The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-07-10
uncertain indication, and is apt to blow
the wrong Way,

our Northern States in 1861, when Mason
and Shdell, the distinguished Southern
ers, had been taken by our navy from the
British steamer Trent, and the English
Government resented the act of our Gov
eerrnment in stopping one Of their ships:
Britain. "No," said the almost unani-
nous opinion Of the North, "do not give
them up. Let US have war with England
rather than surrender them" Then Will.
lam H. Seward, Secretary of State, faced
one of the fercest storms of public opin-
ion ever seen in this or any other country.
Seeing that the retention Of these two men
was of no Importance to our country and
that their retention would rut Great Bri-
tain and the United States into immediate
conflict, said, 1--WE give them up" They
were given up, and through the resistance
of popular clamor by that one man a
worldwide calamity was averted.
Some of us remember as boys huzzaing
when Kossuth, the great Hungarian, rode
up Broadway, New York. Most Amer.
cans were in favor of taking some decided
steps for Hungary. The only result of
such interference would have been the
sacrifice of all good precedent and war
with European nations: Then Daniel
Webster, in his immortal "Hulsemann let
ter" braved whirlwind of popular opin-
ion and saved this nation from useless
foreign ENHANCEMENT. Webster did not
ter. So in state and church there have
always been men at the right time ready
to face nation full-yea, world full
of opposition.
How many there are who give too much
studying the barometer! Make up your
mind what you are going to do and then
go ahead and do it. There always will be
hindrahces. 1t is a moral disaster if you
allow prudence to overmaster all the
other graces. The Bible makes more of
courage and faith and perseverance than
it does of caution. 1t is not once year
that the great ocean steamers fail to sail
at the appointed time because of the storm
signals. Let the weather bureau prophesy
what hurricane or cyclone it may, next
Wednesday, next Thursday, next Satur-
day the steamers will put out from New
bors and will reach Liverpool and South
ampton and Glasgow and Bremen, their
arrival as certain as their embarkation
They cannot afford to consult the wind,
nor can you in your life voyage.
The winds of stormiest opposition blew
on His cradle, blew on His mountain pull.
pit, blew upon the homesteads that dared
to give Him shelter, blew upon His grave
but He went right on and sowed the
earth with sympathetic tears and redeem
ing blood and consolation and helpfulness
and redemption and victory. It was. an
awful time to SOW. But behold the har
vest of churches, asylums, worldwide
charities, civilizations, millenniums!
Some of them died in prison; some Of
them were burned at the stake; some oi
cd or nt1h
cause of the laws of sanitation. They
were bounded through the world and
bounded out of it. Now we cross the
ocean to see the room in which they were
born or died, and look up at monuments
which the church of the world has reared
to their matchless fidelity and courage.
Young men, you have planned what
you are going to be and do in the world
but you are waiting for circumstances te
BECOME more favorable. You are, like
the farmer in the text, observing tht
wind. Better start now. Obstacles vii
help you if you conquer them. Cut YOU
way through. Peter Cooper, the million
aire philanthropist, who will bless all sue
ceeding centuries with the institution ht
founded, worked five years for SIS yeal
and his board. Henry Wilson, the Chris
tian statesman who commanded the Uni
ted States Senate with the gavel of the
Vice-P Presidency, wrote of his early days
"Want sat by my cradle. know what
it is to ask q mother for bread when she
has none to give. I left my home at ten
years of age and served an apprenticeship
of eleven years, receiving q months school
ing each year and at the end of eleven
wears of hard work a yoke OF oxen and
six sheep, which brought me SS4. In the
first month after I was twenty-one years
of age I went into the woods, drove g
team and cut mill logs. / arose in, the
morning before daylight and. worked hare
till after dark, and received the magnlh
cent sum of $6 for the months work
Each of these dollars looked as large tc
me as the moon looks tonight" Won
derful Henry Wilson But that was not
his original name. He changed his name
because he did not want on him the
blight of a drunken father. As the Vice
President stood in my pulpit in Brooklyn
making the last address he ever made and
commended the religion of Christ to the
young men of that city, 1 thought to my
self, "You yourself are the sublimest spec
tacle ever say of victory over obstacles.
For thirty years the wind blew the wrong
way, yet he did not observe the wind, but
kept right on sowing.
Many of us VINO are now preachers OF
the gospel, or medical practitioners, OF
members of the bar, or merchants, or cltl
zens in various kind of business had very
poor opportunity at the start because We
had it too easy-far too easy.
We never appreciated what it is to gel
an education, because our fathers. or older
brothers paid the schooling, and we did
not get the muscle which nothing but
hard work can develop. l congratulate
fo 10
It is out of such circumstances God makes
heroes if they are willing to be made.
Cut your way through.
If it were proper to do so, and you
should stand in any board of bank direc-
tors, in any board of trade. in any Legls-
lature, State or national, and ask all who
were brought up in luxury and ease to lift
their hand, here and there hand might
be lifted, but ask all those who had an
awful hard time at the start to lift their
hands, and most of the hands would be
lifted
Columbus. by calculation, made up his
mind that there must be new hemisphere
somewhere to balance the old hemisphere
or it would be lop-sided world. And l
have found out, not by calculation, but ny
for you somewhere to balance your great
struggle. Do not think your case is pc
culiar. The most favored have been
pelted. The mobs smashed the windows
of the Duke of Wellington while his wife
lay dead in the house.
But my subject takes another step.
Through medical science, and dentistry
that has improved the worlds mastleatlon,
and stronger defense against climatic
changes, and better understanding Of the
laws Of health, human life has been great
ly prolonged. But centenarian is still a
wonders How many people do you know
hundred years old? / do not know one.
we talk of century as though it were a
very long reach of time. But what is one
century on earth compared .th centuries
hat we are to live somewhere, somehow
ten centuries, a million centuries, gum;
tilion &C centuries? We are all determined
to. get ready for the longer life we, are to