The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-11-29
mortality ata oblivion! A hundred


submersence Of things earthly who wants to
be forgotten2 Not one Of us.
Absent for few weeks or months from
home, 1t cheers US to know that we are re.
membered there. 1t Is phrase we have all
pronounced, 81 hope you missed me- Meet.
ing some friends from whom we have been
parted many years, we inquire, Ibid you
svsr see me betore?" and they say, ''Yes, "
aud call us by nams. and we feel delight
,ul sensation thrilling through their hand
into our hand, and running up from elbow
% shoulder, and then parting, the one cur
:ert OF delight ascen ding to the brow and
he other descending to the foot, moving
cound and round in concentric circles until
and mind and soul is parmsated with de-
light.
rev days ago, visiting the place OF my
boyhood, met one whom had not seen
since we played together at ten years OF age,
and had peculiar pleasure in puzzling him
a little as to who was, and can hardly de-
scribe the sensation as after awhile he num-
bled out. "Let me see. Yes, you are De
Witt" We all like to be remembered.
Now, have to tell you that this oblivion
of which have spoken has its defeats, and
that there Is no more reason why we should
not be distinctly and vividly and gloriously
remembered five hundred million billion
trillion quadrillion quintillion years from
now than that We should be remembered six
weeks. ON going to tell you how hething
can be done and will be done.
We may build this Everlasting remem-
brance," as my text styles it, into the super
nal existence of those to whom We do kind
aesses in rn1s world. You must remember
that this infrm AMI treacherous faculty
which we now call memory Is in the future
state to be complete and perfect. "Ever-
tasting remembrancsr' Nothing will slip
The stout grip of that celestial faculty. Did
you help widow pay her rent? Did you
ind for that man released from prison
place to get honest worS2 Did you pick up
child fallen on the curbstone, aud by
stick OF candy put in his hand stop the hurt
On his scratched knee? Did you assure a
business man, swampsd by the stringency OF
ihe money market, thass times would after
awhile be better'
Did you lead Mag ialen OF the street into
midnight mission, where the Lord said to
her: "Neitber do 7 condemn thee 60 and sin
no more?" Did you tell man, clear dis
couraged in his waywardness and hopeless
and plotting suicide, that for him was near
by laver in which he might wash, and a
coronet of eternal blessedness he might
wear?
What are epltaphs IN graveyards. what are
eulogiums in presence oithose whose breath
Is In their nostrils, what ars unread bioSra-
phies in the alcovss OF city library, COM
pared with the imperishable records you
have made In the 1llumined memories OF
those to whom you did such kindnesses!
Forget them? They cannot forget them.
Notwithstanding all their might and splen-
dor, there are some things the glori6ed OF
heaven cannot do, and this is one Of them.
They cannot forget an earthly Kindness
done. They have no cutlass to part that
cable. They have no strength to hurl into
oblivion that benefaction.
Has Paul forgotten the inhabitants OF
Malta, who extended the island hospitality
when he and others with him had felt, added
to a shipwrecS. the drenching rain and the
sharp cold? Has the victim OF the highway
man on the road to Jericho forgotten the
Good Samaritan with a msdicament OF oil
and wine and free ride to the hostelry?
Have the English soldiers WHO went up to
God from tho Crimean bastleaelds forgotten
Florence Nightingale?
Through all eternity will the Northern aud
Southern soldiers forget the Northern ana
Southern women who administered to the
dying boys in blue and gray after the awful
fights In Tennessee and Pennsylvania and
Virginia and Georgia, which turned every
house and barn and she'd into hospital, and
incarnadined the Susquehanna, and the
James, and the Chattahoochee. and the Sa-
yannsh with brave blood? The kindnesses
you do to others will stand as long In the ap-
probation of others rs the gates OF heaven
will stand, as the "House OF Many Mansions"
will stand, as long as the throne OF Go1 Will
stand
Another defeat OF oblivion will be found
In the character OF those whom we rescue,
uplift or save. Character is eternal. Sup
pose by right inausncs we aid in trans
forming bad man into good man, dol
orous man into happy man, a disheartensd
man into a courageous ma1-avery stroke OF
that work done will be immortalized: There
may never be 80 much as one line in news
paper regarding 1t, or no mortal tongue may
sver whisper 1t into human ear. but where
ever that soul shall 50 your work upon 1t
shall 60, wherever that soul rises your work
upon 1t shall rise, and so long as that soul
will last your WORK on it will last.
Do you suppose thsre will ever cons such
an idiotic lapse in the history OF that soul In
heaven that it shall forget that you invited
him to Christ that you, by prayer or gospel
word, turned him rouni from the wrong way
10 the right WY? No such insanity will over
,nite q heavenly citizen. 1t is not half as
we'll on earth known that Christopher Wren
planned and built st. PautS as 1t will be
known in all heaven that you were the in
strumsntality o. building temple for tbs
sky.
We teach Sabbath class, or put Chris
tian tract in thu hani Of passeroy, or tes-
tify for Christ in a prayer meeting, OF prsaca
sermon, and go home discouraged, as
though nothing had been accomplished, when
We had been character building with ma
terial that no frost or earthquake or rolling
oft tha ,rio do n o
There is no sublimsr art In the world than
architecture. W.th pencil and rule and COM
pass the architect sits down aloae an In 81
lence. and evolves from his own brain ca.
thedraI. or National capitol, or 4 massive
home befors he leaves that table, and then hs
GOES out and unrolls his plans, and calls car
penters and masous aai artisans OF all sorts
to execute his design, and waenit Is finished
he walks around the vast structure AMI sees
the completion OF the worh with high satis-
faction, and on stone at some corner OF the
building the architects anne may be chissled.
But the storms do their WORK, and time, that
takes down everything, will yet take down
that structure until there shall not be one
stone left upon another.
But there is a soul In heaven. Through
your instrumentality it was put there. Un-
der Gods grace you are the architect OF its
eternal happiness. Your name Is written, not
on one corner Of its nature, but inwrought
into its every fiber and ensrgy. Will the
storms OF winter wash out the story OF what
you have wrought upon that spiritual struc-
ture2 No. There are no storms in that land,
and ths-e Is no winter. Will time wear out
the inscription which shows your fidelity!
No. Time is past, and it Is an everlasting
now. Built into the foun iation OF that imper.
ishable structure, built into its pillars, built
into its capstons, Is your naTs--elther the
name you have on earth or the mama by
which celestials shall call you.
know the Bible says in ons place that
Goi is jealous God, but that refers to the
WORK Of those who worship soma other goL