The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-02-19

and east and west. Hear and see it,
all people-this call to a forward
movement. this call to repentance and
faith, this call to a continental awak-
ening!
This generation will soon be out of
sight. Where are the mighty men of
the past who trod your Pennsylvania
avenue and spake in yonder national
legislature and decided the stupendous
questions of the supreme judiciary
Ask the sleepers in the Congressional
cemetery. Ask the mausoleums all
over the land. Their tongues are
speechless, their eyes closed, their
arms folded, their opportunities gone,
their destiny fixed. How soon time
prorogues parliaments, and adjourns
senates, and disbands cabinets, and
empties pulpits, and dismisses genera.
tions! What we must do we must do
quickly or not do at all. I call upon
people who cannot come forth from
their sickbeds to implore the heavens
in our behalf from their midnight pill
lows, and I call upon the aged who
cannot, even by the help of their staff,
enter the churches to spend their last
days on earth in supplicating the sal,
vation of this nation, and I call upon
all men and women who have been IN
furnaces of trouble, as was Shadrach.
and among lions, as was Daniel, and
in dungeons of trouble, as was Jere-
miah, to join in the prayer, and let the
church of God everywhere lay hold
of the Almighty arm that moves ma
tions.
Then senators of the United States
will announce to the state legislatures
that sent them here, and members of
the house of representatives will re-
port to the congressional districts that
elected them, and the many thousands
of men and women now and here en-
gagged in the many departments of
national service will write home, tell
ing all sections of the country that the
Lord is here, and that he is on the
march for the redemption of America.
Halleluiah, the Lord is coming! I
hear the rumbling of his chariot
wheels. I feel on my cheeks the Vic
tor! I see the flash of his lanterns
through the long night of the worlds
sin and sorrow!
We want in this country, only on a
larger scale. that which other centu-
ries have seen of Gods workings, as in
the reformation of the sixteenth cen.
tury, when Martin Luther and Philip
Melanchthon led on; as in the awak-
ening of the seventeenth century,
when Bunyan and Flavel and Baxter
led on; as in the-awakening cf the
eighteenth century, when Tenant
and Edwards and the Wesleys led on
as in the awakening of 1857, led on by
Matthew Simpson, the seraphic Meth
odist, and Bishop MacIlvaine, the
Apostolic Episcopalian, and Albert
Barnes, the consecrated Presbyterian,
and others, just as good, in all de.
nominations. Oh, will not some of
those glorious souls of the past come
down and help us2 Come down off
your thrones, Nettleton and Finney
and Daniel Baker and Edward Payson
and Truman Osborne and Earle and
Knapp and Inskip and Archibald AL
exander that Alexander the Great Of
the Christian churches. Come down !!
How can you rest up there when the
world is dying for lack of the gospel
Come down and agonize with us in
prayer. Come down and help us
preach in our pulpits. Come down
and inspire our courage and faith.
Heaven can get along without you
better than we can. But more than
all-aad overwhelmed with reverent
motion we ask it-come. thou of the
deeply dyed garments of Bozrah, tray
cling in the greatness of the strength,
mighty to save! Lord God of Joshua
Let the sun of this century stand still
above Gideon and the moon above the
valley of Ajalon until we can whip
out the five kings of hell, tumbliug
down the precipices as the other five
kings went over the rocks of Bethho-
rom. Ha, ha! It will so surely be
done that I cannot restrain the laugh
of triumph.
From where the seaweed is tossed on
the beach by the stormy Atlantic to
the sands laved by the quiet Pacific,
this country will be EmanuePs land,
the work beginning at Washington,
if we have the faith and holy push and
the conservation requisite. First OF
all, we ministers must get right. That
was startling utterance of Mr.. Swim
mock when he said, 1T is a doleful
thing to fall into hell from under the
pulpit; but oh, how dreadful thing
to drop thither out of the pulpit. u
That was an all suggestive thing that
Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "Lest
that by any means, when [ have
preached to others, myself should be
a castaway." That was an inspiring
motto with which Whitefeld sealed
all his letters, 1--WE seek the stars.
Lord God! Wake up all our pulpits,
and then it will be when Venn preach
ed, and it was said that men fell be-
fore the word like Stacked lime.
Let us all, laymen and clergymen,
to the work. What Washington
wants most of all is an old fashion
ed revival of religion, but on a vaster
scale, so that the world will be com,
PEELED to say, as of old, I'VE never
saw it on this fashion" :" But remem-
Der there is q human side as we'll as a
divine side to revival. Those of us
brought up in the country know what
is called "a raising"-the neighbors
gathered together to lift the
heavy frame for new house after the
timbers are ready to be put into their