Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

u f THE LEDGER: DAFFXEV, S. C., APRIL S, 18U7. •t ( A PLEA FOR COURAGE. REV. DR. TALMAGE ON RUIN AN ) RES- I TORATION. Thcr«> M r i»t Be Kxplorntlon l^'forf lO-~ ixnifitructlou—Instance* of the Tria'.iiph of Sailne** -Word* of Hope ami Cheer For the IMxcourayed. Wakuinotox, April 4.—From tho woinl and midnight experiences of ono of ancient times Dr. Talmage in bis ser- moa draws lessons startlingly appropri ate. His text was Nehemiah ii, 15, “Uien went I up in the night by the brook and viewed the wall, and turned buck, and entered by the gate of the val ley, and so returned.’* A dead city is more suggestive than a living city—past Rome than present Rome—ruins rather than newly frescoed cathedral. But the best time to visit a $uin is by moonlight. The Coliseum is ttr more fascinating to the traveler after sundown than before. You may stand fey daylight amid the monastic ruins of ALuLroee abbey, and study shafted oriel apd presetted stone andnmUlou, but they tfceov. u-ir strongest witchery by moon* Rglit Some of you remember what the enchanter of Scotland said in the “Lay of the Last Minstrel:” thou view fair Melrose aright? Ck> vinit it by tiic pule moonlight. Jerusalem la Kxiin*. Washington Irving dU-scribes the An- dalmdnn moonlight upon the Alhambra fevbtf us {imounting to an enchantment Hr bul presents you Jerusalem in ruins. The tower down. The gates down. The walls down. Everything down. Nehemiah on horseback, by moonlight looking upon the ruins. While bo rides there are some friends on foot gying with him, for they do not want the many horses to disturb the suspicions <t the people. These people do not know tbe secret of Nehemiah’is heart, but they uae going as a sort of bodyguard. I hear the clicking hoofs of the horse cm which Nehemiah rides, as he guides this way and that, into this gate ;ind 0nt of that, winding through that gate maid the debris of once great Jerusa lem. Now the horse comes to dead halt at the tumbled masonry where he can not pass. Now he shies off at the charred timbers. Now he comes along where the water under the moonlight Hashes from the mouth of the brazen dragon after which the gate was named. Heavy hearted Nehemiah, riding in and out, now by his old home desolated, now by the defaced temple, now amid the scars of the city that bad gone down uud< r battering ram and conflagration! The osoorting party knows not what Nehe- nriali means. Is ho getting crazy? Have his own personal sorrows, added to the sorrows of tho nation, unbalanced his intellect? Still the midnight explora tion goes on. Nehemiah on horseback rides through the fish gate, by the towc r of the furnaces, by the king’s pool, by the dragon well, in and out, in and out, until the midnight ride is completed, and Nehemiah dismounts from his horse, and to the amazed and confound ed and incredulous bodyguard, declares tho dead secret of his heart win u he says, “Come, now, let us build Jerusa lem.” ‘‘What, Neheniali, have you any money?” “No.” “Have you any kingly authority?” “No.” “Have you any eloquence?” “No.” Yet that mid night, moonlight ride of Nehemiah re sulted in the glorious rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem. Tho people knew not how the thing was to be done, but with great enthusiasm they cried out, “Lit us rise up now and build tho city.” Some people laughed and said it could not bo done. Some people were infuriate and offered physical violence, saying iho thing should not be done. But the work men went right on, standing on tho wall, trowel in one hand, sword hi the other, until the work was gloriously completed. At that very time in (iretco, Xenophon was writing a history, and Plato was making philosophy, and De mosthenes was rattling his rhetorical thunder. But all of them together did not do so much for the world as this midnight, moonlight ride of praying, courageous, homesick, close mouthed Nehemiah. Churrh Affection. My subject first impresses me with the idea what an intense thing is church af fection. S ize the bridle of that horse and stop, Nehemiah. Why are you risk ing your life hero in the night? Your horse will stumble over these ruins and fall on you. Stop this useless exposure of your life. No; Nehemiah will not stop. He ut last tells us tho whole story. Ho lets us know he was an exile in a far distant land, and he was a servant, a cupbearer in the palace of Artaxerxes Louigmauus, and one day, while he was handing the cup of wine to tiie king, the king said to him: “ What is the mat ter with you? You are not sick. 1 know you must have some great trouble. What is the matter with you?” Then ho told the king how that beloved Jerusa lem was broken down, how that his fa ther's tomb had been desecrated, how that the temple had Iw-en dishonored and defaced, how that the walls were scat tered and broken. “Well,’’says King Artaxerxes, “what do you want?*’ “Well,” said tho cupbearer, Nehemiah, “I want to go home. I want to fix up the grave of my father. I want to Te uton the beauty of the temple. 1 want to rebuild tho masonry of the city wall. Besides, I want passports so that I shall not be hindered in my journey, and be sides that,” ns yon will find in the con text, “I want an order on the man who keeps your forest for just so much tim ber as I may need for the rebuilding of tho city.” “How long shall you bo gone?” said the king. The time of ab sence is arranged. In hot haste this seeming adventurer comes to Jerusalem, and in my text we fidd him on horse back, in the midnight, riding around tho ruins. It is through the spectacles of this scene that we discover the ardent attachment of Nebamiah for sacred Jeru- aalcm, which in all ages has been the type of the church of God, our Jerusa lem, which we love just us much as Nohemiafc Ibved his Jeursalem. Tho fa< t ii that you love the church of God so much that there is no spot ou earth so vicrcd unless it bo your own fireside. The chvjrh has Ik on to you so much comfort and illumination that there is nothing that makes you so irate as to have it talked against. If there have been times when you have been carried into captivity by sick ness, you longed for tho church, our holy Jerusalem, just as much as Nehe miah longed for his Jerusalem, and the first day you came out you came to the house of the Lord. When the temple was in ruin*, like Nehemiah, you walk ed around and looked at it, and in tho nifstnliglA gun stood listening if you could not hear the voiee of the dead or gan, tho psalm of the expired Sabbaths. What Jerusalem was to Nehemiah iho church of God is to you. Skeptics and infidels may scoff at the church as an obselete affair, as a relic of the dark ages, as a convention of goody goody people, but all the impression they have ever mnie »m your msud against the churrh of ®od is absolutely nothing. Y’ou would make more sacrifices for it today than asiy other institution, and if It w«c nuedfol yoa would die in its dt- feuw. You tbu take the words of the kingly m he said, ‘‘If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. ” You understand in your own experience the pathos, tho homesickness, the courage, the holy en thusiasm of Nehemiah in his midnight moonlight around the ruins of his beloved JerankuBi. Bsploratfnn. t Agaiu, lay taxt impresses me with the fact that, before reconstruction, there must be an exploration of ruins. Why was not Nehemiah asleep under the covers? Why was not his horse stabled in the midnight? Let the police of the cltT axrwat this midnight rider, nut on s<jme nrifcehief. No. Nehemiah us going to lubuild the city, and he is making »h« pwMminury exploration. In this gate, out that gate, east, west, north, south. All through the ruins. The ruins must be explored before the work of reconstruction can begin. The reassu that so many people in this day apparently converted do pot slay converted is because they did not first explore the ruins of their own heart. The reason that there are so many professed Christians who in this day lie and forge and steal and commit abominations and go to the peniten tiary is because they first do not learn the ruin of their own heart. They have not found out that “the h<‘art is deceit ful above all things and desperately wicked.” They had an idea that they were almost right, and they built r< li gjon as a wirt of ext* nsion, as an orna mental cupola. There was a superstruc ture of religion built on u substratum of unrepeuted sins. The trouble with a good deal of modern theology is that instead of building on the right founda tion it builds on the debris of an unre- geuerated nature. They attempt to re build Jerusalem before, in the midnight of conviction, they have seen the ghast liness of the ruin. They have such a poor foundation for their religion that the first northeast storm of temptation blows them down. I have no faith in a man’s conversion if he is not-converted in the old fashioned way—John Bun- yan's way, John Wesley’s way, John Calvin’s way, Paul's way, Christ’s way, God’s way. A dentist said tome, “Does that hurt?” Haid I: “Of course it hurts. It is in your business as in my profes sion. Wo have to hurt before we can help.” You will never uuderst.aud re demption until you understand ruin. A man tells me that some one is a mem ber of tho church. It makes no impres sion on my mind at all. I simply want to know whether he was converted in the old fashioned way or whether he was converted in the new fashioned way. If ho was converted in the old fashioned way, he will stand. If he was converted in the new fashioned way, ho- will not stand. That is all there is about it. A man comes to me to talk about re ligion. The first question I ask him is, “Do you feel yourself to be a sinner?” If he says, “Well, I—yea, ” the hesitancy makes me feel that that man wants a ride on Nehemiah’s horse by midnight through the ruins—in by the gate of his affections, out by the gate of his will— and before be has got through with that midnight ride he will drop the reins on the horse’s neck and will take his right hand and smite on his heart and say, “God be merciful tome, a sinner,” and before he has stabled his hors*' he will take his feet out of the stirrups, and lie will slide down on tho ground, and he will kneel, crying: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies! Blot out my transgressions, for I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sins are ever be fore thee.” Ah, my friends, you sea this is not a complimentary gospel. That is what makes some people so mad. It comes to a nun of $1,000,000 and impeniteut in his sins and says, “You’re a pauper.” It comes to a wom an of fairest cheek who has never re pented and says, “You’re a sinner.” It comes to a man priding himself on his independence and says, “You’re bound hand and foot by the devil” It comes to our entire race and says, “You're* ruin, a ghastly ruin, on il limitable ruin. ” Satan sometimes says to me: “Why do you preach that truth? Why don’t you preach a gospel with no repentance in it? Why don’t you flatter men’s hearts so that you make them feel all right? Why don’t you preach a humanitarian gospel with no repent ance in it, saying nothing about the ruin, talking all the time about the re demption?” I say, “Get thee behind me, taton. ” I would rather lead flve souls into safety than 20,000 into perdi tion. The redemption of the gospel is a perfect fame if there is no ruin. “The whole used not a physician, but they that are sick.” “If any one, though he be an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel than this.” says the apos tle, “let him be accursed.” There must be the midnight ride over the ruins be- ( fore Jerusalem can be built. There must Iki the clicking of tlieli nfs before there ! can be the ring of the troweR Triuiiiiilmnt Sa<ln« Again, my subject gives me a speci- , men of busy and triumphant sadness. If there was any man in the world who had a right to mope and give up every thing as lost, it was Nehemiah. You say, “Ho was u cupbearer in the palace ! of tshushau, and it was a grand place.” Koitwas. The hall of that palace was 200 feet square, and the roof hovered over ‘IB marble pillars, each pillar 00 feet high, and the intense blue of the sky and the deep green of the forest foliage, ( and the white of tho driven snow, all , hung trembling in the upholstery. But, my friends, you know very well. that fine architecture will not put down 1 homesickness. Yet Nehemiah did not give up. Then, when you see him going | among these desolated streets and by i these dismantled towers and by the torn np grave of his father, yon would sup pose that he would have been disheart ened and that he would have dismount ed from his horse and gone to his room and said: “Woe is me! My father's grave is tern up. The temple is dishon ored. The walls are broken down. I have no money with which to rebuild. I wish I had never been biru. I wish I : were dead.” Not so says Nehemiah. Although he had a grief so intense, that it excited the commentary of his king, i yet that penniless, expatriated Nehe miah rouses himself up to rebuild the city. He gets his permission of absence. He gets his passports. He hastens away to Jerusalem. By night on horseback ho | rides through the ruins. He overcomes the most ferocious opposition. He arouses the piety and patriotism of the ! people, and in less than two mouths— namely,52 due s—Jerusalem was rebuilt. That’s what I call busy and triumphaat ! sadness. Faint, Yet Far«nlnc. My friends, the whole temptation la with you when you have trouble to do just the opposite to the behavior of Ne- i hemiah, and that is to give up. You ' say, “I have lost my child and can never smile again.” You say, “I have lost my property, and I never can re- i pair my fortunes.” You say, “I have fallen into sin, and I never can start again for a new life. ” If satan can make you form that resolution and make you keep it, he has ruined you. Trouble is not sent to crush you, but to arouse yon, to animate y*m, to propel you. The blacksmith does not thrust the iron into the forge and then blow away with the bellows and then bring the hot iron cut on the anvil and boat with stroke aft* r stroke to ruin tR iron, tut to prepare it far a better use. Oil, that tli'- Lord God of Nehemiah would rouse up all broken hearted people to I rebuild! Whipped, betrayed, shipwreck ed, imprisoned, Paul went right on. The Italian martyr Algerius sit: in his dungeon writing a letter, and ho dates ; it, “From the delectable orchard of the Leonine prison. ” That is what I call , triumphant sadness. I knew a mother who buried her babe on Friday and on ; Sabbath appeared in the house of God i and said: “Give me a class; give me a ! Sabbath school class. I have no child now left me, and I would like to have a class of little children. Give me real poor children. Give mo a class off the backstreet.” That, I say, is beautiful. That is triumphant sadness. At 3 o’clock every Sabbath after noon, for years, in a beautiful parlor in Philadelphia—a parlor pictured and statuetted—there were from 10 to 20 destitute children of the street. Those destitute children received religious in struction, concluding with cakes and sandwiches. How do I know that that was going on for 16 years? I know it in this way: That was the first home in Philadelphia where I was called to comfort a great sorrow. They had a splendid boy, and he had been drowned at Long Branch. The father and mother almost idolized the boy, and the sob and shriek of that father and mother as they hung over the coffin resound in my ears today. There seemed to be no use of praying, for when I knelt down to pray the outcry in the room drowned out all the prayer. But the Lord comforted that sorrow. They did not forget tluir trouble. If you should go any afternoon into Laurel Hill, you would find a monument with the word “Walter” in scribed upon it and a wreath of fresh flowers mound the name. I think there was not an hour in 20 years, winter or summer, when there was not a wreath of fresh flowers around Walter’s name. But the Christian mother who sent those flowers there, having no child left, Sabbath afternoons mothered 10 or 20 of the lost ones of thesucet. That is beautiful. That is what I call busy and triumphant sadness. Here is a man who has lost his property. He does not go to hard drinking. He does not de stroy his own life. He com** and says: “Harness mo for Christian work. My money’s gone. I have no treasures on earth. 1 want treasures in heaven. I have a voice and a heart to servo God. ” You say that that man has failed. He has not failed—he has triumphed! Never Give Up. Oh, I wish I could persuade all the people who have any kind of trouble never to give up. I wish they would look at the midnight rider of tho text and that tho four hoofs of that beast on which Nehemiah rode might ent to pieces all your discouragements and hardships and trials. Give up! Who is going to give up when on the bosom of God he can have all his troubles hushed? Give up! Never think of giving up. Are you borne down with poverty? A little child was found holding her dead moth er’s hand in the darkness of a tenement honse, and some one coming in the lit tle girl looked up, while holding her dead mother’s hand, and said, “Oh, I do wish that God had made more light for poor folks.” My dear, God will be your light, God will bo your shelter, God will be your home. Arc you borne down with the bereavements of life? Is the house lonely now that the child is gone? Do not give up. Think of what the old sexton said when the minister asked him why he put so much care on tho little graves in the cemetery—so much more care than on tho larger graves—and tho old sexton said, “.Sir, you know that ‘of .such is the kingdom of heaven,’and I think tho Saviour is pleased when he sees so much white clover growing around these little graves.” But when the minister pressed the old sexton for a more satisfactory answer the old sexton said, “tiir, about these larger graves, I don’t know who are the Lord’s saints and who are not. but you know, sir, it is clean different With the bairns.” Oh, if you have had that keen, tender, indescribable sorrow that comes from the loss of a child, do not give up. The old sexton was right. It is all weft with tho bairns. Or, if you have sinned, if you have sinned grievously—sinned until you have bt-t-u cast out by the church, sinned until you have been cast out by society—do not give up. Perhaps there may be in this house one that could truthfully utter the lamentation of another: Once I was pure as the snow, but I fell— Fell like a snowflake, from heaven to hell— Fell to be trampled as filth in the street— FeH to bo scoffed at, spit on and beat, Praying, ccrsyig, wishing to die, belling my soul to whoever would buy. Dealing in shame for a morsel of bread, Hating the living and fearing tha dead. Do not give up! One like unto the Fon of God comes to you today, saying, “Go and sin no more, ” while he cries out to your assailants, “Lot him that is without sin cast the first stone at her.” Oh, there is no reason why any one in this house by reason of any trouble or sin should give up. Are you a foreigner, and in a strange land? Nehemiah was an exile. Are you penniless? Nehwniah was poor. Are you homesick? Nehe miah was homesick. Are you broken hearted? Nehemiah was broken hearted. But just see him in the text, riding along the sarrileg*.*! grave of his father, ami by the dragon well, and through the fish gate, and by the king's pool, in and out, in and out, the moonlight falling on the broken masonry, which throws a long shadow, at which the horse shies, and at the same time that moonlight kindling up the features of this man till you see not only tho mark of sad rem iniscence, but tho courage and hope, the enthusiasm of a man who knows that Jerusalem will bo rebuild* d. I pick you up today out of your sins and out of your sorrow, and I put you against the warm heart of Christ. “Theeternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” The Governor’s Wonderful Hat. The governor of Missouri is wearing a most outrageous hat. It was given to him by Adjutant General M. Fred Bell, who iuis excellent taste in everything except hats. The governor perhaps wouldn’t wear it at all it it hadn’t been presented to him by so good and loyal a friend as General Bell. If a casual ac quaintance had sent it to him, Governor Stephens would doubtless have viewed the gift with suspicion and stored it away from public gaze, and if it had come from a political enemy he certainly would have sent it back by the first train. The hat is of such gigantic pro portions that tli*- governor seems to stagger under it as he- walks. Its crown is built upon the plans and specifications of a mountain peak, and when it is crushed in the center it lias the appear ance of an extinct volcano. And yet Governor Stephens seems actually proud of thi- hat. It probably cost more than any other hut in Missouri, and must have been made to order. Jefferson City is wondering how long the governor is going to wear the hat.—Lebanon (Mo.) Rustic. Waldenne* Fop Tc-nn«*»»et. It is expected that 1,000 Waldo uses from the Alpine valleys will arrive in Tennessee this spring to join the colony of 350 that established itself near Mor- gauton in 1803. The first colony that came to this country settled in Burke county, N. C., in IbUJ. Under tho lead ership of Dr. Toofilo Gai and the Rev. C. A. Tron, the colonists purchased sev eral thousand acres of laud and obtained a period of 20 years in which to pay for it. Since then they have succeeded far beyond their expectations and have ne gotiate d for 10,000 acres just across in Tenncs'i e, which will be filled by the newcou- rs. They have also secured op tions * u many thousands of acres of cou- tigucus mountain lands, which will Le purchase*! iu case the immigration war rants it. Valdese is the principal town of the Waldens* s in the Tennessee moun tains and is ten miles from Morgauton. —New York Tribune. HiNraeU'* lloiM-ymoon. An anecdote of Disraeli is told by a writer iu Blackwood's. Mr. Grilliu and his daughter, Lady i-iinipkinson, travel ing voiturier and halting to rest the horses at a posthouse some hours from Munich, suddenly became aware of “a most disconsolate figure, with long, dark curls, leaning dejectedly against one of the pillars of the jiorch. ’ ’ It was Dis raeli on his wedding tour. The sight of his friends aroused him to tell his tale of woe. He had failed to recognize the fact that he had been for some hours re tracing his steps instead of proceeding to Innsbruck, us he had intended, and had reached the posthouso to find no horses available for his return. The du plicate mistake had been made by a couple desirous of reaching Augsburg and at that moment speeding on a re turn journey of their own to Innsbruck. But Disraeli's bride, it will be remem bered, was u widow. , Animosities Buried. It is a matter for pleasant thought that as the years have rolled by this an nual tribute has become more a celebra tion of peace than of war, more a guar antee for riie future than a record of tho past. The exultation over victory has given place to exultation over increasing good feeling and a restored harmony in ail sections. The gray sleeps beside tho blue in many a cemetery, but both will have their tribute of flowers from loving hands, typiual of mutual regret uid ad miration for mutual courage.—Chisago Tribune. The Greatest Cure on Earth for Pain. Cures permanently Rheumatism, Neuralgia, Sciatica, Sprains, Cuts, Bruises, Scalds, Burns, Swellings, Backache or any other pain. SALVATION OIL is sold everywhere for 25 cts. Refuse substitutes. Chew LANGE'S PLUGS. The Great Tobacco Ar.tidotc.iOc. Dealers or (nail.A.C.Me)er & Co., Balto..!M<). We are beter prepared than ever to — $ SAVE OUR CUSTK KONEV .r- on Drugs, Paints, Oil, Glass, etc. Also a full line of School Miscellanies. We give a '■j>ecial discount to Teacher*, and can sell you hook- as cheap as anywhere in the United States. Parties buying in large quantities for schools will also receive a discount if all are 1 Might together. Our ! ine of— * * I I T< IC Al< >11^1)1 .’SCi is complete, and the largest ever brought to Ualfney. Wo are prepared to furnish any kind of frames with as good worl manship as can he had anywhere. Bring on your picti res. Our Prescription Department is filled with the purest and freshest Drugs and Chemicals, and W“ have a licensed Pharmacist in charge who will take pleasure in compounding all prescriptions brought to us. He wil 1 also compound family “medicines and home receipts 1 ’ at the lowest cost. Hot Soda will knock the cold wave out of you. S. B. CRAWLEY & CO. Don’t Forget That J. N. Lipscomb’s is head quarters for * * * * # # Bicycles, Stoves, Cotton Seed Meal And Hulls, Hay, Bran, and anything else you may happen to need in your busi ness. Call and see J. N. LIPSCOriB. The Gaffnej City Land anil Improvement Company, Offer for Sale Building Lots in this Flourishing Town, GcJ±.F CITY. Also Farms near by and in reach of the schools of Limestone Springs and of this place in lots of from 30 to 100 acres on liberal time rates. Al”o Agricultural Lands to rent for farm purposes. For full particulars apply t» MOSES WOOD, Agent. N. B.—All trespassing on lands of this Company cutting and removing timber, fishing or hunting are forbidden under penalty of law. You Can’t Get Blood -*88*- Out of a Turnip But you can get the nicest, freshest and best groceries in the city from us. We keep strictly groceries and devote our whole time to it and are always trying to save our customers money. If you don’t know “what to get for dinner’ come and see us. Yours truly, BYA r (S & SPARKS, Eiclnsive Grocers. “Fishers of Hen.” The shrewd advertiser who drops his hook into The Gaffney Ledger is sure of A Good Catch. The best Newspaper in Cherokee County, and the one that the best people in this county read every word of. If you want to buy or sell anything, then advertise; and if you want your advertise ment to be read and want it to benefit you, then put it in The Ledger, and you’ll always get good results. If you don’t care to write your ads yourself we will write them for you free of any extra cost. TTliie I^eclyrei'.