The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-12-04
on opportunities past, but put your EN-.

| Sdi oo iHole lor ~ Cndn can Time! WndC
will we not be able to do when our powers
of locomotion shall be quckened into the
immortal spirits speed? Why should a
| bird have swiftness of wing when it is
of no importance how long it shall take
to make its asrial way from forest to for.
est and we, y no have so much more i'm.
| portant errand in the world, Get on so
| slowly? The roebuck outruns us, the
hounds are quicker in the chase. but wait
| until God lets us loose from all limitations
| and indictments. Then we will fairly be.
| gln The starting post will be the tomb.
stone Leaving the world will be gradua.
| tion day before the chief work of our men
| tai and spiritual career. Hope sees the
doors opening, the victor's foot in stirrup
| for the mounting. The day breaks-frst
| flush of the horizon. The mission of hope
will be an everlasting mission, as much of
| it in the heavenly hereafter AS in the
earthly now. Shall we have gained all as
soon as we enter realms celestial-nothing
more to learn, no other heights to climb
no new anthems to raise, monotony of
existence, the same thing over and over
again for endless years? No! More pro-
qress in that world than we ever made in
this.
Hope will stand on the hills of heaven
and look for ever frightening landscapes,
other transformations of color, new glo-
ries rolling over the scene, new celebra-
tion of victories in other worlds, heaven
rising into grander heavens, seas of glass
mingled with fire, becoming a more bril-
liant glass miIging with a more flaming
fire. (Which hope"
Now, let me introduce this feeling into
the lives of some who are at times hope
less. There is family whose son has gone
wrong. Father and mother have about
ho hoo
grateful, so dissipated, and the old folks
do not know half the story of moral pre-.
cipitation: He has ceased writing home,
but they hear of him through people who
like to carry bad news, and every time
the report is more deplorable. He swears,
he CANDLES, he drinks. he goes into all the
shambles of sin. His former employer
says there is no hope for him.. and all out
side the family agree in thinking he will
have not quite given him up, and these
That boy is going to come back. You have
hold on him that You must not relax.
Through prayer you may win the eternal
God for your side Of the struggle. You
must enlist all the heavenly dominions,
cherubim and seraphim and archangel in
the movement to save your son. Some day
or some night he will call halt to his in
famous practices. Something will happen
to him, as happened in New York hotel
clergymen Of Scotland and one of the
Queens chaplains. "When can see
you?" said a distinguished looking young
man at the close of one of my services in
Brooklyn tabernacle. said. "You can
see me now" He said. "No; want pri-
vate conversation with you at your own
house. When can I come" I said, "'Too-
morrow night" "Your name," / asked:
He gave me his name, the exact name of
his father. whose name was known and Is
known through the Christian world,
though years ago he departed this Life:
Returning home, I took up book OF
which his father was the author, and in
the picture at the opening, of the book 1
found that the young manthad most mark
edly his fathers features So was sure
there was no deception.
Hope on, and, though you may never
hear of your sons reformation and others
may think he has left this life hopeless,
who knows but that in the last moment,
after he has ceased to speak and before
his soul launches away. your prayer may
have been answered and he be one OF the
first to meet you at the shining gate. The
down at the feast, while the elder brother,
who never left the Old place, stood pouting
at the back door and did not go in at all.
To another class OF persons introduce
the angel of hone, and they are the inva-
lids. cannot take the diagnosis of your
disorder, but let hope cheer you with one
of two thoughts. Such marvellous cures
are being wrought in our day through med
ication and surgery. that your invalidism
may yet be mastered.
Persons as i'll as you have got well. Can
Ger and tuberculosis will yet give way be-
fore some new discovery. see every day
I saw pallid and leaning 'heavily on staff
and hardly able to climb stairs.
But if you will not take the hand of hope
for earthly convalescence let me point
YOU to the perfect body you are yet to
have if you love and serve the Lord.
Death will put a. prolonged anaesthetic;
upon your present body, and you will
never again feel an ache or pain, and then
in His good time you will have resurrec-
tion body, about which we know nothing
expect that it will be painless and glorious
must be the health of that land which
never feels cut Of cold or blast of heat,
and where there is no east wind sowing
pneumonias on the air. your tieetness
greater than the foot of deer. your eye
sight clearer than eagle in sky, perfect
health, in country where all the inhab-
itants are everlastingly well!
You who have in your body an en-.
cysted bullet ever since the Civil War;
YOU who have kept alive only by precau-
tions and self denials and perpetual watch;
ing of pulse and lung; you of the deateneed
ear and dim vision and the severe back
ache; you who have not been free from
pain for ten years, how do you like this
IL,
weakness and suffering subtracted and
everything jocund and bounding added,
Do not have anything to do with the
gloom that Harriet Martineau expressed
in her dying words: ''I have no reason to
believe in another world. I have had
enough of life in one and can see no good
reason why Harriet Martineau should be
perpetuated." Would you not rather have
the Christian enthusiasm of Robert. An
nan. who when some one said, L vii! be
satisfied if I manage somehow to get into
sci that was being dragged up the River
Tay: "Would you like to be pulled into
heaven with two tugs like that vessel yon-
der? I tell you would like to 60 in with
all nv sails set and colors flying"
Again, let me introduce the element OF
hope to those good people who are in de-
spair about the worlds moral condition.
They have gathered up appalling. statis-
tics. They tell of the number of divorces,
but do not take into consideration that
there are a thousand happy homes where
there is one of marital discord.
They tell you of the large number in
our land who are living proaigate lives,
but forget to mention that there are
many millions of men and women who are
doing the hest they can.
From this hour cultivate hope. Do so
by reading all the Scriptural promises OF
tie worlds coming Edenization, and doubt
il YOU dare the veracity of the Almighty
when He says He will make the desert
roseate. and the leopard and kid will lie
down in the same pasture field, and the
lion. ceasing to be carnivorous, will be-