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

tiln oG the Gth@rii BG11S aud SSGGH
in:e!lockins ths;r shadows and dropping
them upon her miserable way There
is SHARP rock on the Cnc side and i
sharp rock on the other side.
What are such 10 do? Somehow let
them climb ~ into the heights of the
glorious promise leave thy father
less children. will preserve them
alive and let thy widows trust in mc.
Or get up into the heights of that other
glorious promise. The Lord preservcth
the stranger and rclicvcth the widow
and the srathcrless Q yc sewing wo-
men on starving wages, 0 yc widows
turned out from the once beautiful
home. y yc female teachers kept on
niggardly stipend. . ye despairing
women seeking in vain for work wander:
Ing along the docks and thinking to
throw yourselves into the river last
night o yc women Of weak nerves,
and aching sides, and short breath,
and broken heart, you need something
more than human sympathy. You need
the sympathy OF God. Climb up into
his arms. He knows it all, and he
loves you more than father or mother
CT husband ever could or ever did, and
instead of sitting down, wringing your
hands in despair, you had better begin
10 climb. There are heights OF consola-
ton for you, though now there is a
sharp rock on one side and a sharp rock
on the other side.
Again. that man is in the crisis OF
the text who has wasted life on the
one side and an unilluminated eternity
on the other. Though man may all
his life have cultured deliberation and
self poise. if he gets into that position
all his self possession is gone. There
are all the wrong thoughts OF his exis-
tence all the wrong deeds, all the wrong
words-strata above strata, granitic,
ponderous, overshadoving That rock
| call Bozcz On the other side are
all the retributions Of the future, the
thrones of Judgment, the eternal ages,
angry with his long defiance. That
rock call Seneh Between these two
rocks 10, 600 times 10, 900 have pcrished.
0 man immortal, man redeemed, man
blood bought, climb up out of those
shadows Climb up by the way of the
cross. Have your wasted life forgiven.
Have your eternal life secured. This
hour just take one look to the past and
see what it has been, and take one look
to the future and see what itsthreatens
to be. You can afford to lose your health
you can afford to lose your property,
you can afford to lose your reputation,
but you cannot afford to lose your soul.
That bright, cleaning, glorious, precl-
Gus, eternal possession you must carry
aloft in the day when the earth burns
up and the heavens burst
You see from my subject that when
4 man gets into the safety and peace OF
the gospel he does not demean himself.
There is nothing religion that leads to
meanness or unmanliHess. The gospel
of Jesus Christ only asks you to climb
as Jonathan did-climb toward God,
climb toward heaven, climb into the
sunshine of Gods favor To become a
Christian is not to 60 meanly down. 1t
is to come gloriously up-up into the
communion of saints, up into the
peace that passeth all understanding,
up into the companionship of angels.
He lives upward; he dies upward.
Oh, then accept the wholesale invita-
ton which | make this day to all the
people! Come up from between your
invalidism and financial embarrass
ments. Come up from between your
bereavements and your destitution.
Come up from between a wasted life
and an unillumined eternity. Like
,Johnathan, climb up with all your
might instead Of sitting down to wiring
your hands in the shadow and in the
Darkness sharp rock ON the one
side and sharp rock on the other side. "