Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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THE LEDGER: GAFFNEY, S. C., NOVEMBER 4, 1807. (TT OFF IN YOUTH. < REV./ DR. TALMAGE GIVES CONSOLA TION TO BEREAVED PARENTS. M bile Ho Admits That a Tony Tlfo Is in homo Cases, He Shows That It Is Often a Gain to Rio Young. opyriyht. IN) f l>y American Press Asso ciation.] Wasitinoton, Oct. 81.—From an nn- tmml staml]M>iut Dr. Talmage offers comfort at tlie loss of children, and this Bcnnon must bo a balsam for many wounds. His text is Isaiah Ivii, 1, “The right cons is taken away from the evil to come." Wo all spend much time in panegyric of longevity. Wo consider it a great thing to live to be an octogenarian. If any one dies in youth, we say, “What a pity!” Dr. Muhlenberg, in old age, said that the hymn written in early life by bis own hand, no more expressed his sentiment when it said: I would not livcidwny. If one be pleasantly circumstanced, ho never wants to go. William Cullen Bryant, the groat poet, at 82 years of aye, standing in my house in a festal group, reading "Thanatopsis” without spectacles, was just as anxious to live as when at 18 years of ago ho wrote that immortal threnody. Cato feared at 80 years of ago that ho would not livo to learn Greek. Monaldeseo, at 116 years, writing the history of his time, feared a collapse. Theophrastus, writ ing a book at 1*0 years of age, was anx ious to livo to complete it Thurlow Weed at about 8ft yearn of age found life as great a desirability us when ho snuffed out his first politician. Albert Marumi, so well prepared for the next world at ?0, said he would rather stay here. So it is all the way down. I suppose that tho last time that Methuselah was out of doors ir. a storm he was afraid of get ting his feet wet lost it shorten his days. Indeed I some time ago preached a sermon on tho blessings of longevity, but 1 now projioso to preach to yon about the blessings of an abbreviated earthly existence. If I were an agnostic, I would say a man is blessed in proper tion to the number of years ho can stay on terra linna, because after that ho falls off tho docks, and if ho is ever picked out of tho depths it is ouly to bo set up in some morgue of the uni verse to see if anybody will claim him. If 1 thought God made man only to last 40 or 60 or 100 years and then he whs to go into annihilation, 1 would say his chief business ought to be to keep alive and even in good weather to be very cautious and to carry an umbrella and take overshoes and life preservers and bronze armor and weapons of defense lest he tali off into nothingness and obliteration. But, my friends, you are not agnos tics. You believe in immortality and the eternal residence cf tho righteous in hoaveu, and therefore I first remark that an abbreviated earthlv existence is to pe desired and is a blessing because it makes one’s life work very compact. Some men go to business at 7 o’clock in tho morning and return at 7 in the evening. Others go at 8 o’clock and re turn at 12 Others go at 10 and return at 4. I have friends who are ten hours a day in business, others who are five hours, others who are one hour. They all do their work well. They do their entire work and then they return. Which position do you think the most desirable? You say, other things being equal, the man who is the shortest time detained in business and who can re turn home tho quickest Is the most blessed. Till* Qnieker the Better. Now, my friends, why not carry that good sense into the subject of transfer ence from this world? If a person die in childhood, he gets through his work at 9 o’clock in the morning. If. he die at 43 years of age, ho gets through his work at 12 o’clock noon. If he die at 70 years of age, he gets through his work at 6 o’clock in the afternoon. If he die at 60, he has to toil all the way on up to 11 o’clock at night. Tho sooner wo get through our work the better. The harvest all in barrack or barn, tho farm er does not sit down in the stubble field; but, shouldering his scythe and taking his pitcher from under the tree, he makes a straight line for the old home stead. All we want to be anxious about is to get our work done and veil done, and tho quicker the better. Again, there is a blessing in an ab breviated earthly existence in the fact that moral disaster might come upon the man if he tarried longer. Recently a man who had been prominent in churches and who had been admired for his generosity and kindness everywhere for forgery was sent to state prison for 16 years. Twenty years ago there was no more probability of that man’s oom- mitting a commercial dishonesty than that you will commit commercial dis honesty. The nnmber of men who fall into ruin between 60 and 70 years of age is simply appalling. If they had died 80 years before, it would bvve been better for them and better fa- their families. The shorter the voyage tho less chance for a cyclone. Theie is a wrong theory abroad that if one’s yonth be right his old age will be right. You might as well say there is nothing wanting for a ship’s safety except to get it fully launched on Uie Atlantic ocean. 1 have sometimes ashed those who were schoolmates or college mates of some great defaulter: “ W^bat kind of a boy was he? What kind of a young man was be?” and they nave aaid: “Why, he was a splendid follow. 1 had no idea be could ever go into/such an outrage. ” The fact is the great temp tation of life sometimes comes far midlife or in old age. Life’s Experience. The first time 1 crossed the A ocean it was as smooth as a mill and 1 thought the sea captains voyager* had slandered the old and 1 w^otn home an essay for ame on “The Smile of the ou in antic pond, d the an. maga- ' hot I never afterward could have written that thing, for before wo got home wo got a terrible shaking up. The first voyage of life may bo very smooth; the last may be a euroclydou. Many who start life in great prosperity do not end it in pros perity. Tho great prnnsnro of temptation comes sometimes in this direction: At about 45 years of age a man’s nervous kystem changes, and some one tells him he must take stimulants to keep himself up, and ho taker, stimulants to keep him self up until the stimulants keep him down, or a man has been going along for 80 or 40 years in nsuccessful business, ami here is an ope - ing where by one dis honorable action h can lift himself and lift his family from all financial embar rassment. Ho attempts to leap tho chasm, and ho falls into it Then it is in after life that the great ! temptation of success comes. If a man make a fortune before 30 years of age, he generally loses it before 40. Tho sol id and tho permanent fortunes for tho most part do not come to their climax until in midlife or in old ago. The most of tho bank presidents have white hair Many of those who have been largely successful have been flung of arrogance or worldliness or dissipation in old age They may not have lost their integrity, but they have become so worldly and so selfish under the influence of large success that it is evident to everybody that their success has been a temporal calamity and an eternal damage. Con cerning many people, it may bo said it seems as if it would have been better if they ecu Id have embarked from this life at 20 or 30 years of ago Do you know the reason why the vast majority of die before 30? It is because they have not tho moral endur- unco for that which is beyond the 30, mid a merciful God will not allow them to bo put to tlm fearful strain. On tti« l>«feo*ive. Again, there is a blessing in an ab- brnviated earthly existence in the fact that one is the sooner taken off the de fensive As soon as one is old enough to take care ot himself he is put on his guard. Bolts on tho doors to keep out tho robbers. Fireproof safes to keep off tho flames Lite insurance aud tire in surance against accident Receipts lest y<ui have to pay a debt twice Lifeboat against shipwreck Westinghouso air brake against sotlsoad collision, and hundreds of hands ready to overreach you and take all you have. Defense against cold, defense against heat, de fense against atekuena, defense against tho world's abuse, defense all tho way down to the grave, and even the tomb stone sometimes In not a sufficient bax ricade If a soldier who has boon on guard, shivering and stung with the cold, pao- iug up and down tho parapet with shouldered musket, is glad when some one comes to relieve garni and bo can go inside tho fortress, ought not that man to shout for joy who can put dowr, his weapon of earthly defense and g > into the king’s enstlo? Who is tho more fortunate, the soldier who has to staud guard 12 hours or the man who has to staud guard six hours? Wo have common sense about everything but religion, common sense about everything but transference from this world. Again, there is a blessing in on ab breviated earthly existence in the fact that one escapes so many bereavements. The longer we live the more attach ments and tho more kindred, tho more chords to be wounded or rasped or sun dered. If a man live on to 70 or 80 years of ago, how many graves are cleft at his feet. In that long reach of time father and mother go, brothers and sis ters go, children go, grandchildren go. personal friends outside tho family cir cle whom they had loved with a love like that of David and Jonathan. Be sides that some men have a natural trepidation about dissolution, aud ever and anon during 40 or 50 or 60 years this horror of their dissolution shudders through soul and body. Now, suppose the lad goes at 16 ears of age? Ho es capes 60 funerals, 60 caskets, 50 obse quies, 60 awful wreuchiugs of the heart It is hard enough for us to bear their departure, but is it not easier for us to bear their departure than for them to stay and bear 60 departures? Shall we not by the grace of trod rouse ourselves into a generosity of bereavement which will practically say, “It is hard enough for me to go through this bereavement, but how glad I am that he will never have to go through it?" So I reason with myself, and so you will find it helpful to reason with yourselves. Da vid lost his son. Though David was king he lay on tho earth mourning aud inconsolable for some tima At this dis tance of time, which do you really thiuk was tho one to be congratulated, the short lived child or the long lived fa ther? Had David died as early as that child died he would, iu the first place, have escaped that particular bereave ment. then he would have escaped the worse bereavement of Absalom, his rec reant son, and the pursuit of the Philis tines, and the fatigues of his military campaign, and the jealousy of Saul, and the perfidy of Ahithophel, and the curse of Shimei and the destruction of his family at Ziklag, and. above all. he would have escaped the two great ca lamities of his life, the great sins of uncleanness and murder. David lived to be of vast use to the church and the world, but so far as his own happiness was concerned does it not seem to you that it would have been better for him to have gone early? Temptation. Now, this, my friends, explains some things that to you have been inexplica ble. This shows you why when God takes little children from a household he is very apt to take the brightest, the most genial, the most sympathetic, the most talented. Why? It is because that kind of nature suffers the most when it does suffer, aud is most liable to temp tation. God saw tho tempest sweeping up from the Caribbean, aud he put the delicate craft into the first harbor “Taken away from the evil to come. ’’ Again, my friends, there is a blessing in an abbreviated earthly existence in tho fact that it pats one sooner iu the center of things. All astronomers, infi del as veil as Christian, agree in be lieving that the universe swings around some great center. Any ono who ban studied the earth and studied the heav- , ens knows that God’s favorite figure I in geometry is a, circle. When God put forth his hand to create the universe. | he did not strike that baud at right an gles, but he waved it iu a circle and : kept on waving in a circle until systems j and constellations and galaxies and all worlds took that motion. Our planet swinging around tho sun, other planets swinging around otiier suns, but some where a great hub, around which tho great wheel of the universe turns. Now the center is heaven. That is tho capi tal of the universe. That is tho great metropolis of immensity Does not our common sense teach us that in matters of study it is better for ns to move out from tho center toward tho circumference rather than to bo on tho circumference, where our would now is? Wo are like those who study the American coutiueut while standing on tho Atlantic beach. Tho way to study tho continent is to cross it or go to the heart of it Our standpoint in this world is defective. Wo are at the wrong end of* tho telescope The best way to study a pioco of machinery is not to stand on the doorstep and try to look in, but to go iu with tho engineer and take our place right amid tho sawa and the cylinders We wear our eyes out and our brain out from tho fact that we are studying under such groat disadvantage Millions of dollars for observatories to study things about the moon, about tho sun, about tho rings of batiirn, about transits and occultations aud eclipses, simply because our studio, our observatory, is poorly situated We are down iu the cellar trying to study tho palace of the universe, while our de parted Christian friends have gone up stairs amid the skylights to study Now. when one can sooner get to the center of things, is ho not to he congratulated? Who wants to be always iu the fresh man class? Wo study God in this world by tb” Biblical photograph of him, but we all know we can iu five minutes of interview with a friend get more accu rate idea of him than we can by study ing him 50 years through pictures or words Tho little child that died last night knows more of God than all An dover, and all Pnuootou, aud all New Brunswick, and all Edinburgh, and all the theological institutes iu Christen dom. Is it not better to go up to the very headquarters of knowledge? At the Cantor. Does not our common sense teach ns that it is bettor to be at tho center than to bo clear out ou tho run of the wheel, holding nervously fast to the tire, lest wo bo suddenly burled into light aud et ernal felicity? Through all kinds of o*i ; cal lusuuraeuts trying to peer iu through the cracks and the keyholes of hrnven—afraid that both doors of the oeleatial mansion will be swung wide open before our entranced vision—rush ing about among the apothecary shops of this world, wondering if this is good for rheumatism and that is good for neuralgia and something else is good for a bad cough, lest we bo suddenly ushered into a land of everlasting health where the inhabitant never says, “1 am sick. ** What fools we all are to prefer the circumference to tho center. What a dreadful thing it would be if we should bo suddenly ushered from this wintry world into the Maytime orchards of heaven and if our pauperism of sin and sorrow should be suddenly broken up by a presentation of an emperor's castle surrounded by parks, with springing fountains and paths up aud down which angels of God walk two aud twa We are like persons standing ou the cold steps of the national picture gallery in London, under umbrella iu the rain, afraid to go iu amid the Turners ai d the Titians aud the Raphaels I come to them and say. "Why. don’t you go in side the gallery?" “Oh," they say, “we don't know whether we can got in.” I say, “Don’t you see tho door is open?’’ “Yes,” they say, “but we have bt»m so loug on these cold steps, we are so attached to them, we don’t like to leava” “But, “Isay, “it is so much brighter and more beautiful in the gal lery ; you had better go in. ’’ “No, ” they say. "we know exactly how it is out here, but we don’t know exactly how it is inside. ” So we stick to this world as though we preferred cold drizzle to warm habi tation, discord to cantata, sackcloth to royal purple—as though we preferred a piano with four or five of the keys out of tune to an instrument fully attuned, as though earth aud heaven had ex changed apparel and earth had taken on bridal array and heaven had gone into deep mourning, all its waters stagnant, all its harps broken, all chalices cracked at the dry wells, all the lawns sloping to the river plowed with graves, with dead angels under the furrow. Oh, 1 want to break up my own infatuation, and 1 want to break up your infatuation with this world. 1 tell you if we are ready, and if our work is done, the sooner we go the better, and if there are blessings in longevity 1 want yon to knew right well there are also blessings in an abbreviated earthly existence Kortumiit* Escape*. If the spin t of this senpon is true, how consoled you ought to feel about members ot your family that went ear ly. "Taken from tho evil to come,*' this book s^ya What a fortunate escape they had. How glad we ought to feel that they will never have to go through the struggles which we have had to go through. They had just time enough to get out of the cradle and run up on the springtime hills of this world and see how it looked, and then they started for a better stopping place. They were like ships that put in at St. Helena, staying there loug enough to let passengers go up and see the barracks of Napoleon’s captivity, and then hoist sail for the port of their own native land. They on ly took this world in transitu. It is hard for ua, but it is blessed for them. And if tho spirit of this sermon it true, then wo ought not to go around sighing and groaning when another year is going, but we ought to go down on one knee by the milestone aud sec the letters ami thank God that wo arc. 865 miles nearer home. We ought not to go around with morbid feelings about our health or about anticipated demise. We ought to he living uot according to that old maxim which 1 used to hear in my boyhood that you must livo as though every day were the last; yon must livo as though you were to live forever, for you will. Do not be nerv ous lest you have to move out of a shan ty into an Alhambra. One Christmas day I witnessed some- | thing very thrilling. We had just dis tributed the family presents Christina:! morning when 1 heard a great cry oi ; distress in the hallway. A child from a | neighbor’s house came iu lo say her fa thcr was dead. It was ouly three doors oft', aud I thiuk in two minutes wo were there. There lay the old Christian sen captain, his face upturned toward tho window, as though ho had suddenly seen the headlands, and with an illumi nated countenance, as though he were just going into harbor The fact was he had already got through tho Narrows. In tho adjoining room were the Christ mas presents waiting for his distribu tion. Long ago, one night when ho had narrowly escaped with his ship from being run down by a great ocean steam er, ho had made his peace with Cod, and a kinder neighbor or a better man than Captain Pendleton you would not find this side of heaven. Without a mo ment’s warning the pilot of the heaven ly harbor had met him just oil' tin) lightship. Faith In God. He had often talked to me of the good ness of God aud especially of a time when he was about to enter New York harbor with his ship from Liverpool, and ho was suddenly impressed that he ought to put back to sea Under the protest of tho crew aud under their very threat he put back to sea, fearing at the same time he was losing his mind, for it did seem so unreasonable that when they could get into harbor that night they should put back to sea But they put back to sea and Captain Pen dleton said to his mate, “You call mo at 10 o’clock at night ” At 12 o’clock at night the captain was aroused aud said: “What docs this mean? 1 thought 1 told you to call m® at 10 o’clock, and hero it is 12. ” “Why,” said the mate, "I did call you at 10 o’clock, aud you got up, looked around and told me to keep right oa the same course for two hours, aud then to call you at 12 o'clock.” Said the captain: “Is it pos sible? I have no remembrance of that. ” At 12 .o’clock the captain went on deck, and through the rift of a cloud the moonlight fell upon the sea aud showed him a shipwreck with 100 strug gling passengers. He helped them off. Had he been any earlier or any later at that point of tho sea he would have been of no service to those drowning people. On board the captain’s vessel they began to band together as to what they should pay for the rescue and what they should pay for the provisions. “Ah,” says tho captain, “my lads, yon can’t pay me anything. All 1 have on board is yours. I feel too greatly hon ored of God in having saved you to take any pay. ” Just like him. He never got any pay except that of his own applaud ing conscience. Oh, that the old sea captain’s God might be my God and yours! Amid the stormy seas of this life may we have al ways some one as tenderly to take care of us as the captain took care of the drowning crew and the passengers. And may we come into the harbor with as little physical pain aud with as bright a hope us he had, and if it should happen to be a Christmas morning, when the presents are being distributed and we are celebrating the birth of him who came to save our shipwrecked world, all the better, for what grander, brightei Christmas present could we have than heaven? Old People. Old people who require medcine to regulate the bowels and kidney will find the true remedy in Electric Bit ters. This medicine does not stimu late and contains no whiskey nor other intoxicant, but acts as a tonic and and alterative. It acts mildly on the stomache and bowels, adding strength and giving tone to the or gans, thereby aiding Nature in the performance of the functions, Elec tric Bitters is an excellent appetizer and aids digestion. Old People find it just exactly what they need. Price fifty cents per bottle at W. B. Du- Pre’s Drug Store. FIRST CLASS HEARSE »*-< DISEASES of the Kidneys are caused to a larno ex tent by long neglected dis orders In the liver. Tlie startUik point Is usually l lio stomach, which has thrown a mass of badly digested food into tho liver, causing It to become torpid and bringing on a genenil clog ring up of the system. Under this condition of things the kidneys will continue the struggle, assuming part of the duties of tho liver In u n effort to set things right again, and If they wore properly as slsted on tho appearance of tho bilious symp toms, bya few doses of Prickly Ash Hitters or some otliereaually re liable system regulator, tho serious com plications that develop out of such condi tions would be averted. Un- fortun a t e 1 y however, the progress of kid ney disease Is not marked by an v violent symp toms, THE VICTIM is conscious that he Is not quite right, yet as long as he can continue to got through his dally duties he does nothing to stay the spread of the disease. The kidneys soon be come weakened and are unable to perform their duties In keeping the blood clean, so the waste material which must be filtered out of the blood If the body would be healthy, remains until It decays, chang ing to a poisonous acid & (uric acid) which ox- tends Its destructive Influence to every part of the system. Then follows, gradually In creasing wraknoss, dis orders la the urine, hack- aches, dropsical swellings puffi- ncss under the ey-s, etc., and un less remedial meuMiresnre prompt ly applied tho disease will soon the place’ tht reach of met patient beyond Tic,ni restoratives. % % rut. / g* tl > L*_># There Is now urgent need of a rc medy that can bo de pended U{xm to cure- the record of Prickly Ash Bit ters in nearly a score of ye irs of constant use, during which it has successful 1 y passed the SEVEREST TESTS, Is su fil c 1 on t evidence that It Is an entirely re liable remedy for the suffer ing kidneys. It heals a’nd strengthens the kidneys so that they resume their blood cleansing and urine gathering func tions. The liver Is cleansed and regulated, tho stomach toned up, and obstructions In the bowels are removed. As a result of this renewal of functional activity the poisons are extracted from the blood, the system purified, the body strength ened»» and health Is rapidly —’ restored. ^ „ & , PRICE $1.00 PER BOTTLE Prepared by PRICKLY ASH BITTERS CO., Louis, 3o. SOLD BY ALL DRUGGISTS. ‘Cherokee Drug Co. Special Agents. The modern Pain Annihilator, will positively cure Rheumatism, Neuralgia, Sprains, Bruises, Cuts, Sores, Earache, Backache and all other aches. SALVATION OIL is sold everywhere for 25 cents. Only the genuine will do the work. Chew LANGE'S PLUGS. Tho Great Tobacco AnliUote.lOc. Dealer* or mail,A.C.Me)rer & Co., Balto^lfel CANDY CATHARTIC CURE CONSTIPATION ALL DRUGGISTS The Gaffney City Land and Improvement Company, Offer for Sale Building Lots in this Flourishing Town, g-IV ID Y G I r Y. Also Farms near by and in reach of the schools of Limestone Spring* and of this place in lots of from 30 to 100 acres on liberal time rates. Also Agricultural Lands to rent for farm purposes. For full particulars apply to MOSES WOOD, Agent. N. B.—All trespassing on lands of this Company cutting and removinfT timber, fishing or hunting are forbidden under penalty of law. RESIDENCE LOTS FOR SALE BY Cherokee Land Company. We have some of the most desirable lands for residences any where to be found. You can select just what you want. Y«>ir will not be surrounded by disagreeable neighbors. You can se lect it so that you will have no town taxes to pay. It is located within 250 yards of Southern depot. Cheap prices and easy terms. N. H. LITTLEJOHN, Mgr. Buyer or Seller, For Hale— Four and half ai-ros of land on Victoria Avenue fronting W. II. Richardson. \ One lot on Victoria Avenue, near S. M. Littlejohn’s. , One lot In rear of above named lot HO.vJOO feet. \ One lot fronting Victoria Avenue opposite U. O. Sams’. ( 85x210. Good dwelling on same. ( One lot fronting Victoria Avenue 85x210 feet; Dwelling of four rooms, opposite l). A. Thomas’. Lipscomb Hotel and lot, fronting Logan street 66 and Depot street 200 feet. House and lot fronting Logan street < street 200 feet. ( Lot Logan street i:{l l ,x200 feet, i t «»♦ y) feet. 132 feet and Depot — F'OK Funeral Occasions. Gentle Horses, Careful Driver. Town or Country Served. Prices Reasonable. Call on M. G. MONTGOMERY, Corner Montgomery and Petty Sts. FOR Up-to-Date Job Print ing, call at the LEDGER Office. Gaffney, S. C. CONSULT WITH e. 0. SAMS’ Real EsUle Agency Lot on Depot street 300x132 feet, opposite .T. I. Sarratt’s. . 46 acres on Horton’s Ferry road. ( 187 acres near Ninety-Nine Islands on Broad River. 52 acres fronting Min's Gap road, just out of town. Two lots. Johnson street. 170x210 feet, fronting mountains. \ One farm. 70 acres. 2y, miles from Gaffney on Pacolet road. < 9-room dwelling, new. fronting 200 feet on Depot street. < 18 acre lot above Goforth’s mill. { Goforth’s mill and fixtures aud 50 acres of land. / 44 acres below Goforth's mill. ) 50 acres known as the Huskey tract. ) 44 acres near Beulah church. /15 residence lots fronting Fairvlew Avenue \ 4 ’’ ’’ “ Johnson Street, 85x31# ( 10 “ “ ’’ Rutledge - 80x300 2 “ “ ’’ Race ’• 105x160 1 “ " “ Limestone ’• 160x100 \ House and lot “ Montgomery ” 100x160 " *' 2 7-10 acres. Mills Gap road. ^ ’’ “ “ 3 acres near Mills Gap road M mile from ( corporate limits. 18V4 acres near Mills Gap road H mile from corporate limit Two lots 2 7-10 acres, excellent for residence. Mills Gap road 10 65-100 acres, well watered, just beyond town limits Three store lots fronting Limestone street, next below Brown’s store 79 acres divided into 149 lots, fronting continuation of Limestone street and less than n mile from town.limit* 315 acres on Broad river, splendid water power. 7 miles from Gaffney and crossed by Eiiis’ Ferry road 80 shares Gaffney City Land and Improvement Co. stock 40 lots on Smith. Meadow. Buford and Frederick Sts. 76 8-10 acres 2\ miles from Gaffney on Pacolet road. Line church. 9 miles from Gaffney. 4 lots near Mills Gap road fronting city. 160 acres on Snead branch aud Thlckety creek. 3 tracts from 80 to 100 acres of the Big urvey near the Cowpeus battle ground. For Kent — Cottage on Victoria Avenue. Insurance-Fire and life—the best companies.