The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-03-04

ence." You. notice that nearly all the
sinners mentioned as pardoned in the
Bible were great sinners-David a
great sinner, Paul great sinner,
Rahab a great sinner, Magdalene q
great sinner, the Prodigal Son great
sinner. The world easily understood
how Christ could pardon half and
half sinner, but what the world wants
to be persuaded of is that Christ will
forgive the worst sinner, the hardest
sinner, the oldest sinner, the most in
excusable sinner. To the sin pardon
ing Shiloh let ali the gathering OF the
people be.
But, I remark again, the people will
gather around Christ as svmpathi.
zer. Oh, we all want sympathy.
hear people talk as though they were
independent of it. None 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 it must be
impossible. What, will their feet
never again come over the threshold?
Will they never again sit with us at
the tableF Will they never again kneel
with us at family prayer? Shall we
never again look into thelt sunny
faces? Shall we never again on earth
take counsel with them for our work?
Alas me. who can stand under these
griefs. Oh, Christ, thou canst do
more for bereft soul than any one
else. 1t is he who stands beside us to
tell of the resurrection. 1t is he that
came to bid peace. 1t is he that comes
to 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, ye anguish bitten. come into
this refuge. The roll of those who came
for relief to Christ is larger and larger.
Unto this Shiloh of omnipotent SYM
pathy the gathering Of the people
shall be. Oh, that,Christ would stand
by all these empty cradles, and all
these desoIated homesteads, and all
these broken hearts, and persuade us
it is we'll.
The world cannot offer you any help
at such time. Suppose the world
comes and offers you money. You
would rather live on a crustin cellar
and have your departed loved ones
with you than live in palatial sur
roundings 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 House9 Per.
haps the world comes and says, "Time
will cure it all." All, there are griefs
that have ragged on for 80 years and
are raging 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 it,
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 all nations to him.
At the story of punishment a mans
eye flashes and his teeth set and his
fist clinches, 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 see us through-what cour-
age it gives to our heart and what
strength it gives to our arm. Still
mightier is a 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 a wife who could write
on the top OF the empty flour barrel,
1.-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 is upon
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 home mere splinter of wreck.
Who will pity her MOVIE Who will
gather these dishonored locks into her
lap2 Who will wash off the blood
from the gashed forehead2 Who will
tell her of that Christ 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 suf-