The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-11-13

| constellation Taurus, and You can see
for yourself. But it is impossible to point
to influences far back that have affected
orr character and will affect our destiny
We know the influences near by-pa'
ternal, maternal cohjugal-but by the
time we have gone back two generations,
| or, at most. three. our Investigations
falter and fail. Through the modern.
| interesting habit of searching back to
| find the ancestral tree We may find a
long list of names, but they are only
names. The conservation or abandon
ment of some one 200 years ago was not
recorded. 1t would not be so important
| if you and I. by our good or bad be.
havior, blessed or blasted only those i'm
mediately around US, but our goodness
or our badness will reach as far as the
strongest ray O., Alcyon!e-yea, across the
what do YOU think of those who give
themselves up to frivolity or idleness
and throw away fifty years of their exist.
ence as though they we're shells or peb.
blcs or pods instead of embyro eternites
I suppose one of the greatest surprises
of the next world will be to see what
wide, far-reaching influence for good or
evil we have all exerted. I am speaking
of ourselves, who are only ordinary peo-
pie. But who can fully appreciate the
far-reaching good done by men of wealth
in Great Britain for the working classes
Mr.. Lister. of Bradford; Edward
Akroyd, of Halifax; Thomas Skies, OF
Huddersfeid; Joseph Wentworth, and
Josiah Mason, and Sir Titus Salt? This
last great soul, with his vast wealth, pro,
vided 756 houses at, cheap for 5000
ground and croquet lawn and concert
hall and savings bank, where they
might deposit some OF their earnings,
and life insurance for those who looked
further ahead, and lighthouses and parks
and museums and lecture halls with
philosophical apparatus, the generous
example OF those men Of previous gem
Grafton being copied in many places ii
Canada and the United States, making
life, which would otherwise be pro-
LONG ged Grudgery, an inspiration ard q
JOY.
NV text called Job and calls us to con-
slider "the sweet influences" We put
too much emphasis upon the aciditiss OF
life, upon the irritations of life, upon the
disaDpointments of life. Ammianu3 Mar
cellinus said that Chaldea was in olden
times overrun with lions, but many Ct
them lost their power because the great
swamps produced many gnats that
would get into the eyes Of the lions, and
the lions, TO free themselves OF the gnats,
would claw. their own eyes and then
starve. And in our time many lion
has been overcome by gnat: The little,
singing annoyances of life keep us
from appreciating the sweet influences.
And how many OF these last there arc!
Sweet influences of home, however plain
it may be! That is the harbor into which
we sail; that is the goal for which we
run; that is the place where we rest;
there abide all confidence and affections;
there we lay out our plans; there We ex-
tend our sympathies; there we talk over
our successes; there we unload our
griefs. Its four walls shut out a pIrylng
and inquisitive world. Thank God for
the home in which we were born; the
home in which we now live, the home
in which we expect to die!
say. "Wait till 1 hear the other side"
If disaster shall befal US, we know from
whom would come the first coincidence.
Family friends, church friends, business
friends, lifelong friends. In our heart
of hearts we cherish them.
Sweet influences Of our holy religion,
surrounded as we are by all the amen-
ties of Christian society-men and women
who have felt the refining and elevatlng
power of the Gospel! Sweet influences
of the Sabbath, tifty-two of them Ginning
their Joy into every year! Sweet IN
Auences of the Scriptures, with their
balm for all wounds and their light Tor
every darkness.
When the heirs of a vast estate in
England wished to establish their claim
to property worth $l00, ,000, 900 they offered
a reward of $500 for the recovery OF an
old Bible, the family record OF which
contained the evidence requisite. But
any bible, new or old, can help US to a
vaster inheritance than the one spoken
of, one that never fades away.
The sweet influences OF the heavenly
world, which many wise men, thought
for a long while was Alcyone, the centre
of the constellation of the Pleiades-
world OF our future residence, as we hope;
world OF chorus and illumination; world
Of reunion; world where we shall be
everastingy complete; world where our
old faculties will be itensiied and quick.
ened and new faculties implanted. world
Of high association with Christ, through
whose grace we got there at all, and
apostles and poets, Habakkuk,- and St.
John of Patmos, and Edward Young, his
might Thoughts" turned into eternal
day; and Horatius Bonar of modern
hymnology, and Hannah More, and Mrs.
Hemans, and Mrs. Sigourney, who, struck
their Larps till nations, listened; ana
Darid, the victor over Goliath with what
seemed insufficient weapons; and Joshua
of the prolonged day in Gideon, and
Haye.ock, the evangelist hero, and those
thousands of men of the sword who
fought on the right side. What company
to move in! What guests to entertain!
What personazes to visit! What choirs
to chant! What banquets with lifted
chalice filled with "the new wine OF the
kingdoml" What victories to celebrate!
The stories of that world and its holy
hiiarities come in upon our souls some
times in song, sometimes in sermon,
sometimes in hours of solitary retiectlon,
and they are, to Use the words OF my
text, sweet influences But there IS one
star that affects us more with It's sweet
influences than the centre star, the
Alcyone of the P!eiades, and that IS %hat
one Bible author calls the Star OF Jacoo
and another Bible author calls the Morn.
ing Star. Of all the sweet influences that
have ever touched our earth those that
radiate from Christ are the sweetest.
Born an Asiatic villager, in mechanic
home living more among hammers ana
saws and planes than among books, YET
at twelve years of age confoundlng rrooed
ecclesiastics and starting out mission
under which those born without optic
nerve took in the clear daylight and
those afflicted with unresponsive tympa-
mum were made to hear and those almost
doubled up with deformities were
srraightened into graceful poise and the
ieprous became ruDicund and the widow
on.y son exchanged the bier on which
he lay lifeless for the arms OF his over
loved mother and pronouneing nine Dene,
tlctions on the Mount OF beatltudes an1
are filling the centuries with sweet in
Huences.
kindied every electric ray, spread every
soft hospital pillow and introduced all