The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-12-25


coast. The Dead Sea rolls to-day where
ancient cities stood.
Pillars of temples that stood on hills
geoiogists now fnd' three-quarters under
the water or altogether submerged. The
sea, having wrecked so many merchant.
men and flotillas, wants to wreck the con.
tinents. and hence disasters oceanic.
Alas for Galveston and other cities almost
drowned!
Look at the disasters epidemic. speak
not OF the plague in the fourth century
that ravaged Europe and in Moscow and
the Neapolitan dominions and Marseilles
wrought such terror in the eighteenth cen.
tury, but I look at the yellow fevers and
the choleras and the diphtherias and the
scarlet fevers and the tvphoids Of our
time. From Hurdwar, India, where every
twelfth year 5000, 900 devotees congregate,
one disease slew $1,000 in eighteen days in
Bossorah. Twelve thousand in one sum-
mer slain by it in India and $4,000 in
Egypt. Disasters epidemic. Some Of the
finest monuments in Greenwood and Lau-
rel Hill and Mount Auburn are to doctors
who lost their lives battling with southern
epidemic.
But now I turn the leaf in my subject,
and plant the white lilies aud the palm
tree amid the magistrates and the myrtle.
This age no more characterized by won
ders of disaster than by wonders of bless:
ing-b!essing OF longevity: the average Of
human life rapidly increasing. Forty years
now worth 400 years once.
Now I can travel from Manitoba to New
York in less than three days. In other
times it would have taken three months.
In other words, three days now are worth
three months Of other days. The average
OF human life practically greater now than
when Noah lived. with his $50 years, and
Methuselah lived his 900 years.
Blessings of intelligence: The Salmon p.
Chases and the Abraham LiDcolns and the
Henry Wilson's of the coming time will not
be required to learn to read by pine knot
lights or seated on shoemaker's bench, nor
will the Fergusons have to study astrono-
my while watching the cattle. knowledge
rolls its tides along every poor mans door,
and his children may so down AID bathe
in them.
If the philosophers of hundred years
ago were called up to recite in class with
our boys and girls, those old philosophers
would be sent down to the foot OF the
class because they failed to answer the
questions!
Free libraries in all the important towns
and cities of the land. Historical alcoves
and poetical shelves and magazine tables
for all who desire to walk through them
or sit down at them.
Blessings of quick information: News
papers falling all around us thick as leaves
in a September equinoctial. News three
days old rancid and stale. We see the
whole world twice a day-through the
newspaper at the breakfast table and
through the newspaper at the tea-table,
with an "eStra" here and there between.
Blessing of gospel proclamation: Do you
not know that nearly all the missionary
societies have been born within hundred
years, and nearly all the Bible societies
and nearly all the great phllaanthropSlc S
while infdelity is dwindling into imbecll-
ity. While infdelity is thus dwindling
the wheel OF Christianity is making about
a thousand revolutions in minute. All
the copies OF Shakespeare and Tennyson
and Disraeli and of any ten of the most
popular writers of the day less in number
than the copies of the Bible going out
from our printing presses.
And along the track the car of the
worlds redemption will roll and roll to
the Grand Central depot of the millen-
mum. I have no anxiety about the track.
I am only afraid that for our Incidence
and unfaithiulness God will discharge us
and get some other stoller and some other
engineer. The train is going through with
us or without us.
There is a house in London where Peter
the Great of Russia lived awhile when he
was moving through the land incognito
and in workman's dress, that he might
learn ship carpentry. by which he could
supply the needs OF his people. A stran-
ger was visiting at that house, What's
in that box" The owner said: II don't
know That box was there when got the
house, and it was there when my father
got it. We hayn't had any curiosity to
look at it. l ess there's nothing in it"
s2 for it," well. done" The s2 was
paid, and the contents of that box were
sold to the Car of Russia for $4,000. In
it the lathing machine of Peter the Great,
his private letters and documents of value
beyond all monetary consideration. And
here are the events that seem very lnslg-
niicant and unimportant, but they incase
treasures of Divine Providence and etern!,
ties of meaning which after awhile. God
will demonstrate before the ages as being
OF stupendous value.
When Titans play quoits they pitch
mountains, but who owns these gigantic
natural forces We are constantly reading
about? Whose hand is on the throttle
valve of the volcanoes? Whose foot, sue
denly planted on the footstool, makes the
continents culver? God! must be at
peace with Him.
Through the Lord Jesus Christ this God
is mine and He is yours. I put the earth
quake that shook Palestine at the cruci-
fxion against all the down rockings OF the
centuries This God on our side, we may
challenge all the centuries of time and all
the cycles of eternity. :,
Those of you who are in midlife may well
thank God that you have seen so many
wondrous things, but there are people
alive to-day who may live to see the SHIN
mcring veil between the material and the
spiritual world lifted.
Magnetism, word with which we cover
up our ignorance, will yet be an explored
realm. Electricity, the fiery courser OF
the sky, that Benjamin Franklin lassoed
and Morse and Bell and Edison have
brought under complete control, has
greater wonders to reveal.
Whether here or departed this life, we
will see these things. 1t does not make
much difference where we stand, but the
higher the standpoint the larger the pros.
pect. We will see them from heaven II
we do not see them from earth.
Years ago l was at Fire Island, Long
Island, and 1 went up in the cupoia from
which they telegraph to New York the
approach Of vessels hours before they come
into port. There is an opening in the well,
and the operator puts his telescope through
that opening and looks out and sees YES
sells far out at sea. While l was talking
with him he went up and looked out. He
said, 1--WE are expecting the Arizona to-
night" said: is it possible you know
ali those vessels? Do you know them as
YOU know mans face?" He said: Yes.
I never make mistake. Before see the
hulls often know them by the masts. l
know them ALL have watched them so
long"
Oh, what a grand thing it is to have
ships teiegraphed and heral lded long before
the come to port, that friends may come
lo,,,n to tho wharf and welcome their lone