The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1895-04-03

Ills Knees III tllc privacy Oi HIS OWL
room has had flashed upon him more
vivid appreciation OF the word Of Goo
than many a man who has visited al
the scenes of Christ's birth. and Paul.
eloQuence, aud Peters imprisonment.
and Joshua proweSs, and Elijah $ as
cension. do not depreciatc any OF
the helps for Bible study. but do sa>
that they all together come infinitely
short without 4 direct communication
from the throne OF Goa, III response
to prayerful solicitation. We may
find many interesting things
about the Bible without especial
illumination. as how many horses
Solomon had in his stables. CT how
long was Noaii,s ark, or who was ths
only woman whose full name IS given
in the Scriptures. or which is the m!d,
die verse ofthe Bible, and all that VIII
do YOU no more good than to be able
to tel how many beanpoieS there are
in your neighbors garden.
The learned Earl O. Chathom heard
the famous Mr. Cecil preach about the
Hoiv Gnos: and said to a friend on the
wav home from church, i could not
understand it. and do you suppose
ANYBODY understood it," On. yes,
said his Christian friend. there were
uneducated women and some little
children present who understood it.
l warrant you that the English soldier
had under supernal influence read the
book, for after the battle of Inkerman
was over he was found dead with his
hand glued 10 the page of the open
Bible by his own blood, and the words
adhered to his hands as they buried
him, Il am the resurrection and the
life: he that believeth in HE, though
dead, yet shall he live.
Next consider the Holy Ghost as a
human Reconstruction We must be
made over again. Christ and Nico-
demus talked about it, Theologians
call it regeneration. | do not care
what YOU call it, but we have to be re,
constructed by the Holy Ghost. We
become new creatures, hating what
we once loved and loving what we
once hated. Ifsin were a luxury, it
must become a detestation. If we pre-
ferred bad associations, we must pre-
fer gooo association. In most cases
it is sucn a complete change that the
world notices the difference and begins
to ask: What has come over that
man2 Whom has he been with? What
has so affected him? What has ran
sacked his entire nature! What has
turned him square about" Take two
pictures of Paul-one on the road to
Damascus to kill the disciples of Christ;
the other on the road to Ostia to die
for Christ. Come nearer home and
look at the man who found his chief
delight in a low class of clubrooms,
hiccoughing around the card table and
then stumbling down the front steps
after midnight and staggering home
ward, and that same man one week
afterward with his family on the way
to a prayer meeting. What has done
it, 1t must be something trememend-
Gus. 1t must be God.
Notice the Holy Ghost as the solacer
of broken hearts. Christ calls him
the comforter Nothing does the world
so much want as comfort. The most
of people have been abused, misrepre-
sented, cheated, lied about, swindled,
bereft. What is needed is balsam for
the wounds, lantern for dark roads,
rescue from maigning pursuers, a lift
from the marble slab of tombstones.
Life to most has been semifailure.
They have not got what they wanted.
They have not reached that which
they started for. Friends betray.
Change of business stand loses old Gus
tom and does not bring enough custom
to make up for the loss. Health be-
comes precarious when nemost needs
strong muscle, and steady nerve, and
clear brain. Out of this audience of
thousands and thousands, if should
ask all those who have been unhurt in
the struggle of life to stand up, or all
to hold up their right hand,
not one would move. Oh, how much
we need the Holy Ghost as comforter
He recities the sweet gospel prom
ises to the hardly bestead. He
assures of mercy mingled with the
seventies. He consoles with thoughts
of coming release. He tells Of a heav-
en- where tear is never wept, and bur
den is never carried, and injustice is
never suffered. Comfort for all the
young people who are maltreated at
home, or receive insufficient income,
or robbed of their schooling, or kept
back from positions they have earned
by the putting forward of others less
worthy. Comfort for all these men
and women midway in the path of life
worn out with what they have already
gone through and with 10 Frightening g
future. Comfort for these aged ones
amid many inhrmities and who feel
themselves to be il the way IN the
home or business which themselves
with their own grit.
The Holy Ghost comfort think
generally comes in the shape of a solil-
oquy. You find yourself saying to
yourself: "Well, ought not to 60 on
this way about my mothers death.
She had suffered enough. She had
borne other peoples burdens long
enough. I am glad that father and
mother are together in heaven, and
they will be waiting to greet US, and
it will be only little while anyhow,
and God makes no mistakes, Or you
soiloquize, saying: 1t is hard to lose
my property. l am sure / worked
hard enough for it. But God will
take care Of us, and, as to the children,
the money might have spoiled them,
and we find that those who have to
for themselves geneally turn
out best, and it will all be well if this
upsetting Of our worldly resources
leads US to lay up treasures in heaven"
Or you soliloquize, saying: 1T was
hard to give up that boy when the
Lord took him. l expected great things
of him, and, oh, how we miss him out
Of the house, and there are so many
things I cone across that make one
think of him, and he was such Ia spen-
did fellow. but then what an escape