The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1905-06-14

conscience between his school books
and his fairy stories. 1t was q great
DAY for him! Any boys first struggle
is! But the man in the boy won the
fight and in order to establish himself
beyond the possibility Of a lapse, he
threw his book of fairy stories into the
brook. His father, a precise, unimag-
NATIVE. dutiful soul, saw the beau.
tiful book floating away and proceeded
to thrash his conquering boy for his
wanton destruction. That is about all
many fathers appear to know how to
do effectively! What a wonder he did
not spoil his boy. What a boon a bit
of appreciation, of sympathy would
have been to the suffering but victor
ious lad. He needed bread and his OBJ
fuse father gave him 4 stone! The
father could do what he thought was
his duty, but he had nothing to share
with his boy. He was a monumental
parental failure!
Large Christian service is always IN
quest of the joint of sympathy; 1t
makes it's alliance with what is, help
ing it to what it ought to be, and avoids
the folly of inverting the divine order!
This type of h%elpfulness may be
meager in its ability to do, but is for
ever finding to its u~nspeakable JOY
that it has q boundless store to divide!
Sharing sympathy is an infinitely more
royal privilege than donating cast Off
clothing, or stale food, for eff I bestoW
all my goods to feed the poor, but hath
not love itprofteth m nothing"
Sympathy as al elective OF CHRISTIAN
service forever pushes a soul on toward
democracy. Surely one may confess
with Lowell that while his tastes are
with the aristocrats, his convictions
are with the people and yet, like Low
ell, he forever more and more pusheo
into the very heart of humanity and
glory in the push, too!
The preacher who confessed to a
friend that he loved to preach and
who was met by the singing, search
ing question, do you love the men to
whom you preach as well as you love
to preach?" felt the thrust of the sword
between the joints of his harness,
which sent him to his study to fall
upon his knees and passionately pray
that he might be delivered from MS
temptation to love his sermons better
than he did souls, preaching better than
persons. The appeal of humanity must
outstrip that of homiletcs.
Christian service to-day must be I'M
mersed in the democratic spirit; Its
mission is to humanity-humanity as
represented by Ellis Island, also by
| Clinton avenue; by Greater New York,
| also by the lumber camps Of Michigan.
| Every man is q son of God. Every
woman is a daughter of God. Go, find
your man, and by the shining truth IN
your soul, by the sympathy in your
heart, by the humanity in your u
stretched hand, make him believe that
you seek not his, but him.
This-this alone-is Christian servicei
| Christian service after this fashion be.
comes at once an interpreter. 1t makes
a Gibraltar out of a disadVantageous
position; it transforms an ordinary,
commonplace ability into a shining
angel of privilege and achievement
Everything counts; all things work to-
gether. Because the world is n and
the kingdom one nothing is lost, moth.
ing trivial, nothing inconsequential! IT
makes q man grow tall and strong and
confident to really believe the constant
assurance of Christian service, that
All men ignored in me
This was I worth to God
Whose wheel the pitcher shaped.
It is to such service, broad, true,
sympathetic, humanitarian, Christian,
that we commit ourselves to-day; it is
in such service that we expect to find
our privilege and joy, and from such
service that we hope to demonstrate