The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1895-05-01

al
cents to keep you from the gallows.
You are debauched. Get out of my
sight now. Down You will have to
stay down" And thus those bruised
and battered men are sometimes ac-
costed by those who ought to to lit
them up. Thus the last vestige of
hope is taken from them. Thus those
who ought to 60 and lift and save
them are guilty of stripping the slain.
The point l want to make is this:
Sin is hard, cruel and merciless. In
stead of helping man up it helps him
down, and when. like Saul and his
comrades, you lie on the field, it will
come and steal your sword and helmet
and shield, leaving you to the jackal
and crow.
But the world and satan do not do
all their work with the outcast and
abandoned. A respectable impenitent
man comes to die. He is flat on his
back. He could not get up if the mouse
was on fire. Adroitest medical skill
and gentlest nursing have been fail
ure. He has come to his last hour.
What does satan do for such a man?
Why. he fetches up all the inapt, dis
agreeable and narrowing things in his
life. He says: do you remember
those chances you had for heaven and
missed them. Do you remember all
those lapses in conduct2 Do you re-
member all those opprobrious words
and thoughts and actions? Don't re-
member them, eh? I'll make you re-
member them" And then he takes all
the past and empties it on that death
bed as the mail bags are emptied on the
postoffice floor. The man is sick. He
cannot get away from them.
Then the man says 10 satan: You
have deceived me. You told me that
all would be well. You said there
would be no trouble at the last. You
told me if did so and so you would
do so and so. Now you corner me and
hedge me up, and submerge me in ev.
erything evil" ''Ha, ha.m says satan.
Il was only fooling you. It is mirth
for me to see you suffer. I have been
for 80 years plotting to get you just
where you are. 1t is hard for you now.
It will be worse for you after awhile
1t pleases me. Lie still, sir. Don't
finch or shudder. Come, now, l will
tear off from you the last rag of expec-
tation. I will rend away from your
soul the last hope. I will leave you
bare for the beating Of the storm It
is my business to strip the slain"
While men are in robust health, and
their digestion is good, and their nerves
are strong, they think their physical
strength will get them safely through
the last exigency. They say it is only
cowardly women who are afraid al
the last and cry out for God. ''Wait
till 1 come to die, will show you.
You won't hear me pray, nor call for a
minister, nor want a chapter read me
from the Bible" But after the man
has been three weeks in sick roomhis
nerves are not so steady, and his
worldly companions are not anywhere
near to cheer MIN up, and he is per
suaded that he must quit life. His
physical courage is all gone.
He jumps at the fall of teaspoon in
a saucer. He shivers at the idea of
going away. He says: Wife, l don't
think my infdelity is going to take
me through. For Gods sake, don't
bring up the children to do as I have
done. If you feel like it, wish you
would read verse or two out of Fan
MES Sabbath school hynnbook OF
New Testament. But satan breaks in
and says: you have always thought
religion trash and lie. Don't give
up at the last. Besides that you cannot
in the hour you have to live get off on
that track. Die as you lived. With
my great black wings I shut out that
light. Die in darkness rend away
from you that last vestige of nope. II
is my business to strip the slain.
A man who had rejected Christian.
ty and thought it all trash car1e to die.
He was in the sweat of a great agony,
and his wife said, 1--WE had better have
some prayer" MARY, not breath
of that" he said. 1.-The lightest word
of prayer would roll back on me like
rocks on drowning man. I have
come to the hour of test. I had 9
chance, but I forfeited it. l believed
in a liar, and he has left me in the
lurch. Mary, bring me Tom Paine,
that book that I lived by and swore by
and pitch it into the fire, and let il
burn as l myself shall soon burn.
And then with the foam on his lip and
his hands tossing wildly in the air, he
cried out "Blackness of darkness! Oh
my God, too late..' And the spirits OF
darkness whistled up from the depth
and wheeled around him, stripping
the slain.
Sin is luxury now. 1t is exhilia-
ration now. 1t is victory now.
But after awhile it is collision.
1t is defeat. It is externina-
ton. It's jackalism. 1t is robblng
the dead. 1t is stripping the slain.
Give it up today-give itup. Oh, bow
you have been cheated on my brother,
from one thing to another. All these
years you have been under an evil
mastery that you understand not.
What have your companions done for
you? What have they done for your
health? Nearly ruined it by carousal.
What have they done for your fortune
Almost scattered it by spendthrift be-
havior. What have they done for
your reputation: Almost ruined it
with good men. What have they done
for your immortal soul! Almost in
sured its overthrow.
You are fastening on toward the
consummation ofall thatis sad. Today
you stop and think, but it is only for
moment, and then you will tramp
on, and at the close Of this service you
will 60 out. and the question will be.
How did you like the sermon" And
one man will say, L liked it very
well, "and another man will say, Il
didn't like it at all, +" but neither of the
answers will touch the tremendous
fact, that, if impenitent, you are going