The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1894-01-17


20. personal friends outside the family circle
| whom they had loved with love like that OF
David and Jonathan
Ees1des rna1, some men nave q natural
trepidation about dissolution, and ever and
anon during forty or fifty or sixty years TINS
horror of their dissolution shudders through
soul and body. Now, suppose the lad goes
funerals, fifty caskets. fifty obsequies, fifty
awful wrenchings Of the heart. 1t Is hard
enough for us to bear their departure, but Is
it not easier for us to bear their departure
than for them to stay and bear fifty de-
partures? Shall we not, by the grace OF God,
rouse ourselves into generosity OF oereave-
ment which will practically say, 1T Is hard
enough for me to go through this bereaVe-
ment, but how glad am that ne WILL never
have to go through !" -,
So I reason with myself, and so you will
find il helpful to reason with yourselves.
David lost his son. Though David was king,
he lay on the earth mourning and inconso-
liable for some time. At this distance OF time,
which do YOU really think was the one to be
congratulated, the short lived child or the
long lived father2 Had Dayied died as early
as that child, he would in the first place have
that particular bereavement, then ne wouto
have escaped the worst bereavement OF Ao.
salon, his recreant sou and the pursuit Of
the Philistines; and the fatigues OF his mill.
tary campaign, and the jealousy OF Saul, and
the perfdy OF Ahithophel, and the curse or
Shimei. and the destruction OF his family at
Ziklag, and, above all, he would have es-
caped the two great calamities OF life, the
great sins of uncleanness and murder. David
lived to be OF vast use to tho church and the
world, but 80 far as his own happiness was
concerned, does it not seem to you that 1t
would have been betterf for him to have gone
early?
Now, this, my friends, explains some
things that to you have been inexplicable.
This shows you why when God takes little
children from household he is very apt to
take the brightest, the most genial, the most
sympathetic, the most talented. Why? 1t is
because that kind Of nature suffers the most
whenit does suffer and is most liable to
temptation. God sow the tempest sweeping
up from the Caribbean, and He put the deli
cate craft into the first harbor. 'Iaken away
from the evil to come"
Again, my friends, there Is blessing In an
abbreviated earthly existence in the fact that
1t puts one sooner in the centre OF things.
Ali astronomers, infidel as we'll as Christian,
agree in believing that the universe swings
around some great centre. Any one who has
studied the earth and studied the heavens
knows that Gods favorite figure in geom-
etry Is circle. When God put forth His
hand to create the universe, he did not
strike that hand at right angles, but He
waved it in circle, and kept on waving it
in a circle until systems and consultations
and galaxies and all worlds took that mo-
tion. Our planet swinging around the sun.
other planets swinging around other suns.
but somewhere great hub around which
the great wheel of the universe turns. Now,
that centre is heaven. That IL the capital OF
the universe. That is the great metropolis
OF immensity.
Now, does not our common sense teach US
that in matters Of study 1t IS better for US to
move out from the centre toward the circum-
ference, where our world is? We are like
those who study the American continent
while standing on the Atlantic beach. The
way to study the continent Is to cross 1t or
20 TO the heart of it. Our standpoint in this
world Is defective. We are at the wrong end
of the telescope. The best way to study
piece OF machinery Is not to stand on the
doorstep and try to lookin, but to go in with
the engineer and take our place right amid
the saws and cylinders. We wear our eyes
out and orr brain out from the fact that we
are studying under such great disadvantage.
Millions of dollars for obseryatorles to
study things about the moon, about the sun.
about the rings Of Saturn, about transits and
occutations and eclipses, simply because our
studio, our observatory, is poorly situated.
We are down in the cellar trying to study the
palace of the universe, while our departed
Christian friends have gone up stairs amid
the skylights to study.
Now, when one can sooner get to the
centre OF things, is he not to be congratu-
lated? Who wants to be always In the fresh
man CLASP We study God in this world by
the Biblical photograph OF Him, but we all
know we can in five minutes OF interview
with friend get more accurate idea OF him
than We can by studying him fifty years
through pictures Of words. The little child
that died last night to-day knows more OF
God than all Andover, and all Princeton, and
all New Brunswick, and all Edinburgh, and
all the theological institutions in Christen-
dom. Is it not better to 60 up to the very
headquarters Of knowledge?
Does not our common sense teach US that
1t is better to be at the centre than to be
clear out on the rim of the wheel, holding
nervously fast to the tire lest we be sud.
denly hurled into light and eternal felicity?
Through all kinds of optical instruments
trying to peer in through the cracks and the
keyholes of heaven-afra1d that both doors
OF the celestial mansion will be swung wide
open before our entranced vision-rushing
about the apothecary shops OF this world,
wondering If this is good for rheumatism,
and that Is good for neuralgia and some
thing else Is good for bad cough, lest we
be suddenly ushered into land OF everlast.
ing health, wherethe inhabltant never says,
81 am SICK"
What fools we oil are to prefer the cir.
cumference to the centrel What dreadful
thing it would be If we should be suddenly
ushered from this wintry world into the
Maytime orchards OF heaven, and II our
pauperism of sin and sorrow should be sud-
denly broken up by presentation OF an
emperor's castle. surrounded by parks with
springing fountains and paths up and down
which angels Of God walk two and two.
We stick to the world as though we pre-,
ferred cold drizzle to warm habitation, dis.
cord to cantata, sackcloth to royal purple
as though we preferred piano with four OF
FIVE keys out OF tune to an instrument fully
attuned-as though earth and heaven had
exchanged apparel and earth had taken on
bridal alarray and heaven had gone into deep
mourning, all its waters stagnant, all lts
harps broken, all chalices cracked at the dry
wells, all the lawns sloping to the rive'
plowed with graves, with dead angels under
the furrow. Oh, I want 10 break up my own
infatuation. and want to break up your in
fatuation for this world. Itell you II We are
ready, and II our work is done, the sooner
we go the better. and If there are blessings
in longevity, want you to know right well
there are also blessings In an abbreviated
earthly existence.
II the spirit OF this sermon is true, how
consoled you ought to feel about members OF
your families that went early. "Taken from
the evil to come," this book says. What
fortunate escape they had! How glad We
ought to feel that they will never have to so
through the struggles which We have had 10
90 through. They had just time enough to
get out OF the cradle AMI run up the spring.
time hills OF this world and see how 1t looked,
and then they started for better stopping
place. They were like ships that put in at
st. Helena, staying there long enough to let
ooooaooaro ~ opd COO tha barracks of