The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-01-30

signs his name to that surrender of his
last farthing of earthly possessions. He
enters heaven, but he has not an abundant
entrance.
1 asked re manager of an insane asy
lum in Kentucky, From what class OF
persons do you get most of your patlents!.
and he said, From farmers wives" !
asked the same question Of the manager
of an insane asylum in Pennsylvania and
| the same question of the manager of an
insane asylum in Massachusetts, and got
| the same reply. eve have on our rolls
for treatment more farmers wives than
persons coming from any other class"
| That answer will be a surprise to some.
1t was no surprise to me.
The simple reason is farmers wives have
| no diversion. 1t is breakfast, dinner and
supper, sewing, securing, scrubbing, knit.
ting, mending, year in and year out. That
mother is the milliner, the mantuamaker,
the nurse, the doctor, the accountant, of
the whole family. She plans the ward.
robe of spring, summer, of autumn, Of
winter, cutting, fitting, completing gar.
ments, out of which the children soon
grow and must have something else. The
newspaper does not come, or if coming
there is no time to read it. No selection
of good books. The neighbors calling in
are full of the same grinding routine. No
wonder so many of them go into dementia.
Now, the mother of whom I speak has
gone through all the drudgery mentioned,
and her children have turned out we'll,
good and useful men and women, orna-
ments of society, pillars in the house of
God, and that whole family, after the
years have passed by and their work is
done, will meet in the heavenly country.
From such family some will certainly
have preceded her, and the time of her
expected arrival will be announced to all
the members of that family already glori-
ned, and to the old earthly neighbors who
put down their tolls little sooner than
she did, and she will have the warmest
kind of home coming, and she will go
through the gate as easily as ever she
lifted the latch off her front door coming
from the old country meeting house where
she used to worship. Go in, mother!
Heaven has been waiting for you a good
many years. Got rid of all your aches
and pains and weariness, have you? Go
anywhere in heaven, and they will be glad
to see you. On the highest throne you
will find one who said, Behold thy moth
er." Sit anywhere you please. You will
be at home anywhere. Take your pick
out of that sheaf of scepters. What! The
wrinkles have all gone out of your face,
and the once rheumatic step has become
like that of the bounding roe. Just as !
expected. you aged, glorifed soul, you had
an abundant entrance.
Well, this man of consecrated aff1uence
is about to 60 out Of this world. He feels
in brain and nerve the strain of the early
struggles by which he won his fort1ne,
and at sixty or seventy years collapsey un-
der the exhaustions of the twenties and
thirties of his lifetime When the morn
ing papers announce that he is gone there
is excitement not only on the avenues
where the mansions stand, but all through
the hospitals and asylums and the homes
of those who will henceforth have no
helper. But the excitement of sadness on
earth is very tame affair compared with
the excitement of gladness in heaven. The
guardian angel of that good mans life
swept by his dying pillow the night be.
fore and on swift wing upward announced
that in few hours he would arrive, and
there is a mighty stir in heaven. HE
comes" cries seraph to seraph. The
Kings heralds are at the gates to say,
Come, ye blessed" and souls who were
saved through the churches that good
man supported and hundreds who went
up after being by him helped in their
earthly struggle will come down off their
thrones and out of their palaces and
through the streets to hail him into the
land which they reached some time before
through his Christian philanthropy. Now,
that is what l call an abundant entrance.
You see, 1t is not necessary to be a failure
on earth in order to be success in heaven.
BUT ! promise that all those who have
lived for others and been truly Christian,
whether on a large scale or a small scale,
will have iliustrious introduction into the
impearled gateway. Here and there IN
some large family you see an attractive
daughter who declines marriage that she
may take care OF father and mother in old
days. This is not an abstraction. | have
known such. You have probably known
such. There are in this world womanly
souls as big as that They cheerfully en-
dure the whimsicalities and querulousness
which sometimes characterize the aged
and watch nights when pneumonia is
threatened and are eyes to the blind and
sit in close rooms lest the septuagenarlan
be chilled and count out the right number
of drops at the right time.
After years of filial fidelity on the part
of this self sacrificing daughter the old
folks 90 home Now the daughter is free
from marital alliance, but the damask rose
in her cheek is faded. and the crows feet
have left their mask on the foreheai, and
the gracefulness is gone out of the figure,
and the world calls her by mean and
ungallant name. But, my Lord and my
God, surely Thou wilt make it up TO: that
girl in heavenly reward! On all the banks
of the river of life there is no castle OF
emerald and carbuncle richer than that
which awaits her. Its windows look right
out upon the Kings park. and the white
horses of the chariot are being harnassed
to meet her at the gate, and if there are
no others to meet her father and mother
will be there to thank her for all she did
for them when their strength failed and
the grasshopper became burden, and
they will say: MY daughter. how kind
you were to us even until the last! How
good it is to be together in heaven. That
is the Kings chariot come for you. Mount
and ride to your everlasting home!" Now,
tnat is what call an abundant entrance.
Know right we'll that in whatever sta
ton Of life you now move, and whether
your intellectual faculty be brilliant. or
dull, and your worldly resources opuleat
or poor, you may have at the gate OF
heaven jubilant and triumphant reception:
All soldiers cannot be Hannibals and
Marlboroughs, all admirals cannot be Du.
points and Farraguts, all authors cannot
be Bacons and Southeys, neither can all
Christians be Pauls and Richard Ceclls
Do your best right where you are, asking
Gods help, and you will not only win glo
rious admission, but you will make all
your life in heaven grander and higher
life.
Oh, child of God, if you had never
thought of it before, l present the start
ling fact that you are now deciding not
oniy the style of your heavenly reception,
blt the grade of your association and en-
joyment of the world without end. Are
you satisfied with yourself that you can
afford to throw away raptures and ignore
heavenly possibilities and elect yourself to
lower status and classify yourself amid
the less efficient when you may mount
higher heaven?
While I thus discourse am aware that