The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-01-23

to pay the board of the villains who are
| incarcerated in our prisons; we have to
take care of the orphans of those who
plunged into their graves through beastly
indulgence; we have to support the MUM.
| cipal governments, which are expensive
just in proportion as the criminal proclivi'
| ties are vast and tremendous. Who sup.
ports the almshouses and police stations
and all the machinery of municipal gov.
ernment? The taxpayers.
But in the glorious time Of which
speak grievous taxation will all have
ceased. There will be no need of support
ing criminals; there will be no criminals.
Virtue will have taken the place of vice.
There will be no orphan asylums, for pa
rents will be able to leave a competency
to their children; there will be no voting
of large sums of moneys for some munich
pal improvement, which moneys, before
they get to the improvement, drop into
the pockets of those who voted them; no
oyer and terminer kept up at vast expense
to the people, no impaneling of juries to
try theft and arson and murder and SLAM
der and blackmail; better factories; grand.
er architecture; finer equipage; larger for
tunes; richer opulence. "a morning with
out Clouds"
In that better time also coming to these
cities the churches of Christ will be more
numerous, and they will be larger, and
they will be more devoted to the service
of Jesus Christ, and they will accomplish
greater influences for good. Now it is
often the case that churches are envions
of each other, and denominations collide
with each other, and even ministers Of
Christ sometimes forget the bond of
brotherhood. But in the time of which I
speak, while there will be just as many
differences of opinion as there are now,
there will be no acerbity, no hypercriti-
cism, no exclusiveness.
In our great cities the churches are not
to-day large enough to hold mere than
fourth of the population. The churches
that are built-comparatiyely few of them
are fully occupied. The average attend
ance in the churches of the United States
to-day is not 400. Now, in the glorious
time of which I speak there are going to
be vast churches, and they are going to be
all thronged with worshipers. Oh, what
rousing songs they will sing! Oh what
earnest sermons they will preach! Oh,
what fervent prayers they will offer! Now,
in our time what is called fashionable
church is a place where few people, hav.
ing attended very carefully to their toilet,
come and sit down-they do not want to
be crowded, they like a whole seat to
themselves-and then, if they have any
time left from thinking of their store, and
from examining the style of The hat in
front Of them, they sit and listen to the
sermon warranted to hit no mans sins,
and listen to music which is rendered by
a choir warranted to sing tunes that no
body knows! And then, after an hour
and half Of indolent yawning, they go
home refreshed. Every man feels better
after he has had sleep!
In many of the churches of Christ in
our day the music is simply mockery. l
have not cultivated ear nor cultivated
voice, vet no man can do my singing for
me. have nothing to say against artistic
music. The 50 or $5 I pay to hear one of
the great queens of song is a good invest
ment. But when the people assemble in
religious convocations and the hymn is
read and the angels of God step from their
throne to catch the music on their wings,
do not let US drive them away by our in
difference.
In the glorious time coming in our cities
and in the world hosanna will meet no.
sanna and hallelujah hallelujah. In that
time also of which I speak all the haunts
OF iniquity and crime and squalor will be
cleansed and will be illumined. How is it
to be done? You say perhaps by one in.
auence. Perhaps l say by another. will
tell you what is my idea, and know l am
right in it. The gospel of the Son of God
is the only agency that will ever accom-.
plish this.
In that day of which I speak do you
believe that there will be any midnight
carousal? Will there be any kicking off
rom marble steps of shivering mendicants?
Will there be any unwashed, unfed, un-
combed children? Will there be any
blasphemies in the street? Will there be
any inebriates staggering past? No.
No wine stores, no lager beer saloons,
no breweries, where they make the three
KS; no bloodshot eye; no bloated check;
no instruments of ruin and destruction; no
fist pounded forehead.
But all these wrongs are going to be
righted. I expect to live to see the day.
I think I hear in the distance the rum
bling of the Kings chariot. Not always
in the minority is the church Of God
going to be-, or are good men going to be.
The streets are going to be filled with re-
generated populations.
What will you do with those who fleece
that young man, getting him to purloin
large sums of money from his employer
the young man who came to an officer of
my church and told the story and franti-
cally asked what he might do? Nothing.
Gods love viii yet bring back this
ruined world to holiness and happiness
An infinite Father bends over it in SYM
pathy. And to the orphan He will be
Father, and to the widow He will be
husband, and to the outcast He will be
home, and to the poorest wretch that to-
day crawls out of the ditch of his abom-
ination, crying for mercy, He will be an
all pardoninS: :Redeemer.
The rocks will turn gray with age, the
forests will be unmoored in the hurricane,
the sun will shut its fiery eyelid, the stars
will drop like blasted figs, the sea will
heave its last groan and lash itself in ex-
piring agony, the continents will drop like
anchors in the deep, The world will wrap
itself in sheet of fame and leap on the
funeral pyre of the judgment day, but
Gods love will never die. 1t shall kindle
it's suns after all other lights have gone
out. 1t will be billowing sea after all
other oceans have wept themselves away.
1t will warm itself by the blaze of con-
suming world. 1t will sing while the
archangel's trumpet peals and the air is
filled with the crash of breaking sepul-
chers and the rush of the wings of the
rising dead. Oh, commend that love to
all the cities and the morning without
clouds will come!
l know that sometimes it seems hope
less task. You toll on in different spheres,
sometimes with great discouragement.
People have no faith and say: 1t does
not amount to anything. You might as
we'll quit that" Why, when Moses
stretched his hand over the Red Sea it
did not seem to mean anything especially.
People came out, suppose, and said,
"Aha!" Some of them found out what he
wanted to do. He wanted the sea parted.
1t did not amount to anything, this
stretching out of his hand over the sea!
But after awhile the wind blew all night