The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-06-24
that we can touch?

OltLerSQ DE ny SperCflllClSli, lHlOiLlcltu
by poverty, imbittered by injustic, inn
bittered by sin. Why not 90 forth
and sweeten them by smiles, by IN
spring words by benefactions, by
hearty counsel, by prayer, by gospll
lied behaviour Let US remembe that
if we are wcrmwood to others we are
wormwood to ourselves, and our life
will be bitter and our eternity btterer.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the on
ly sweetening power that Is sufficient.
It sweetns the disposition. Itsweet-
ems the manners. It sweetens life.
1t Sweetens mysterious providences.
1t sweeteus atiiictions 1t sweetens
death. 1t sweetens everything. |
have heard people asked in social com
pany, IF you could have three wish
es gratifed, what would your thlee
wishes be-" If conld have three
wishes met this morning, tell you
what they would be: First. more of
the grace of God; second, more of the
grace Of God third, more Of the grace
of God.
In the dooryard of my brother John,
missionary in Annoy, China, there was
tree called the emperor tree, the
two characteristics of which are that it
always grows higher than is sur
roundipgs, and its leaves take the
form of a crown. If this emperor
tree be planted by rosebusn, it grows
a little higher than the bush and
spreads out above it a crown. If it be
planted by the side of another tree, it
grows little higher than that tree
and spreads above it crown. Would
to G cd that this religion Of Christ,
| more wonderful emperor tree, might
overshadow all your lives. Are you
lowly in ambition or circumstances,
putting over you its crown2 Are you
high in talent and position, putting
over you its crown? Oh, for more Of
the saccharine in our lives and less Of
the wormwood,
What IS true Of individuals is true
of nations. God sets them up to re-
volve as stars, but they may fall worm
| wood.
Tyre, the atmosphere OF the desert,
fragrant with spices, coming in cara
vans to her fairs; all seas cleft into
foam by the keels of her laden mer-
chantmen, her markets rich with
horses and camels from Togarmah, her
bazaars filed with upholstery from
Dedan, with emerald and coral and
agate from Syria, with wines from
Helbon, with embroidered work from
| Ashur and Chilmad-Where now the
CLEAN Of her towers, where the roar
of her charlots, where the masts of
her ships, Let the fishermen who
dry their nets where once she stood :;
let the sea that rushes upon the bar
renness where once she challenged the
/ admiration of all nations; let the bar
barians who set their rude tents where
once her palaces glittered-answer the
question. She was star, but by her
| own sin turned 10 wormwood and has
fallen.
Hundred gated Thebes, for all time
to be the study OF the antiquarian and
hieroglyphist; her stupendous ruins
spread over 81 miles: her sculptures
presenting in figures Of warrior and
chariot the victories with which the
now forgotten kings of Egypt shook
the nations; her obelisksand columns;
Carnac and Luxor, the stupendous
temples of her rrideI Who can imag-
inc the gaeatness of Thebes in those
days when the hippodrome rang with
her sports and foreign royalty bowed
at her shrines and her avenues roared
with the wheels of professions in the
wake of returning conquerors2 What
dashed down the vision of chariots
and temples and thrones What
hands pulled upon the columns of her
glory? What ruthlessness defaced her
sculptured wall and broke obelisks and
left her indescribable temples great
skeletons of grantee What spirpit of
destruction spread the lair of wild
beasts il her royal sepulchers and
taught the> miserable cottagers of to-
day tobuild huts in the courts of her
temples and sent desolation and ruin
skulking behind the obelisks and
lodging among the sarcophagi and
leaning against the columns and
STOPPING under the arches and weep
ing in the waters which 60 mournful-
ly by as though they were carrying
the tears of all ages: Let the mum
mics break their long silence and come
up to shiver IN the desolation and
point to fallen gates and shattered
statutes and defaced sculpture, res
ponding. Thebes built not one tenn
pie to God. Thebes hated righteous
ness and loved sin. Thebes was a
star, but she turned to worm wood and
has fallen"
Babylon, with her $50 towers and
her brazen gates and her embatiled
walls, the splendor of the earth gath
cred within her palaces, her hanging
gardens built by Nebuchadnezzar to
please his bride, Amytis, who had
been brought up in mountainous
country and could not endure the flat
country round Babylon-these hang
ing gardens built, terrace above ter.
race, till at the height of 400 feet there
were woods waving and fountains
playing, the verdure, the foliage, the
glory looking as if mountain were
on the wing. On the tiptop a king
walking with his queen, among stat.
utes snowy white. looking up at birds
brought from distant lands, and drink
ing out of tankards of solid gold or
looking off over rivers and lakes upon
nations subdued and tributary, crying,
rs not this great Babylon which |
have built:'
What battering ram smotethe walls.
What plowshare upturned the gard
ems? What army shattered the brazen
gates? What long, fierce blast of
storm put out this light which illumin-
ed the world? What crash of discord
drove down the music that poured
from palace window and garden grove
and called the banqueters to their
revel and the dancers TO their feet. |
walk upon the scene OF desolation to
find an answer and pick up pieces of
bitumen and brick and broken potte