The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1894-01-03

in the old family Bible an old yellow letter
pasted fast, which told the story OF THAT
fathers long march and how he suffered In
the hospital. But they looked still farther
on in the Bible, and they came to the story
of how God is the Father of the fatherless
and the widows portion, and they soon took
their fathers place in that household.
They battled the way for their mother. They
came on up. and many Of them have already,
in the years since the war, taken positionsin in
church and State, North and South. While
many of those who suffered nothing during
those times have had SONS go out into lives
of Incidence and vagabondage, these who
started under so many disadvantages because
they were 80 early bereft. these are tbs lame
who took the prey.
A step farther There are those who
would like to do good. They say, "Oh, If I
only had wealth, or If had eloquence, or !:
I had high social position, how much l
would accomplish for God and the church"
I stand here to-day to tell you that you have
great opportunities for usefulness.
who built the pyramids? The king who
ordered them built3 No 1.-THE plain workmen
who added stone after stone and stone after
stone. Whs built the dikes Of Holland?
The government that ordered the enterprise?
No; the plain workmeu who carried the
earth and rang their trowels on the wall.
Who are those that built these vast citiesf
The capitalists2 No; the carpenters, the
masons, the plumbers, the plasterers, the
timers. the roofers, dependent on days
wages for livelihood. And 30 in the great
work of assuaging human suffering and en-
tightening human ignorance and haltine
human iniquity. In that great work, the
chief part is to be done by ordinary men.
with ordinary speech, In an ordinary man.
ner, and by ordinary means.
The trouble is that in the army OF Christ
we all want to be captains and colonels and
brigadier generals. We are not willing to
march with the rank and file and do duty
with the private soldier. We want to belong
to the reserve corps and read about the bat
tie while warming ourselves at the campfres
or on furlough at home, our feet upon an
ottoman, we sagging back into an armchair.
As you go down the street you see an ex-
cavation, and four or five men are working
and perhaps twenty or thirty leaning on the
rail looking over at them. That is the way
it is in the church of God to-day. Where
you find one Christian hard at work, there
are fifty men watching the job.
work and preach the gospel? You say, 'I
have no pulpit" You have. 1t may BIZ the
carpenters bench, 1t may be the mason's
wall. The robe in which you are to proclaim
this gospel may be q shoemaker's apron.
But woe unto you If you preach not this gos-
pel somewhere. somehow! II this world is
ever brought to Christ it will be through the
unanimous and long-continued efforts OF
men who, waiting for no special endowment,
consecrate to God what they have: Among
the most useless people in the world are men
with ten talents, while many one With only
two talents, or no talents at all, Is doing
oroo< ~ro~l- ,nd fstba lama faEa tha Drev ~
There are thousands Of ministers OF whom
you have never heard-in log cabins at the
West, in mission chapels at the East-who a=e
warning against the legions Of darkness, suc-
cessfully warning. Tract distributors. month
by month undermining the citadels OF sin.
You do not know their going or their COM
ing, but the footballs Of their ministry are
heard in the palaces Of heaven. Who are the
workers in our Sabbath schools throughout
this land to-day? Men celebrated, men bril-
liant. men Of vast estate? Forthe most part,
not that at all. .,r.
I have noticed that the chief characteristic
OF the most Of those who aresuccessful in the
work is that they know their Bibles, are earn
est in prayer, are anxious for the salvation
OF the Young, and Sabbath by Sabbath are
willing to sit down unobseryed and tell OF
Christ and the resurrection. These are the
humble workers who are recruiting the great
army of Christian youth-not by night, not
by power, not by profound argument, not by
brilliant antithesis. but by the blessing. OF
God on plain talk, and humble story, and 81
lent tear, and anxious look, "the lame take
the prey"
on this work Of saving the youth of our
country-how few appreciate what 1t Is
This generation tramping on to the grave
we will soon all be gone. What OF the next3
An engineer on q locomotive going across
the Western prairies day after day saw little
child come out in front Of q cabin and wave
TO him. So he got in the habit Of waving
hack to the little child, and 1t was the days
Joy to him to see this little one come out in
front Of the lcabin door and wave to him
while he answered back.
One day the train was belated and it came
ON to the dusk of the evening. As the engi-
neer stood at his post he saw by the head
light that little girl on the track, wondering
way the train did not come, looking for the
rain, knowing nothing OF her peril. Agreat
horror seized upon the engineer. He re-
versed the engine. He gave lin charge ofthe
other man on boasd, and then he climbed over
the engine, and he came down on the cow
catcher. He said, though he had reversed the
engine, it seemed as though it were going at
li-6tninc speed, faster and faster, though it
was really slowing up, and with almost su-
pernatural clutch he caught that child by
the hair and lifted it up. and when the train
stopped and the passengers gathered around
to see what was the matter there the old en-
gineer lay, tainted dead away, the littlo
child alive and in his swarthy arms.
"Oh," you say, "that was well done" But
I want you to exercise some kindness anu
some appreciation toward those In the COM
munity who are snatching the little ones
from under the wheels OF temptation and sin
-snatching them from under laundering
rail trains Of eternal disaster, bringing them
up into respectability in this world and into
glory for the world to come. You appreciate
what the engineer did. Why can you not
appreciate the grander work done by every
Sabbath school teacher ami BY every Chris
tian worker?
Oh, start on the road to heaven to-day.
You are not happy. The thirst OF your soul
will never be slaked by the fountains OF sin.
You turn everywhere but to God for help.
Blight where you are, call on Him. He
knows you He knows all about you. He
knows all the odds against which you have
been contending in life. Do not go to Him
with long rigmarole Of prayer, but just
look up and say, 'Help! Help!"
Yet you say. 'tMy hand trembles so from
my dissipations. I cannot even take hold OF
hymn book to sing" Do not worry about
that, my brother, will give out hymn at
the close so familiar you can sing 1t without
book. But you say, II have such terrible
habits on me, I can't get rid Of them" My
answer is, Almighty grace can break up that
habit and will break it. But you say. "The
wrong did was to one dead and in heavep
now, and can't correct that wrong" You
can correct it. By the grace of God. go into
the presence Of that one, and the apologies
you ought to have made on earth make in
heaven.
"Oh," say some men, ''if should try to
do right. II I should turn away from my evil.
doing unto the Lord, 1 would be jostled,
would be driven back, nobody would have
any sympathy for me-" You are mistaken.
Here in the presence of the church on earth