The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1895-02-06

crumhle! The time has already come when
the United States Government and Great
Britain and Germany ought to intome the
indignation OF all civilized Nations. While
It Is not requisite that arms be sent there to
avenge the wholesale massacre OF Armen-
isns, 1t is requisite that by cable unde. the
seas, and by protest that shall thrill the
wires from Washington and London and
Berlin to Constantinople. the Nations an
athematizs the diabolism for which the Sui
tan of Turkey Is responsible. Mohammedan-
Ism Is a curse whether In Turkey or New
York. ''Tney shall come from the East"
And they will come at the Gail oil the love-
liest and grandest and hest men and women
OF all time. I mean the missionaries. Dis
solute Americans and Englishmen who have
gone to Calcutta and Bombay and Canton to
make their fortunes defame the missionaries
because the holy lives and the pure house.
holds of those missionaries are a constant re-
buke to the American and English ibertines
stopping there, but the men and women Of
God there stationed 20 on gloriously with
their work. People just as good and sell
denying as was Missionary Moffat, who,
when asked to write in an album, wrote
these words:
Ny album is in savage breasts,
Where passion reigns and darkness rests
Without one ray Of light.
To write the name Of Jesus there,
To point to worlds both bright and fair.
And see the pagan bow in prayer,
Is all my souls delight.
In all those regions are men and women
with the conservation OF Melville B. Cox,
who, embarklng for the missionary work In
Africa, said to fellow student, "If I die in
Africa, come and write my eptaph." "What
shall write for your epitaph?" said the
student. "Nrite," said he, "these words:
"Let thousand fall before Africa be given
up"
There ls another point OF the compass that
my text includes. "They shall come from
the West" That means America redeemed.
Everything between Atlantic and Pacific
holiness and rapture. Will 1t be done by
worldly reform or evangelism Will it be
law or gospel? I an glad that wave of
reform has swept across this land, and all
the cities are feeling the advantage Of the
mighty movement. Let the good work 20
on until the last municipal evil is .ex-
tirpated. About fifteen years ago the dis
tinguished editor of q New York daily
newspaper said to me in his editorial
room: "You ministers talk about evils of
which you know nothing. Why don't you
20 with the officers of the law and explore
for yourself, 80 that when you preach against
sin you can speak from what you have seen
with your own eyes2" said, 81 WILL" and
In company with commissioner Of police
and captain ofpollce and two elders OF my
church explored the dens and hiding places
OF all styles of crime In New York and
preached series Of sermons warning young
men and setting forth the work that must be
done lest the judgments OF God whalm this
city with more awful submergement than the
volcanic deluge that buried Herculaneum
d. ~asf r1x
remember, several hundred columns OF news
paper abuse for undertaking that e1plora-
tion. Editorials Of denunciation, double
loaded, and with captions in great primer
type, entitled "The Fall OF Tslmage," or
''Talmage Makes the Mistake Of His Life"
or "Down With Talmage," but I still live
and am in full sympathy with all movements
for municipal publication.
But a movement which ends with crime
exposed and law executed stops half way.
Nay, 1t stops long before It gets half wsy.
The law never yet saved anybody, never yet
changed anybody. Break up ali the houses
OF iniquity in this city, and you Only send
the occupants to other cities. Break down
all the policemen In New York, and while It
changes their worldly fortunes It does not
change their heart or life. The greatest
want In New York to-day is the transform
ing power Of the gospel Of Jesus Christ to
change tho heart and the life and upnft the
tone Of moral sentiment and make men do
right not because they are afraid Of Ludlow
Street Jail or Sing Sing, but because they
never heard, nor have you heard, OF any
thing except the gospelthat proposes to re-
generate the heart, and by the influence of
that regenerared heart rectify the life. Ex-
ecute the law most certainly, but preach the
gospel by all means In churches, In theatres,
In homes, In prisons, on the land and on the
sea. The gospel Is the only power that can
revolutionize society and save the world. All
else Is half and half work and will not last.
In New York 1t has allowed men who got by
police bribery their thousands and tens OF
thousands and perhaps hundreds of thou
sands OF dollars to go scot free, while some
who were merely the cats paw and agents OF
bribery are struck with the lightnings Of the
law. It reminds me Of scene In Philadel-
phia when was living there. A poor wo-
man had been arrested and tried and i'm
prisoned for selling molasses candy on Sun
day. Other lawbreakers had been allowed
to go undisturbed, and the grogshops were
open on the Lords Day, and the law, with
its hands behind its back, walked up and
down the streets declining to molest many
Of the offenders, but we all rose up In our
righteous indignation, and calling uDon all
powers, visible and invisible, to help Us, we
declared that though the heavens fell no wo-
man should be allowed to sell molasses
candy on Sunday.
A few weeks ago, after had preached In
one OF the churches in this city, a man
staggered up on the pulpit stairs. maudlin
drunk. saying, 81 am one of the reformers
that were elected to high of1co at the last
election" got rid OF that '.great reformer"
as soon as could. but did not get rid OF
the impression that a man like that would
cure the denominations OF New York about as
soon as smallpox would cure typhoid fever
or buzzsaw render Haydn's "Creation."
Politics in all our cities has become so cor
rupt that the only difference between the
Republican and Democratic parties is that
each Is worse chan the other. But what
nothing else In the universe can do the gos-
pei can and will accomplish. ''They snail
come from the West" aud for that purpose
the eyangelistic batteries are planted all
along the Pacific coast, as they ara planted
all along the Atlantic coast. All the prai-
rles, all the mountains. all the valleys, all
the cities are under more or less gospel in
duence. and when we get enough faith and
consecretion for the work this whole Ameri-
can continent will cry out for God. "They
shall come from the West"
The work is not so difficulty as many sup
pose. You say, "There are the foreign pop
ulations." Yes, but many Of them are Hol-
anders, and they were brought up to love
and worship GOD, and 1t will take but little
to persuade the Hollanders to adopt the re-
ligion OF their forefathers. Then there are
among these foreigners 80 many of the
Scotch. They or their ancestors heard
Thomas Chalmers thunder anil Robert Nc
Cheyne pray. Tho breath or God 30 often
swept through the heather o: tho hghIands.
and the voice of God mas 50 often sounded
through the Trossachs. ald they all know
bow to sing Dundee, so that they will no,
have often to bo invited to accept the God OF
John Knox and Boutwell, Bridge.