The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-07-31
JOHN D. R@OCKEFELLER'S PASTOR SAYS
WORKERS NEED A SUMMER VACATION
Ie Only Medicine That VIII Rest the Body and Clear the Brain is TO Be
Found in the Quiet Places Of the Country.


words are bitter mockery, for whom
no changing seasons bring cessation
from toll and WEAKNESS. What OF
them in these days Of summer sun,
shine and joy?
"There should be non such. ex-
| cept the vicious. And Christianity
cannot rest while such mortals live,
disfranchised of their right to rest
and happiness. The unaccomplished
mission of our faith is the redress OF
every economic inequality. There is
no gospel which is not a gospel OF so!
cial service. We live to bring all
mankind into the family of God. But
meanwhile, while such poverty re-
mains, while such evil conditions sad
den and appall us, what right have
we to u holidays, to our happiness!
Can we sit at Jul feast bl~indfold, or
dare W. open our eyes? What right
have we to any feast while our broth.
ers starve in the midst OF plenty!
None, if our lives are wrong. If we
are living for ourselves, thinking,
planning, accumulating for ourselves,
none. But if all life to us is a sacred
trust, if happiness is only so much
stored up energy to be expended In
divine redemptive toll, then go. keep
the feast, charge your blood and
brain with health and flood your soul
with Joy.
"For the present go away and for
get! 1t is a counsel of perfection
and you would not follow 1t, else l
should say to you, go where you a
have no letters, no newspapers, no
kilograms, where the ring Of the tele-
phone bell is never heard, and where
even the Marconi cannot come. But
at least do your best to forget. For
get your business. Forget your
debts. Forget your debtors. Forget
that in this world there is suffering,
sickness or sin. Only remember that
the sun shines for you, the moonlight
and the starbeams are for you, the
tides ebb and flow for You. the gorse
upon the hillside, the purple heather
and the fields dressed in living green
are for you"
DR.. Aked said he had no patience
with the attitude which makes a a
and doleful thing out of the practice
and forms of Christian worship.
LET us have done with these SOL
emn hypocrisies of conventional o
ship" he said. LET us frankly
claim our heritage of happiness in a
world whose maker and builder is
God. One day Paxton Hood had 10
preach in a Yorkshire church. IL
was a glorious summer morning. A
good brother gave out:
MY thoughts on awful subjects roll
Damnation and the dead
But Paxton Hood leaped to MS
feet and said, oh, no, they don't!
My thoughts do not roll on anything
so dreadful. Let us sing:
Come let us join our cheerful songs,
With angels round the throne.
I'VE pray God to forgive our sins
we ought to pray to be forgiven our
sadness. There is no virtue IN MIS-
cry. The melancholy person IS o
necessarily a superior person; n II
he were the superior person Is gener-
ally d~etestable. A face as long as a
fiddle and a voice like a crows Will
not be imputed to US for righteous
ness. We shall not go to heaven for
our tears or to hell for our smiles.
Humor is a gift of God as we'll as pa
thos."
The best way to spend Sunday or
any other holiday, said DR.. Aked, was
to follow Christ's advice to His dlcl-
pies: Come We yourselves apart INTO
a desert place and rest awhile"