The ledger. [volume] (Gaffney City, S.C.) 1896-1907, May 13, 1897, Image 5

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THE LEDGER: GAFFNEY, S. C., MAY 13, 1807 5 I A MATTER OF BREAD, A" TALMACE ON A MISSION FOR HUMANITY. He Takca 1'or Ills SuljJcct u Tlinuglit Most luter.'HtiiiK 1c All Who Are TryliiR to Ael-.ieve a Livelihood—The Ikvvc-un of God. Washington, May D.—Dr. Talmape has returued homo after a most remark ably t unvssful tour through the west, ami iu behalf of tho famine struck of India speaking iu the groat corn cen ters to va«t multitudes of people and raising many carloads of breadstuffs and many thousands of dollars. His subject is today to the last degree ap propriate to all who are trying to achieve a livelihood. Text, I Kings xvii, (>, “And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh iu the evening. ” The ornithology of the Bible is a very interesting study — the stork which knoweth ht>r~sppuhncd time; the com mon sparrows teaching the lesion of God's providence; the ostriches of the desert, by careless incubation, illustrat ing the recklessness of parents who do { not take enough pains with their chil- i dreu; the eagle symbolizing ric hes which take wings and fly away; tho pelican emblemizing solitude; tin* bat, a flake of the darkness; the night hawk, the* csrifrage, the cuckoo, the lapwing, the osprey, by the command of God, in Leviticus, flung out of the world’s bill of fare. I would like to have been with Au dubon as ho went through the woods, with gun and pencil, bringing down , and sketching the fowls of heaven, his unfolded portfolio thrilling all Chris- I teudom. What wonderful cieatures of God the birds are. Some of them this lueming. like the songs of heaven let loose-, bursting through the gates of heaven. Consider their feathers, which are clothing and conveyance at the same time; tho nine vertebra! of the neck, the three eyelids to each eye, the third eyelid an extra curtain for graduating the light of the sun. Some of these biids scavengers and some of them or- ’ chcstra. Thank God for quail’s whistle, and lark's carol, and the twitter of the : wren, called by the ancients the kiug of birds, Leoaure when tho fowls of heaven went into a contest as to who should fly the highest, and the eagle swung nearest the sun, a wren on back of the eagle, sifter the eagle was ex- ; bausted, sprang up much higher, and so was called by tho ancients the king of birds. Consider those of them that have golden crowns and crests, showing them to bo feathered impc rials. And list* u to the humming bird’s serenade in the ear.! of the honeysuckle. Look at the belted ( kiughch r, striking a dart from sky to watc r List' u to the voice of the owl, ! giving the keynt to to all croakers. And heboid th<‘ condor among the Andes, battling with tho re indeer. I do not kuov/whethe r ;*n aquarium or aviary ( i- the be st altar from which to worship I Cod. * An Ornithological Wonder. There is an incident in my !■ st that baffles ell th ■ < rnitle-logical wor.de rs cf the world. The grain i rop had I. en cut oil Famine was in the land. In a cavt by tho brock Chcrith sat a minister oi God, Elijah, waiting for something to eat. Why di:l*ho not go to the neigh bors? There were i:n neigh tor-. It was a wilderness. Why did he net pick seme , of the terries? There were none. II there had tec n, they would have bcea dried up. ‘•catcd e;ne morning at the mouth cf hii cave, the pic] hot sees c flock of Lira ? approaching. Oh, if they were cnlv artridges, or if he only had an arrow with which to bring them down! But as they < < me neart r he finds that they are net comestible, but un clean, and tho eating c.f them would be spiritual death. The strength cf their beak, tho length of their wings, the blackueri cf their color, their loud, harsh “crack, truck!” prove them to be ravens. They \ hir around about the proph et's head, and then they cc:nie on tlut- taring wing and pause on the level of his lips, and enoef the ravens bring* bread, and another raven brings meat, and after they have discharged their tiny cargo th. y wheel past, stud others come-, until after {‘while tho* prophet has enough, and these! black servants of the wildc rm -s tal lo s ic* gone. For six mouth', and some say u whole year, morning and ev< mug, a breakfast and u suppe r be 11 sounded us these rav ns rang out <:i tho air their "truck, cruckl” Gucsn where they got tho joou from. The* old rabbins say they got it from tho kitchen of King Abub. Others say that the ravens got their foed from pious Obadiuh, who was in the habit of fee ding the persecuted. Some say that the ravens brought the food to the ir ye ung in the trees, and that Elijah had only toclimb up and git it. Some* say that tix* whole story is improbable, for these* we re carnivorous birds, and the fe.od they carried was the torn flesh ejf living beasts, and therefore ceremonial ly unclean, or it was carrio n and would riot have* hi t u lit for th * prophet Some say they were not ravens at all, but that the work translated “ravens" in tuy test ought to have been translated “Arabs,” so it would have read, “The Arabs brought bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and fioh in the evening. ” Anything but admit the Bi ble to bo true*. Hew r.wcy at this ruiraclo until all the !nir..cle is gone. Go on with the d< • pletiug prcc* >s, tut know, my brother, that jou are robbing only one man— and that is your. : If—cf one of the most comforting, beautiful, pathetic and tri umphant lessons in all the ages. I can tell ycu who these purveyors were— they rrerg rnven*’. I c:*.!! tel! you who freighted th* oi with provisions—God. I can tell you who launched them— God. I cr.y tell you who taught them which way to fly—God. I can tell you W'ho told trim at what envo to swoop ,-—God. I can tell you who introduced raven to prophet and prophet to raven cat) passage I will whisper iu ycur car, for I would not want to utter it aloud, lest some cue should crop clcvrn under its power, “If any man shall take away fr< :a the words of the prophecy of this book, God shall take* away bis part out of tl’.o Look of life and out of the Holy City.” While, then, we watch tho ravers feeding BUjah, let the swift dove of God’s spirit sweep down the sky with divine food, and on outspread wing pause at the lip of every soul hungering for comfort On the banks of what rivers have been the great battles of the world? While you. are locking over the map of the world to answer that, I will tell you that the great conflict today is on the Potomac, on the Hudson, on the Missis sippi, on the Thames, on the Savannah, on the Rhine, on the Nile, on the Ganges, on the Honng-Ho. It is a bat tle that has been going on for 6,000 years. The troops eugagtd iu it are 1,600,000,000, and those who have fallen by the way are vaster in number than those who march. It is a battle for bread. Out For Haven*. Sentimentalists sit in a cushioned chair in their pictured study, with their slippered feet on a damask ottoman, and say that this world is a great scene of avarice and greed. It dees net seem so to me. If it were not for the absolute necessities cf tho cases, nine-tenths of the stores, factories, shops, banking houses cf the land would be closed to morrow. Who is that man delving in the Colorado hills, or toiling in a New England factory, or going through a roll of bills in the bunk, or measuring a fabric on the counter? He is a champion sent forth in behalf of some home circle that has to be cured for, iu behalf of some church of God that has to be sup ported, in lx half of seme asylum of mercy that has to be sustained. Who is that woman lending over the sewing machine, or carrying the bundle, or sweeping tl»v room, or mending the gar ment, or sweltering at the washtub? That is Deborah, one of the Lord’s her oines, battling against Amalekitish want, which comes down with iron chariot to crush her and hers. The great question with the vast majority of peo ple today is not home rule, but whether there shall be any home to rule; not Cue cf tariff, but whether there shall be anything to tax. The great question:? with tho vast majority of people are: “How shall 1 support my family? How shall I meet my notes? How shall I pay my rent? How shall I give food, cloth iug and education to those who are do- pendent upon me?” Oh, if God would help me today to assist you in the solu tion of that problem, the happiest man ift this house would be your preacher. I have gone out on a cold morning with expert sportsmen to hunt for pigeons. 1 have gene out on the meadows to hunt lor quail. I have gone out on the marsh to hunt frr reed birds, but today I am c ut lor ravi ns. Winged Caterers. Notice, in the Cist place in tho story cf ny text, that these winged caterers cam** to Elijah direct from God. “1 have commanded the ravens that they fied thee,” we find God saving in an adjoining passage. They did not come out if sonic other cave. They did not just happen to alight there. God freightul them, God launched tin ui and God told them by what cave to swoop. That is the same God ihat i.« going to supply you. Ho is your Father. Y< u wi ukl have to make an elaborate calculation hi fore you could tell n.e how many pounds of food and how many yards of clothing would bo uco s- sary for you audymr family, but God kia us without auj’ calculation. You have a plate at his table, and yi u ar. going to be waited on, unless you act like a naughty child and kick ai d scramble and pound saucily the plate and try to upset things. God has a vast tamily, and every thing is methodized, and you ar • going to Lo served if yon will only wait your turn. God has already ndered all the suits of cloth* s you will • ver need, down to the last suit in which you will Le laid out. God has already ordi red all the food you will ever eat, down to the la.-t crumb that will Le put iu your mouth in,the dying sacrament. It may not lo just the kind if food or apparel we would pn fir. The sensible parent de pt mis ou his own judgment as to what ought to Ik* tho* apparel and the food of the minor in the family. The child would say, "Give me sugars and eon- In thns. ” “Oh, no!” says the parent. “You must have something plainer first. ” The child would say, ‘ Oh, give me these gnat blotches of color in the* ington banks or Bank of England than you have iu the Royal Bank of Heaven. You say: “All that is very poetic, but you may have the black ravens. Givo me the gold eagles.” We had better be content with ju*-t enough. If in tho morning your family eat up all the food there is iu the house, do not sit down and cry and say, “I don’t know where the next meal is to come from.” About 5, or 6, or 7 o’clock in the morning just look up, and you will see two black •spots on the sky, and you will hear tho flapping of wings, and instead of Edgar A. Poe’s insane raven alight ou the chamber door, “only this and nothing more,” you will find Elijah's two ravens, or two ravens of the Lord, -the one bringing bread and the other briug- : iug meat—plumed butcher and baker. A Livini; Fountain. God is infinite in resource. When the city of Rochelle was besieged and the inhabitants were dying of the famine, the tides washed up on the beach as never before, and as never since, enough sliMlfish to feed the whole city. God is giMxh There is no mistake about that. Historj; tells us that iu 1555 in England there was a great drought. The crops failed, Lmt in Exsex, on the recks, in a place where they had neither sewn nor cultured, a great crop of peas grew un til they filled 100 measures, and there were blossoming vines enough, prom- I ising as much more. But why go so far? I can give you a family incident. Seme generations back there was a great drought iu Connecti cut, New England. The water disap peared from the hills, and the farmi rs living on the hills drove their cattle down toward the valleys and had them supplied at the wells and fountains of the neighbors. But these after awhile began to fail, and the neighbors said to Mr. Birdseye, of whom I shall speak: “You must not send your flocks and herds down here any more. Our wells are giving out. ” Mr. Birdseye, the old Christian man, gathered bis family at the altar, and with his family he gath ered the slaves of the household—for bondage was then iu vogue in Connect icut—and on their knees before God th* y fried for water, and the family stoiy is that there was weeping and great sobbing at that altar that the family might not prrirh for lack of wa ter. ami that tho herds and flocks might not inrisli. The family rose from the altar. Mr. Birdseye, tin* old man, took his staff and walked out over the hills, and in a place win re he had sei n scores ot times, without noticing anything particular, lie saw the ground was v* :y dark, and he t< ok his staff and turned up the gror.iiil, and water started, and lip beck oned to his servants, and tfu y eume and j brought pails and bucki ts until all the family and ail the flocks and the birds were eared for, and then they made troughs reaching from that place down to th** house and Lain,'and the wati r flowed, and it is a living fountain today. Now 1 c all that old grandfather Eli- j jah, and 1 call that brook that began to roll then and is idling still the brook Clierith, and the lesson to me and to ail who hear it is, when you are iu gnat strosi f circumstuuei s, pray and dig, dig and pray, and pray and dig. How does that passage go? “The moun- j white providence brought you ruin. That which seemed to bo harsh and fierce and dissonant was your greatest mercy. It was a raven. There was a child born iu your bouse. All your friends congratulated you. The other children of the family stood amazed, looking at the newcomer and asked a great many questions, genealogical and chronological. Y’i u said—and you said truthfully—that a white angel flew through the room aiyl left the little one there. That little cue stood with its two feet in thu very sanctuary of your affection, and with its two hands it took hold of the altar of y$nr soul. But one day there came one cf the three scourges of, children—scarlet fever, or croup, or diphtheria — and all that bright scone vanished. The chattering, the strange questions, tho pulling at the dresses as you crossed the floor—all ! ceased. As the gwat friend of children stooped down and leaned toward that cradle and took the little one in his arms and walked away with it into the bower of eternal summer your eye be gan to follow him, and you followed the treasure he carried, and you have been following them ever since, and in stead cf thinking of heaven only once a i week, as formerly, you are thinking of it all the time, and ycu arc more pure and tender hearted than you used to be, ; and you are patiently waiting for the daybreak. It is net self righteousness in you to acknowledge that you are a bet ter man than you used to be—you are a | better woman than you used to be. What was it that brought you the sanc tifying blessing? Oh, it was the dark shadow ou the nursery, it was the daik shadow on the short grave, it was the dark shadow ou your broken heart, it was the brooding of a great Hack trou ble, it was a raven—it was a raven! Dear Lord, teach this people that white providences do not always mean ad vancement and that black providences do not always mean retrogression. Many Kooius. Children of God, get up out of your , despondency. The Lord never had so i many ravens as lie has today. Fling j your fret and worry to the winds. Sometimes under the vexations of life | you feel like my little girl of 4 years, who said under some childish vexation, "Oh, 1 wish I could go to heaven and see i God and pick flowers!” He will let you go w hen the right time comes to pick flowers. Until then, whatevi r you w ant pray lor. 1 suppose Elijah prayed pret ty much all the time. Tremendous work behind him, tremendous work before him. God has no spare ravens lor idlers or for people who are prayerli ss. I put it in the boldest shape possible, and I am willing to risk my et« ruity on it. Ask God iu the right way for what you want and you diall have it it it is Lest for you. Mrs. Jane Pi;hey cf Chicago, a well known Christian woman, was left by yrUp The People’s Friend. In use for fifty years. Cares Cough, Coid, Croup, Whooping-Cough, Grippe, Bronchitis, Asthma and Lung Affections. DR. BULL’S COUGH SYRUP is sold everywhere for only_25 cents. Refuse cheap substitutes. Chew LANGE'S PLUGS The Great Tobacco Antidote.lOc. Dealers cr mail.A C.Meyer A Co., Baito.,M& 0.U ■1 * ■■ . ■ ~ - 1 iJ X' X* . L Wliv will you walk when you can buy so cheap? The lightest running, the prettiest and most durable wheel on the market. of Bells, Breaks, Lamps and Sundries of all.kinds i Z~ stock. Be sure and see the “Dixie” before you hi;; or you will regret it. v cp • * N. LI The Gaffney City Land and Improvement Company, Offer for Sale Building Lots in this Flourishing Town. O A. I 5 ' IC V CITY. Also Farms neap by and in reach of the schools of Limes ton* Sprin and of this place in lots of from MO to iOO acres on liberal time rates. A1 o Agricultural Lands to rent for farm purposes. For full particulars ap;ly tc MOSES WOOD, Agent. X. B.—AH trespassing on lands of this Company cutting and removidf ; timber, fishing or hunting are forbidden under penalty of law. tains ill gaiimnt!” "No," says the parent; "that wculdn’t be suitable.” Now, God is our Father, and we are minors, and be is going to clothe us and fied us, although lie may not always yield to our infantile wish for the sweets and glitter. These ravens of the text did not bring pomegranates fnm tho glittering plattir of King AhaL. They brought triad and meat. Gini hud a!l the heavens and the earth hi fore him and nuder h ui, and yit he si nils this plain /(Kid, Ueauso it w: s best fer Eli jah to have it. Oh, be stn ng, my hear er, in the fact that the smut: God is go ing to supply you. It is never “hard times” with him. His ships never break on tin* rocks. His banks never fail. Ho has the supply for ycj, and ho has the means for sending it. He has not only the cargo, but tho ship. If it w< ro necessary, he would nving cut firm tho hi aveus a Hod: cf raven* reaching fma his gate tc yours until the food would be flung down the sky from beak to beak and from talon to talon. Notice again in this story of the text that the ravens did not allow Elijah to hoard up a surplus. They did not bring enough on Monday to lust all the week. They did not bring enough one morning to last until the next mi ruing. They eamo twice u day and brought ju t enough for one time. You know as well as I that the great fret of the world is that we want u surplus, wo want tho raveufi to bring enough fur 60 years. You have more confidence in the Wash- di part and the hills be re moved, but my loving kindness shall not fail." If your mercha’udise, if your mechanism, if your husbandry fail, look out for ravens. If you have in your desj om!i rcy put God i n trial end con demned him as guiltyo? crnalt.y, I move today 4or a new trial. If-the biography of yi ur life is ever written, I will ti ll you what the fir-t chapter and the mid dle chapti r and the last chapti r w ill be about if it is written accurately. The first chupt* r about mircy, the middle chapti r al' ut mercy, the last chapti r about mi icy. The na n y that hovcml ovir your cxuiile. The mercy that will hovi r ovi r yi ur grave. Th j inerey that will cover all between. UiM'Xpi-ctrd lie Kef. Again, this storyif tin text impresses me that relief eame to this prophet w ith the most mu xpected and with seeming ly impossible conveyance. If it had Lem a robin redbreast, or a musical mi adow lark, or a mock turtledove, or a sub lime albatross that hud brought tho feed to Elijah, it would not have biin so surprising. But no. I‘ was a bird so flerce and inuuspicate that we have fash ioned me of our most forceful am! re- pulsivc words out of it—ravenous. That bin! has a pa.- on for picking out the eyes of men and of animals. It loves to maul the sick and the dying. It swal lows with vulturous guzzle everything it can put its beak ou, and yet all the iooil Elijah gets for six months or a year is from ravens, fc’o your supply is going to couiu from an unexpected source. YT u think some great heartid, gener ous man will ci me along ami give you his name on the Lack cf your note, or lie will go security for you in gome gn at (Utirprise. No, he will nut. G<d will i p< u the hi art < f seme Shy look to ward ycu. Your nliif will come from the must unexpected quarter. The Prov idence which seemed ominous will be to yi u mere than that which w • mod auspicious. It will not bo a chaffinch w 1th breast ami wing dashed w ith white ( ml brown and ciuiitnut. It will lx; a lack ravi n. Hire is where we all make our mis take, and that is in regard to the color of God’s ] n vid* m e. A white provi dence comes to us, and wo my, “Oh, it is mercy . Ilnn a Ll,«.«. provi«,« m-c comes toward u-, and we say, "Oh, that is disaster!” The white providi uea comes to you, tnd you have great busi ness success, amt you have $106,600, and you gi t proud, and you get iudi - pendent of God, and you begin to ft el that tho prayer, “(live me this day my daily bread,” is inappropriate for you, for you have made provision for 100 years. Then a black providence comes, ami it sweeps i verytbing away, and thou you begin to pray, and you begin to feci your dependence, ami begin to be* humble bi fori Gcd, anil you cry out lor treasures in heaven Tin* lilia-k piov. idtiicu brought ycu salvation. The bi*l[ husband a widow with ouo hail dollar and a cottage, the was palsied and had a motin r UU yours of ago to support. The widow ui soul everyday asknl God for all that was needed iu the household, and the* servant even was astonishi d at the precision with which God answered the prayers cf that wom an, item by it* m, item by item. Om day, rising from the family altar, the servant said, “Y T cu have not asked for ecu!, and the coal is out.” Then they stood and prayed for the coal. One hour after that the servant threw cpen the door and said, “The coal has conic. ” A g ncrous man, whose name 1 could give you, had sent—as never before and never sinci—a supply of coal. Y'ou cannot understand it. I do. Ravens! Ravens! My frii ud. you have a right to argue from preen i ut that God is going to take- i are it yeu. Has he not done a two or three times every day? That ns im -r mai vi h.us. I look tack and won der that God has givm me food three* times a day regularly all my Lfetiiue, never missing bat i m e, and th* n 1 was lost in the mountains, but that very morning and that very night I met the ravens. (Jh, tho Lord is so good that I wish all his people would tru.-t him with tin- two lives—tho life- you are now living and that which every ?ick of the watch and every stroke of the clock informs you is approaching. Bn ad lor your im mortal soul con.i s toikiy. .'roe! Tiny alight on the platform. They alight ou tho* backs of all the pews. They swing among the arch's. Ravens! Ravens! "Blessed are they that hunger after lighteonsm ss, for they shall bo filled. ” To all the sinning, and the sor rowing, and the tempted, deliverance conus this hour. Look down, ami you see nothing but your spiritual deformi ties. Li < k back, and you si e nothing but wasted opportunity. Cast your eyu forward, and you have a fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation which shuli devour the adversary. But loi k up, and you behold the whipped shoulders of an interceding Christ, ami tlie face cf a pardoning God, and the ir radiation of an opening heaven. I hear the whir cf tin ir wings. Do you not fi el the rush of air on ycur cheek? Ra vens! Ravens! There is only one question I w ant to ask, How many of this audience ore w illing to trust God for the supply of tin ir bodies and trust the Lord J* sus Christ for the iidemption of their im mortal souls? Amid the clutter of the hoofs and she clang of the wheels of tho judgment chariot the whole matter will be dcu.ousli.itt d. with all its attendant ill ami there are few people who will not require some medicine wits I which to cleanse their system. Our line of Dru»;< and Medicinet cannot he surpassed in the state for quality. We keep the mos complete line of Pretty Stationery in Cherokee county. Do your corresponding on paper bought at our store. It will not only please' you but wall also please the person with whom you ; correspond. Remember, our i Plaints-*'© consists of all shades and grades from the celebrated Harrison Bros, mixed to the lowest, which we sell as cheap as anyone on earth. le price on Harris’ Lithia Water has been chang d from 25c to 10c a bottle. DuPRE DRUG CO. Telephone messages to Spartanburg 10c. yi Y k / y- v f - > i \ \ T!ii5 Knot. P* rlini 8 the mouf impn sdve point about hi ring hats is' tin* lefty kuut, luuelircf iulike, winch perdu s upuu 1*0 many new 1 hap* uux. Y’ou hc it in lib- Lon ami luce and wquimied net, and it inti 11.-ts you to wonder in what fabric next it will gin t you. These nodding du * ration* possess the charm of plum* * and long stemmed rohes. They yield with every inclina tion of the head. Annie of them are on ly runettes; other*, ambitious looping*. I*» *••»** »!«*•«* «»<»•*» »1tf flltMIUi* r,f ^ * * - * ** spring millinery. Say the main thing* to do is to keep the stomach, bver x-id bow* ! in ord*r if vou want to :ve long am! kici v.tfl. Good physician•> :.iy the tame thing, too. The remedy culled RIPANS TABULES while not mysterious cr tniroculoi s in its curative qualities, is a si...pie formula prescribed by the I s: physicians for disouien- • -f the dig t. *■ orgui.s. Just little tablets, easy to take, 1 :.sy to buy and quick tone - . It vour trouble is Dj-fpeps a, J’ bousmss, IHzmcss, I Itadachi-, Constipa' on. Heartburn, and the like, n« : ecdof calling a physician. Ripans T at uk-s coauiu exactly what he would tell you to ukt . ONE TABl'LE GIVES RELiEE. FtBlU.NEXT CCRK FOLLOWS A FAlI*. TtUAL. NO UNCERTAINTY ADOl'T IT.