The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-11-18

tu!.e In the churches is very low, and
most OF tie piety would spoil if it were
not KEEP: on ice. And, taking things
as they are, ordinary Christians will
never reach the point where the out
ccy OF Paul in the text will not seem
extravaganza. The proprieties in most
of the churches are SO fixed that all
Christian IS expected 10 do on Sunday
IS to get up little later in the morn
ing than usual, put on that which is
next to his best attire-not the very
best, for that has to BE- reserved for the
levee- enter the church with stately
sep, bow his head, or at any rate shut
his eyes in prayer time, or close them
enough to look sleepy, turn toward
the pulpit with holy dullness while
the preacher speaks, put cent piece
or if the times be hard l cent piece
on the collection platter, kind OF
showing it down under the other coin
so that it might be, for all that the
usher knows, s. gold piece, and then
after the benedic:ion, go quietly home
to the biggest repast Of all the week.
That is ali the majority Of Christians
are doing for the rectifcation Of this
planet, and they will do that until, at
the close of life, the pastor opens
| black book a. the head of their casket
and reads: Blessed are the dead who
die in the Lord. They rest from their
labors and their works do follow
them" The sense of the ludicrous IS
SO thoroughly developed in me that
when hear these Scripture words
read at the obsequies of one of the re-
ligious do nothings in the churches 1t
is too much for my gravity. Their
works DO follow them What works.
And in what direction do they follow
them-up or down? And 90 they fol-
low on foot or on the wing And how
long will they follow before they
catch up2 More appropriate funeral
text for all such religious dead beats
would be the words in Matthew XIV,
s: "Our lamps are gone out" Oae
would think that such Christians
would show al least under whose ban
ner they are enlisted. La one OF the
Napoleonic wars woman-Jeannette
by name-!ook her position with the
troops and shouldered broomstick.
The colonel said, "Jeannette, why do
you take such useless weapon into
the ranks2" "Weil, she said, Il can
show, at least, which side am on. y
Now, the object OF this sermon is to
stir at least one-fourth Of you to an
ambition for that which my text pre-
sents in blazing vocabulary namely,
a passion for souls. To prove that it is
possible to have much of that spirit, |
bring the conservation of 2, 900 foreign
! missionaries. It is usually estimated
that there are at least 5000 missiona-
ries. make liberal allowance and
admit there may be 10 bad missiona-
ries out of the 5000, but | do not be-
lieve there is one. All English and
American merchants leave Bombay,
Calcutta, Annoy and Peking as soon
as they make their fortunes. Why?
Because no European or American IN
his senses would stay in that climate
after monetary inducements have
ceased. Now the missionaries there
| are put down on the barest necessities,
and most of them do not lay up 81 in
twenty years. Why, then, do they
stay in those lands of intolerable heat
and cobras and raging feyers, the
thermometer sometimes playing at
130 and 40 degrees of oppressiveness,
y, 600 miles from home, because of the
unhealthy climate and the prevailing
immoralities of those regions compell-
ed to send their children te England
or Scotland or America, probably
never to see them again! 0 blessed
Christ. Can it be anything but pas
sion for souls? It is easy to understand
all this frequent depreciation of for
eign missionaries when you know that
they are all opposed to the opium
traffic, and that interferes with COM
merce, snd then the missionaries are
moral, and that is an ofense to many
OF the merchants-not all of them, but
| many Of them-who, absent from all
| home restraint, are SO immoral that
we can make only faint allusion to
the monstrosity of their denominations.
food to a family that would otherwise
have had nothing to eat today, and
taken the measures Of dead child
| that she may prepare for it a Shroud
her every act of kindness for the
body accompanied with bene6iction
for the soul. You see nothing but the
filthy street along which she walks
and the rickety stairs up which she
climbs, but she is accompanied by an
unseen cohort of angels with drawn
swords to defend her, r, and with garlands
twisted for ner victories all up and
down the tenement house districts.
I tell you there was not so much eX-
citement when Anne Boleyn, on her
way to her coronation, found the
Thames stirred by 50 gilded barges,
with brilliant flags, in which hung
small bells rung by each motion OF
the wind, noblemen standing in scar
let, and wharf spread with cloth, and
all the gateways surmounted by huz-
zaing admirers, and the streets hung
with crimson velvet, and trumpets
and cannon sounding the jubilee, and
Anne, dressed in surcoat of silver It's
sue, and brow cleaning with a circlet
OF rubies. and amid fountains that
poured Rhenish wine passed on to
Westminster hall and rode in on a
caparisoned palfry, its hoofs clattering
on the classic floor, and, dismounting,
passed into Westminster abbey, and
between the choir and high altar was
crowned queen, amid organs and
choirs chanting the ''Te Deum'-1 say
there was not much in all that glory
which dazzles the eyes OF history when
it is compared with the heavenly re-
ception which that ministering spirit
of the black alley shall receive when
she goes up to coronation. When
she goes in, what welcome on the riv
er of life, its banks Of pearl lined with
splenders seraphic and in temples of
of eternal worship, whose music is
commanded by swing Of archanglic