The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1898-12-21
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might expect complete w1eckage the ore
Noah commanded might Eave expected
it. Bar no. Those who embarked dis,
embarked: Over the plank reaching
down the side OF the ark to the Armc
nian cliffs on which they had been
stranded the procession descended.
No other wharf felt so solid or afforded
such attractiveness as that height OF
.Ararat when the eight passengers put
their feet on it. And no sooner had
the last one, the invalided wife Of Japh
eth, been helped down the plank unon
the rock than the other apartments of
the ship were opened, aud such dash
OF bird Music never filled the air as
when the entire orchestra of robin led
preast, and morning lark, and chathnch,
and mocking bird, and hruse swallow
took wing into the bright sky. while
the cattle began to low and the sheep
to bleat and the horses to neigh for the
pasture, which from The awful submer
yence had now begun to grow green
and aromatic. | tell you plainly no.l.-
ing interests more in that tragedy from
the first to the last act than the exit
aud the ;'exeunt," than the fact that
the shut ins" became the go outs.
And now cheer with this story all the
inmates Of the sickrooms and hospital
aud those prisons where men and wn-
men are unjust!y undungeoned: and all
the thousands who are bounded on the
north and south and east and west by
floods. by deluges Of misfortune and
disaster. The ark Of your trouble, II IT
does not land on some earthly heightof
vindication and rescue, will land on the
heights celestial.
Meanwhile you have all divine and
angelic sympathy in your infrmities.
That satan thoroughly understood poor
human nature was evidenced when IN
plotting to make Job do wrong, the
great master of evil, after having failed
in every other way to overthrow the
good man, proposed physical distress,
and then the boils came which made
him swear right out The mightiest
test of character is physical suffering.
Critics are impatient at the way Thomas
Carlyle scolded at everything. His 20
years of dyspepsia were enough to make
auy man scold. When you see people
out of patience and irascible and lach-
remose, inquire into the case, and be-
fore you get through with the explora
tion your hypercriticism will turn to
pity, AID to the divine and angelic sym
pathy will be added your own. The
clouds of your indignation, which were
full of thunderbolts will begin to rain
tears Of pity.
By strange Providence, for which |
shall be forever grateful, circumstances
with which think you are ali famll-
lar, have admission through the news
paper press week by week to tens Of
thousands of Gods dear children who
cannot enter church on the Sabbath
and hear their excellent pastors be,
cause of the age Of the sufferers, OF
their illness, or the lameness Of foot, or
their incapacity to stay in one position
an hour and half, or their poverties,
or their troubles of some sort will not
let them GO out of doors, and to item
as much as to those who hear me |
preach this sermon, as preach many
of my sermons, the invisible audience
always vaster thar the visible, some OF
them tossed on wilder seas than those
that tossed the eight members OF
Noah's family and instead Of 40 days OF
storm and 5 months of being shut in,
as they were, it has been with these
invalids 5 years Of shut in," OF IL
years of shut in, or 20 years OF shut
in" o comforting God! Help me tc
comfort them! Give me TWO hands full
of s.ivs for their wounds! When we
wer. 800 miles out at sea, a hurricane
struck US, and tthe lifeboats were dash,
ed from the davits ard all the lights In
the cabin were put out by the rolling Of
the ship and the water which through
the broken skylights had poured IN.
Captain Andrews entered and said to
the men on duty: "Why don't you
light up and make things brighter, fol
NE are going to outride this storm:
Passengers, cheer up! Cheer up!
And he struck match and began tc
light the burners. He could not 81,
lence either the wind or the waves, but
by the striking Of that match, accom-
panied by encouraging words, we were
all helped.
And as I now find many in hurri
canes of trouble, vhough / cannot quiet
the storra I can strike match to light
up the darkness, and | strike match
'tWhom the Lord loveth he chasten
eth" I strike another match, "Weer
ing may endure for night, but JOY
cometh in the morning, l strike an
other match, ''We have a great High
Priest who can be touched with the
feeling of our infrmities, and he was
in all points tempered like rs we are.
Are you old? One breath Of HEAVIER
we'll make you everlastingly young
again. Have you aches and pains:
They insure Christ's presence and sym
, patty through the darkest DecembeI
nights, which are the longest nights O.
the year. Are you bereft? Here is
resurrected Christ whose voice is ful
of resurrectionary power. Are yor
lonely? All the angels Of heaven are
ready to swoop into your companion
ship. Here is the Christ Of Mary ant
Martha when they had lost Lazarus
and Of David when he had lost his son
and Of Abraham when he had lost Sa
; rah, and Of your father and mothe!
when in time of old age they parted
at the gate Of the.tomb. When last wa:
in Savannah. at the close Of the Sabbath
, morning service I was asked to go and
see Christian woman, for many years
an invalid. went. | had not IL al!
. that beautiful city of splendid men and
gracious women seen face brighter
than hers. Reaching her bedside,
put out my hand, but she could not