The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1898-08-24

Eight. and this combined shadow Of in,
validiSln and financial embarrassment
has often senta man up the quicker
into the sunlight Of God favor and
lhenoonday of his glorious promises.
1t is difficult thing for man to
feel his dependence upon God when he
has $4,000 in the bank and $4,000
III government securities, and 4 block
Of stores and three ships. well. the
man says to himself it is silly for me
to pray. Give me this day my daily
bread, when my pantry is full and the
canals from the west are crowded with
breadStutfs destined for my store
houses. Oh. my friends. if the com
bined miSfortunes and disasters OF HE
have made You climb up into the arms
of sympathetic and compassionate
God. through all eternity You will bless
him that in this world there was i
sharp rock on the one side and 4 sharp
rock on the other side.
Again. that man is in the crisis OF
the text who has home troubles and
outside persecution at the same time.
The world treats :, man we'll just as
long as it pays to treat him well. AS
long as it can manufacture success out
Of his bone and brain and muscle it ia
vors him. The world fattens the horse
it wants to drive. But let man see it
his duty to cross the track Of the world
then every bush is full Of horns and
tusks thrust at him. They will bel:t-
tie him. They will caricaturc him.
They will call his generosity self ag
grandizement and his piety sanctimo
niousness. The very worst persecution
will sometimes come upon him from
those who profess to be Christians.
John Milton-grcat and good John
Milton-so far forgot himself as to pray
in so many words that his enemies
might be eternally thrown down into the
darkest and deepest gulf of hell, and
be the undermost and most detected,
and the lowest down vassals Of pe>di-
ton. And Martin Luther so far forgot
himself as to sayin regard tohis theolo-
gical opponents, Put them in what
ever sauce you please, roasted or fried
Or baked or stewed or boiled or hashed,
they are nothing but asses!' All, my
friends, if John Milton or Martin
Luther could come down to such scurril-
ity, what may you not expect from
less elevated opponents? Now, some
times the world takes after them, the
newspapers take after them, public
opinion takes after them, and the un-
fortunate man is lied about until all
the dictionary of Billiugsgate is ex-
hausted on him. You often see man
whom you know to be good and pure
and honest set upon by the world and
mauled by whole communities, while
vicious men take on a supercilious air
in condemnation of him, as though
Lord Jeffreys should write an essay on
gentleness or Henry VIII talk about
purity or King Herod take to blessing
little childrn.
Now certain amount Of persecution
rouses mans defiance, stirs his blood
for magnificent battle and makes him
so times more a man than he would
have been without the persecution. So
it was with the great reformer when he
said. ''J will not be put down; [ Will be
heard" And so it was with Millard, the
preacher, in the time Of Louis NJ. When
Louis N sent word to him that unless
he stopped preaching in that style he
would throw him into the river, he re-
Piled, Tell the king that | Will reach
heaven sooner by water then he will
reach it by fast horses \ certain
amount of persecution is tonic and
inspiration, bat too much Of it,
and too long continued becomes
the rock Bozez throwing dark
shadow over mans life. What is he
to do then? Go home, you say. Good
advice, that. That is just the place
for man to go when the world abuses
him. Go home Blessed be God for
our quiet and sympathetic homes! But
there is many man who has the reputa-
ton Of having home when he has none.
Through unthinkingness or precipita-
ton there are many matches made
that ought never to have been made.
An officiating priest cannot alone unite
couple. The Lord Almighty must
proclaim banns. There are many
homes in which there is no sympathy
and no happiness and no good cheer.
The clamor Of the battle may not have
been heard outside, but God knows, not
withstanding 1.-THE playing of the we'd
ding march, and all the odor Of the
orange blossoms, and the benediction
of the officiating pastor, there has been
no marriage So sometimes men have
awakened to find on one side Of them
the rock of persecution and on the other
side of them the rock Of domestic in
felicity. What shall such one do?
Do as Jonathan did-climb. Get up
the heights of Gods consolation, from
which you may look down in triumph
upon outside persecution and home
trouble. While good and great Iohn
Wesley was being Slenced by the magis-
trates and having his name written on
board fences of London in doggerel, at
that very time his wife was making him
as miserable as she could-acting as
though she were possessed by the devil,
as suppose she was. never doing him
a kindness until the day she ran away,
so that he wrote in his diary these
words: II did not forsake her. | have
not dismissed her. / will not recall
her. Planting one foot upon outside
persecution and the other foot on home
trouble, John Wesley climbed up into
the heights Of Christian JOY, and after
preaching 10, 900 sermons and travelling
100000 miles reached the heights of
heaven, though in this world he had it
hard enough sharp rock on the one
side and sharp rock Oh the other.
Again, that woman stands in the
crisis of the text who has bereavement
and struggle for livelihood at the
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