The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-02-20

struggle of the poor to get 1000 ana
clothes and shelter and to educate their
children, and on the other side ne had
seen the gouty foot, and the indigestion,
and the insomnia, and the anxiety ABOUT
paresis often characteristic of those who
are loaded up and loaded down with too
many successes. Those people who are
generally called the masses-that is, the
most of folks-have the things absolutely
necessary for their we'll being. They have
no Murillos on their wall. nor 'Belshaz-
zar's Feast" in their dining room, nor g
pair of $4,000 sorrels at their doorway.
But they have something which those
superabundantly supplied seldom have
they have better health because, being
compelled to walk. they get the necessary
exercise. and, their diet being limited to
plain food, they do not suffer from mid
night salads and are not victimlzed by
rare caterers.
They retire for wholesome sleep at the
very hour in which others are leaving
their homes for the dance or the card
party. They will sleep the last. sleep Just
as well in the plain graveyard as those
who have over them an arch OF sculptured
granite in costliest metropolis or most his
torical abbey.
Things are more equally divided than is
generally supposed. That splendid home
is apt to have taking off of some kind.
1t may be an invalid wife, or deformed
child, or an inherited tending toward in:
sanity. or dissolute son, or despolled
reputation, or a weakened heart that may
halt under the least excitement. Envy no
man. Envy no woman. Be content with
such things as We have. VI,
Do not think, in order to have it well
with you, according to my text, that
therefore you must have more than some
body else, or even as much as somebody
else. The Lord treats us all better than
we treat Him, and if we would study our
blessings as much as we study our disas.
ters we would be more reasonable and
thankful.
In Isaiah God says that bread and
water shall be sure, and none of us has
been put on so low a diet. but we often
act as though God had not kept His prom
ise because we want more luXuries, for.
getful of the fact that He promised bread,
not cake, water, not sparkling cordia s.
The reason so many people are mlsera'
BILE is because they do not let well enough
alone. They are in one occupation and
see it's annoyances and SO change to an
other occupation, and find as manly annoy
'ances, if not more. They live in one
place and know its uncomfortable environ
ments and move into another place which
has Just as many limitations. Their in
vestments yield them four per cent, and
they sell out to make investments that
will yield ten per cent. and lose all. Bet
ter settle down and stop fretting about
yourself and the world.
An officer in Cromwells time was sc
worried about public affairs that he could
not sleep. His servant, Christian man
said he would like the privilege of asking
the officer a question. Leave being granted
the servant said: "Do you not think that
God governed the world very well beforss
was the reply. "And do you not think He
gone out of it," Certainly" 'Then-
pray. sir, excuse me-but do you not
think you may trust Him to govern it az
long as YOU live in it," The remark wa,
so sensible that sleeplessness departed
and tranquility came.
A particular Providence is as certain al
a general Providence. 1t did not inst hap
pen so that Brunei noticed a shipworn
boring into the wood, so suggesting to the
engineer the tunneling of the Thames: II
did not just happen so that a spiders
web strung for. tree to tree suggested tn.
susnension bridge to its first originator
mine. 1t is not an autocrat at the heac
of the universe, but Father.
Do any of US fully realize the fact tina,
God gives US three things in unlimited
supply, although no formula of prayer
that | ever heard recognizes them-water,
air and sunlight? Water bv the riverful
Water by the lakeful Water by tn.
oceanful Some for ablution. some fol
slaking of thirst, some for baptistery, som,
for fountains and aquarinms. / never ap
preciated what wonderful thing water ii
until last summer I stood by the foun
tains before and around the Emperor's
palace at Peterhof. Russia.
With still more abundance is the air dis
tributed. An earth full of it; sky full Of
it. Swiftest and strongest eagle cannot fly
so high as not to have it in the nostril OF
under the wing. And what affluence o;
sunlight! No one but the infinite Goo
could dispense so much of it. The COLDER
candlestick set on the blue mantel of the
heavens! So great that the Almighty il
compared to it. the psalmist crying out
'"The Lord God is SUM-" 1t is high
time that we recognize in our liturgies anc
in our formulas Of prayer the three most
abundant blessings of the universe which
come to all.
Some scientists are now discussing the
earth and the planet Mars. Experiments
are being made, but they will not succeed
We cannot build fire large enough to at
tract the attention of that world, or lift a
lens powerful enough to see any response
interstellar. We do not positively know
that that world is occupied by living
beings, or that, if it is occupied, commu'
nicaton with them would be desirable
1t might not be SO good world as this.
and thus communication with it would be
debasng.
But rejoice to know that heaven is in
touch with other worlds for their improve.
ment, and depot for glorious arrivals
1t is a thoroughfare between this world
and that world, and coming and going
perpetual.
Going out of this world is as natural
as coming into it, but the one is with pang,
and the other is with rapture, if we are
fitted for the uplifting process. 1t shall
be we'll with you. Now, do not get SC
frightened about that asthma or that cough
or that influenza or that threatened pneu'
monia. The worst thing that fatal dis.
ease can do is to usher you into corona.
tion and enthronement. 1t shall be well
with you. Take as good care of your
you can employ, observe all sanitary laws.
keep in this world as long as you are per
mitted to stay, and then when the heav'
eniy call comes be glad to 60.
L do not care much about what, your
last words" are going to be. People put
too much emphasis on 'last words"
would rather know what your words are
now, in days of health and with mental
faculties in full play-your words of kind
ness, your words of sympathy, your words
of helpfulness, your words of prayer.
So live that if you say not word dur
ing the last day of your life there will be
no doubt here about the place of your des
tination. You will 60 right into sanity.
prophetic, evangelistic, apostolic, cherubic
seraphic, archangelic, deihc presence. 1t
shall be well with you.
Mother, YOU, will go right up into the