The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1895-08-07

whether the crops are lu1urian. or dead
failure, calm In all circumstances and amid
all vissicitudes-that Is the kind OF grace We
want Millions Of men want 1t, and they
may have 1t for the asking. Some hero OF
heroine comes to town, and as the procession
passes through the street the business men
come out and stand on tiptoe on their store
steps and look at some one who in arctic
CLINE or in ocean storm or In day OF battle or
in hospital agonies did the brave thing, not
realizing that they the enthusiastic specta-
tors, have gone through trials in business
life that are just as great before God. There
are men who have gone through freezing
arctics and burning torrids and awful
Marengos Of experiences without moving
FIVE miles from their doorsteps. Now, what
ordinary business men need Is to realize that
they have the friendship Of that Christ who
looked after the religious interests Of
Matthew. the custom house clerk, and helped
Lydia Of Thyatira to sell the dry goods, and
who opened bakery and fish market in the
wilderdess of Asia Minor to feed the 1000
who had come out on religious picnic, and
who counts the hairs OF your head with as
much particularly as though they were
| the plumeS OF coronation, and who
took the trouble to stoop down with His
finger writing on the ground, although
the first shuttle OF feet obliterated the divine
callgraphy, and who knows just how many
locusts there were in the Egyptian plague
and knew just how many ravens were neces-
sary to supply Elijah's pantry by the brook
| Cherith, and who as floral commander leads
forth all the regiments Of primroses, fox
gloves, daffodils. hyacinths and lilies which
pitch their tents of beauty and kindle their
camp fires Of color all around the hemi-
sphere: that that Christ and that God know
the most minute affairs Of your business life,
and, however inconsiderable, understanding
| all the affairs of that woman who keeps
thread and needle store as we'll as all the af-
fairs of Rothschiid and Stewart.
Then there are all the ordinary farmers.
We talk about agricultural life, and we i'm
mediately shoot off to talk about Cincin-
natus, the patrician, who went from the plow
to high position, and after he got through
the dictatorship In twenty-one days went
back again to the plow. What encourage
ment Is that to ordinary farmers? The vast
majority of them, none Of them, will be pa
trlcians. Perhaps none OF them will be Sem
ators. If any of them have relationships, 1t
old homestead. What those men want Is
grace to keep their patience while plow.
ing with balky oxen and to keep cheerful
amid the drought that destroys the corn crop
and that enables them to restore the garden
the day after the neighbor's cattle have
broken in and trampled out the strawberry
bed and gone through the lima bean patch
and eaten up the sweet corn in such large
quantities that they must be kept from the
water lest they swell up and die; grace in
catching weather that enables them without
imprecation to spread out the hay the third
time, although again and again and again 1t
has been almost ready for the NOV; grace
to doctor the cow with hollow born. and
the sheep with the footrot, and the horse
with the distemper, and to compel the un-
willing acres to yield a livelihood for the
family, and schooling for the children, and
little extras to help the older boy in business,
and something for the daughters wedding
outfit, and little surplus for the time when
the ankles will get stiff with age and the
breath will be little short, and the swing
field will bring on the old mans vertigo.
Better close up about Cincinnatus. I know
500 farmers Just as noble as he was.
What they want Is to know that they have
the friendship Of that Christ who often drew
His SMILES from the farmers life, as when
He said, "a sower went forth to SOW" as
when He built His best parable out Of the
scene of farmers boy coming back from
his wanderings, and the old farmhouse shook
that night with rural jubilee. and who COM
pared Himself to lamb in the pasture field,
declaring. "My Father Is the husbandman."
Come. now, let US have religion for Or
dinary people in professions, In occupations,
in agriculture, in the household, IN mer-
chandise, in everything. salute across the
centuries Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas,
Patrobas, Hernes, Philologus and Julia.
Take the few extraordinary railroad men
OF our time and see what abuse comes upon
them while thousands Of stockholders escape.
A -. l. g. Go1& De-,
dent Of the Pennsylvania Railroad, abused
him until he got under the ground. Thou
sands Of stockholders in that company. All
the blame on one man. The Central Pacific
Railroad. Two or three men get all the
blame if anything goes wrong. There are
10000 in that company,
+ mention these things to prove 1t Is ex-
traordinary people who get abused while
the ordinary escape. The weather OF life is
not so severe on the plain as 1t is on the high
peaks. The world never forgives man
who knows or gains or does more than It can
know or gain or do. Parents sometimes
give confectionery to the children as an in
ducement to take bitter medicine, and the
worlds sugar plum precedes the worlds
aqua fortis. The mob cried In regard to
Christ "Crucify Him, cruelty Him"
and they had to say 1t twice to be un-
derstood, for they were 30 hoarse, and they
got their hoarseness by crying little while
before at the top Of their voice, "Hosanna!"
The river Rhone Is foul when 1t enters Lake
Leman, but crystalline when 1t comes out on
the other side. But there are men who have
entered the bright lake Of worldly prosperity
crystalline and came out terribly riled. II,
therefore, you feel that you are ordinary,
thank God for the defenses and the tram
guilty of your position
Then remember, If you have only what is
called an ordinary home, that the great de-
lirerers Of the world have all come from such
Il home. And there may be seated reading
at your evening stand child who shall be
potent for the ages. Just unsoll the scroll
of men mighty in church and state, and
you will find they nearly all come from log
cabin or poor homes. Genius almost al
ways runs out in the third or fourth
generation. You cannot find in all his
tory an instance where the fourth gen.
Grafton OF extraordinary people amount to
anything. Columbus from weaver's hut,
Demosthenes from cutters cellar, Bloom
fled and Missionary Carey from shoemaker's
bench, Arkwright from barber's shop, and
He whose name IS high over all in eurth and
air and sky from manger.
Let us all be content with such things as
we have. Col is just as good in what He
keeps away from us as in what He gives US.
Even a knot may be useful If it is at the end
of u thread. !
At TN anniversary Of Il deaf and dumb asy-
lum one OF the children wrote upon the
blackboard words as sublime rs the 'Iliad,"
the odyssey and the "Divina Commedia"
all compressed in one paragraph. The ex-
aniner, in signs of the mute language,
asked her, "Who made the world?" The
deaf anil dunn Girl wrote II non tha hlark-