The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1898-11-16


been thrown in their wrestle with evil
HABIT
iye, you have been thrown twice, but
Il at does not mean, oh, worsted soul,
that you are thrown forever | have
no authority for saying how many times
a man may sin and be forgiven, or how
many times he may fall and yet rise
again, but | have authority for saying
that he may fall 490 times, and
400 times get up. The Bible
declares that God will forgive
20 times I, and if you will employ the
rule of multiplication You will find
that 20 times is 490. Blessed be God
for such gospel Of high hope and
thrilling encouragement and magnlh-
cent rescue. \ GOSPEL Of lost sheep
brought home on shepherd shoulder,
and the predigals who got into the low
work of putting huSks into swlnes,
troughs brought home to jeweIry and
banQueting and hilarity that made the
rafters ring
Three sketches Of the same man: \
happy home. of which he and lassle
taken from a neighbors house are the
united head. Years Of happiness roll
on after years of happiness. Stars
pointing down to nativities. And
whether announced in greeting or not
every morning was Good morning
and every night Good night" Christ
mas trees and May queens and birthday
festivities and Thanksgiving gather
ings around loaded tables. But that
husband and father forms an unfortunate
acquaintance who leads him in circles
too convivial, too late houred, too
scandalous. After awhile, his money
gone and not able to bear his part Of the
expense, he is gradually showed out and
ignored and pushed away. Now, what
dilapidated home is his. \ dissipated
life always shows itself in faded window
curtains, and impoverished wardrobe,
and detected surroundings, and in
broken palings Of the garden fence, and
the unhinged gate, and the dislecated
doorbell, and the disappearance Of wife
and children from scenes among which
they shone the brightest, and laughed
the gladdest- If any man was ever
down, that husband and father is down.
The fact is he got into wrestle with
evil that pushed and pulled and con-
torted and exhausted him worse than
any Olympian game ever treated Gre
clan, and he was thrown-thrown out
of prosperity into gloom, thrown out Of
good association into bad, thrown out
of health into invalidism, thrown out
of happiness into misery But one day
while sinking through one Of the back
streets, not wishing to be recognized, a
good thought crosses his mind, for he
has heard of men flung fat rising again.
Arriving at his house he calls his wife
in and shuts the door and says: Mary,
| am going to do differently. This IS
not what l promised you when we were
married. You have been very patient
with me and have borne everything, al
though l would have had no right to
complain if you had left me and gone
home to your fathers house. 1t seems
to me that once or twice when | was
not myself l struck you, and several
times, know, called you hard names.
Now l want you to forgive me. am
going to do better, and | want you to
help me-" ';Help you?" she says.
BLESS your soul, Of course | will help
you. l knew you didn't mean it when
you treated me roughly. All that is in
the past. Never refer to it again. To-
day let us begin anew.
Sympathizing friends come around
and kind business people help the man
to something to do, so that he can again
earn a living. The children soon have
clothing so that they can SO to school.
The old songs which the wife sang years
ago come back to her memory and she
sings them over again at the cradle or
while preparing the MONDAY meal. Do
mestic resurrection. He comes home
earlier than he used to, and he is glad
to spend the eveoing playing games
with the children or helping them with
arithmetic or grammar lessons which
are little too hard. Time passes on.
and some outsider suggests to him that
he is not getting as much out Of lie as
he ought and proposes an occasional
visit to scenes Of worldliness and dissi-
patton. He consents to go once, and,
after much solicitation, twice. Then
his old habit comes back. He says he
has been belated and could not get back
until midnight. He had to see some
western merchant that had arrived and
talk of business with him before he got
out of town. Kindliness ard geniality
again quit the disposition of that hus-
band and father. The wifes heart
breaks in new place. That man goes
into a second wrestle with evil habit
and is flung and all hell cackles at the
moral defeat. II told you so, say
many good people who have no faith in
the reformation of fallen man. Il told
you so. You made a great fuss about
mis- restored home, but knew 1t would
not last. You can't trust these fellows
who have once gone wrong. So with
this unfortunate, things get worse and
worse, and his family have to give up
the house, and the last valuable goes to
the pawnbroker's shop. But that un-
fortunate man is sauntering along the
street one Sunday night, and he goes
up to church door, and the congrega-
tion are singing the second hymn, the
one just before sermon, and it is Will
liam Cowper's glorious hymn:
There is fountain filed with blood
Drawn from Emanuels veins,
and sinners plunged beneath that fo,d
Lose all their guilty stains.
He goes into the vestibule of the
church and stops there, not feeling we'll
enough dressed TO go among the wor-
shippers, and he hears the minister say,
"You will find the words of my text in
Luke, the nineteenth chapter and tenth
l.