The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-06-19


went to those old people with all our trou.
b:es. They were perpetual evangehsts, by
their soothing words, by their hopeful.
ness of spirit, an ineypressible help. ]
cannot see how heaven could make them
any loveier than they are or were. But
there are exceptions. There is daugh.
ter in that family whose father is impa1
tient and the mother querulous. The pass.
age of many years does not always i'm.
prove the disposition, and there are a
great many disagreeable folks, Some CT
them forget that they were ever young
themselves, and they become untidy in
their habits and wonder how, when their
asthma or rheumatism is so bad, other
people can laugh or sing and 90 on as they
do. The daughter in that family bears
havior Of senility without answering back
or making any kind of complaint. II you
should ask her what her FIVE talents are
or her one talent is, she would answer
that she has no talent at all. Greatly
mistaken is she. Her one talent is to
forbear and treat the childishness of the
old as well as she treats the child;shness
of the young. She is no musician, and be-.
sides there may not be a piano in the.
house. She cannot skillfully swing cro-
quet mallet OF golf stick. Indeed, she
seems shut up to see what she can do
with ladle and broom and brus b and
other household implements. She. is the
personi6cation of patience, and her re.
ward will be as long as heaven. Indeed,
much of her reward may be given on earth.
She is in a rough college. from which she
may after awhile graduate into brightest
domesticity. She is heroine, though at
present she may receive nothing but
scolding and depreciation. Her one talent
OF patience under trial will do more good
patience preached to-day from the tas.
seled cushion of the pulpit.
Is your talent that OF persuasion? Make
good use of it. We all have it to some
extent, vet none of us think of it as q
talent. But it is the mightiest of talents:
Do you know that this one talent will
fetch the world back to God? Do you know
it is the mightiest talent of the high
heavens? Do you know that it is the one
talent chiefly employed by all the angels
of God when they descend to our world
the talent of persuasion?
Do you realize that the rough lumber
lifted into cross on the hill back Of
Jerusalem was in persuasion as we'll as
sacrifice? That is the only, absolutely the
only, persuasion that will ever induce the
human race to stop it's march toward the
city of destruction and wheel around and
start for the city of light. Now may the
Lord this moment show each one of us
that to a greater or less extent we have
one talent of persuasion and lmpel us to
the right use of it.
You say you cannot preach sermon,
but cannot you persuade some one to 60
and hear a sermon? You say you cannot
sing, but cannot you persuade some one
to 60 and hear the choir chant on Christ.
mas or Easter morning? Send a bunch Of
flowers to that invalid in the hospital,
with a message about the land where the
inhabitants never say. ri am sick"
There is a child of the street. Invite
him into the mission school. There is
man who has lost his fortune in specula.
ton Instead of jeering at his fall 60 and
tell him of riches that never take wings
and fly away. Buckle on that one talent
O! persuasion, O man, o woman. and
you will do work that heaven will cele-
brate 10000 wears.
Among the ll4.OOo words of Noah Web.
ster's vocabulary and the thousands OF
vocabulary there is one administering
timated, and it reaches so far up and SO
far down, and that is the word come"
1t has drawn more people away from the
wrong and toward the right than any
word I now think of. 1t has at times
crowded all the twelve gates of heaven
with fresh arrivals. 1t will yet rob the
path of death of the last pedestrians. 1t
will vet chime so loudly and gladly that
all the toiling bells of sorrow will be
drowned with the music. 1t is piled up in
the Bibles climax and peroration, "And
the spirit and the bride say come, and
let him that heareth say come, and let
him that is athirst come" Have it on the
point of your pen, have it on the tip Of
your tongue; Monosylllables are mightieyy
than polysyllables. and that word come"
is the mightiest of monosyllables. Shakes
peare says of one of his characters, "She
speaks poniards, and every word stabs." !"
We may say Of others, they speak words
which are of balm and music, are light and
life. Master one of those words, harness
one of those words. project one of those
words, prove the full plentitude and POW
er of one of those words.
If you cannot do anything else. 60
around and feel sorry ior some ebody. When
some one asked. "What is the secret of
William Wilberforce's power" the an.
swer was, "His power of sympathy" And
there are 100000 people who have the
same qualification if they only knew it.
Sympathy! If you cannot restore the
child to that bereft parent or the fortune
to that bankrupt fnancier or health r.
that confirmed invalid or an honorable
name to that wrecked character, you can
at least feel sorry for the misfortune or
the bereavement or the suffering.
Sympathy! If you have not the means
to do anything else. 60 and sit down and
cry with them. That is the way Christ
did when He went out to the desolated
home in Bethany and the sisters told
their sad story. He cried with them. Oh,
cultivate that one talent Of sympathy!
After the resurrection day and all heav-
en- is made up. resurrected bodies joined to
ransomed souls, and the gates which were
so long open are shut. there may be some
day when all the redeemed may pass in
review before the great white throne. If
so. I think the hosts passing before the
King will move in different divisions.
With the first division will pass the mighty
ones of earth who were as good and use
full as they were great. In this division
will pass before the throne all the Martin
Luthers. the John Knoxes, the Wesleys,
the Richard Cecils, the Millions, the
Chrysostoms, the Herschells, the Lenoxes,
the George Peabodys, the Abbott Law
rences and all the consecrated Christian
men and women who were great in litera-
ture, in law, in medicine, in philosophy;
in commerce. Their genius never spoiled
them. They were as humble as they
we're gifted or opulent. They were great
on earth. and now they are great in heay-
en-. Their surprising and magnificent tai
ents were all used for the worlds better
ment. As they pass in review before the
King on the great white throne to higher
and higher rewards it makes me think of
the parable of the talents. "To another
ten" I stand and watch the other divi-
sions as they 90 by, division after divi-
sion, until the largest of all the divisions
comes in sight 1t is hundred to one, a
thousand to one, ten thousand to one,
larger than the other divisions. It Is