The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1895-10-02

dell*Stence. toenQlQ MIN, uttle chill
dren, for if..:you live-.to threescore
wears and ten you will see none so fair.
Behold him. ye aged ones, for he only
can shine through the dimness of your
failing eyesight Behold him, earth.
Behold him. heaven. What a mo-
ment when all the nations oss the saved
shall gather around Christ. All faces
that way. All thrones that way, gaz-
ing on Jesus.
His worth if all The nations knew
SpIe the whole. earth would'loYe him too.
l pass on now,and look at Stephen
stoned The world has always want
ed to get rid of good men. Their very
life is an assault upon wickedness.
Out with Stephen through the gates of
the city. Down with him over the
precipices. Let every man come up
and drop stone upon his head. But
these men did not so much kill Steph-
en- as they killed themselves. Every
Stone rebounded upon them. While
these murderers are transfxed by the
scorn of all good men Stephen ivesin
the admiration of all Christendom
Stephen stoned, but Stephen alive. So
! ali g55a- 55a-'i9an4'1f a4en94= must De pe1Ied. All
who will live godly in Christ Jesus
must suffer persecution it is no eu-
logy Of man to say that everybody
likes him. Show me any one who is
doing all his duty to state and church,
and | will show you scores of men
| who utterly abhor him
If al men speak well OF you, It is
because you are either laggard or a
dolt II a steamer makes rapid pro.
gress through the waves. the water
will boil and foam all around it.
Brave soldiers Of Jesus Christ will
hear the carbiues click. When l see
a man with voice and money and in
fluence all on the right side. and some
caricature him, and some sneer at him,
aud some edenounce him, and men who
pretend to be actuated by right mo.
tives conspire to cripple him, to cast
him out. to destroy him, l say,
Stephen stoned"
| When I see man in some great
moral or religious reform battling
against grogshops, exposing wicked
ness ih:high places, by active means
trying to purify the church and bet,
ter the worlds estate, and find that
the newspapers anathematize him, and
men, even good men, oppose him and
denounce him because, though he doe
good, he does not do it in their way, I
say, Stephen stoned But you no,
tice, my friends, that while they as.
saulted Stephen they did not succeed
really in killing him. You may as.
sault good man, but you cannot kill
him. On the day Of his death Stephen
spoke before a few people in the san
hedrin. This Sabbath morning he ad;
dresses Christendom Paul, the apos-
tie, stood on Mars hill addressing a
handful of philosophers who knew not
so much about science as modern
schoolgirl. Today he talks to all the
millions of Christendom about the
wonders of justification and the glo'
ries CT resurrection. John Wesley
was howled down by the mob to whom
he preached, and they threw bricks at
him, and they denounced him, and
they jostled him, and they spat upon
him. and yet today, in all lands, he is
admitted to be the great father OF
| Methodism. Booths bullet vacated
the presidential chair, but from that
spot of coagulated blood on the floor
! in the box of Ford's theater there
.sprang up the new life of a nation.
Stephen stoned, but Stephen alive.
Pass on now and see; Stephen in his
dying prayer His first thought was
! not how the stones hurt his head, nor
what would become Of his body. His
first thought was about his spirit.
Lord Jesus receive my spirit. The
murderer standing on the trapdoor, the
black cap being drawn over his head
before the execution, may grimace
about the future, but you and | have
no shame in confessing some anx-
iety about. where we are going
to come out. You are not all body,
There is within you a soul. l see
it gIeam from your eyes today, and l
see it irradiating your countenance.
Sometimes I am abashed before an au-
dience, not because come under your
physical eyesight, but because | real
ize the truth that | stand before SO
many immortal spirits. The proba-
bility is that your body will at last
find sepulcher in some of the ceme-
teries that s'rround,this city. There
is. no doubt that your obseques will be
decent and respectful, and you will be
able to pillow your head under the
maple, or the Norway spruce, or the
cypress, or the blossoming fir, but
this spirit about which Stephen prayed,
what direction will that take What
guide will escort it: What gate will
open to receive it 2: What cloud will
be cleft for its pathway After it has
got beyond the light OF our sun will
there be torches lighted for it the rest
OF the way
WEI the SOUL have to travel through
long deserts before it reaches the good
land2 If we should lose our pathway
Will there be q castle at whose gate we
may ask the way to the city: Oh,
this mysterious spirit within u.s. 1t
has two wings, but it is in a cage now.
1t is locked fast to keep it, but let the
door to this cage open the least, and
that soul is off. Eagles wing could
not catch it. The lightnings are not
swift enough to come up with it.
When the soul leaves the body it takes
So worlds alta bound. And have no
anxiety about it? Have you no anx-
iety about it?
1 do not care what you do with my
body when my soul is gone, or.wheth-
er you believe in cremation or inhu-
nation. I shall sleep just as well in
wrapping of sackcloth as in satin lined
with eagles down. But my soul
before l close this discourse will find
out where it will land. Thank God
for the intimation of my text that
when we die Jesus takes US. That an
swers all. questions for me. What
though there were massive bars be-
tween here and the City Of Light,
Toc,1e oon11 remoye them What