The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-03-04
But, ] remark again, the people vii,

but, remark again. Tue people VIII
gather around Christ as a sympathi-
zer. On. we all want sympathy. I
hear people talk as though they were
Independent! Of it. Noue Of US could
live without sympathy. When parts
OF our family are away, how lonely
the house seems until they
all get home, But, alas. for
those who never come home.
Sometimes it seems as if II must be
impossible. What, Will their feet
never again come over the threshold! !
VIII they never again sit with us at
the table? Will they never again kneel
with US at family prayer Shall We
never again look into thelt sunny
faces? Shall we never again on eartn
take counsel with them for our work:
Alas me, who can stand under these
griefs. Oh, Christ, thou canst 90
more for bereft soul than any one
else. It is he who stands beside US 10
tel of the resurrection. II IS he that
came TO bid peace 1t is he that comes
10 US and breathes into US the spirit OF
submission until we can look up from
the wreck and ruin Of our brightest
expectations and say, Father, not my
will. but thine, be done Oh, ye who
are bereft, yeanguish bitten. come into
this refuge. The roll Of those who came
for relief 10 Christ is larger and larger.
Unto this Shiloh Of omnipctent SYM
pathy the gathering Of the people
Shall be. .Oh, thatChrist would stand
by all these empty cradles, and all
these desolated homesteadS, and all
these broken hearts, and persuade US
it is veil.
The world cannot offer you any help
at such a time. Suppose the world
comes and offers you money. You
would rather live O., a crustin cellar
and have your departed loved ones
with you than live in pala;ial sur
rouudings and they away. Suppose
the world offers you its honors to con-
sole you. What is the presidency to
Abraham Lincoln when little Willie,
lies dead in the White House? PEI
haps the world comes and sSSs, Time
will cure it all" Ah~>tnere are griefs
that have raged1n for 80 years and
are rasiGS-yet. And yet hundreds
have been comforted, thousands have
been comforted, millions have been
comforted. and Christ had done the
work. Oh, what you want is sympa-
thy. The worlds heart of sympathy
beats very irregularly. Plenty OF
sympathy when we do not want 1t,
and often, when we are in appalling
need of it, no sympathy. There are
multitudes of people dying for sympa-
thy-sympathay in their work, sympa-
thy in their fatigues, sympathy in
their bereavements, sympathy IN their
financial losses, sympathy in their
physical ailments, sympathy IN their
spiritual anxieties, sympathy IN the
time of declining years-wide, deep,
high. everlasting, almighty sympathy
We must have it, and Christ gives It.
That is the cord with which he IS 60
ing to draw ali nations to him.
At the story of punishment mans
eye flashes and his teeth set and his
fist cinches, and he prepares to do bat
tie even though it be against the heav-
ems; yet what heart so hard but it will
succumb to the story of compassion. @.
Even a mans sympathy is pleasant
and helpful. When we have been in
some hour of weakness, to have a
brawny man stand beside Us and
promise to seeus through-what cour.
age it gives to our heart and what
strength it gives to our arm. Still
mightier is woman's sympathy. Let
him tell the story, who, when all his
fortunes were gone and all the world
was against him came home and found
in that home wife who could write
on the top OF the empty -four barrel,
THE Lord will provide" " or write on
the door of the empty wardrobe, Con
slider the lilies of the field; if God so
clothed the grass of the field, will he
not clothe US and ours2" Or let that
young man tell the story who has
gone the whole round Of dissipation.
The shadow of the penitentiary isupon
him, and even his father says: BE
off. Never come home again" The
young man finds still his mothers arm
outstretched for him, and how she will
stand at the wicket of the prison to
whisper consolation, or get down on
her knees before the governor, begging
for pardon, hoping on for her way
ward boy after all others are hopeless.
Or let her tell the story who, under
villainous allurement and impatient
of parental restraint, has wandered off
from home of which she was the idol
into the nlurky and thunderous mid
night Of abandonment, away from
God, and further away, until some
time she is tossed on the beach of that
early homea mere splinter Of a wreck:
Who will pity her now? Who will
gather these dishonored locks into her
lap? Who will wash off the blood
from the gashed forehead2 Who will
tell her of that ChGist who came to
save the lost? Who will put that
weary head upon the clean white pill
low and watch by day and watch by
night until the hoarse voice of the SUI
ferer becomes the whisper, and the
whisper becomes only faint motion
of the lips, and the faint motion of the
lips is exchanged for silent look,
and the cut feet are still, and the weary
eyes are still, and the frenzied heart
is still. and all isstill2 Who will have
compassion on her when no others
have compassion2 Mother! Mother,
Oh, there is something beautiful in
sympathy-in manly sympathy, wife
" sympathy, motherly sympathy; yea
and neighborly sympathy Why was
it that city was aroused with excite
ment when little child was kidnapped
from one of the streets? Why We're
whole columns of the newspapers I'LL
ed with the story of little childa 1t
was because we are all one in symps-
thy, and every parent said; How If
it had been my Lizzie2 How if it had
been my Mary? How if it had been
nv Naud2 How if it had been my