The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1895-09-04

goes with his mother 9 consent anu uonouiS
tior. She has large wealth, but he wants 10
make his own fortune. He goes lar away.
falls sick. gets out of money, He sends Tor
the hotel keeper where he is staying, asking
for lenience. and the answer he gets IS, II
you don't pay up Saturday night, youll De
removed to the hospital"
The Young man sends to a comrade In the
same building. No help. He writes 70
banker who was friend OF his deceased
father. No relief. He writes to an old
schoolmate, but gets no help. saturday
night comes. and he is moved tothe nosPltaI:
Getting there, no is frenzied with grlet'
and he borrows sheet of paper and post
age stamp, and he sits down, and he writes
home, saving: "Dear mother, am sick un-
to death. Come" 1t is ten minutes OF ~
o'clock when she gets the letter. AT III
o'clock the train starts. She is five minutes
from the depot. She gets there IN time TO
have five minutes to spare. She wonders
why train that can go thirty miles an hour
cannot 60 sixty miles an hour. She rushes
into the hospital. She says: ''My son, what
does ali this mean? Why didn't you send for
me? You sent to everybody but me. You
knew could and would help you. Is this
the reward I get for my kindness to you al
ways?" She bundles him up, takes him
home and gets him we'll very soon. Now,
some of you treat God just as that young
man treated his mother. When you get into
financial perplexity, you call on the BAN
ker. you call on the broker. you call on your
creditors. you call on your lawyer Tor lega'
counsel; you call upon everybody, and when
YOU cannot get any help. then you go to God.
You say: 90. Lord, come to Thee. Help
me now out Of my perplexity." And the Lord
comes, though it is the eleventh hour. he
saws: "Why did you not send for Me before!
Again, it is the usa Of trouble to capacl-
tate us for the Office OF sympathy Inc
priests, under the old dispensation, were set
apart BY having water sprinkled upon their
hands, feet and head and by the sprlnHllnS
of tears people are now set apart to the once
of sympathy. When we are in prosperity we
like to have q great many young people
around us, and we laugh when they laugh,
and we ro1np when they romp, and we sing
when they sing; but when we have trouble
we like plenty OF old folks around. Why:
They know how to talk.
Take an aged mother, seventy years OF age,
and she is almost omnipotent in comfort:
Why? She has been through 1t all. AT
o'clock in the morning she goes over
to comfort young mother who has Just lost
her babe. Grandmother knows all about
that trouble. Fifty years ago she felt 1t. AT
II o'clock of that day she goes over to COM
fort widowed soul. She knows all about
valley twenty years. At 4 o'clock In the
afternoon some one knocks at .he door.
wanting bread. She knows all about that.
Two or three times in her life she came to
her last loaf. At 10 o'clock that night she
goes over to sit up with some ono severely
sick. She knows all about it. She knows
all about fevers and pleurisies and broken
bones. She has been doctoring all her life,
spreading plasters and pouring out bitter
drops and shaking up hot pillows and con-
irving things to tempt poor appetite;
Drs. Abernethy and Rush and Hosack and
Harvey were great doctors, but the greatest
doctor the world ever saw is an old Christian
woman. Dear me! Do we not remember
her about the room when we were sick in
our boyhood2 Was there any one who
could ever so touch a sore without hurting
it?
Where did Paul get the ink with which to
to write his comforting epistle? Where did
David get the ink to write his comforting
Psalmsp Where did John get the Ink to
write his comforting Revelations? They gor
it out of their own tears. When man has
gone through the curriculum and has taken
q course Of dungeons and imprisonments
and shipwrecks, he is qualified for the work
Of sympathy.
When I began to preach, my sermons on
the subject of trouble we're all poetic and IN
semi blank verse, but God knocked the blank
verse out Of me long ago and have found
out that cannot comfort people except as L
myself have been troubled. God make me
the son of consolation to the people! l
would rather be the means OF soothing one
perturbed spirit to-day than to play tune
that would set all the sons of mirth reeling
in the dance.
lam all herb doctor. I put into the cal
ha nf Ornnnd wlthOnt
form or comeliness. Then I put in the rose
of Sharon and the lily OF the valley. Then
I put into the caldron some OF the leaves
from the tree of life and the branch that was
thrown into the wilderness Marah. Then
pour in the tears of Bethany ana Golgotha;
then stir them up. Then I kind.e under
the caldron fire made out OF the wood OF
the cross, and one drop Of that portion will
cure the worst sickness that ever afflicted
human soul. Mary and Martha shall receive
their Lazarus from the tomb. The damsels
shall rise. And on the darkness shall break
the morning and God will wipe all tears
from their eyes.
Jesus had enough trial to make Him SYM
pathetic with all trial. The shortest verse
in the Bible tells the story, 'Jesus wept."
The scar on the back OF His either hand, the
scar on the arch of either foot, the row OF
scars along the line of the hair, will keep all
heaven thinking. Oh, that Great Weeper is
Just the one to silence all earthly trouble,
wipe out all stains Of earthly griel. Gentle!
Why, His step is softer than the step of the
dew. II will not be tyrant bidding you to
hush up your crying. 1t will be father
who will take you on His left arm, His face
oeaming into yours, while with the soft tips
Of the fingers Of the right hand He shall wipe
away all tears from your eyes.
Friends, II we could get any appreciation
| Of what God has in reserve for Us, 1t would
make us 80 homesick We would be unfit for
our everyday work. Professor Leonard,
formerly Of Iowa University, put in my hand
a meteoric stone thrown of from some 9TH
| er world to this. How suggestive it was
to me! And I have to tell you the best rep
reservations we have of heaven are only
aerolites flung off from that world which
rolls on bearing the multitudes OF the re-
deemed. We analyze these aerolites and
! find them crystallizations Of tears. No Won
der, flung off from heaven! "God shall
wipe away all tears from their eyes,
Have you any appreciation OF the good and
glorious times your friends are having in
heaven? How different it is when they get
news there of a Christians death from what
| it is here! It is the difference between en-
barkation and coming into port. Everything
depends upon which side Of the river you
stand when you hear OF a Christians death.
If you stand on this side Of the river, you
mourn that they 90. If you stand on the
other side of the river, you rejoice that they
come. On the difference between funeral
on earth and jubilee in heaven-betwcen
requiem here and triumph there-parting
here and reunion there! Together! Have
you thought of it2 They are together. Not
one of your departed friends in one land and
another in another land, but together, In diff
ferent rooms Of the same houoe-the house
of many mansions. Together!
never more appreciated that thought
tina when we laid away in her Inst slumber
my sister Sarah. Standing there in the vii