The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1900-10-03

the south of France aud enough rags 1rom
tatterdermalions and hidden in these artl'
cles of transportation enough choIeralc
germs to have left by this time all the
thank all the doctors and quarantlnes, but
more than all and first of all and last Of
all and all the time thank God. In all
the 5000 years of the worlds existence
there has not one thing merely Happened
So" God j. not an anarchist, but hing,
Father. -.
When little Tad, the son of President
| Lincoln, died, all America svmpathlZed
with the sorrow in the White House. he
Used to rush into the room where the
| Cabinet was in session and while the most
eminent men of the land were discussing
the questions of national existence. But
the child had no care about those ques.
tions. No. God the Father and God the
Son and God the Holy Ghost are in per.
petual session in regard to this world
and kindred worlds. Shall you, His child,
rush in to criticise or arrairn or condemn
the divine government? No. The cab,
| met of the eternal three can govern and
| will govern in the wisest and best way,
and there never will be a mistake and,
like razor skillfully swung, shall cut that
which ought to be avoided. Precision to
the very hairbreadth. Earthly time
pieces may 60 out of order and strike
wrong, saying it is o'clock when it Is z
or 2 when it is 8. Gods clock is always
right, and when it is it strikes !, and
when it is IL it strikes IL. and the second
hand is as accurate as the minute hand. :,
Further, my text tells us chat God
sometimes shaves nations: "In the same
day shall the Lord shave with a razor
that is hired" With one sharp sweep
He went across Judea, and down went it's
pride and its power. In 1851 God shaved
the American nation. We had allowed to
grow Sabbath desecration and oppression
and blasphemy and fraud and impurity
and all sorts Of tuypitude The South had
it's sins and the North had its sins and
the East its sins and the West it's sins;
We had been warned again and again, ana
we did not$heed. AT length the sword OF 9t
war cut from the st. lawrence to the Gulf
and from Atlantic seat card to Pacific sea.
board The pride of the land, not the
towards, but the heroes, on both sides
went down. And that which we took for
the sword of war was the Lord razor. In
1852 again it went across the land; IN
1868 again: in 1884 again. Then the sharp
instrument. was iAcased and put away.
Never. inS the history of the ages was
any land more thoroughly. shaved than
during those fowSiyears of civil combat,
and my bretlGen, il we do. not quit some
of our, individual and national sins the
Lord will again take US in hend: He has
other razors within reich besides war.
Epidemics, droughts, deluges, plaques
grasshopper and Iocust-or our overtower-
ing success may 80 far excite the jealousy
of other lands that under some pretext
the great nations may combine to put us
down. Our nation, so easily approached
on north and south and from both oceans,
might have on hand at once more hostih-
tilities than were ever arrayed against any
one power. I hope no such combination
against us shall ever be formed, but l
want to show that as Assyria was the
hired razor against Judea and Cyrus the
hired razor against Babylon and the Huns
the hired razor against the Goths tnere
hire il because of our national sins He
should undertake to shave US. In lS7O
Germany was the razor with which the
Lord shaved France. Japan! was the "a,
zor with which He shaved China, and
American the razor with which He shaved
arrogant oppressive and Bible-hatlng
Spain. But nations are to repent IN a
|, day. May speedy and worldwide coming
to God hinder on both sides the sea all
national calamity. But do not let us as O.
nation either by unrighteous law at Wash
ingtol or bad lives among ourselves defy
One would think that our national SYM
boil of the eagle might sometimes suggest
another eagle, that which; ancient Rome
carried. In the talqQs Of that eagle were
Spain, Italy, Dalmatia, Rhaetia, Norieum,
Pannonia, Moesia, Dacia, Thrace, Mace
donia, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Phoeni-
cia, Palestine, Egypt and all northern
Africa and all the islands OF the Mediter-
ranean-indeed all the world that was
worth having; l20,000,0OO of people under
the wings Of that one eagle! Where Is
she now? Ask Gibbon, the historian, in
his prose poem, the decline and Fall OF
the Roman Empire" Ask her gigantic
ruins, beInoaning their sadness through
the ages, the screech owl at windows out
of which worldwide eonquerers looked.
Ask the day of Judgment, when her
crowned debauchees, ,Commodus and Per.
tinax and Caligula and Diocletian, shall
answer for their infamy. As man and as
nations let US repent and have our trust
in pardonipg God rather than depend
on former ,sdccesses for immunity. Out
of thirteen of the greatest battles OF the
world Napoleon had lost but one before
Waterloo. Pride and destruction often
rode in the same saddle. 80 }, -.
=
all in my text that GOD is so kind and
loving that when it is necessary for Him
to cut He has to go to others for the
sharp edged weapon. "In. the same day
shall the Lord shave with razor that is
hired" God is love. God is pity. God
is help. God is shelter. God is rescue.
There are no sharp edges about Him, no
thrusting points, no Instruments OF iacera-
ton. If you want balm for wounds, He
has that. If you want divine salve for
eyesight, He has that. But. Il there Is
sharp and cutting work to do which re-
quires a razor, that He hires. God has
nothing about Him that hurts save when
dire necessity demands, and then he has
to go clear off to some one, else to get the
instrument. This divine clemency will 1e
no novelty to those who have pondefed
the Calvarean massacre, Were God sub.
merged Himself in human tears and Grim
soned Himself from punctured arteries
and let the terrestrial and Internal worlds
maui Him until the chandeliers of the
sky had to be turned out because the uni
verse could not endure the outrage. Illus
trous for love He must have been to take
all that as our substitute. paying out or
His own heart the price Of our admission
at the gates of heaven.
King Henry II. of England crowned his
SON as king, and on the day OF coronation
put on a servants garb and waited, ne,
the king, at the sons table, to the aston
ishment of all the princes. But we know!
OF more wondrous scene, the King OF
heaven aud earth offering to put on you,
His child, the crown of life and in the
form of servant waiting on you with
blessing. Extol that love, all painting, all
sculpture, all music, all architecture, all
worship! In Dresdenian gallery, let Ra'