The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1894-11-21

llltil llilS NoIll S''IIlIoe iit''
happy. The very man who poisoned
the pommel of the saddle on winch
Queen Elizabeth rode shouted IN the
street. God save the queen. one
moment the world applaudS; and the
next moment the world anathematlzes.
Oh. come over into this greater JOY.
this sublime Solace, this magnificent
beatitude ,
The night after the battle Of Shiloh
there were thousands of wounded on
the field. and the ambulances had not
come. One Christian soldier, lying
there a-dying u,ider the starlight, be-
gan to sing:
There is lard Of pure delight.
And when he came to the next line
there were scores of voices uniting:
Where saints immortal reign.
The song was caught up alt over the
field among the wounded until, 1t was
said, there were at least 10000 wound
ed men uniting their voices as they
came to the verse:
There everlasting spring abideS,
And rever withering flowers.
Death. like narrow stream, divides
That heavenly Land from ours.
Oh. it is a great religion to live by,
and it is great religion to die by.
There is only one heart throb between
YOU and that religion this moment.
Just look into the face of your pardon
ing God and surrender yourself for
time and for eternity, and he is yours,
and heaven is yours, and all is yours.
Some of YOU, like the young man of
the text. have gone far astray. | know
not the history, but you know it-you
know it.
When young man went forth into
life, the legend says, his guardian an
gel went forth with him, and getting
him into field the guardian angel
swept circle clear around where the
wound man stood. 1t was circle OF
virtue and honor, and he must not
step beyond that circle. Armed foes
came down. but We're obliged to halt
at the circle. They could not pass,
butone day a temptress, with diamond,
ed hand. stretched forth and crossed
that circle with the hand, and the
tempted soul took it, and by that one
fell grip was brought beyond the cir
Gle and died. Some of you have step
ped beyond that circle. Would you
not like this day, by the grace Of God,
to step back?
This, l say to you, is your hour OF
salvation. There was in the closing
hours of Queen Anne what IS called
the clock scene. Flat down on the
pillow. in helpless sickness, she could
not move her head or move her hand.
She was waiting for the hour when
the ministers of state should gather in
angry contest, and worried and worn
out by the coming hour, and III mo-
mentary absence of the nurse, IN the
power-strange power which dellnum
Sometimes gives one-she arose and
stood in front of the clock, and stood
there watching the clock when the
nurse returned. The nurse said, DO
YOU see anything peculiar about that
clock." She made no answer, but soon
died. There is clock scene IN every
history. If some of you would rise
from the bed of lethargy and come out
of Your delirium of sin and look on
the clock of your destiny this moment
you would see and hear something
you have not seen or heard before,
and every tick of the minute, and
every stroke of the hour, and every
swing of the pendulum would say,
Nov. now, now, now. Oh, come
home to Your Fathers house. Come
home, oh, prodigal, from the wilder
ness, Come home, come home.
But notice that when the prodigal
came there was the Fathers JOY. He
did not greet him with any formal
''how do YOU do?" He did not come
out and say: You are unfit to enter
Go out and wash in the trough by the
well, and then you can come in. We
have had enough trouble with you.
An, no. When the proprietor OF
that estate proclaimed festival, it was
an outburst of a fathers love and a
fathers Joy. God is your father. |
have not much sympathy with that
description Of God | sometimes hear,
as though he We're Turkish sultan
hard and unsympathetic and listening
not to the cry of his subjects.
A man told me he saw in one of the
Eastern lands king riding along.
and two men were in alteration, and
one charged the other with having
eaten his rice. And the king said,
Then slay the man, and by post NOR
tenn examination find whether he has
eaten the rice" And he was slain.
All, the cruelty of a scene like that.
Our God is not a sultan, not despot,
but father-kind, loving, forgiving
and he makes all heaven ring again
when prodigal comes back. Il have
no pleasure, he says, in the death
OF him that dieth.
If man does not get to heaven, 1T IS
because he will not 60 there. No diff
ference the color, no difference the
history, no difference the antecedents,
no difference the surroundings, no
difference the sin. When the white
horses of Christ's victory are brought
out to celebrate the eternal triumph,
you may ride one of them, and as God
is greater then all his JOY is greater,
and when a soul comes back there IS
in his heart the surging of an infinite
ocean of gladness, and to express that
gladness it takes all the rivers of
pleasures, and all the thrones of pomp,
and all the ages of eternity. 1t is a
Joy deeper than all depth. and higher
than all height, and wider than all
width, and vaster than all immensely.
1t overtops, it undergirds,i it outweighs
all the united splendor and JOY of the
universe Who can tell what Gods
JOY IS:
You remember reading the story of
king who on some great day Of fes-
tivity scattered silver and gold among
the people, who sent valuable pres
ents to his courtiers, but methinks
when a soul comes back God is SO
glad that to express his JOY he tlings