The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1894-08-15

Again, there may De some OF you VINO, In
the attempt alter Christian life, will have
to run against powerful passions anu ap-
petites, Perhaps it is disposition to anger
that YOU have to contend against, and per-
hans. while in a very serious MOOD, you
hear OF something that makes you feel that
YOU must swear or die. know OF Chris
linn man who was once 80 exasperate1 that
he said TO mean customer, 81 cannot swear
at you myself, for I am a member Of the
church, but If you will go down stairs my
partner In business will swear at you" All
YOUR good resolutions heretofore have been
torn to tatters by explosions of temper.
Now, there is 10 harm in getting mad II you
only get mad ut sin. You need to bride
and saddle these hot breathed passions. and
with them ride down injustice and wrong.
There are thousand things in the world
that we ought to be mad at There Is no
harm in getting redhot if you only bring to
the forge that which needs hammering. A
man who has no power OF righteous indiS-
nation is an imbecie. But be sure it is a
righteous indignation and not Il petulancy
that blurS and unravels and deplete5 the
soul.
There is a large class OF persons in midlife
who have still In them appetites that were
aroused In early manhood, at time when
they prided themselves on being a "little
fast, )" "high livers," ''free and easy" "hail
16llOWS We'll m0ls lucy aOW paying LII
compound interest for troubles they collect
ed twenty years ago. Some Of you are try.
ing to escapa and you will, yet very nar-
rowly, sas with the skin Of your teeth"
God and your own soul only know what the
struggle is. Omnipotent grace has pulled
out many a soul that was deeper in the
'mire than you are. They line the beacn o
heaven, the multitude whom God has reg
cued from the thrall OF suicidal ha bits. l.
k,,~w hoo tha
and start anew, God will help you. OBJ, tht
weakness OF human help! Men will sym
pathize for a while and then turn you OIL.
IL YOU ask tor their pardon, they Will give
II and say they will try you again but, fall.
inp away again under the power OF tempta-
tion. they cast you of forever. But God
forgives seventy times seven-yea, seven
hundred times-yea, though this be the ten
thousandth time He Is more earnest, more
sympathetic, more helpful this last time tnan
when you took your first misstep.
IT, with all the influences favorable for
right life, men make SO many mistakes, how
much harder it Is when, for instance, some
appetite thrusts its iron grapple into the
roots of the tongue and pulls q man down
with hands OF destruction! II under such
circumstances he break away, there WILL 90
no sport In the undertaking, no holiday en-
ioyment, but n struggle In which the wres-
Tiers move from side to side and bend and
twist and watch for an opportunity to get in
n heavier stroke until, with one final effort,
In which the muscles are distended, and the
veins start out, and the blood starts, the
swarthy habit falls under the knee OF the
yictor-escaped at last as with the skin OF MS
teeth.
In the last day It will be found that Hugh
Latimer and John Knox and Huss ana ND
lev were not the greatest martyrs, but Cnris-
Inn nj
contaminations and perplexities OF wal!
street. Water street, Pearl street. Broad
street State street. Third street, Lombard
street and the bourse. On earth they were
called brokers or stockholders or retailers or
importers, but in heaven Christian heroes.
No iagots were heaped about their fees, no
inuuisition demanded from them recanta-
tion. no soldier aimed spike at their neart..
but they had mental tortures, compared
with which all physical consuming Is as the
breath of spring morning.
I find in the community a large class OF
men who have been so cheated, so lied about,
30 outrageously wronged that they have lost
faith In everything. Ina world where every
thing seems 80 topsy turvy they do not see
how there can be any God. They are con-
founded and frenzied and misanthroplc.
Elaborate argument - prove to them tne
truth OF Christianity Or thetruta OF anythinG
such men. J. preach to you no rounded
periods. no ornamental discourse, but put
nv hand on your shoulder and invite you
into the peace OF the gospel. Here Is rock
on which YOU may stand firm, though the
waves dash against it harder than the At
lantic, pitching its surf clear above EdaS,
stone lighthouse. Do not charge upon GOD
all these troubles Of the world. AS long as
the world stuck to God, God stuck 10 the
world. but the earth seeded from His gov
eminent. and hence all these outrages and
ali these woes. God Is good. For many
hundreds OF years He has been coaSsng the
world to come back to Him, but the more He
has coaxed the more violent have men oeen
in their resistance, and they have stepped
back and stepped back until they nave
dropped into ruin. ,,.o5
Try this God, ye who have had tho olooa.
hounds after you, and who have tnougns
that God had forgotten you. Try Him anu
seeif He will not help. Try Him and see II
He will not pardon. Try Him and see II he
will not save. The flowers OF spring nave
no bloom so sweet as the Towering OF Christs
affections. The sun hath no warmth COM
pared with the glow OF His heart. Inc
waters have no refreshment like the toun-
tain that will slaks the thirst OF thy soul. AT
the moment the reindeer stands with MS lip
and nostril thrust into the cool mountain tor
rent the hunter may be coming through the
thicket. Without cracking stick unaer
his foot he comes close by the stag, aims MS
gun. draws the trigger, and the poor thing
rears In its death agony and falls oackW"ru,
its antle-s crashing on the rocks, out tue
painting heart that drinks from the water
brooks Of Gods promise shalt never Do Ia
tally wounded and shall never die.