The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-10-11
world for Christ would take part in such
iubilation and prolonged assemblage.


would applaud the scene, whether we heard
the clap Of their wings and the shout Of their
voices or did not hear them. Prophets who
predicted the Messiah, and apostles who
talked with Him, and martyrs who died for
Him would take part in the scene, though to
our poor eyesight they might be invisible.
The old missionaries who died in the malarial
swamps Of Africa, or were struck down by
Egyptian typhus, or were butchered at Luck
now, or were slain by Bornesian cannibals
would come down from their thrones to re-
joice that at last Christ had been heard Of,
and 80 speedily in all nations. At the first
roll OF the first overture of the first day OF
that meeting all heaven would cry: "Hear!
Hear"
Aye Aye! think myself such vast pro-
cedure as that might hasten our lords COM
ing, and that the expectation Of many mil
lions of Christians who believe in the second
advent might be realized then at that con-
junction OF the Nineteenth and Twentieth
Centuries. do not say it would be, yet who
knows but that our blessed and adored Mas
ter, pleased with such q plan Of worldwide
observance, might say concerning this wan
dering and rebellious planet, "That world at
last shows disposition to appreciate what
have done for it, and with one wave OF my
SCARED hand will bless and reclaim and
save It"
kept up for days and months, would please
all the good Of earth and nightly speed on
the gospel chariot and please all the heavens,
sanity, cherubic, seraphic. archangelic and
divine, is beyond question. Oh, get ready
for the worlds greatest festivtyI Tuneyour
voices for the worlds greatest anthem. Lift
the arches for the worlds mightiest process
sion. Let the advancing standard OF the
army OF years, which has inscribed on one
4 Il 4 4 kha Nth a
have also inscribed on It the most charming
name Of all the uniyerss-the name Of Jesus
Whether this suggestion ofa worlds cele-
bratlon of the nativity be taken or not, it
has allowed me an opportunity In q some
what unusual way of expressing my love Tor
the great central character Of all time and
all eternity. He is the infinite nonesuch.
The armies OF heaven drop on their knees
before him. After Bourdaloue, before over
whelmed audiences, has preached Him, and
Milton in immortal blank verse has sung
Him, and Michael Angelo has glori1ed the
ceiling of the Vatican with His second COM
ing, and martyrs while girdled and cano-
pied with the flames OF the stake
have with burning lips kissed his men,
DRY, and in the hundred and forty and four
thousand" of heaven with feet on seas OF
glass intershot with sunrise, have with up
lifted and downswung baton, and sounding
COEQ6tS, anu WdfmS UhL-Slo. oho Aoo'Oa
capturing doxologies celebrated Him, the
story OF His loveliness, and His might and His
beauty, and His grandeur, and His grace, and
His intercession, and His sacrifice, and OF His
birth, and His death will remain untold. Be
His name on our lips while We live, and when
we die after we have spoken farewell to father
and mother and wife, and child let US speak
that name which Is the lullaby of earth and
the transport OF heaven.
xI4 nf frnn
night between December 81, 1900, and the
1st Of January, 1901, many OF us will be
gone. Some ofyou will hear the clock strike
Twelve OF one century and IN hour alter 1t
hear 1t strike one OF another century, but
many of you will not that midnight hear
the old timepiece In the hallway Of the home
stead. Seven years cut wide swath through
the churches and communities and Nations.
But those who cross from world to world
before Old Time in this world crosses that
midnight from century to century will talk
among the thrones OF the coming earthly
Jubilee, and on the river bank and in the
house of many mansions, until all heaven
will know of the coming OF that celebration,
that will fill the earthly Nations with joy and
help augment the Nations OF heaven. But
whether here or there we will take part In
the music and the banquetinS II We have
made the Lord our portion. (
oh, how would like to stand at my front
door some morning or noon or night end see
the sky part and the blessed Lord descend In
person, not as he will come In the last judg-
ment, with fire and hail and earthquake. but
in sweet tenderness TO pardon all sin, and
heal all wounds and w:pe away all tears,
and feed all hunger, and right all wrongs,
and illumine all darkness, and break slt
bondage, and harmonic all discords. Some
think he will thus come, but about that,
coming make no prophecy, for / am mot
enough learned In the Scriptures, as some OF
my friends are, to announce very positive
opinion. :,
Bus this do know, that 1t would be we'll
for us to have an international and an inter-
world celebration OF the anniversary OF HIS
birthday about the time OF the birth OF the
new century, and that 1t will be wise beyond
all Others wisdom for us to take Him as our
present nnd everlasting coadjutor, and II
that Darling of earth and heaven will only
P accept you and me after all our lifetime OF
unworthiness and sin we can never pay Him
what we owe, though through all the eternity
to come we had every hour new song and
everv moment new ascrlptton OF homage
and praise, for you see We were Tar OUT
among the lost sheep that the gospei hymn
so pathetically describes:
Out In the desert heheard Its cry,
Sick and helpless and rea ~ to 0e,
But all through the mountain thunder rlVen,
And up from the rocky steep,
There rises q cry to the gate OF heaven,
"Rejoice, I have found my sheep"
And the angels echo round the throne,
"RejoIce for the Lord brings back His own"