The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-05-25
THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. E. M. M'GUFFEY.
Theme: The End of Things.

h1CTuley, predCleu Ouuudy mOTuluS
on the END Of Things He took his
text from st. Luke 21: For the
powers of heaven shall be shaken
Mr.. McGuffey said:
Joy is always more joyous when
underneath it is a foundation of
thoughtfulness. Thoughtful people
have everywhere and always the adj
vantage over thoughtless people.
With the latter class joy is too often
like the "crackling Of thorns under a
pot" Here joy is likely to be like
the pleasure children; light hearted,
temporary, evanescent and meaning
less; mere animal spontaneity, unre-
Elective.
On the other hand, also, half d.
gested considerations Of the solem-
nifty and seriousness of life, %considera-
lions Of it not thought thoroughly to
a conclusion, are too apt to alarm
and sober us unduly, and produce
that timid and melancholy frame of
mind that refrains as far as possible
from thinking at all on the great and
serious problems of human life. Lord
Bacon once said: "a little philos-
ophy inclineth men to atheism" He
might have said also that a large sur
vey of the laws governing the world
and the human mind establish a be-
lief in the absolute and benevolent
sovereignty of God over human life.
I shall be pleased, therefore, to
have you do two things:
First, to make all the joyous days
of the Christian yea and all the JOY
Gus occasions of your personal life
more intelligently joyful by careful
consideration of the truths and facts
which underlie them. If a few months
ago we reflected on the true thought
of Christmas Day, the incarnation,
the gift to the world from the skies
of a Divine Saviour, assuring us of
the care and love of the great Heaven
ly Father, I am sure we experienced
a happiness that was contagious, be-
cause it was deep rooted. If we eX-
planned lucidly to the dear children
in our homes why and how Christmas
became Christmas, I am sure we
sowed precious seed in the rich soil
Of their young hearts.
With these considerations I pass
to our second thought, viz:
The ending of this planet as the
theatre and home of human life.
Dramatic and terrible as is this
thought in contemplation, let us seek
to entertain it that it may be reas-
surfing rather than demoralizing. If
the ending of the career Of this world
as a planet is to me a tremendous
physical catastrophe, a probable re-
absorption into the sun by an impact
Of collision which will instantly va
porize it by the enormous heat gen.
orated by collision, this apparently
tragic and utter ending of the earth is
an ending ordained by God, along the
lines of infinite wisdom and love. 1t
will be no more remarkable, when
viewed in this light, than the drop
ping of an autumn leaf, that, having
served its function, is hidden to sub
serve other uses.
It Is worthy of remark that the
statement of our Saviour that this
planet would come finally 20 fiery ex-
t%inction, anticipated by near 1000
years the deductions and conclusions
of astronomical science. For a gen.
Grafton at least, astronomers have
known that the earth was slowly
drawing nearer to the sun. AS this
approach is by very easy stages, al
though positive and actual, it will be
many hundreds of thousands Of years
before the final catastrophe occurs.
And So, just now, we need be under
no immediate apprehension, in spite
of the periodic alarms Of Dur friends,
the Second Adventists.
Before this happens, the education
Of the human race will have been
finished. Before this happens, all
terrestrial heat will probably have
left. the body of this planet. With
the cooling of the earth, all water
on the surface of the globe, and all
atmosphere will have been drawn in
to the core of the earth, and the earth
will have become a dead planet like
the moon. With the cooling Of the
earth, and the disappearance of water
and air, all organic life, vegetable
and animal, will have ceased, and the
earth become a dead planet. Gradu-
ally the centrifugal motion which
keeps the earth away from the sun,
as it whirls around it, will be over
come by the centripetal attraction
which is drawing the earth toward
the sun. Let me explain by a simple
Illustration: A boy ties a stone on
the end of a string, after the manner
of a sling. He swings it round and
round. Should he let go the string,
the stone would fly off into space.
But holding tightly to the string, he
gradually shortens it, and in the
meantime keeps the stone whirling,
the stone will presently strike his
hand when the string is short enough.
And the stone will strike hard. AS
tronomy tells us that the earth is the
stone, and the sun is the boy. The
string is the invisible cord which we
call gravity. The sun is gradually
shortening this cord. When it is
short enough, this power of gravity
will pull the earth into the sun. The
earth will stike the sun so hard that
its entire mass will be vaporized in
an instant and all it's constituent ele-
ments resolved into its original con-
dition. So vast is the SUI that any
one of its great chasms, which We call
spots, is large enough to swallow the
earth without touching its sides. So
vast is the sun that the addition to it
of this whole planet would be as If
we threw a single lump of coal into
a great furnace.
Although all life will have ceased
before this cataclysm, when we reflect
upon the destruction of the triumphs
of art, science and civilization, the
, borlocc oruo1lorc fhipOc which