The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1902-04-30

The maddest torrent tumbling rom
mountain shelving has been harnessed 70
the mill wheel and the factory band; setting
a thousand shuttles all a-buzz and a'ciat-
ter And the widest, the haughtiest, the
most ungovernable man ever created oy
the grace of God may be subdued and sent
out on ministry of kindness, as God sends
an August thunderstorm to water the WIG
flowers down in the grass. Peter, with
nature tempestuous as the sea that ne
once tried to walk, at one look from
Christ went out and wept bitterly. ksn
harvests OF grace may be grown on the
summit Of the jagged steep, and focks OF
Christian graces may ma pasturage I'D
fields Of bramble and rock.
Though your disposition may be all
a.bristle with fretfulness, though you
have a temper a-gleam with quick light:
ninps. though your avarice be like that OF
the horse leech. crying, Give" though
damnable impurities have wrapped you in
all consuming fire, God can drive that
devil out OF your soul, and over the cnaos
and the darkness He can say, Let there
be light"
Converting grace has lifted the drunkard
from the ditch and snatched the knife
from the hand of the assassin and the
false keys from the burglar, and in the pes
tiferous lanes of the city met the daughter
OF sin under the dim lampIght and scat
tered her sorrow and her guilt with the
words, "Thy sins are forgiven; 60, and
sin no more" For scarlet sin scarlet
atonement.
Other persons apologize for not enter
ing the Christian life because OF tne IN
There are thousands OF poor farmers.
They do not know the nature Of soils or
the proper rotation of crops. Their corn
is shorter in stalk and smaller in the
ear. They have ten less bushels to the
acre than their neighbors. But who de-
clines being a farmer because there are
so many poor farmers! There are thou.
sands Of incompetent merchants. Ihey
in the sale of their goods. Every bale of
goods is to them bale of disaster. They
fail after awhile and 90 out OF business.
But who declines to be a merchant be.
cause there are SO many incompetent
merchants? There are Thousands Of poor
LAWYERS. They cannot draw n declaration
that will stand the test They cannot re-
cover Just damages. They cannot help
defendant escape from the injustice OF his
prosecutors. They are the worst impedl-
retained But who declines to be lawyer
because there are 20 many incompetent
lawyers? Yet there are tens OF Thousands
of people who decline being religious be-
cause there are 80 many unworthy Chris.
tians.
The best place for q skillful doctor is in
a neighborhood where there are all poor
doctors, the best place for an enterprising
merchant to open his store is in place
where the bargain makers do not under.
stand their business, and the best place
trious and complete Christian. the best
place for yo1 is to come right down among
Us who arc 20 incompetent and 80 inson.
sistent sometimes. Show rs how. Give
US an example.
Exudations from poisonous trees IN our
neighbor's garden will make very poor
balm for our wounds. -,
Sickness will come, and we will be
pushed out toward the Red Sea which di.
vides this world from the next, and not
the inconsistency of Christians, but the
rod OF faith, will wave: back the waters
iudsment will come, with its thunder
shod solemnities. Oh, then we win not
stop and say, There was o mean Chris:
tian; there was an impure Christian"
In that day as now, IF thou be wise, thou
shalt be wise for thyself, but If thou
soonest thou alone shall bear it." Why,
my brother, the Inconsistency OF Chris
tians, SO far from being an argument to
keep you away from God, ought to be an
argument to drive you to Him;
have no time not TO De religious. You
might as well have no clerks in your
store, no books in your library, no com.
pass on your ship, no rifle in the battle,
no hat on your head, no coat tor your
back, no shoes for your feet.
Better travel on toward eternity bare.
headed and barefooted and houseless and
homeless and friendless than to 60 through
life without religion.
Did religion make Raleigh any less OF
statesman or Havelock any less OF
soldier or Grinnell any less OF a merchant
or West any less OF painter!
why, my friends, religion is the best
security in every bargain; it is the sweet.
est note in every song; it is the brightest
gem in very coronet No time to be re-
figious? Why, you will have to take time
to be sick, to be troubled, to die. Our
world is only the wharf from which we
are to embark for heaven.
No time to secure the friendship OF
Christ! No time to buy lamp and trlm
it for that walk through the darkness
which otherwise will be Iliumined Only
by the whiteness of the tombstones! No
time 10 educate the eye for heavenly splen-
dors or the hand for choral harps or the
ear for everlasting songs or the soul for
honor, glory and immortality! One would
think we had time for nothing else.
Other persons apologize for not enter
ing the Christian life because it Is time
enou,a yet That is very like those per;
sons who send regrets and say, II VIII
come in perhaps at II or " o'clock !
banquet, but l will be there at. the close"
Not yet! Not yet! Now, ! do not give
any doleful view of this life. There il
nothing in my nature, nothing IN the
grace OF God, that tends toward q doleful
view OF human life.
dison's description OF the Vision OF
Mira" where he represents human hfe
as being bridge Of hundred arches ana
both ends of the bridge covered with
clouds and, the race coming on, the moss most
span and all of them falling down through
the last span.
It is a very dismal picture. have not
much sympathy with the Spanish proverb
which says, The sky is good and the earth
is good; that which is bad is between the
earth and the sky"
bound n take q cheerful view OF lie, we
must also confess that life - great sn, ~;
certainty and that man who says,
can't become a Christian because there il
time enough yet" is running q risk In
finite.
You do not perhaps realize the fact that
this descending grade of sin gets sleeper
and sleeper and that you are gathering
up a rush and velocity which after awhile
NAV not answer to the brakes. 80.
Be not among those who give their
whole life to the world and then give their
corpse to God 1t does not seem fair that
while our pulses are in full play OF health
wo ssrve ourselves and serve the world