The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1899-04-05

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through his brain, through his hands,
through his feet, through his heart were
As great as yours certainly. He was as
sick and as weary. Not nerve or
muscle u ligament escaped. All the
panSs Of all the nations OF all the ages
compressed into one sour cup. He took
the vinegar,
There is also the sourness Of poverty.
Your income does rot meet your outgo-
lugs, end that always gives an honest
man anxiety There is no sigr Of des-
titution about you-pleasant appear
ance and cheerful home for you-but
God only knows what time you have
had to manage your private finances.
just as the bills run up the wages seem
to run down You may say nothing;
but life to you is a hard push, and
when you sir dow with your wife and
talk over the expenses you both rise up
discouraged. You abridge here, and
YOU abridge there and your get things
snug for smooth sailing. and, 10, sud
denly there is a large doctors bill to
pay. oryou have lost your pocketbook,
or some debtor has failed, and you are
thrown abeam end. Well, brother,
yoe are in glorious company. Christ
s.wu,G NOT The house in which he stop
ryd CT the colt on which he rode or the
beat in which he sailed. He lived in a
borrowed house; hc was buried in Dor
rnwed grave. Exposed to all kinds Of
weather, yet lie had only one suit OF
clothes. lie hreakfasteG in the morn
iug, and no one could possibly tell
where he could get anything to eat be,
fore night. He would have been pro-
uounccd a financial failure. He had to
perform q miracle TO get money to pay
tax bill Not dollar did he owr.
Plivat;on of domestici;y. privation Of
nutritious food. priya;ion OF a comfort
able couci, Oh which to sleep, privatioD
i all worldly re<ourcesj The kings Of
the earth had chased chalices out Of
which to drink, but Christ had moth
ing tut pain cup set before him, and
it vas very sharp, and it was very sour.
He took the vinegar.
There were years that passed along
before Your family circle was invaded
oy death, but the moment the charmed
circle was broken everything seemed to
dissolve. Hardly have you put the
black apparel in the wardrobe before
you have again to take it out. Great
and rapid changes in your family re-
cord. You got the house and rejoiced
in it, but the charm was gone as soon
as the Grape hung on the doorbell. The
one upon whom you most depended was
taken away from You. 4 cold marble
stab lies on your heart today. Once,
as the childen romped through the
house. you put your hand over your
aching head and said, "Oh, if could
ouiy have i, still" Oh. it is too still
now. You lost your patience when the
tops and the strings and the shells were
left amid the floor, but, oh, you would
be willing to have the trinkets scattered
all over the floor again if they were
scattered by the same hands.
With what ruthless plowshare be-
reavement rips the heart But Jesus
knows all about that. You cannot tell
him anything new in regard to bereave-
ment. He had only few friends, and
when he lost one it brought tears to his
ewes. Lazarus had often entertained
him at his home. Now Lazarus is
dead and buried, and Christ breaks
down with emotion, the convulsion of
grief shuddering through all the ages Of
bereavement. Christ knows what it is
to 90 through the house missing ia
miliar inmate. Christ knows what it
is to see an unoccupivd place at the
table. Were there not four Of them
Mary and Martha and Christ and Laza-
rus? Four of them. But where is La
zarus? Lonely and afflicted Christ,
his great loving eyes filled with tears.
Oh, yes, yes. He knows all about the
Loneliness and the heartbreak. He
took the vinegar!
Then there is the sourness Of the
death hour. Whatever else we may
escape, that acid sponge vii! be pressed
to our lips. sometimes have curios-
ity to know how | will behave when |
come to die. Whether | will be calm
or excited, whether | will be filed with
remlniScence or with anticipation, |
cannot say. But come to the point |
must and you muSs An officer from
the future world will knock at the door
of our hearts and serve on US the writ
of ejectment, and we will have to sur
render. And we Will wake up after
these autumual and wintry and vernal
and summery glories have vanished
from our vision. We will wake up into
a realm which has only one season and
that the season Of everlasting love.
But you say: L dom want to break
out from my present associations. 1t
is SO chilly and so damp to 60 down the
stairs of that varlt. | don't want any
thing drawn so tightly over my eyes.
If there were only some way Of break
ing through the partition between
worlds without tearing this body all to
shred. | wonder if the surgeons and
the doctors cannot compound mixture
by which this body and soul can all the
time be kept together? Is there no es-
cape from this separation?' None,
absolutely none. \ great many men
tumble through the gates of the future,
as il were. aud We do not know where
they have gone, and they only add gloom
and mystery to the passage, but Jesus
Christ so nightly stormed the gates
Of that future world that they haye
never since been closely shut. Christ
knows what it is TO leave this world, of
the beauty Of which he was more ap
preciative than we ever could be- He
knows the eXquiSiteness of the phos-
phorescence OF the sea. He trod it.
lie knows the glories of the midnight
heavens, for they were the spangled
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