The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-03-27


make me think Of. A man is unfortunate
in mis- business. He has to raise q good
deal OF money and raise it quickly. He
borrows on word and note all ne can bor-
row. After while ne puts mortgage on
his house; after while he puts a second
mortgage on his house. Then he puts a
lien on his furniture; then he makes over
his life insurance: then ne assigns all his
property: then he goes to his father
in-!aw and asks for help. Well,
having failed everywhere. completely
failed, he gets down on his knees
and SAYS: 20 Lord, l have tried
everybody and everything; now help me
out OF this financial trouble" He makes
God the last resort instead of the first re-
sort.
a Young man goes off from home to earn
his fortune. He goes with his mothers
consent and benediction. She has large
wealth, but he wants to make his own
fortune. He goes far away. falls sick and
gets out of money. He sends for the hotel
keeper where he is staying. asking for le-
nience, and the answer he gets is. IF you
60 not pay up Saturday night you'll be re-
moved to the hospital The young man
sends to comrade in the same building;
no help: He writes to banker who was
a friend OF his deceased father; no relief.
Saturday night comes. and he is moved to
the hospital. Getting here, he is frenzied
with grief, and he borrows sheet of
paper and a postage stamp. and ne sits
down, and he writes home: Dear mother,
l am sick unto death. Come 1t is twen-
ty minutes OF 10 o'clock when she gets the
letter At 10 o'clock the train starts. She
is five minutes from the depot. She gets
there in time to have five minutes to
spare. She wonders why the train that
can go forty miles an hour cannot go
eighty miles an hour. She rushes into the
hospital. She SAYS: my son, what does
all this mean? Why did you not send for
knew would and could help you. Is this,
the reward I get for my kindness to you
aiways?" She bundles him up, takes him
home and gets him we'll very soon.
Now, some of you treat God Just as that
young man treated his mother. When you
get into financial perplexity you call on
the banker, you call on the broker, you
call on YOUR creditors, you call on your
lawyer for legal counsel, you call upon
everybody, and when you cannot get any
help then you 60 to God. You say, 20
Of my perplexity." And the Lord comes,
though it is in the eleventh hour. He
says Why did you not send for Nc. be-
fore? As one whom his mother comfort
eth so will comfort you" 1t is TO throw
us back upon God tnat we have this minis
try Of tears.
Again, it is the use of trouble to capaci-
tate us for the Office Of sympathy. The
priests under the old dispensation were
set apart by having water sprnkled upon
their hands, feet and head, and Dy the
sprnkling of tears people are now set
apart to the office of sympathy. When we
are in prosperity we like to have great
many young people around US. and we
laugh when they laugh, and we romp
when they romp, and we sing, when they
sing, but when we have trouble we like
plenty of old folks around. Why? They
know how to talk. Take ar, aged. mother,
seventy-fve years of age, and she is almost
been through it all At o'clock in the
morning she goes to comfort a young
mother who has just lost her babe. Grand
mother knows all about that trouble.
Fifty years ago she felt it. At II O'Clock
of that day she goes over to comfort
widowed soul. She knows all about that.
She has been walking in that dark valley
twenty years. At o'clock in the after.
noon some one knocks at the door, want.
ing bread. She knows all about that.
Two or three times in her life she came
to her last loaf. At 10 O clock that night
she goes over to sit up with some one Sc
verety sick. She knows all about it. She
knows all about fevers and pleuris!es and
broken bones. She has been doctoriag all
her life, spreading piasters and pouring
out bitter drops and shaking up hot pill.
lows and contriviag things to tempt poor
appetite. Drs. Abernethy and Rush and
Hosack and Harvey were great doctors,
but the greatest doctor the world ever
saw is an old Christian woman. Dear me,
do we not remember her about the room
when we were sick in our boyhood? Was
there any one who could ever so touch a
sore without hurting it And when she
lifted her spectac.es against her wrlnkied
wound it was three-fourths healed And
when the Lord took her home, although
you may have been men and women thirty,
forty, fifty years of age, you lay on the
coffin lid and sobbed as though You were
only five or ten years OF age.
Your troubles are educational. l 60
into the office of lapidary. an arti6cer in
precious stones, and | see him at work on
one precious stone for a few minutes, and
he puts it aside finished. see him take
up another precious stone, and he works
on that all the afternoon, and / come in
the next day and still find him working on
it, and he is at work on it all the week.
l say to him, "Why did YOU put only
twenty minutes work on that one precious
stone and put a whole week on this
other" oh" he says, that one upon
which put only twenty minutes work is
of but little worth, and / soon got through
with it. But this precious stone upon
which / have put such prolonged and care
full work is of vast value, and it is to flash
in kings coronet." So God lets one man
20 through life with only a little cutting
Of misfortune,>So he does not amount to
much, he is a smaN-soul and of compare.
lively little value, blt-this other is of
great worth, and it is cut Of pain, and cut
of bereavement, and cut Of persecution,
and cut of all kinds OF trouble, and
through many years, and l ask; Dear
process?" and God says: This sou, IS OF
coronet. He shall be Mine in the day
when I make up My Jewels"
You know, on Widespread table the
food becomes more delicate at the last. J.
have fed you to-day with the bread of con-
ISOLATION. Let the table now be cleared,
and let US set on the chalice of heaven.
Let the Kings cupbearers come in. "Oh,"
says some critic in the audience, "the
Bible contradicts itself. 1t intimates again
and again that there are to be no tears
in heaven, and if there be no tears in heav-
en- how is it possible that God will wipe
any away?". I answer, Have you never
seen 4 child crying one moment and laugh
ing the next and while she was laughing
you saw the tears still on her face" And
perhaps you stopped her in the very midst
Of her resumed glee and wiped off those
delayed tears. So I think after the heav-
eniy raptures have come upon us there
may be the mark of some earthly grief,
and while these tears are gittering in the
light of the jasper sea God will wipe them
away. How we'll He can do that!
Friends, if We could get any apprecia-
tion of what God has in reserve for us, it
would make US so homesick we would be
unfit for our everyday work. Professor
Leonard, formerly Of Iowa University, put
in my hands a meteoric stone, a stone