The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1902-03-19

not anticipate. You are not nc lofty ot
fifty or sixty or seventy or eighty years o.
age where you thought you would be: !
do not know any one except myself %
whom life has been happy surprise; !
never expected anything, and 30 when
anything came in the shape OF human IA
vor or comfortable position or widening
field of work it was to me q surprise. !
was told in the theological seminary by
some of my fellow students that never
would get anybody to hear me preach un:
less I changed my style. so that when i
found that soae people did come to hear
me 1t was I happy surprise. But most
people, according to their own statement
have found life a disappointment. In
deed. we all need shelter from its tenn.
pests.
The wings Of my text suggest warmth,
and that IS what most folks want: The
fact is that this is q cold world whether
YOU take it literally or fguratively. we
have q big fireplace called the sun, and 1t
has a very hot fire, and the stokers keep
the Goals we'll stirred up, but much OF the
year we cannot get near enough 70 inis
fireplace to get warmed. This worlds
extremities are cold all the time. Forget
mot that it is colder at the South Pole
than at the North Pole, and that the
Arctic is not SO destructive as the Antar.
tic. Once in awhile the Arctic will let
explorers come back, but the Antartie
hardly ever. When at the South Pole
ship sails in, the door of ice is almost
sure to be shut against its return: So lite
to many millions Of people at the south
and many millions of people at the north
But when say that this is Q cold
world chiefly mean fguratively. II you
want to know what is the meaning OF the
ordinary term of receiving the cold
shoulder" get out of money and try to
borrow. The conversation may have been
almost tropical for luxuriance OF thought
and speech, but suggest your necessities
and see the thermometer drop to fifty de-
orees below zero. and in that which till
moment before had been a warm room.
TAX. what is an unpopular position on
come public question and see your frlentS
fy as chaff before a windmill. As tar a.
myself is concerned, ! have no word OF
complaint, but look of day by day and
see communities freezing out men and
women of whom the world is not worthy.
Now it takes after one and now after an.
other. 1t becomes popular to deprcclatc
and def.me and execrate and lie about
some people. This is the best world l
ever got into. but it is the meanest world
that some people ever got into. The worst
thing that ever happened to them was
thei- cradle, and the best thing that will
ever happen to them will be their grave.
What pcoole want is warmth, warmth
of sympathy, warmth of kindly associs-
ton, warmth of genial surroundings. The
world declines to give it and in many cases
has no power to give it, and here IS whero
Christ comes in, and as on n cold day; the
rain beating and the atmosphere full OF
sicet, the hen clucks her chickens under
her wings and the warmth OF her own
breast puts warmth into the wet feathers
aud the chilled feet OF the infant group. OF
the barnyard, so Christ says to those sick
and frosted and disguised and frozen OF
the world: "Come in out OF the March
winds of the worlds criticism; come IN
out of the sleet Of the worlds assault,
come in out of q world that does not un-
derstand you and does not want to under.
stand you. I will comfort, and l will
soothc, and I will be your warmth, as
hen cathereth her chickens under her
1ying?" Oh, the warm heart OF God Is
ready for all those to whom the world has
given the cod shoulder.
But notice that some one must take tho
storm for the chickens. All. the hen takes
the storm. have watched her under the
pciting rain. I have seen her in the pinch
ine frosts. Almost frozen to death or al
most strangled in the waters, and what
| fight she makes Tor the young under wing
near! And SO the brooding Christ takes
| the storm for US.
Once the tempest rose so suddenly the
hen could not get with her young back from
the new ground to the barn. and there she
i, under the fence half dead. And now
| the rain turns to snow, and it is an awful
night, and in the morning the whitcnes1
about the qiIls and the beak down in the
mad show that the mother is dead. and
| the younS ones come out and cannot un.
derstand why the mother does not scratch
| for them something to eat, and they walk
over her wings and call with their tiny
| voices, but there is no answering cluck.
She took the storm for Others and per
ished. Poor thing! Self-sacrificing cvca
| unto death!
And does it not make you think Of Him
| who endured nll for us? So the wings un.
der which We come for spiritual safety are
| blood spattered wings. are night shadowed
wings. are tempest torn wings: In the Isle
Of Wight saw the grave OF Princess Eii.'
abeth, who died while prisoner at Carls'
brook Castle. her finger on an open Bible
and pointinc to the words, Come unto
Me all We that labor aud are heavy laden,
and will give you rest" Oh' como undcr
sne wings!
Nv text has its strongest application
for people who were born in the country,
| wherever you may now live, and that Is
| the majority OF you. You cannot hear
nv text without having all the rustic
scenes of the old farmhouse come bacl; to
| YOU. Good old days they were: You
knew nothing much OF the world, for you
had not seen the world. By law OF asso-
ciation you cannot recall the broodias
hen and her chickens without seeing also
| the barn and the haymow and the wagon
shed and the house and the room where
vcu PLAYED and the freside with the big
| backlog before which you sat and the
ncichbors and the burial and the wedding
| and the deep snowbanks. and hear the wi.
ia-c bel that called you to worship and
seeing the horses which, after pulling you
to church. stood around the old elapooard.
Cd meeting house. and those who s1t AZ
either end of the church Few and. indeed,
al the scenes Of your first fourteen years:
| and you think of what you were then and
| Of what yor are now aad all these thoughts
are aroused by the sight OF the Old hen
coop. Some Of you had better 60 back
and start again. In thought return to
tha. place and fear thr cluck and sec the
! outspread feathers and come under the
wing and make the Lord yo"r portion
nd shelter arI warmth. preparing for
everything that may come, ard 50 avoid
Acing ,lassed among those described BY
the closing words CT NY text. las \ hen
| -athere.h he: chickens under her wings,
and ye would not" All. that throws the
responsibility upon rs. "Ye would net"
Alas, for the would nots.." II TIE wan
dcring broods o. the :arm h"ei not their
mothers call and risl; the hawk ar! dare
the frcshct ard expos, themselves to tie