The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-06-12

tribute 1t. Not since the world stood has
there been any instance of complete hap
piness from the amount of accumulation.
Give the man # worldly ambition sixty
years OF brilliant successes. He sought for
renown, and the nations speak his name;
he sought for afluence, and he is put to
his Wits end to find out the best stocks
and bonds in which he may make his in.
vestments; he is director in enough banks
president of enough companies to bring on
paresis, of which he is now dying. The
royal balances are lifted to weigh the am
hilton which has controlled him lifetime
What was the worth of that ambition?
How much did it yield for usefulness and
heaven? Less than a scruple, less than
grain of sand, less than an atom. less than
nothing. Have funeral a mile long with
carriages; let the richest robes of ecclesi.
astics rustic about the casket; caricature
the scene by choirs which chant "Blessed
are the dead that die in the Lord" That
mans life Is failure, and if his heirs
scufhe in the Surrogate's court about the
incapacity of the testator to make last
will and testament it will only be a pro.
loneation of the failure. The son, through
before the father died. and so was cut off
with dollar; the daughter married against
his will. and she is disinherited; relatives
whom he could never bear the sight OF
will put in their claim. and after years Of
litigation so much of the estate az the law
yers have not appropriated to themselves
will 20 into hands which the testator
never once thought of when in his last
days he bade fearful farewells to the
houses and lands and government securi-
ties he could not take along with him into
the sepulcher.
But look into the dream of that school.
boy who; without saying anything about
it, is planning his lifetime career From
an old book, partly written in Hebrew
and partly written in Greek. but both He
brew and Greek translated into good Eng.
lish, he reads of a great farmer like Amos,
great mechanic like Aholiabr a great law.
yer like Moses. a great soldier like Joshua,
like David. great cleaner like Ruth, a
great physician like Luke, great preacher
like Paul, a great Christ like no one on
earth or in heaven, because the superior
of all beings terrestrial or celestial. He has
learned by heart the Ten Commandments
and the sermon on the mount, and has
splendid theories about everything. Be.
tween that fair.haired boy and the achieve.
ment Of what he wants and expects there
are obstacles and hindrances known only
to the God who is going to discipline him
for heroics maenifcent. I have no power
to prophesy the different experiences of
his encouragement and disappointment, of
his struggle or his triumph. but as sure as
God lives to make His word come true that
boy, who will sleep tonight nine hours
without waking, will be final victor.
I do not know the intermediate chapters
of the volume of that young mans life,
but know the first chapter and the last
resolve in the strength of God, and the
noble ambition. As his obseauies pass out
to the cemetery the poor will weep because
| they will lose their best friend.
Many in whose temporal welfare and
eternal salvation he bore part will hear oi
| it in various places and eulogize his mem
orv, and God will say to the ascending
| spirit, 'To him that overcometh will
| give to eat of the tree of life. which is in
| the midst of the paradise of God" In the
| hour of that souls release and enthrone.
ment there will be heavenly exclamation
as in the royal balances "the Lord weigh
| eth the spirits"
And so the spirit Of our American nation
| is put into the royal balance, and it will be
weighed as certainly as all the nations Of
the past were weighed and as all the ma
tions of the present are being weighed
| When we 60 to estimate the wealth of this
nation we weigh its gold and silver and
| coal and iron and copper and lead, and all
the steelyards and all the balances are
kept busy. So many tons of this and SC
many tons of that; a mountainful of thl:
metal and another mountainful of another
metal. That is we'll. We want to know
our mining wealth, our manufacturing
wealth, our agricultural wealth, and the
bushel measure and the scales have an i'm
portant work But know right well there
is divine weighing in this country all the
| time going on. and can tell you our coun
try's destiny, if you will tell me whether il
shall "a God honoring nation. reverentia
| to the only book of His authorship, observ
ing the "shalt nots" of the law Of right
given on Mount Sinai and the law of love
given on the Mount of Beatitudes, ont
day of the week observed, not in revelry
but in holy convocatlon, marriage. honorece
in ceremony and in fact, b!asphemy 81
lenced in all the streets, high toned sys
TENS of morals in all parts Of our land
then our institutions will live, and all thu
wondrous prosperities of the present art
only faint hint of the greater prosperitie!
| to come. Richer harvests will rustic II
the fields, higher style Of literature vii
turn its leaves in our libraries, nobler mel
will adorn our State and National legislat
ures, and there will be Washingtons anc
Hamiltons and Patrick Henrys and Johr
| Marshalls and Abraham Lincolns in tht
future quite equal to those of the past
And the last day of the worlds existence
will find our free American institutions
permanent as the mountains before the!
begin to fall and glorious as the seas be
fore they begin to die.
The wish Of this sermon is to. empha
size the invisible, to show that. there arr
other balances besides those made of bras
and platinum and aluminium and set II
earthly storehouses; that the spirit Is I'M
most important part of US; that the scales
| which weigh your body are not as imporr
| taut az the scales which weigh your soul
| Depend not too much for happiness upor
| the visible. Pyrrhus was king and hac
large dominion, but was determined tt
make war against the Romans, and Cineas
the friend Of the king, said to him, Sir
when YOU have CONQUERED them what vii
YOU do next?" "Then Sicily is near. a
hand and easy to master" "And ,,T, wha
when YOU have conquered Sicity" "Ther
we will pass over to Africa and take Car
thace, which cannot long withstand u.s.
"When these are CONQUERED. what will yo'
next attempt" "Then we will fall II
upon Greece and Macedonia and recover
what we have lost there" "Well, wher
all are subdued what fruit do YOU .expecc
from all your victories?" "Then." sale
the king, 1--WE will ait down and enjoy our
selves" 'tSir." said Cineas, "may we mo-
do it now? Have you not already king
dom of your own? And he that cannot
enjoy himself with kingdom cannot witt
the whole world" ;,
I say to you who love the Lord thu
kingdom is within you. Make more of thu
invisible conquests: study a peace which
the world has no bushel to measure, nc
steelvards to weigh AS far as possible
we should make our balances like to the
divine balances. :, =.
What a world this will be when it /:
weighed after it's regeneration shall have