The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1899-01-04

by the faces Of those who have come to
proclaim glory and good cheer. They
are only waiting for the gate to open
and the chains to fall off and the glory
10 begin.
remark again, there are maryland
I wish there were more-who are estl-
mating life by the good they can do. .
John Bradford said be counted that
day nothing at all in which he had not
by pen or tongue done some good. If a
man begin right, I cannot tell how
many tears he may wipe away, how
many burdens he may lift, how many
orphans he may comfort, how many
outcasts he may reclaim. There have
been men who have given their whole
life in the right direction, corcentrat-
ing all their wit and ingenuity and
mental acumen and physical force and
enthusiasm for Christ. They climbed
| the mountain and delved into the mine
and crossed the sea and trudged the
desert and dropped at last into martyrs
graves, waiting for the resurrection OF
the just. They measured their lives by
the chains they broke off, by the gar
ments they put upon n%akedness, by the
miles they travelled 70 alleviate every
kind of suffering. They felt in the thrill
of every nerve, in the motion of every
muscle, in every throb of their heart, in
every respiration of their lungs, the
magnificent truth, "No man liveth unto
himself" They went through cold and
through heat, foot blistered, cheek smit-
ten, back s~courged, tempest dashed, to
| do their whole duty. That is the way
they measured life-by the amount Of
good they could do.
The Eternal Life.
Do you want to know how old Luther
was: How old Richard Baxter was? How
old Philip Doddridge was? Why, you
cannot calculate the length of their
lives by any human arithmetic! Add to
their lives 10 900 times 10, 900 years,
and you have not expressed it-what
they have lived or will live. Oh, whata
standard that is to measure a mans life
by! There are those in this house who
think they have only lived 80 years.
They will have lived a thousand; they
have lived a thousand. There are those
who think they are so years Of age.
They have not even entered upon their,
infancy, for n must become a babe in
Christ to begin at all.
Now, l do not know what your ad-
'vantages or disadvantages are. / do not
know what your tact or talent is. l do
not know what may be the fascination
of your manners or the responsiveness of
them, but. / know this: There is for
you, my bearer, a field to culture, q
harvest to reap, a tear to wipe away, a
soul to save. If you have worldly means,
consecrate them to Christ. If you have
~eloquence, use it On the side that Paul
and Wilberfcrce used theirs. If you
have learning, put it all into the poor
box Of the worlds suffering. But if you
have none of these-neither wealth, nor
eloounce, nor learning-you at any
rate have a smile with which you can
encourage the disheartened, a frown
with which you may blast injustice, a
voice with which you may call the
wanderer back to God. "Oh," you say,
"that is a very sanctimonious view Of
life!' 1t is not. 1t is the only bright
view Of life, and it is the only bright
view of death. Contrast the death scene
of a man who has measured life by the
worldly standard with the death scene
of a man who has measured life by the
Christian standard. Quin, the actor, in
his last moments said, II hope this
/ tragic scene will soon be over, and l
hope to keep my dignity to the last"
! Malesherbes said in his last moments to
the confessor: Hold your tongue! Your
miserable style puts me out of conceit
with heaven" Lord Chesterfield in his
last moments, when be ought to have
been praying for his soul, bothered him.
self about the proprieties of the sick
room and said, "Give Dayboles a chair
Godfrey Kneller spent his last hours on
earth in drawing a diagram Of his own
! monument.
, Compare the silly and horrible de-
parturs Of such men with the seraphio
glow on the face Of Edward Payson as
be said in his last moment: 1.-The breezes
of heaven fan me. I float in a sea Of
glory" Or with Paul the apostle, who
said in his last hour: II am now ready
to be offered up, and the time Of my
departure is at hand. I have fought the
good fight, have kept the faith. Hence
forth there is laid up for me a crown Of
righteousness which the Lord, the right
eous Judge, will give me-" Or compare
it with the Christian deathbed that
You witnessed in your own household.
Oh, my friends, this world is a false
god. 1t will onsume you with the blaze
in which it accepts your sacrifice, while
the righteous shall be held in everlast-
ing remembrance, and when the thrones
have fallen and the monuments have
crumbled and the world has persisted
they shall banquet with the conquerors
of earth and the bierarchs Of heaven.
The Coming fear.
This is a good day in which to begin
q rev style CT measurement. How old
art thou? You see the Christian way of
measuring life and the worldly way of
measuring it. leave it to you to say
which is the wisest and best way. The
wheel Of time has turned very swiftly,
and it has hurled us on. The old year
has gone. The new year has come. For
what you and | have been launched up
On it God only knows. Now let me ask
you all, have you made any preparation
for the future? You have made prepare.
ton for time, my dear brother. Have
you made any preparation for eternity?
Do you wonder that when that man on
the Hudson river in indignation tore up
the tract which was handed to him and
inst one word landed on his coat sleeve,
the rest of the tract being pitched into
the river, that one word aroused his
soa!: 1t was THAI one word, so long, SO
broad, SC high, so deep-"eternity." A
dying woman, in her last moments
said, Call it back" They said,