The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1894-05-16


pie my work IN the future.
IL this my quarter century sermon /
record the tact that side by SIDE with
the procession of blessings has gone
procession of disasters | am preaching
today in the fourth ch0rch building
since | began in this city. Ny first ser
mon was lr the old church on Sober
merhorn street TO an audience chiefly
! of empty seats, for the church was al-
most eXtinguiShed. T1at church filled
! and overlooking, we built larger
| church, which after two or three years
disappeared in flame. Then we bolt
another church, which also IL line OF
| fiery succession disappeared IN tn"
sama way. Then we put up this build
| ipg, and may it stand fol many years
fortress Of righteousness and Il light
| house for the storm tossed, its gales
crowded with vast assem- 6l&geS long
after We have ceased to frequent them
We have raised in this church over
S103G.000 for church charitable purpo-
ses dur,uE the present paStOrate, while
we have given, free Of all expenses, the
| gospel to hundreds OF thousands OF
strangers year by year. | record with
gratitude to God that during this gen
Grafton Of 25 years | remember bat
| two S3bbaths that have missed ser
vice through anything like physical in
| DISPOSITION. Almost q fanatic On the
subject of physical exercise | have
made the parks with which 0uT city IS
blessed the means Of good physical
condition. 4 daily walk AMI run IN
the open air have kept me ready for
work and in good hun0r with all the
world. say to sll young ministers OF
the gospel it is easier to keep gcod
| health than to regain it when once lost.
The reason so many goCd men think
| the world is going to ruin Is because
their own physical condition is on the
down grade. No man ought to preach
who has diseased liver or an enlarged
| spleen. There are two things ahead Of
US that ought to keep US cheerful IN
our Work-heaVen ana the millennium.
| And now, having come up to the
| twenty fifth milestone IN my pastorate,
l wonder bow many more miles am
/ to travel? Your company has been
exceedingly pleasant,O my dear people,
| and would like to march by your side
until the generation with whom we are
now moving abreast and step to step
shall have stacked arms after the last
battle. But the Lord knows best, and
we ought to be willing to stay or go.
| Most of you are aware that propose
at this time, between the close Of my
twenty fifth year of pastorate and be-
fore the beginning Of my twenty sixth
year, to be absent for a few months in
| order to take journey around the
| world. I expect to sail from San Fran
| cisco 10 the steamer Alameda May Il
MY place here on Sabbaths will be full
ly occupied, while on Mondays and
every MoDday,I Will continue to speak
| through the printing press in this and
| other lands as heretofore. Why do /
go? To make pastoral visitation
| among people whom l have never seen,
| out to whom I have never been per
mitted a long while to administer. |
want TO see them in their own cities,
towns and nelghborhcods. want to
know what are their prOsperIties, what
their adversaries and what their op-
| portunities, and SO enlarge my work
and get more addptedness. Why DO |
60? For educational purposes. !
| want to fres1en my mind and heart Og
news scenes, ne" faces, new maGners
and ccstoms | Want better 10 under
stand what are the wrongs 20 be right
ed and the waste pl tces 10 be reclaim
| ed. | will put all learn IN sermons 10
| be preached to you when l return. |
| Waut to see the Sandwich Islands, not
so much in the light OF modern politics
as in the light OF the gospel OF Jesus
Christ, which has transformed theD.and
! Samoa and those vaS5 realms OF New
Zealand and Australia and Jeylon and
Iudia. | want to Ste what Christianity
has accomplished, want TO SET how
the missionaries have been lied about
as living in luxury and idleDeSs.
! want to know whether the heath
en- religious are really as to!erabte aDd
as commendable as they were repre-
sented by their adherents in the parlia
ment of religions at Chicago. I want
to see whether Mohammedanism aud
| Buddhism would be good thing for
transplanting in America, as IL has
again and again been argued. l want
to hear the Brehmans pray. want to
| test whether the Pacific ocean treats its
gues any better than does the Allan
tic. I want to see the ROndrous archI-
lecture Of Iudia, and the Delhi and
Cawnpore where Christ was cruciied
in the massacre of his modern disciples,
and the disabled Jusgernaut unWaeel-
| ed by Christianity, and to see II the
Tai which the Emperor Shah Jehau
built in honor of his empress really
means any more than the plain slab
we put above our dear departed. 1
want to see the fields where HaVelock
and Sir Colin Campbell VOL the day
against the sepoyS. I want to see the
| world from all sides, how much Of it is
in darkness, how much of it is in light,
what the Bible means by the "ends OF
| the earth" and get myself ready TO ap.
preclate the extent of the present 10 be
made to Christ as spoken OF in the
Psalms, "Ask for me, and I shall give
thee the heather for thine inheritance,
and the uttermost parts Of the earth
for thy possession" and 50 I shall be
ready to celebrate in heaven the ViCto
ries Of Chris3 in more rapturous song
than I could have rendered had never
seen the heather denominations before
they were conquered. And so l hope
to come bsck refreshed, REINFORCED
and better equipped and to do IN IL
years more ef5ctual work than have
done in the last %.
And now in this twenty fifth aanl
versary sermon propose to do two
things-frst, to put garland on the
grave of the generation that has just
passed OF and then to put palm
branch in the hand of the generation
| just now coming on the field OF action,
| for my text is true, zone generation
passeth away, and another generation
cometn." Oh, how many we reVered
and honored and loved in the last gen
GRAFTON thai quit the earth. Tears fell
at the time of their going, and dirges
were sounded, and signals Of mourn
ing were put on, but neither tears nor
diTge nor somber veil told the half we
felt. Their going left vacancy in our
souls that has never filed up. We
never get used to their absence. There
are times when the sight Of something
with which they were associated-a
picture, or book, or garment. or a
staff-breaks US down with emotion,