The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1899-06-14


on as nation that unless We enter the
door now open for the enlargement OF
our national domain we will decline the
mission which God in his providence
has assigned US. But surely no woe
will come upon US or upon them II we
| Christ.aniZe them, as We now have the
opportunity of doing. The political
tccdpicalities are nothing as compared
with the importance of this movement.
| implore all political expausionists to
augment us in this work of moral and
religious expansion, for unless those
islands are moralized and elevated in
intelligence and habits we Go not want
them, and their annexation would be
political damnation. On the other
hand, | implore all antiexpans;onists to
take a hand in the gospelization Of
Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippine
Islands. The only way to prepare them
to take care of themselves is to give
them the Ten Commandments that were
published on Mount Sinai and let them
hear the groan Of sacrifice that was
breathed out on the heights Of Col
gotha. What they most want is the
gospel, the pure gospel, the omnipoteut
gospel, the gospel that helps heal the
wounds of the body, and irradiates the
darkness of the mind and achieves the
ransom Of the soul.
But on this platform the so called
expansionists and so called antiexpan
sionists will yet stand side by side.
Though l am not a prophet or the son
Of prophet, within FIVE years, if this
religio educational work is properly at
tended to, there will be a Cuban
republic, Porto Rican republic
and Philippine republic, none Of
them on large scale, but they will all
have their schools, and printing presses
and evangelical churches, their presi-
dents, their senates and house Of repre-
seDtives. their mayors and their con-
stabularies, and as good order will be
observed in their cities as now reigns
on Pennsylvania avenue, Washington,
or Broadway, New York.
Christ has started for the conquest
Of the nations, and nothing on earth or
in hell can stop it. The continents
are rapidly rolling into his dominion,
and why not these islands, which for
the most part are only fragments brok-
en- off from continents, the interval
lands having been sunk by earthquakes,
allowing the ocean to take mastery over
them? Each mother continent has
around tia whole family of little con-
tinents. If the continents are being so
rapidly evangelical, why not the
islands? If America, why not Cuba
and the Bahamas? If Asia, why /;
the Philippines and the Moluccas?
Africa, why not Madagascar and :.
Helena? The same power that br"<c
them off the mainland can lift IT, III
into evangelization.
In the old book, which has become a
new book by reason Of modern disc W
cries, especial attention is called to the
islands. Declare the Lords praise
in the islands, commands Isaiah. Let
the multitudes of the islands be glad
thereof, says the Psalnist. "All the
islands of the heather shall worship
him." writes Zephaniah. HE shall
turn his face to the islands, prophesies
Daniel. ''The Inhabitants of the isles
shall be astonished at thee, fortells
Ezekiel. ''Hear it and declare it to
the islands afar off" exclaims Jere-
miah. You see from this the islands
are not to be neglected. Perhaps they
are the Lords favorites, as in house
holds if there is any favoritism at all it
is for the weakest. The islands too
small to take care of themselves have
the eternal God to take care Of them.
Let nations look out how they tread on
the islands, however small and weak,
for they are omnipotently defended.
They may not be able to marshal large
armies or to send out navies to sweep
the sea, but better than that, they have
the chariots of heaven on their side
and the drawn swords Of the Almighty.
I have as much faith in the salvation
of the smallest island of the Falklands,
of the Canaries, of the Ladrones, of the
Carolines, of the Fijis, Of the Barbo-
does, of the Cape Verdes, Of the Socie
ty islands as I have in the salvation OF
America.
The continents themselves are only
larger islands, and the world in which
we live is only still larger island, and
the solar system is group of islands,
and the universe is an archipelago
studded with islands of worlds sur
rounded by the great ocean of infnitude
and immensity. So you see when God
planned the universe he diagrammed it
into islands, and he will look after the
interest of each of those islands, how
ever small, and England and Holland
and France and Germany and America
must not treat the smallest and weak
est island that comes under their sway
any different from the way they treat
the strongest nation Of all the earth.
God may chiefly deal with individuals
in the next world, but he deals with
nations only in this world, and when
persistently nation practices injustice
against other people it is only ques-
tion of time when the offender will find
his doom. The path Of time is strewn
with the carcasses of nations that be-
cause Of their maltreatment of other
nations perishei. The higher such Of
tending empires rise the harder will be
their fall.
1t required the pen of an Edward Glib
bon, through four great volumes Of more
than 500 pages each. to tell the story Of
''The Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire" concluding his monumental
work with the words: ''It was among
the ruins of the capital that l first con-
ceived the idea of a work which has
amused and exercised nearly 20 years