in
the movement. with twain he did fly"
Correction. exhilaration. Correction at our
slow gait, for we only crawl il the service
when we ught to fly at the divin, oiddi ng.
Exhi!aratiou in the fact that the soul mas
wings as the seraphs have wings What ls
wing? An instrument Of locomotion. They
may not be like seraph's wing, they may not
be like birds wing, but the soul has wings.
as eagles" We are made in the divine I'M
age. and Gci has wings. The Bible says so.
"Gealine in His wings" "Under the shadow
of His wings" ''Unier whose wings thou
hast come to trust" We have folded wing
now, wounded wing, broken wing, bleeding
wing, Gagged wing. Ayel l have 1t now.
Gagged within bars Of bone and under cur
tains of flesh, but ono day to be free. near
the rustic OF pinions in Seagravss poem,
which we often sing;
Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings.
Ihear the rustic Of pnions in Alexander
Pope's stanza, which says.
OF 'Ieais psssh, where he; i, thy victory.
Adying Christian not long ago cried OUT.
uWings wings, wiugsw The air is full OF
them. coming and going, coming and going.
You nave seen how the dull, sluggish cnrysa-
lid becomes the bright butterfly; the dull,
and the stupid, and the lethargic turned into
the alert and the beautiful. Well, my friends.
in this world we are in the chrysald state:
Death will unfurl the wings. Oh it we could
only realize what gran1 thing it will be TO
get rid OF the old clod OF body and mount
CQ0 Q0aVGQS uelIuSl oSSSot LIZA 49,
albatross nor falcon nor con1or pltcalng
from highest range o. Andes, so buoYant or
80 majestic Of stroke.
See that eagle in the mountain nest. II
looks so sick, so ragged feathsre;l, SO worn
out and so half asleep. Is that gle dying?
No, The ornithologist wilt tell you 1t Is
moting season with that bird. Not dying,
but Noting. You see that Christian SICK
and weary and worn out and seeming about
hot ic ralla6 hiQ death bed.
The world says he is dying. say it is the
moltinp season for his soul--the body
dropping away, the celestial pinions COM
ing on. Not dying, but molting. MoltlnS
ont of darkness and sin and struggle into
glory and into Col. Why do you not shout!
Why do you sit shivering at the thought or
death and trying to hold back and wlsninS
you could stay here forever, and speak OF
departure as though the subject were hiled
with skeletons and the varnish Of cofftns.
and as though you preferred lame 1oot 10
swift wing?
fool and prerare tor rapturous flight. When
your soul stands on the verge OF this hte ana
there are vast precipicss beneath ana sap.
phired domes above, which way will you ny!
Will you swoop or will you soar: VIII you
Ay downward or will you fly upward?
Everything on the wing this morning bid
ding us aspire. Holy Spirit on ths wing.
Angel OF the new covenant on the wing.
Time on the wing, flying away from us.
Eternity on the wing, lyins toward us.
Wings, wings wingsi
Live so near to Christ that when you are
dead people standing by your lifeless body
will not soliloquizs, saying: what dis
appointment life was to him; how avsrse ne
was to departure; what pity it was he had
to die; what an awful calamity" Rather
standing there may they seq sign more
vivid on your still face than thu vsstiges OF
pain. something that will indicate that it
was a happy e1it-the clearance from op.
pressive quarantine, the cast of chrysalid,
the molting of the faded and useless and the
ascent from malarial valleys to bright,
shining mountain tops, and be led to say as
they stand there contemplating your humil-
ity and your reverence in life and your hap.
piness in death, with twain he covered
Che feet, with twain he covered the face,
with twain he did fly" Wings! Wingsl
Winssl
Daub gny's Paintin.-Boat
Daubigny wished to be free from
following on foot the banks of rivers,
to be independent of hotels, to be on