The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1899-07-05


vou rlset people at the church dCJ:
With lack look, and have the music
black and the minister in black preach
A black sermon, and from invocation to
bepediction have the impression black
few will come, and those who do come
will wish that they had not come at
all.
Golden candlesticks. Scour up the
six lilies on each branch and know that
the more lovely and bright they are the
more fit they are to hold the light But
Constantine, but transformed to basy
uses by Mohamme6 the second. R1ile
out of colored marble, cupola with II
windows soaring to height of $50 feet.
the ceiling one great bewilderment OF
mosaic, galleries supported by eight
columns of porphyry and 81 columns OF
green jasper, nine bronze doors with
alto relieve work, fascinating to the eye
of any artist, vases and vestments IN.
crusted with al manner OF precious
stones. Four walls on fire with lnde-
scribable splendor.
Though labor was cheap, the build,
ing cost $500, 900. Ecclesiastical
structure. almost supernatural in pomp
and majesty. But Mohammedanlsm
tore down from the walls Of that build
ing all the sanity and Christly images,
and high up in the dome the figure Of
the cross was rubbed cut that the cres-
cent of the barbarous Turk might be
substituted. 4 great church, but no
Christ, \ gorgeous candlestlck, but no
candle, Ten thousand such churches
would not give the world as much light
as one homemade tallow candle by
which last night some grandmother IN
the eighties put on her spectacles and
read the Psalms of David in large type.
Up with the churches by all means!
Hundreds of them, thousands Of them,
and the more the better But let each
one be blaze Of heavenly light, making
the world brighter and brighter, I'LL the
last shadow has disappeared and the
last Of the suffering children Of God
shall have reached the land where they
have no need Of candlestick or ''of cau-
die, neither light Of the sun, for the
Lord God giveth them light, and they
shall reign forever and ever" Seven
can6lesticks the complete number Of
lights. Let your light shine before
men, that they, seeing your good works
may glorify your Father which is in
heaven.
Turn now in your Bible to the seven
stars. We are distinctly told that they
are the ministers Of religion. Some are
large stars, some of them small stars,
some of them sweep vide circuit and
some Of them small circuit, but so IA:
as they are genuine they get their light
from the great central sun around whom
they make revolution. Let each one
keep in his sphere. The solar system
would be soon wrecked if the stars, in
stead Of keeping their own orbits should
90 to hunting down other stars. Minis
sers Of religion should never clash. But
in ali the centuries of the Christian
church some of these stars have been
hunting an Edward Irving or a Horace
Bushnell or an Albert Barnes, and the
stars that were in pursuit OF the other
stars lost their own orbit, and some OF
them could never again find it. Alas
for the heresy hunters! The best way
to destroy error is to preach the truth.
The best way to scatter darkness is to
strike light. There is in immensity
room enough for all the stars and in the
church room enough for all the minis
ters. The ministers who give up righte-
BUSINESS and the truth will get punish
ment enough anyhow, for they are the
wandering stars for whom is reserved
the blackness of darkness forever.
should like, as minister, when l
am dying to be able truthfully to say
what captain of the English army,
fallen at the head of his column and
dying on the Egyptian battlefield, said
to General Wolseley, who came to con-
dole with him: Il led them straight.
Didn't lead them straight, general?'
God has put US ministers as captains in
this battlefield of truth against error.
Great at last will be our chagrin if We
fall leading the people the wrong way,
but great will be our gladness if when
the battle is over we can hand our sword
back to our great commander, saying:
''Lord Jesus! We led the people
straight. Didn't We lead them straight?
Those ministers who 60 off at tangent
and preach some other gospel are not
stars, but comets, and they fash across
the heavens little while and make
people stare and throw down a few
meteoric stones, and then 60 out Of
sight if not out Of existence. Brethren
in the ministry, let US remember that
God calls US stars, and our business IS
to shine and to keep our own sphere,
and then when We get done trying to
light up the darkness of this world We
VIII wheel into higher spheres, and in
us shall be fulfilled the promise. They
that turn many to righteousness
shall SHINE as the stars forever auo
ever.
The ministers are not all Pccksnifs
and canting hypocrites, as some would
have you think! Forgive me if, hav-
ing at other times glorited the medical
profession and the legal profession and
the literary profession, glorify my
own. l have seen themiR their homes
and heard them IN their pulpits, and a
grande, array Of men never breathed,
and the Bible figure is not strained
when it calls them stars. And whole
consultations of glorious miRisters
have already taken their places on high,
where they shine even brighter than
they shone on earth. edward \. Kirk
Of the Congregational church, Stephen
H. Tying Of the Episcopal church, Mat
thew Simpson Of the Methodist church,
John Bowling Of the Baptist chuch,