The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-08-23

he is suicide. And what do you say OF
that man who, sick in sin, has the healing
M edicine OF Gods grace offered him and
refuses to take it7 II he dies, he Is q sut-'
eide. People talk as though God took g
man and led him out to darkness and
death, as though BE brought him up to the
cliffs and then pushed him of. Oh, not.
When a man is lost, 1t Is not because God
pushes him of; It is because he jumps on.
I'm clden. times a suicide was buried at the
crossroads, and the people were accus-s
toned to throw stones upon his grave.
80 It seems to me there may be at this time
q man who Is destroying his soul, and as
though the angels of God were here TO
bury him at the point where the ROADS OF
life and death cross each other, throwing
upon the grave the broken law and greac
pile Of misimproved privileges, 80 thar
those going by may look at the fearful
mound and learn what suicide 1t is when
an immortal soul, for which Jesus died.
put itself out Of the way.
According to my text, He comes "out OF
the ivory palaces" You know, or II you;
do not know will tell you nov that some
OF the palaces of olden time were adorned
with ivory. Ahab and Solomon had their
homes furnished with 1t. The tusks OF
African and Asiatic elephants were twisted
into all manner Of shapes, and there were
stairs OF ivory, and chairs OF ivory, ana
tables OF ivory, and floors OF ivory, and
pillars Of ivory, and windows Of ivory. and
Il untains that dropped into basins ol
1, ory, and rooms that had ceilings or
ivory. Oh, white and overmastering beau
ty! Green tree branches sweeping the
white curbs. Tapestry trailing the snowy
floors. Brackets OF light flashing on tue
lustrous surroundings. silvery music rip
pling on the beach OF the arches. Ine
mere thought OF 1t almost stuns my brain,
and you say: "Oh, II could only nave
thrown myself In such chair! IL 1
could have heard the drip and dash OF those
fountains" You shall have something bet
ter than that II you only let Christ intro.
duce you. From THAI place he came, ana
to that place he proposes to transport your
for His garments smell OF myrrh and aloes
and cassia out OF the ivory palaces" What
O place heaven must bel The Tuileries OF
the French, the Windsor Castle OF the Eng
llsh, the Spanish Alhambra, the. Russian
Kremlin, are mere dungeons compared wlth
It! Not 30 many castles on either side me
Rhine as on both sides OF the river OF God
the ivory palaces! One for the angels,
insuferably bright, winged, fire eyed, ten
pest chariotei; one for the martyrs, with
blood red robes from under the altar; one
for the King, the steps OF His palace the
crown OF the church militant; one for the
singers, who lead the IN, 600; one for you,
ransomed from sin; one for me, plucked
from tho burning. oh, the ivory palacesls
To-day it seems to me as II the windows
OF those palaces were illumined for some
great victory, and look and see, climbing
the stairs OF ivory and walking on floors or
iyory, some whom We knew and loved on
earth. Yes, I know them. There are
father and mother, not eishty-two years
and seventy-nine years, as when they leir
us, but blithe and young as when on their
marriage day. And there are brothers and
sisters, merrier than when we used to-
romp across the meadows together. The
cough gone. The cancV cured. The
erysipelas healed. The heart break over,
Oh, how fair they are in the ivory palacest
And your dear little children tnat went
out from you-Christ did not let one OF
them drop as he lifted them. he dlo
not wrench one OF them from you. No
they went as from one they loved well
to one whom they loved better. II
should take your little child and press its
soft face against my rough cheek, might
keep It little while, but when you, the
mother, came along, it would struggle to-
go With you. And so you stood holding
your dying child when Jesus passed by In
the room, and the little one sprapg out to
greet Him. That is all. Your Christian
dead did not go down into the dust and
the gravel and the mud. Though it
rained all that funeral day, and the water
came up to the wheels hub as yo1 drove )
out to the cemetery, 1t made no difference
to them, for they stepped from the home
here 10 the home there, right into the
ivory palaces. All is we'll with them. All
Is we'll. =
It is not dead weight that you lift when
YOU carry Christian out. Jesus makes
tue bed up soft with velvet promises, and
He says: '"Put her down here very gently
Put that head which will never ache again
word that the procession is coming. Ring.
the bells. Ringl Open your gates, ye
ivory palacesl'' And so your loved ones
are there. They ere just Us certainly there,
having died in Christ, as that you are here
There Is only one thing more they want
Indeed, there Is one thing In heaven they
have not got. They want It. What is III
Your company. But, oh. my brother, un.
less you change your tack you cannor
reach that harbor. You might as well take
the Southern Pacific Railroad, expecting IN:
that direction to reach Toronto, as 70 GO
on IN the way some OF you are going, ana
vet expect to reach the ivory palaces
Your loved ones are looking out OF the
windows OF heaven now, and yet you seem
to turn your back upon them.
When I think OF that place and think OK;
nv entering It, I feel awkward. feel as
sometimes when have been exposed to-
the weather, and my shoes have been pe-
mired, and my coat Is soiled, and my hair
is dlsheveled, and stop In front OF some
fine residence where have an errand.
feel NOT fir to 20 In as am and sit among
the guests. So some OF Us feel about
heaven, We need to be washed; we need,
to be rehabilitated before We go into the
ivory places. Eternal God. let the surgeg
of Thy pard oning mercy roll over US. L
want not only to wash my hands and my
feet: bur. like some skilled diver, standing
on the pier head, who leaps into the wave
and comes up at q far distant point from
where he went in, so want to 80 down.
and 80 want to come up. o Jesus, WASH
me:in the waves OF Thy salvation! :.
Aud here I ask you to solve mystery
that has been depressing me for thirty
years. have been asking 1t OF doctors OF
divinity who have been studying theology
hnlf century, and they have given me-
no satisfactory answer. l nave turned.
over all the books In my library, but got
no solution to the question, and to-day
come and ask you for IN explanation. BY
what logic was Christ induced to exchange
the ivory palaces OF heaven for the cruel
fxion agonies OF earth? l snail take the
first thousand million years in heaven
TO study out that problem; mean
while urd now taking It as
the tenderest, miehtiest Of all facts that
Christ did come, that He came with spikes
in His feet, came with thorns in His brow
came with spears In His heart, to save you
and to save me. "God SO loved the world
tbnt He gave His only begotton Son. that
whosoever relieveth in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life" o.
Christ, whelm oil our souls with Thy COM
passionl Now them down like summer
grim with the harvesting sickle OF Thy
grace! Ride through to-duy the conqueror,
Thy garments smelling "of myrrh and aloes
a ii oneain nnk cf the Ivory nalRceapp