The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1894-09-13
THE DIVINE RESCUE.

THE DIVINE RESCUE.
Salvation without Money-D oath Robbed
of Its Terrors.
BROOKLYN, Sept. 2.--Rev. DR.. Tai
mage. who is still absent in the south
Pacific, hos selected as the subject of
today's sermon through tho press "The
Rescue" the text chosen being Acts
xvi, 81, "Believe on the Lord jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved.'
Jails are dark, dull, damp, loathsome
places oven now, but they were worse
in tho apostolic times. imagine today
we are standing in the Philipplan dun.
geon. DO you not feel the chill? DO
you not hearthe groans of those incarce-
rated ones who for 10 years have not
seen the sunlight and th deep sigh of
women who remember their tather's
house and mourn over their wasted
estates9 Listen again. 1t is the cough
of consumptive or the struggle of one
Ia the nightmare of a great horror. You
listen again and hear culprit, his ehains
rattling as he rolls over in his dreams,
and you say, "God, pity the prisoner"
But there is another sound in that pri-
son. II is the song of Joy and gladness.
What place to sing in! The music
comes winding through the corridors of
tho prison, aud in all tho dark wards the
whisper is heard: "What's that? WHAT'S
thatP"
1t is the song of Paul and Silas. They
cannot sleep. They have been whipped
very badly whipped. The long gashGs
on their backs are bleeding yet. TheyIie
fiat on the old ground, their feet fast in
wooden sockets, and Of course they can.
not sleep. But they can sing. Jailer,
what are you doing with these people?
Why have they been put in here? Oh,
they have beon trying TO mako tho world
batter. Is that all? That is all. A
pit for Joseph, lions cave for Daniel,
blazing furnace for Shadrach, clubs for
John Wesley, au anathema for Philip
Melanchthon, dungeon tor Paul and
Silas.
But while we are standing in the gloom
the mingling voices of sob ard groan
an earthquakel The iron bars Of The
prison twist, the pillars crack of, the
solid masonry begins to heave, and all
the doors swing open. The jaller, feel
ing himself, responsible for these prison
ers and believing In his pagan ignorance
suicide to be honorablc-since Brutus
lii al l.; Il H.
and Cassius killed himself--puts his
own heart, proposing with one strong
keen thrust to put an end to his excite
ment and agitation. But Paul cries out:
"Stop, stop! DO thyself no harm. We
are all here"
Then SOC the jailer running through
the dust and amid the ruin of that prl.
sDn, and see him throwing himself
down at the feet Of these prisoners, cry.
ing out: "What shall do? What shall
l do?" Did Paul answer: "Get out OF
this pace before there is another earth
quake. Put handouts and hopples on
these other prisoners, lest they get
aWav?" No word of that kind. His
compact, thrilling, tremendous answer,
m emorable all through earth and heav-
en-, was, "Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved"
Well, we have NIL read of the earth.
quke in Lisbon. in Lima, insAleppo and
in Caracas, but we live in latitude
where in all our memory there has not
been one severe volcanic disturbance.
And yet we have seen so earthquakes.
Here is man who has been building up
n large fortune. His bid on tile money
market was felt in all the cities. He
thinks he has got beyond all annoying
rivalrles IN trade, and he says to himselt
"NOw am free and safe from all posi-
bic perturbation" But in 1857 or in
1878 national panice strikes the tounda-
ton of the commercial world, and crash
goes all that magnificent business estab.
llsement.
Here is q man who has built up very
beautiful homo. His daughters have
just como home from the seminary with
diplomas of graduation. His sons have
started in life, honest, temperate and
pure. When the evening lights are
struck, there is a happy and unbroken
family circle. But there has been an
accident down at Long Branch. The
young man ventured too far out in the
surf. The telegraph hurled the terror
up to the city. An ear thquake struck
under tho foundation of that beautiful
home.
The piano closed; the curtains drop
ped; tho laughter hushed. Crash 60 all
those domestic hopes and prospects and
expectations! So nay friends, we have
all felt the shaking down of some great
trouble, and there was time when, we
were as much excited as this man of the
text, and We.cried out as he did:
"What shall I dor What shall dor"
The same reply that the apo stle made
TO HIM is appropriate to us, "pelieve
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt
be saved"
There are some docu&sents OF so little |
Importance thai Sou do not care to put
any more than your last name under
them, or even yoGr initials, but there
arc some docun ents of 80 great import
ance thatsyou write out your full names
SO the Saviour In son,e parts of the b.
bio Is called Lord" and in other part.
Of the Bible he ~ called "Jesus, - and
In other parts of tho Bible he is called
".Christ," but that there might be- no