The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-02-27


triumphant deathbeds of in6dels and athe-
lists?
'"lIow do YOU account for the fact that
among the out.and-out believers in Chris
tianitv were such persons as Benjamin
Tranilin. John Ruskin. Thomas Carlyle,
Babington Macaulay William Penn, Wal
ter Scott, Charles Kingsley. Horace Bush.
nell, James A. Garfield, Robert f. Lee,
Stonewall Jackson, Admiral Foote, Ad-
mTs FaEragu 9EyISes a. SRisf 'Hnn ns.
tice Marshall, John Adams, Daniel Webs
ter George Washington? How do you
account for their fondness for the Chris
tian religion: =,
"Among the innumerable colleges and
universities of the earth will you name me
three started by in6dels and now sup
ported by infdels? Down in yoar heart
are you really happy in the position you
occupy antagonistic to the Christian rei''
gion?, /.,oo.. ..,u,,,.
views of the next world
Go at him with a few such questions,
and he will get so red in the face as to
suggest apoplexy, and he will look at his
watch and say he has an engagement and
must 20. You will put him in a sweat
that will beat Turkish bath. You will
put him on a rout compared with which
our troops at Bull Run made no time at
ALL
Arm yourself, not with arguments, but
interrogation points, and L promise you
victory. Shall such man as you, shall
such a woman as you. surrender to one OF
the meanest spirits that ever smoked up
from the pit-the dumb devil spoken of in
the text? -.
But then there are occasions when this
particular spirit that Christ exercised
when He said, "I charge thee to come out
of him" takes people by the wholesale.
In the most responsive religious audience
have you noticed how many people never
sing at all? They have book, and they
have voice, and they know how to read.
silent while the great raptures OF music
pass by. Among those who sing not one
out of hundred sings loud enough to
hear his own voice. They hum it. They
give a sort of religious grunt. They make
the lips go, but it is inaudible. WI"
a voice strong enough to stop street car
one block away, all they can afford in the
praise of God is about half whisper.
With enough sopranos,s enough altos,
enough bassos to make shall heaven be-
tween the four walls, they let the oppor..
tunity go by unimprovcd. The. volume OF
voice that ascends from the largest au-
multiplied two thousandfod. But the
minister rises and gives out the hymn, the
organ begins, the choir or preceptor leads,
the audience are standing 80 that the
lungs may have full expansion, and a
mighty harmony is about to ascend when
the evil spirit spoken of in my text-the
dumb devil-spreads his two wings over
the lios of one-half the audience, and the
oJner wing over the lips of the other halt
of the audience, and the voices roll back
into the throats from W which they started,
heard, and nine-tenths of the holy power
is destroyed, and the dumb devil, as he
flies away, says, "I could not keep Isaac
Watts from writing that hymn, and l
could not keep Lowell Mason from com.
posing the tune to which it is set, but
smote into silence or half silence. the lips
from which it would have spread abroad
to bless neighborhoods and cities and
then mount the wide open heavens" Give
the long meter doxology the full support
of Chrstendom and those four lines would
take the whole earth for God.
in generalitics. Not one of us but has
had our lives sometimes touched by the
evil spirit of the text-this awful dumb
devil. We had just one opportunity of
saying a Christian word that might have
led a man or woman into Christian life.
The opportunity was fairly put before US.
The word of invitation or consolation or
warning came to the inside gate of the
mouth, but there it halted. Some hinder
ing power locked the jaws together so that
and still in the bottom of the mouth as
though struck with paralysis. We were
mute. Though God had given US the ply
siological apparatus for speech which, by
the command of our will, could have made
the laryngeal muscles move and the vocal
organs vibrate, we were wickedly and Ia
tally silent. For all time and eternity we
missed our chance. Or it was prayer
meeting, and the servic was thrown open
for prayer and remarks, and there was
dead halt-eyerything silent, as grave
graveyard and midnight. An embarrass-
ing pause took place that put a wet b!an1-
ket on all the meeting. Men, bold enough
on business exchange or in worldly circles,
shut their eyes as though they were pray
ing in silence, but they were not praying
at all. They were busy hoping somebody
else would do his duty. The women
flushed under the awful pause, and made
their fans more rapidly futter., Some
brother, with no cold, coughhed, by that
sound trying to fill up the time; and the
The dumb devil.
This is the way l account for the fact
that the stupidest places on earth are
some prayer meetings. ! do not see how
a man keeps any grace if he regularly at
tends them. They are spiritual refrigera.
tors. Religion kept on ice. How many of
US have los. occasions of usefulness!
In sculptor S studio stood a figure OF
the god Opportunity. The sculptor had
{bo hoir fol n
the statue so as to completely cover it,
and there were wings to the feet. When
asked why he so represented Opportunity
the sculptor answered, "The face of the
statue is thus covered up because we do
not recognize Opportunity when it comes,
and the wings Of the feet show that Op.
portunity is swiftly gone"
But do not let the world deride the
church because of all this, for the dumb
devil is just as conspicuous in the world.
The great political parties assemble. at the
candidates to stand on. A committee Of
each party is appointed to make the plat
form. After proper deliberation the COM
mittees come in with a ringing. report,
whereas" and whereas" and whereas"
Pronunciamentos all shaped with the one
idea of getting the most votes. All ex-
preston in regard to the great moral evils
of the country ignored. No expression in
behalf of temperate living, for that would
lose the vote of the liquor traffic; No ex.
preston in regard to the universal attempt
at the demolition of the Lords day. No
recognition of God in the history of ma.
tions, for that would lose the vote Of
atheists. But whereas" and whereas"
and whereas" Nine cheers will be given
for the platform. The dumb devil Of the
text puts one wing over the one platform
and the other wing over the other plat.
with prayer by their chaplains If they
avoided platitudes and told the honest
truth in their prayers they would say: