The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1900-01-10
.,,o4 ~ +o,d o,d that I Judge from

that he told and that, l judge from
the seeming effect, may that afternoon
haze brought hundreds into the king
dom Of God. l heard Truman Osborne
nras,h several sermons, but remem-
her nothing of what he said in public
or p:lvate excere story that he told,
and that Gas, among other things, the
means of my salvation. The lifelong
work Of John B. Cough, the greatest
temperance teesormer of all time, was
the victory of an1cdote, and who can
ever forget his story Of Joel Straton
rouching him Oh the shoulder, or OF
Deacon Moses Grant at HopklntoD, or
Of the outcast woman. nioknamed Hell
Fire, but redeemed by the thought
that she was one Ct u.s." Dwight l.
Moody, the evangelist Of worldwlGe
fame and usefulness, who recenoiE
passed to his great reward on hlsh, our
inc his valuable .abors in the pulpit
welded the aneciote for God and heaV-
on mill all nations nave been moved
By it.
I YOU nave Hau SAtS44SHooo VI P@A
don and comfort and disinthrallment,
tell oft. Tell II in the most pointed
and dramatic way you can manage. Tell
it soon, or you may never tell 1t at all.
Oh, the power Of the tale that is told!
An hours discourse about the fact that
blasphemous behavior is sometimes
punished in this world would not i'm.
press Us as much as the simple story
that in town Of New York state, at
close of the last century, '36 profane
men formed themselves into a club,
calling themselves Society Of the
Dcuids. They met regularly to de-
ride and damage Christianity. Ooe
night in their awful meeting they
burned Bible aud administered the
sacrament to dog. Two of them died
that night. Within three days three
were drowned. In FIVE years all the 80
came to a bad end. Before justices Of
the peace it was sworn that two were
starved to death, seven were drowned,
eight were shot, FIVE committed sui
eide, seven died on the gallows, one
was frozen to death, and three died ac-
cideptally. Incidents like that sworn
to, would balk any proposed irreverent
and blasphemous behavior.
In what way could the fact that lnh-
deity will not help any one die we'll be
so powerfully presented as by the incl
dent concerning a man falling i'll IN
Paris just after the death of Foltai-e,
when professional nurse was called IN
and she asked, rs the gentleman
Christian?' why do you ask that"
said the messenger II am the nurse
who attended Eoltairc in his last i'll
ness, and for all the wealth of Europe
I would never see another in6del die.
What discourse in its moral and spirl-
tual effect could equal a tale like that?
You might argue upon the fact that
those fallen are our brothers and SIS
ters, but could we impress any one with
such a truth so we'll as by the scene
neare Victoria park, London, where
men were digging deep drain and the
snoring gave way and great pile of
earth fell upon the workmen. A maa
stood there with his hands in his pock-
cts looking at those who were trying to
shovel away the earth from those who
were buried, but when some one said
to the spectator, "Bill, your brother is
down there" then the spectator threw
of his coat aud went to work with an
agony of earnestness to fetch up his
brother. What course of argument
could so we'll as that incident set forth
when We toll for the salvation of soul
it is brother whom we are trying to
save?
A second reading of my text reminds
me that lise is not only story told,
but that it is brief story. A long
narrative stretched out indefinitely loses
its interest. 1t is generally the story
that takes only minute or half q
minute to rehearse that arrests the at
tentiou. Aud that gives additional in
terest to the story Of our life. Its a
short story. Subtract from our life all
the hours Of necessary sleep, all the
hours of iucapacity through fatigue or
| illness, all the hours Of childhood aud
youth before we get fairly to work, and
you have abbreviated the story Of life
so much that you can appreciate the
psalmist's remark when he says, Thou
hast made my days as hands
BREADTH" and can appreciate the
apostle James expression when he COM
pares life to ''. vapor that appeareth
for little season aud then 7anishes
| away.
It does not take long to tell all the
vicissitudes of life-the gladness and
the griefs, the arrivals and the depar-
lures, the successes and the failures,
the victories and the defeats, the ups
and the downs. The longer we live the
shorter the years. We hardly get over
the bewilderiug fatigue Of selecting
gifts for children and friends and see
hat the presents get of in time to ar
rive on the appropriate day than We see
soother advancing group Of holidays.
Autumnal fruit SO sharply chases the
summer harvest, and the snow of the
white blossoms Of springtime come SO
soon after the SHOWS of winter. 1t IS a
remark so often made that it fails to
make any impression and the platitude
that calls forth no reply, How rapidly
times goes.
Every century is big waeel of years,
which makes hundred revolutions and
breaks down. Every year is big
wheel of months and makes u revolu
tions and then ceases. Biologists and
theologisns go into Celebrations Of
guesses rs to how long the world will
probably last; how long before the vol
cauic forces will explode it, or meteoric
stroke demolish it, or the cold of a long
winter freeze out its population, or the
fires Of last confagration burn it.
That is all very well. but so far as the