The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-04-17


and I speak against your pictures, DO
not speak against you? If you are an
architect and 7 speak against building
YOU put up. do | not speak against Eon
| IF a revival be the work OF the Holy
Ghost and l speak against that revival
do 1 not speak against the Holy, Ghost
| And whose speaketh against, the Holy
Ghost, says the Bible. he shall never be
forgiven neither in this world nor IN the
pie have made fatal mistake in this di'
| recticn.
Many of you know the history of Aaron
Burr. He was one of the most brilliant
men of his day. suppose this country
never produced a stronger intellect: He
was capable OF doing anything good and
great for his country or for the church OF
| God had he been rightly disposed. but
| his name is associated with treason
| against the United States government,
which he tried to overthrow, and with
where Aaron Burr started on the down
ward road? 1t was when he was in col
lese and he became anxious about his
soul and was about to put himself under
the influences Of a revival. and a minister
of religion said: Don't go there, Aaron:
don't 60 there. That's a place of wildhre
and great excitement. No religion about
that. Don't 60 there: He, tarried away.
His serious impressions departed. lie
started on the downward road:
And who is responsible for his ruin for
this world and his everlasting ruin in
the world to come? Was it the minister
who warned HIM against that revival?
When I speak of excitement i'll rcvivals:
I do not mean temporary arrangement OF
the nerves, I do not mean the absurd
things of which we have read as trans
piring sometimes in the church OF Christ,
but I mean an intelligent, intense. all ab,,
sorhing agitation Of body, mind and soul
in the work of spiritual escape and spirit
ual rescue.
Now |. come to the real, genuine cause
coldness Of the obiector. 1t is the secret
and hidden but unmistakable cause I
every case. a low state of religion IN the
heart. Wide awake, consecrated, useful
Christians are never afraid of revvals:
1t is the spiritually dead who are afraid
ct having their sepulcher molested. The
chief agents of the devil during a, great
awakening are always unconrerted pro-
fessors of religion.
As soon as Christ's work begins they be-.
gin to gossip against it and take pail OF
water and try to put out this spark of
religious influence. and they try to put out
another spark Do they succeed? As well
when Chicago was on fire might some one
have gone out with garden water pot
irving to eytinguish it. The difficulty is
that when a revival begins in a church it
begins at so many points that while you
have douSed one anxious soul with pail
of cold water there are 500 other anxious
souls on fire.
Did you ever hear that there was con-
vention once held among the icebergs OF
the arctic? 1t seems that the summer
was coming on and the sun was getting
hotter and hotter and there was danger
that the whole ice6eld would break up
and flow away; so the tallest and the
coolest and the broadest of all the ice.
bergs, the very king ct the arctlcs,, stood
at the head of the convention, and with
a gavel of ice smote on table of ice, call
kept growing in intensity Of heat and the
south wind blew stronger and stronger
and soon all the iceGeld began to grind
up, iceberg against iceberg, and to flow
away. The first resolution passed by the
ice convention was, Resolved, that we
abolish the SUM-" But the sun would
not be abolished. The heat of the sun
grew greater and greater until after awhile
the very king of the icebergs began to
perspire under the glow and the smaller
icebergs fell over and the rry was; MI loo
much SNClteIlleuI. OluSl OluSi. A.Sh
the whole body, the whole field of ice,
began to flow out. and thousand voices
began to ask: "Where are we going to
now? Where are we floating to? We will
all break to pieces By this time the
icebergs had reached the gulf stream and
they were melted into the bosom of the
Atlantic ocean. The warm sun is the
eternal spirit. The icebergs are frlgld
Christians. The warm gulf stream Is a
int n
everything melted is the great. wide heart
of the pardoning and sympathiZing God.
While the news on one side of the altar
CRY for mercy the pulpits on the other
side the altar must cry for mercy. Min:
listers quarreling. ministers trying to pull
each other down, ministers struggling for
ecclesiastical place, ministers lethargc
with whole congregations dying on their
hands! Mhat a spectacle! :,
Aroused pulpits will make aroused
pews puIpts aanms Evil will make m r.Eiv.i pewgi
in trade, everybody likes a revival in lit
erature, everybody likes a revival in art,
vet a great multitude cannot understand
a revival in matters of religion. Depend
upon it, where you find a man antason-
istic to revivals, whether he be in pulpit
or pew, he needs to be regenerated by
the grace of God. :,
could prove to demonstration that
without revivals this world will never
be converted and that in 100 or 200 years
without revivals Christianity will be prac-
tically extinct. It is a matter of astound-
ing arithmetic. In each of our modern
generations there are at least 81 ,OOO, Ooo
Children. Now add 32,000,0O0 to the
worlds population and then have only lOo,;;
900 or 2O0,O0O converted every year, and
how long before the world will be saved!
Never-absolutely never.
During our Civil War the President of
the United States made proclamation for
$4,000 troops. Some of you remember
the big stir But the King of the universe
to-day asks for l,2OO,0 900 more. troops
than are enlisted, and we want 1T done
soy m%peTeepoy % r1 no sSeS mercbon one
on large scale, and | am merchant on
a small scale, and l come to you and want
to buy thousand yards of cloth. Do You
say: Thank you. I'll sell you thou
sand yards of cloth, but I'll sell you twen::
ty yards to-day and twenty tomorrow, and
twenty the next day, and if it takes me
six months I'll sell you the whole thou.
sand yards; you will want as long as that
| to examine the goods, and I'll want as
| besides, that, thousand yards OF cloth
are too much to sell all at once?" No, you
do not say that You take me into the
counting room, and in ten minutes the
whole transaction is consummated. The
fact is, we cannot afford to be fools in any
thing but religion.
That very merchant who on Saturday
| afternoon sold me the thousand yards
| of cloth at one stroke the next Sabbath
in church will stroke his beard and won.
| der whether it would not be better for a
| thousand souls to come struggling along
for ten years instead of boiling in at one
service.
We talk a good deal about the good
times that are coming and about the
worlds redemption. How long before
they will come? There is man who says