The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-04-15
THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. ROBERT COLLYER.
Subject: Toward the Sunset.

49,
but still vigorous DR.. Robert Colyer
preached in the First Unitarian
Church Sunday morning to a large
congregation. His subject was
Locking Toward Sunset" and for
his text he took the two passages OF
Scripture: I. Timothy AS: The
promise of the life that now is and OF
that which is to come" and II. Cor
inthians 1853: This mortal must
put on immortality" DR.. Collyer
said:
I think it is no wonder, as the
years come and go, and we fare on
toward the sunset Of the life that
now is, the heart in us Should feel a
touch of dismay now and then when
we try to imagine ourselves out OF
the body, but the same man or wom-
an. away from the world we live in,
yet still in a home which will be
homelike and welcome, and OF a day
when the seasons will be no more
what they have been or the sun and
stars, the streets on which we walk
or the homes in which we dwell. A
time when we can clasp hands no
more with friends; sit no more at the
table and Join in the CHEEKY talk. go
to our work in the morning and when
the days stint is done go home. take
some book we love best 10 read and
then go to sleep through the silent,
shadowy hours to wake again In the
morning and find that God has made
all things new. And I think this
touch of dismay may well be OF all
things natural and therefore right,
because we are in this body and find
that in the measure of u life is our
LOYALTY to the things we can touch
and see. To the feeble aged this 10y
atty to the world he lives in is no
more than an instinct to hold on, but
in those who are still hale n strong
it is a loyalty for which they can give
good reason. They love the fra
GRANGE of the opening spring that fills
them with the old delight, and the
summer with her fruits and flowers,
and the golden treasures of the au-
tumn, and the white glory of the WIN
ter. All this is so dear and human
that it comes a little hard to think OF
q time when all this car be no more
what it is here and now. And so it
ought to be-. If the option were Civ
en- to many of US while the tides of
life run deep and full to exchange
this life for the splendors of the .ce-
lestial city, to give up the fight for
the necessaries of'life, for the white
robes, the harps and crowns, most OF
us would hesitate to say, we love this
best, after all, and do not want to
give it up, no matter what may be
waiting in the blessed life to come.
The gravitation of our being binds us
to our planet, and we cannot cry,
'Oh, that l had wings like a dove;
then would l flee away and be at
rest"
Nor do r think that Gods gift of
life should be thought OF as II IT
were in quarantine and this world a
place to have done with, the sooner
the better. Some such conclusion, J
know. may come from brooding over
the ills of life, or to those who nave
drained their life of all its pleasant
ness. The men who have talked in
this strain are men who were either
out of sorts or else they did not prac-
tice what they preached. The men
who have done the most and best
were of an Astounding human life.
and while they were on the way to
Join the saints they could go hunting
with St. Augustine or play or sing
with Luther. So of the men who
have no special claim to a place
! among the saints. They loved their
own land like good Sir Walter Scott,
the waters and to go afshing like
Isaac Walton and Paley, who once
told a friend that he could not think
of writing another word in his once
! famous book on the evidences until
fy-fshing was over.
No one thing in this universe can
be of deeper moment to a whole and
! sound man than his own proper per-
sonal life. You may talk to him for
ever about being lost in the Infinite,
he will still cling to himself as the
true factor and say, with a very no.
| BILE man I knew who has gone out OIL
the bed to Gods house: Il prefer hell
to annihilation." The angels are well
enough, but he would not be an an
gel. Angels have had no mothers to
Groom over them, by what we can
make out, or fathers to Tomp with
them. They never fell in love when
the time came, wondering over their
rare fortune, or made homes where
| the children chung about their knees,
or fought strong battles for the truth
and the right, or wept over graves.
Angels, then, must be poor where
such a man is rich. or rich in some
way he cannot as yet understand. He
has solved the problem so far Of his
own personal identity and would not
have it resolved into the grandest
presence that ever trod the earth.
These years, with their clustering
memories, are his own years. They
stand out clear and reveal to the man
his own life. A poor thing, he may
say, but mine own; full of mistakes,
but mine own. I want to keep
track of myself. Send me where you
will. but let me be sure that I am still
the man who is now living this hui
man life as those are who have lived
human lives with me. THE kind,
the true. the brave, the sweet who
walk with us no more" they will be
there in the life to come, not un-
clothed but clothed upon and then
shall rest in hope for:
1t is the dear belief
That on some solemn shore,
Beyond the reach OF grief.
We find our own once MORE;
Beyond the sphere OF time,
And sense and fate's control,
Serene in ~changeless prime,
Dwells the immortal soul.
This faith ! fain would keep.
This hope would not torego:
/ Eternal he the sleep,
| If not to waken so.
There must be another life to round
this out and clothe i with perfec-
ton. The tree loses nine blossoms
for one globe of fruit; the wild things
let their young go forth and forget;