The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1910-06-08


soul life is: for it cannot be explained
No philosopher. no Old Testamen
seer or New Testament prophet. n
poet or artist have ever been able t
tell us just what life rs the power t
move and 90 the ac.ious OF life is, ant
as has already been remarked. NJ
scientist has ever been able to har
ness it. And yet we may know some
thing of its most mysterious passage
from time TO eternity by observation
and ex perience. and we may illustrate
It's wandering from the cradle 70 th'
grave.
ll.-LIEE 4 REALITY
|. And at the very outset experience
teaches US that life. human life in
robe Of flesh. is reality. 1t is not
"delusion Of the mortal mind which
Christian science, false so-cailed
"corrects. Life here is a real ex!s
tence, with its real and actual con
tent, and its logical conclusions ant
sequences, all as real and as actual IL
its existence, as God himself is rea
and e1isteth. Think all you may wisf
to think that life is not real-that Il
is only dream-and You cannot
change the fact OF your existence
And, furthermore, every projection
Of life is real: all the feelings, all tht
pleasures and sorrows;-all the SIT
and disease. are realities which must
be -eckoned with. Indeed pothine
could so exactly coincide with "the
eternal fitness OF things az human
experience-thefe feelings. pleasant anc
otherwise-the man in his knowing
and feelin: existing.
>. Indeed. human life in all OF Its
phases is exactly what God mad IN
view when he made this world. Why
imagine If you can. this old world for
a moment without human life-with
out man. its master tenent. and ai!
that he has achieved, and 1t would
be a. failure, the tremendous failure
OF the devinity who made II. 1t takes
the life OF man TO complete Gods puE
pose in the creation.
;. But the soul ushered into ilie
with almost the pangs Of death knows
nothing Of the hard path that 1t Is to
tread. It is unconscious OF the fact
that the dawninS Of lifes morning i
but prophetic OF the closing day with
its setting sun and dawuinS shadows,
which day may be one OF gloom or
sunshine, of cursipg Or blessing, &C.
cordinc to the will OF the Father and
the choice and violitioDs OF the indi
vidual. And, indeed. the great ma
jority OF men and women, III a long
life OF even three score and ten years,
never learn the full meaning OF life
nothing OF its possibilities. its oppor-
tunit!es or its great responsibilities.
They never get vision Of the full
meaning Of life: and so like turtles
they shut themselves up in their own
little sphere and exist and die unto
themselves and the world is not bless
ed or made any better by their hav.
ing lived in it. But happy the man
like Milton or Hugo, or jeremy lay
lor, or Luther or Knox. 0. Wesley or
Whitfield, who feels something OF the
great responsibilities Of life and gives
himself a living sacrifice upon the al
tars OF love to bless humanity and
this old world: Happy the man. and
happy the age in which he lives. True.
we cannot ali be men like these just
but through wise choice
OF the better things Of life and the
righ: exercise OF our minds we can at
least be happy ourselves and in Jesus
the Eternal Rock OF Ages find a sweet
refuse from the storms that wonld
wreck and ruin a struS-
Cling soul tossed upon the surSinS
pillows of the sea OF life; and indeed
no good man ever died in vain
!I.-MlTArHoRS-L ILLUsTRAT-
I'D.
!. But now unto what shall we llk-
en- life. The Bible speaks Of it under
n multitude of metaphors, or figures
of speech. which are a: once striking
and full OF instruction, and they al.
ford US wide and interesting field Of
study. And now in the light OF some
o. these striking presentations found
in the Bible, and also in the writings
OF good men, let US see how life may
be illustrated And, first, we would
suggest that
(A) LIFE IS A EIAL.
!. Life is a dial upon which time
casts it's passing shadows, with its
morning, noon and night: its rising
and it's setting suns, its lights and its
shadows; its spring time; It's summer;
its autumn and Its winter; its begin
ming and its end. Life is r. dial; and
we know that time is fleecing," and,
therefore, that the hands on the clo--
in the steeple Of Time will neither
stop nor :urn backward. Time and
tide wait for no man" 4 man may
stop and sit down and waste the gold
en- opportunities Of life. but time
moves on. The hands Of the old clock
OF Time are always turning towards
and thus bringing the man
moment by momenc, and hour by
hour. nearer TO the Judgment and to
an accounting with his God.
.. How true 70 life that old. ole
story, in which man in the autumn
and winter OF life is represented rs
going back to the old plantation. to
.the old house at home, now the
Of strangers, and after
looking about the premises, he gets
permission to so up into the earret.
and there he finds among the rubbish,
his little trundle bed about which his
mother taught him his evening pray
ers. Vow l lay me down to sleep,
and in which she used to tuck him
awny at night, and giving him
the good nj isht kiss, leave him TO
slumber and 70 sleep. And now as
these memories OF a long ago are pass
ing like shadows through his mind.
and rs he hears again her lulabYs, and
feels ago the imprint Of holy lips, and
hears her good advice, which he has
not followed. and as he thinks OF the
golden opportunities which he has
thrown to the winds, be prays:
Turn backward. o Time. ,urD backward IN
your Hight.
And make nc child again, JUS: :o- tonight:
But every tick OF the old clock. and
every stroke OF the hammer upon the
gong, seem to mock him while he
prays. Time will not turn backward
in its flight. and therefore he cannot
-. Lad