The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-05-01
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woman complete llNdIiu. Zoo ::
come. There is a good man with $500 Of
income. Why is that? There, is Toe OF
society who lives on, doing all the dam
ore he can. to seventy-hve years or age,
and here Is a Christian father, faithful
in every department of life, at thirty-hve
wears of age taken away. by death, ms
family left helpless. Explain that. On,
there is no sentence that oltener drops
from your lips than this, y canno5 un'
derstand it; | cannot understand 1t.
that point with its illumination and its
exclamation. There is business man
who has lost his entire fortune. The
week before he lost his fortune there were
twenty carriages that stopped at the
door of his mansion. The week after he
lost his fortune all the carriages you
could count on one finger. The ,week;
before financial trouble began people all
took off their hats to him as he, passed
down the street. The week his financial
prospects were under discussion people
lust touched their hats without anywlse
bending the rim, The week that nat. ne o1tad was
their heads as they passed, not tipping
their hats at all, and the. week the
sheriff sold him out all his. friends were
looking in the store windows as they
went down past him.
Now, while the world goes away from
man while he is in financial distress;
the religion of Christ comes to hlm and
says: "You are sick, and your sickness
is to be moral publication. You are be-
reaved. God wanted in some way to take
your family to heaven, and He must be-
gin somewhere, and so He took the one
that was most beautiful and was ready to
60" I do not say that religion exnlains
everything in this life, but I do say it
lays down certain principles which. are
grandly consolatory. You know business
men often telegraph in cipher. The mer-
chant in San Francisco telegra@hs to the
merchant in New York certain informa-
ton in cipher which no other man in
that line of business can understand, but
the merchant in San Francisco has the
key to the cipher, and the merchant in
New York. has the key to the cipher, and
on that information, transmitted there
are enterprises involving hundreds of
thousands of dollars. Now, the provi-
denccs of life sometimes seem to be sense
less rigmarole, a mysterious cipher: but
God has a key to that cipher. and the
Christian a key to that cipher, and
though he may hardly be able to spell out
the meaning he gets enough of the mean
ing to understand that il. is for the best.
Now, is there not sunshine in that! ls
there not pleasure in that? Far beyond
laughter, it is nearer the fountain of tears
than boisterous demonstration. Have you
never cried for jov? There, are tears
which are eternal rapture in distillation.
Oh, the sunshine, the sunshine of
Christian explanation! Here is some one
bending over the grave of the dead. What
is going to be the consolation? Tne flow
ers you strew upon the tomb? Oh, no!
The services read at the grave? Oh, no!
The chief consolation on that grave is
what falls from the throne of God. Sun
shine, glorious sunshine-resurreetl0n sun
Again, find great deal of the SUM-
shine of this Bible and of our religion in
the climacteric joys that are to come. A
man who gets up and goes out from
concert right after the opening voluntary
donna sings or before the orchestra be-
gins has better idea of that concert
than that man has who supposes that
the chief JOYS of religion are in this world.
We here have only the first note of the
eternal orchestra. We shall in that
world have the joy of discovery. We will
in five minutes catch up with the astron-
omers, the geologists, the scientists, the
philosophers of all ages, who so far sur
passed us IN TINS world.
We can afford to adjourn astronomy
and geology and many of The sciences to
the. next world, because we shall there
tunity. 7 must study these sciences 80
far as to help me in my work, but beyond
that I must give myself to saving my own
soul and saving the souls of others, know
ing that in one fash of eternity we will
catch it all.
Oh, what an observatory in which to
study astronomy heaven will be, not by
power of telescope, but by supernatural
vision, and, if there be something doubt.
full l0,0O0,000 miles away, by one stroke of
the wing you are there, by another stroke
less time than tell you, catching it all
in one fash of eternity.
And geology! What a place that will
be to study geology when the world is be-
ing picked to pieces as easily as school.
girl in botanical lessons pulls the leaf
from the corolla! What place to study
architecture, amid the thrones and the
palaces and the cathedrals-St. Marks
and St. .Paul's rookeries in comparison.
Sometimes you wish you could make
the tour of the whole earth, going around
as others have gone, but you have not
the time, you have not the means. You
cal pause in the eternal! anthem. I say
these things for the comfort of those peo-
pie who are abridged in their opportuni-
ties-those people to whom life is hum
drum, who toll and work and toll and
work and aspire after knowledge, but
have no time to get it aud say, eff had
the opportunities which other people
have, how ; would fill my mind and soul
with great thoughts!" Be not discour-
aged, my friends. You are going to the
university yet. Death will only matricu-
late you into the royal college Of the uni
verse.
What a sublime thing it was that DR..
Thornwell, of South Carolina, uttered in
his last dying moments! As he looked up
he said, 1T opens; it expands, it ex-
pands." Or as Mr.. Toplady, the author
Of Rock of Ages" in his lcst moment OF
during his last hours looked up and said,
as though he saw something supernatural,
Light" and then as he came on nearer
the dying moment, his countenance more
luminous, he cried, Light" and at the
very. moment of his departure lifted both
hands, something supernatural in his
another name for sunshine.
Besides that, we shall have all the
pleasures of association. We will 60
right up in the front of God without any
fright. All our sins gone, there will be
nothing to be frightened about. There
our old Christian friends will troop
around us. Just as now one of your sick
friends goes away to Florida, the land of
flowers, or to the south of France, and
you do not see him for long while, and
after awhile you meet MIN, and the hol.
lows under the eyes are all filled, and the
appetite has come back, and the crutch
has been thrown away, and he is so
changed you hardly know him. You say,
why, never saw you look so we'll" He
says: II couldn't help but be well. I
have been sailing these rivers and climb
got f this elasticity. i never was 50 we'll"
Oh, my friends, your departed loved ones