Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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THE LEDGER: GAFFNEY, S. C„ APRIL 28, 1898 5 LIGHT IN THE CLOUDS W- talmace says we must look FOR SUNSHINE. We Arc Prone to Look on the D»rk Side of Life—Make the Best of Ml,fortune. Wealth Often Destroys — The Young Mao's Best Heritage—Views of lleavcn. {Copyright, 1898. by American Press Asso ciation.] Washington, April 24.—This sermon of Dr. Tahnago will have a tendency to take the gloom out of many lives and stir up a spirit of healthful anticipa tion; text, Job xxxvii, 21, “And now men see not the bright light which is in the clouds.” Wind east. Barometer falling. Storm signals out. Ship reefing maintopsail. Awnings taken in. Prophecies of foul weather everywhere. The clouds con gregate around the sun, prosposing to abolish him. Bnt after awhile he assails the flanks of the clouds with flying ar tillery of light and hare and there is a sign of clearing weather. Many do not observe it. Many do not realize it. “And now men see not the bright light which is in the clouds.” lu other words, there are a hundred men looking for storm where there is one man look ing for sunshine. My object will be to get you and myself into the delightful habit of making the best of everything. You may have wondered at the sta’- tistics that in India, in the year 1875, tb?re were over 10,000 people slain by wild beasts, and that in the year 187(1 there were in India over 20,000 people destroyed by wild animals. But there is a monster in our own land which is year by year dest*oying more than that. It is the old bear of melaucholy, aud with gospel weapons I propose to chase it back to its midnight caverns. I mean to do two sums—a sum in subtraction and a sum in addition—a subtraction from your days of depression and an ad dition to your days of joy. If God will help mo, I will compel you to see the bright light that there is in the clouds aud compel you to make the best of ev erything. In the first place, you ought to make the very best of all your financial mis fortunes. During the panic a few years ago yon all lost money, yorae of you lost it in most unaccountable ways. For the question, “How many thousands of dollars shall I put aside this year?” you substituted the question, “How shall I pay my butcher and baker aud clothier and landlord?” Yon had the sensation of rowing hard with two oars and yet all the time going down stream. A Destroying; Power. You did not say much about it be cause it was not politic to speak much of financial embarrassment, but your wife knew. Less variety of wardrobe, more economy at the table, self denial in art aud tapestry. Compression; re trenchment. Who did not feel the ne cessity of it? My friend, did you make the best of this? Are yon aware of how narrow an escape you made? Suppose you had reached the fortune toward which yon were rapidly going? What then? You would have been as proud as Lucifer. How few meu have succeeded largely iu a financial sense and yet maintained their simplicity and religious consecra tion! Not ona man out of a hundred. There aro glorious exceptions, but the general rule is that in proportion as a man gets well oil for this world he gets poorly off for the next. Ho loses his sense of dependence on God. He gets a distaste for prayer meetings. With plenty of bank stocks and plenty of gov ernment securities, what does that man know of the prayer, “Give mo this day my daily bread?” How few men largely successful in this world aro bringing souls to Christ, or showing self denial for others or aro eminent for piety? You can count them all upon your eight lin gers and two thumbs. One of tho old covetous souls, when he was sick aud sick unto death, used to have a basin brought in—a basin fill ed with gold—aud his only amusement and tho only relief ho got for his in flamed hands was running them down through the gold end turning it up iu tjio basin. Oh, what infatuation and what destroying power money has for many a man! Now, you were sailing at 80 knots the hour toward these vortices of worldliness—what a mercy it was, that honest defalcation! The same di vine hand that crushed your storehouse, your bank, your office, your insurance company, lifted you out of destruction. The day you honestly suspended iu busi ness made your fortune for eternity. “Oh,” you say, “I could get along very well myself, but I am so disap pointed that I cannot leave a competence for my children. ” My brother, the same financial misfortune that is going to save your soul will save your obildren. With tho anticipation of large fortune, how much industry would your chil dren have, without whiefi habit of in dustry there is no safety? Tho young man ivould say: “Well, there’s no need of my working. My father will soon step out, and then I’ll have just what I want.” You cannot hide from him how much you aro worth. You think you are hiding it. Lo knows all about It. Ho cun tell you almost to adollir. Perhaps ho has been to the county oftico and searched tho records of deeds and mort gages, aud he hgs added it all up, and he has made an estimata of bow long you will probably stay iu this world aud is not as much worried about your rbeumatism and shortness of breath us you are. Tho only fortune worth any thing that you can givu your child is the fortune yon put in bis head and heart. Of all tho young men who start ed life with $40,000 capital how many turned out well? I do not know half a dozen. Tho Best Inheritance. Tbn best inheritance a young man can have is the feeling that ho has to \ fight his own battle and that lifn is a ^ stiiiggle into which he must throw body, mind and soul or bo disgracefully bereavements, to brood over to give much worsted. Where are the burial places of tho meu who started life with ft fortune? Homo of them in the potter’s field, some iu tbo suMdo’s grave. But few of these men reached 35 years in They drank they smoked, they gambled. In them tho beast destroyed tho man. Some of them lived long enough to got their fortunes aud went through them. Tho vast majority of them did not live to got their inheritance. From the giu- ihop or house of infamy they were brought home to their father's house, and in delirium began to pick oil' loath some reptiles from tho embroidered pil low and to fight back imaghiary devils. And then tboy were laid out in highly upholstered parlor, the casket covered with flowers by indulgent parents— flowers suggestive of a resurrection with no hope. As you sat this morning at your breakfast table aud looked into the faces of your children, perhaps you said within yourself: “Poor things! How I wish I could start them in life with a competence! How I have been disap pointed in all my expectations of what I would do for them!" Upon that scene of pathos I break with a piean of con gratulation, that by your financial losses your own prospects for heaven and the prospect for the heaven of your children are mightily improved. You may have lost a toy, but you have won a palace. “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!” “It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” What does that mean? It means that the grandest blessing God over bestowed upon you was to take your money away from you. Let me here say, iu passing, do not put much stress ou tho treasures of this world. You cannot take them aloug with you. At any rate, you can not take them more than two or three miles; yon will have to leave them at the cemetery. Attila had three coffins. So fond was he of this life that he decreed that first he should be buried iu a coffin of gold and that then that should bo iu- closed iu a coffin of silver aud that should be inclosed iu a coffin of iron, and then a large amount of treasure should be thrown in over bis body. And so he was buried, and the men who buried him were slain, so that no one might know where he was buried aud no one might there interfere with his treasures. Ob, men of the world, who want to take your money with you, bet ter have three coffins! Helpful Thoughts. Again, 1 remark, you ought to mako the very best of your The whole tendency is these separations, and time to the bundling of mementos of tho departed, and to make long visita tions to tho cemetery, aud to say: “Oh, I can never look up again. My hope is gone; my courage is gone; my religion is gone; my faith iu God is gone. Oh, the wear aud tear aud exhaustion of this loneliness.’’ Tho most frequent be reavement is tho loss of children. If your departed child had lived as long as you have lived, do yon not suppose that he would have hud about the same amount of trouble and trial that you have bad? If you could make a choice for your child between 40 years of an noyance, loss, vexation, exasperation aud bereavements and 40 years iu heav en, would you take tho responsibility of choosing tho former? Would you snatch away the cup of eternal bliss aud put into that child’s hands the cup of many bereavements? Instead of tho complete safety into which that child has been lifted would you like to hold it down to tho risks of this mortal state? Would you like to keep it out ou a sea iu which there have been more ship wrecks than safe voyages? Is it not a comfort to you to know that that child, instead of being besoiled aud flung into the mire of sin, is swung clear into the skies? Are not those children to be con gratulated that the point of celestial bliss which you expect to reach by a pilgrimage of GO or GO or 70 years they reached at a flash? If tho last 10,000 children who had entered heaven hud gone through the average of human life on earth, aro you sure all those 10,000 children would have finally reached the blissful terminus? Besides that, my friends, you are to look at this matter as a self denial ou your part for their benefit. If your children waut to go off iu a May day party, if your children waut to goon a flowery aud musical ex cursion, you consent. You might prefer to have them with you, but their jubi lant absence satisfies you. Well, your departed children have only gone out iu a May day party, amid flowery aud mu sical entertainment, amid joys and hi larities forever. That ought to quell some of your grief, the thought of thoir glee. So it ought to bo that you could make tho best of all bereavements. The fact that you have so many friends in heaven will make your own departure very cheerful. When you are going ou a voy age, everything depends upon where your friends are—if they are ou tho wharf that you leave or ou tho wharf toward which you are going to sail. In other words, the more friends you have in heaven the easier it will bo to get away from this world. The more friends here tho more bitter goodbys; tbo more friends there the more glorious wel comes. Some of you have so many brothers, sisters, children, friends iu hi aveu that 1 do not know hardly how you are going to crowd through. When the vessel came from foreign lands aud brought a prince to our harbor, the ships were covered with bunting, and you remember how tho meu-of-war thundered broadsides, bat there was no joy there compared with the joy which ! shall be demonstrated when you sail up the broad hay of heavenly salutation. The moro friends you have there the easier your own transit. What is death to a mother whose children aro iu heav en? Why, there is no more grief iu it than there is in her going into a nursery amid the romp and laughter of her ; household. Though nil around may be dark, see yon not the bright light iu the clouds—that light the irradiated faoes of your glorified kindred? Making the \Vnr»t of Thing*. So also, my friends, I would have yon make the best of your sicknesses. When you see one move off with elastic step and iu full ] hysical vigor, some times you become impatient with your lame foot. When a man describes an object a mile off, and you cannot see it at all. you become impatient of your dim eye. When you hear of a well man making a great achievement, you be come impatient with your depressed nervous system or your dilapidated health. I will tell you bov yon can mako tho worst of it. Brood over it; brood over all these illnesses, and your nerves will become more twiteby aud your dyspepsia more aggravated, and your weakness moro appalling. But that is the devil’s work, to tell yoa how to make the worst of it. It is my work to show you a bright light in the clouds. Which of the Bible men most attract your attention? You say, Moses, Job, David, Jeremiah, Paul. Why, what a strange thing it is that you have chosen those who were physically disordered! Moses—I know ho was nervous from the clip ho gave tho Egyptian. Job—his blood was vitiated and diseased, ami bis skin distressfully eruptive. David— be had a running sore, which he speaks of vvheh he says, “My sore ran in tbo night and ceased not." Jeremiah bad enlargement of tho spleen. Who can doubt it who reads Lamentations? Paul —he had a lifetime sickness which the commentators have been guessing about for years, not knowing exactly what tbe apostle meant by “a tboru iu tbo flesh. ’’ 1 do not know either, but it was some thing sharp, something that stuck him. I gather from all this that physical dis order may be tbo means of grace to tbe soul. You say you have so many tempta tions from bodily ailments and if you were only well you think you could be a good Christian. While your tempta tions may bo difiereut they aro no more than those of the man who has an appe tite three times a day and sleeps eight hours every night. View* of IIoRven. From my observation I judge that invalids have a more rapturous view of the next world than well people aud will bate higher renown iu heaven. The best view of the delectable moun tains is through the lattice of the sick room. There are trains running every hour between pillow and throne, be- twee i hospital and mansion, between bandages and roles, between crutch and palm branch. Uh, l wish some of you people who are compelled to cry: “My head, my head! My foot, my foot! My back, my back!” would try some of the Bord’s medicine! You are going to be well anyhow before long. Heaven is an old city, but has never yet reported one* case of sickness or one bill of mortality. Ao ophthalmia fi r the eye. No pneu monia for the lungs. No pleurisy for the side. No neuralgia lor tho nerves. No rheumatism for the muscles. “Tho in habitants shall newer say, I uni sick. ” “There shall be no more pain.” Again, you ought to mako the best of life’s finality. Now, you think 1 have a very tough subject. You do not see how I am to strike a spark of light out of tho* Hint of tho tcinbrtoue. There are many people who have aa idea that death is tho submergence of everything pleasant by everything doleful. If my subject could close iu the upsetting of all such preconceived notions, it would close well. Who can judge best of the natures of a man—those who are close by him, or those who aro afar off? •‘Oh,” you say, "those can judge best of tho features of a man who aro close by him.’ Now, my friends, who snail judge of tho features of death—whether they cro lovely or whether they aro repulsive? You? You are too far off. If 1 want to get a judgment as to what really tho features of death are, I will not a. k you; I will ask those who have been within a mouth of death or a week of death or an hour of death or a minute of death. They stand so near tho features, they can tell. They give* unanimous testi mony, if thov aro Christian people, that death, instead of being demoniac, is cherubic. Uf all the thousands of Chris tians who have been carried through the gates of the cemetery, gather up their dying experiences aud you will find they nearly all bordered on a jubilate. How often you have seen a dying man join in tho psalm being sung around his bedside, tho middled tho verse opening to lot his ransomed spirit tree, long after tho lips could not speak looking aud pointing upward. Net GoU’* Best Work. Some of you talk as though Gc.l had exhausted himself iu building this world and that all the rich curtains he ever made he hung around this planet aud all tho flowers he ever grew ho has woven into tho carpet of our daisied meadows. No. This world is not the best thing God can do; this world is not the best thing that God has done. Gao week of the year is called blos som week—called so all through the land because there aro more blossoms iu that week than in any other week of tbe year. Blossom week! Aud that is what the future world is to which the Christum is invited—blossom week for ever. It is uh far ahead of this world as paradise is ahead of Dry Tortugus, aud yet hero we stand shivering and tearing to go out, and we want to stay ou tho dry sand and amid the stormy petrels, when wo aro invited to arbors ot jas mine and birds of paradise. One season I had two springtimes. I went to Now Orleans iu April, and I marked tho difference between going to ward New Oilcans and then coming bai k. As I went ou down toward New Orleans tho verdure, the foliage, became thicker and more beautiful. When I came back, tbo farther I caiuo toward home the less tho foliage, aud less and less it became until there was hardly any. Now, it all depends upon the di rection in which yon travel. If a spirit from heaven should come toward our world, he is traveling from June toward December, from radiance toward dark ness, from hanging gardens toward ice bergs. And one would not be very much surprised if a spirit of God sent forth from heaven toward our world should be slow to come. But how strange it is that we dread going out toward that world when going is from December to ward June, from the snow of earthly storm to the snow of Edonio blossom, from tho arctics of trouble toward the tropics of eternal joy. Oh, what an ado about dying! Wo get so attached to tho malarial marsh iu which wo live that we aro afraid to go up and live on the hilltop. We aro alarmed because vacation is coming. Eternal sunlight and best programme of celestial minstrels and halleluiah no inducement. Let us stay here aud keep cold and ignorant and weak. Do not in troduce us to Elijah and John Milton aud Bourdaloue. Keep our feet ou tho sharp cobblestones of earth instead of planting them on the bank of amaranth in heaven. Give us this small island of a leprous world instead of the immen sities of splendor and delight. Keep our bauds full of nettles, and our shoulder under the burden, and our neck in the yoke, and hopples ou our ankles, and handcuffs on our wrists. “Dear Lord,” we seem to say, “keep us down here where wo hove to suffer instead of let ting ns up where we might live and reign and rejoice.” Death la Trne Life. I am amazed at myself and at your self for this infatuation under which we all rest. Men you would suppose would get frightened at having to stay in this world instead of getting fright ened at having to go toward heaven. I congratulate anybody who has a right to die. By that I mean through sickness you cannot avert or through accident you cannot avoid—your work cousum- mated. "Where did they bury Lily?” said one little child to another. “Oh,” she replied, “they buried her iu the ground.” “What! In the cold ground?” “Uh, no, no, not iu the cold ground, but in the warm ground, where ugly seeds become beautiful flowers.” “But,” says some oue, “it pains me so much to think that I must loss tho body with which my soul has so long companioned.” You do not lose it. You no more lose your body by death than you leso your watch when you send it to have it repaired or your jewel when you send it to have it reset or the faded picture when you seud it to have it touched up or tho photograph of a friend when you have it put in a new locket. You do not lose your body. Paul will go to Borne to get his, Payson will go to Portlaud to get his, President Ed wards will go to Princeton to get his, George (Jookman will go to tho bottom of the Atlantic to get his, and wo will go to tho village churchyards and the city cemeteries to get ours, and when wo have our perfect spirit rejoined to our jierfect body, then we will be tho kind of men and women that tbe resur rection morning will make possible. So you see you have not made out any doleful story yet. What have you proved about death? What is the case you nave made out? You have made cut just this —that death allows us to have a perfect body, free of all aches, united forever with a perfect soul free from all sin. Correct your theology. What does it all mean? Why, it means that moving day is coming, and that you are going to quit cramped apartments and be man- sioued forever. The horse that stands at the gate will not be the one lathered aud bespattered, carrying bad news, but it will be tho horse that St John saw in Apocalyptic vision—the white horse on which the King comes to the ban quet. Tho ground around tho palace will quake uith the tires aud hoofs of celestial equipage, and those Christians who in this world lost their friends and lost their property and lust their health aud lest their life will find out that God was always kind and that all things worked together for thoir good and that those were the wisest people ou earth who made tho best of every thing. lieu you not now tho bright light iu the clouds? How tbe Dean Flrrt Came. People in Raleigh, at least, will !*•- member with pleasure tho eloquent dis courses hero some time ago of Dean ^lart of Denver—tho clergyman with an Irish face and an English voice. Ho had tho eloquence of one and tho ro bustness of tho other. This robustness is not confined to bis sincere treatment and simplicity. It is in tho man where, after all, eloquence resides. Hero is an interesting sfory told me by a promi nent gentleman in Raleigh who knows something of the early life of the dean. It was in Denver during the cowboy and desperado days. There was a row of barrooms—they constituted about tbe chief business bouses along tbo narrow streets of the pioneer prairie tov/n. Dean Hart was thou a young man, and his force was making itself felt even among these almost abandoned men. Tho gamblers and drink house keepers grow restiva They could not stand any shock of good deeds, but they had a certain kind of open handedness and brutal frankness with all their wayward habits of life. They gave tho young preacher so many days to get out of town. He refused to go and kept on with his work. Pluck is a pet quality with these men, aud tho yonngman had it One of the most desperato of the danco hall keepers came to him and said: “Young man, I like yon becauso you are gome. Como to my shanty to night and preach, and no one shall harm a hair of your head. ” Tho young man was there, and his audience! A clond of smoke and wide brimmed bats, with pistols and knives in their belts. The stage was crowded with the same kind. Eat tbe boss man and his follow ers kept their keen eyes primed for busi ness, and the young man proceeded. He staid there. He has been there ever since. He built at first a small church. Ho is now dean of tho Denver cathe dral.—Raleigh News and Observer. ON TO CUBA ! Are You Ready to Answer the Expected Call of Our Government for 490,000 VOLUNTEERS? A Narrow Escape. Thankful words written by Mrs. Ada E. Hart, of Groton, S. D. “Was taken with a bad cold which settled on my lungs; cough set in and finally terminated in Consumption. Four Doctors gave me up, saying I could live but a short time. I gave myself up to my Savior, determined if I could not stay with my friends on earth, I would meet my absent ones above. My husband was ad vised to get Dr. King’s New Discovery for Consumption, Coughs and Colds. I gave it a trial, took in all eight bottles. It has cured me, and thank God lam saved and now a well and healthy woman. Trial bottles free at DuPre Drug Co. Regular size oOc and-$1.00. Guar anteed or price refunded, A VVonUerful DLcorcrj-. The last quarter of a century records ,r.any wonderful discoveries in medicine, but none that have accomplished more for humanity than that sterling old household remedy, Browns’ Iron Bitters. It seems to outain the very (dements of good health, and neither man, woman or child can take it without deriving the greatest benefit. Browns’Iren Bitten is sold hy all dealers. The men will face icreater dancer Spanish bullets. Cuba bas an unhealthy climate which none but hardy, vigorous bodies can resist. YOU may lie one of that splendid army: hence, if you wish to avoid a miserable record of sickness, or possibly worse, you should at on<-e put your system in condition to with stand the baneful Cuban climate. If your digestion is disturbed, blood impure, bowels irregular or you have malarial germs in your system, take liberal and frequent doses of I’riekly Ash Bitters; it Is the greatest system regulator ami blood purifier on earth. It cleanses the bowels, cures constipation, re lieves Indigestion, vitalizes the blortd. strengthens the kidneys, liver, stomach and bowels. Its marvelous purifying and strengthening properties will so fortify tho trody that It will be proof against the* germs of yellow fever, malaria or cholera. Inshori., It keeps the system In perfect order. Pat a Bottle in Yonr Knapsack. WlNLAl^CAROLII,: —Mothers! T hs discom forts and dangers of child-birth can be almost en tirely avoided.; Wineof Cardui' relieves ex pectant m-til ers. It gives toneto the gen ital organs, and puts them in condition to do their work perfectly. That makes preg nancy less painful, shortens labor and hastens recovery after child-birth. It helps a woman bear strong healthy children. MmgEE'J lHHGir has also brought happiness to thousands of homes barren for years. A few doses often brings joy to loving hearts that long for a darling baby. No woman should neglect to try it for this trouble. It cures nine cases out of ten. All druggists sell Wine of Cardui. £i.oo per bottle. For advice In cases reiuirinp special directions, address, civinir symptoms, the “ Ladies’ Advisory Department," The Chattanooga Medicine Co., Chatta nooga, Tenn. Mrs. LOUISA HALE, of Jefferson, Ga., says: ••When I first took Wine of Cardui we had been married three years, but eould not have any children. Nina Educate Your Bowel* With rascaret*. Ej months later I had a fine girl baby.” Candy Cathartic, cure constipation forever. 10c, 25c. If C. C. C. fail, druggists refund money. liLuS That heritage of rich and poor, has saved many a life. For Throat and Lung affections it is invaluable. It never fails to cure Cough, Cold, Croup and Whooping-Cough. DR. BULL’S COUGH SYRUP is the best. Price 25 cents. Chew LANGE'S PLUGS. Tho Great Vobasoo Anti-ota,10c. Dealers or mail,A.C.Meyer A Co., Balto.,Md. Ilcminiaeencea of tho Commune. Very interesting is tho collection of relics of the commune which a gentle man connected with an important finan cial establishment has been forming for some time with no little patience ami perseverance. Among other noteworthy articles it comprises a red flag, with the number of a battalion aud a company inscribed upon it, which floated close to the spot on which tho ill fated hos tages were massacred; tho rosary aud the small volume of tbo Acts of the Apostles which oue of tho priests held tightly iu his hands when he was shot down, aud a portion of the cassock worn by Mgr. Darboy, stained with bis blood, while the spade with which tbe grave of the archbishop of Faria was dug is also to be seen. Then there is a paper which was discovered on the corpse of another of tho victims, and on which bad been hurriedly written the words: "I am about to die. I forgive those who are killing me. I am thinking of those who love me, and I hope to meet those who have loved me iu heaven.” There are, moreover, u number of souvenirs of the siege in tbe shape of uniforms, but tons, fragments of shells and so forth, and by no means the least remarkable feature of tbe collection is to be fonud in the specimens of tho various articles made by tbe hostages while they were awaiting their doom iu La Roquetto prison. In the course of a few years this little museum will probably contaiu fhu largest and most complete of revo lutionary relics iu existence.—Paris fJor. Loudon Telegraph. Look! A Stitch in Time Saws nine. Iluirhes’ Tonic (new linproveil. ; tusi* pleasant), fiken in early Sprint* innl Fall prevents ('hills. Benjjm* anil Malarial Fevers. Acts on the liver, tones up the sys tem. Belter than quinine, (juaranteeil. Try it. At Dru/iflsts. 30c and fl.OO bottles. - ► D011T Tuharro Spit and Smoke Your I.lfc Aw»j. To quit tobacco easily and forever, be mac relic, full of life, nerve and vigor, take No-To- Bac. tho wonder worker, that makes weak meu Etrong. All druggists, f>0o or II. Cure guaran teed. Booklet ami sample free. AddreM burling Remedy Co . Chicago or New York. CANDY CATHARTIC ALL DRUGGISTS IF U WANT BARGENS BUY FOR CASH! SAVE YOKE MONEY and cum to the Spot C'.-^li Grocery Store. IT WILL MAKE U LAFF lose the bargens I hav for u this week. 1 T, 1I be sorry if u dont. Respectfully, J. L. ALEXANDER. IF YOU WANT TO BUY Mules, "Wagons, Onauo iintl JVoicl IMiospliatei Olxeap* CALL ON J. I. N. B.—Oak wood delivered at 7.1c per load.