The ledger. [volume] (Gaffney City, S.C.) 1896-1907, December 15, 1898, Image 5
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TUT! LEDGER: GAFFNEY, S. C., DECEMBER 15. I8' 8.
I 1
LIGHT IN DARKNESS.
DR. TALMAGE COMFORTS THE SICK
AND HELPLESS.
I.ike Noah In tin* Ark. They Are Snfe
From Octnlde Perlln —Shut In by
<he Lord For nn All Wise Parpone.
The ‘‘Without*” nod “Within*.”
{Copyright, 1S98, by American Press Assa-
ciation.J
Washington, Deo. 11.—Tliis dis
course of Dr. Talmage, wliich is Helpful
to all who find life a struggle, is es
pecially addressed to a class of persons
probably never before addressed iu a
sermon. The text is Genesis vii, 16,
“Thu Lord shut him in."
Cosmogony has no more interesting
chapter than the one which speaks of
that catastrophe of the ages, the submer
sion of our world in time of Noah, the
first ship carpenter. Many of the nations
who never saw a Bible have a flood
story—Egyptian flood story, Grecian
flood story, of which Ducalion was the
Noah; Hawaiian flood story, New Zea
land flood story, Chinese flood story,
American Indian flood story—all of
which accounts agree in the immersion
of the continents under universal rains,
and that there was a ship floating, with
a select few of the human family and
with specimens of zoological and or
nithological .and reptilian worlds, nl
though I could have wished that these
lai4 had been shut out of tho ark and
drowned.
All of these flood stories represent tho
thip thus afloat as Anally stranded on a
mountain top. Hugh Miller, in his
“Testimony of the Hocks,” thinks that
all these flood stories were infirm tradi
tions of tho Biblical account, and I be
lieve him. Tho worst thing alxjnt that
great freshst was that it struck Noah’s
Great Eastern from above and t>eijcath.
Tho Kii.s broke the chain of shells and
crystal and rolled over the land, and
the heavens opened theirclonds for fall
ing columns of water which roared and
thunder* d on tho roof of the great ship
for a mouth and ten days. There was
one door to tho ship, hut there were
throe part* to that doo», one part foi
each of three stories. The Bible account
says nothing about parts of the door ho
longing to two of the stories, and I do
not know on which floor Noah and his
family voyaged, hut my text tolls us
that the part of tho door of that partic
ular floor on wliich Noah staid was
closed after ho had entered. “The Lord
shut him in.” So there are many peo
ple now iu the world who arc as thor
oughly shut in, homo by sickness, some
by old age, some by special duties that
will not allow them to go forth, some
surrounded by deluges of misfortune
and trouble, and for them my sympathies
are aroused, and from them I often re-
ceivo mctsagU'', aud this sermon, which
I hope may do good to others, is more
especially intended for them. Today I
address the shut in. “Tho Lord shut
him iu. ”
Th« Dlvlue lliuid.
Notice, first of all, who closed the
door so that thsy could not get out.
Noah did not do it, nor his son Sbeni,
uur did Ham, nor did Juphcth, nor did
either of tho four married women who
were on shipboard, nor did desperadoes
wlu) had scoffed at the idea of peril
Which Noah had been preaching close
that door. They had turned their back*
ou tho ark and had iu disgust gone
away. I will tell you how it was done.
A hand was stretched down from heaven
to close that door. It was a divine hand
as well as a kind band. “The Lord shut
him in.”
And tho same kind aud sympathetic
being has shut you iu, my reader or my
hearer. You thought it was an acci
dent, ascrihahlo to the carelessness or
misdoing* of others, or a mere “happen
so,” No, no! God had gracious design
for your betterment, for the cultivation
of yonr patience, for tho strengthening
of your faith, for tho advantage you
might gain by seclusion, for your eter
nal salvation. Ho put you in a school
room where you could learn iu six
months or a year more than you could
have learned anywhere else in a life
time. He turned the lattice or pulled
down the blinds of the sickroom, or put
your swollen foot ou an ottoman, or
held you amid tho pillows of a couch
which you could not leave, for some
reason that you may not now under
stand, hut which ho has promised he
will explain to yon satisfactorily, if not
In this world, then iu the world to
come, for ho has said, “What I do thou
knowest not now, but thou sbalt know
bereafter 1”
The world has no statistics as to the
number of invalids. The physicians
know something about it, and the
apothecaries and the pastors, hut who
uun tell us the number of blind eyes,
and deaf ears, and diseased lungs, and
congested livers, and jangled nerves,
and neuralgic temples, and rheumatio
feet, or how many took no food this
morning because they had no appetite
to eat, or digestive organs to assimilate,
or have lungs so delicate they cannot
go forth when the wind is iu tho east,
or there is u fog rising from tho river,
or there is a dampness on tho ground or
pavement because of tbofrutt coming
out? It would he easy to count tho peo
ple who every day go through a street,
or tho number of passengers carried by
a railroad company iu a year, or tho
number of those who cross tho ocean in
ships, hut who can give us tho statistics
of the great multitudes who are shut iu?
I call the attention of all such to their
superior opportunities of doing good.
Those of us who are well and can see
clearly, aud hear distinctly, ami par
take of food of all sorts, and questions
of digestion never occur to us, and we
can wade the snowbanks and take an
equinox in our faces, and endure the
thermometer at zero, aud every breath
of air is a tonic and a stimulus, and
sound sleep meets us within five min
utes after our head touches the pillow,
do not make so much of an impression
when we talk about the consolations of
religion. Thu world says right away:
“1 guess that man uitlskss baoyaMj
of natural spirits for religion. What
does he k»ow about it? Ho has never
b»eu tried.” But when one goesont aud
reports to the world that that morning
on his way to lousiness he called to see
yon aud found you, after being kept in
your room for two mouths, cheerful
and hopefal, and that you had not one
word of complaint, and asked all about
everybody, aud rejoiced in the success
of yonr business friends, although your
own business had almost come to a
standstill tbroagh your absence from
store or office or shop, and that you
sent you* love to all your old friends,
and told them that If you did not meet
them again in this world you hoped to
meet them iu dominions seraphic, with
a quiet word of advice from you to the
man who carried the message about
the importance of his not neglecting his
own soul, but through Christ seeking
something better than this world could
give him—why, all the businessmen in
the counting s«om say: “Good! Now,
that is religion!” And the clerks get
bold of the story aud talk it over, so
that the weigher aud cooper aud hack-
man standing ou the doorstep say:
“That is splendid 1 Now, that is what
I call religion ! M
Effective Sermon*.
It is a g«nd thing to preach on a Sun
day morning, the people assembled in
most rMp*r,tahh* attire and seated on
soft cushions, the preac her standing in
neatly uplMlstsanl pulpit surrounded by
personal trieml* and after an inspiring
hymn has been sung, and that sermon
if preached ra faith will do good, hut
the rucrahrffecltTe sermon is preached by
one setrtal in dressing gown in an arm
chair mGf wMah tire invalid has with
much mm hem lifted, the surrounding
shdva* Ailed with medicine bottles,
soma hr rrndwaa sleep, some for the re
lief of awden paroxysm, some for stim
ulant, mho f«r tonie, some for anodyne
and soarr febrifuge, the pale preach-
«r qnotiag proaaiseH of the gospel, telling
of the gUriea of a sympathetic Christ,
asMiriwgtke «m0 or two or three persons
who haai it rtf the mighty re-enforco-
mentr etf rrliflon. You say that to such
a h rma» thm are only ouu or two or
three taMrm J»y* I But the visitor call-
iug at Ujrt Npw, thwi closing the door
softly aud going away, tells the story,
and tho whole neighborhood hears it,
and it w4fc tdfe all eternity to realize
the gMMtf md uplifting influence of
that mMsu Ann! God and the soul,
though preached to an audience of only
one man or am woman. The Lord has
ordained aH MNft invalids for a style of
usclalRMT whfefc athletics and men of
200 hwakfer UMtfrdupois cannot affect.
It was Mb m Meiay that fastened you
iu that rtMtn or sent you*on crutches,
the longett joMuey you have made for
many weeks fading from bed to sofa and
from sofa to looking glass, where you
are shocked ad the pallor of your own
cheek 4to4hK’bwLM6Bs of your fea
tures, then hack again from mirror to
sofa, and sofe to bed, with a long sigh
saying, “How good it feel* to get hack
again to my old place ou tho pillow. ”
Remember who it is that appointed the
day when for the first time in many
years yob oo^H net go to bnsiuess, and
who ha* kept a record of all the weary
days and all the sleepless nights of your
exile f*Mi th* world. Oh, weary man!
Oh, faedfe wwtoan ! It was tho Lord who
shut ywa in. Do yon remember that
some etf tha aohlest and best of men
have been prisoners? Ezekiel a prisoner,
Jeremiah a prisoner, Paul a prisoner,
St. John a prisoner, John Buuyan a
prison** Though human hate seemed
to have adi to do with them, really the
Lord ahad them iu.
Vojra«e.
No doobt while ou that voyage Noah
and his three sous and all the four ladies
of the antediluvian world often thought
of the katfght hillsides and the green
field* where tfhap had walked aud of the
homo* where they had lived. They hud
had many yuare of experiences. Noah
was 600 years old at tho time of this
couvultioi of awturu. Hu had seen GOO
springtinaes, GOO summers, GOO au
tumns, Odd winters. We are not told
how old his wife was at this wreck of
earth and sky. Thu Bible tells the age
of a great many men, hut only once
give* a tNbiaa^i age. At one time it
gives Adam's age as EJO years and
Jared’s !*m a* 102 years aud Enoch’s
age as 2A ysaa, aiul all up and down
the Bible U gfvas the age of men, hut
does not give tho age of women. Why?
Bocausa, I suppose, a woman’s age is
none of o«r business. Hut all the mun
and woaMi that towed iu that oriental
craft had lived long enough to remem
ber a great many of tho mercies and
kindness** of (Jod, aud they could not
blot onh and 1 think they had no dis
position to blot out, tho memory of those
brightnesses, though now they were
shut in. hfeithar should tho shut iu of
our tlto* forgot the blessings of tho
past. Ilavt you been blind for ten years?
Thank G«d for the time when you saw
as clearly as any of us can see aud let
the pagMsa* of all the radiant landscapes
and illumined skies which you ever
looked upM kindle y*ur rapturous grati
tude. I 4* not sue Raphael’s “Madonna
di Kan 8i*to” in tho picture gallery of
Dresden, aor Rubens' “Descent From
the Gres*” at Antwerp, nor Michael
Angelo’s “Last Judgment" on tho ceil
ing of th* Vatican nor tit. Sophia at
ConttanliMiple, nor tho Parthenon on
tho Acrojwlis, nor the Taj Mahal of In
dia, but skull 1 not thank God that 1
have seen them? Is it possible that such
midnight darkness shall ever blast my
vision that 1 cannot call them up again?
Perhaps you are so deaf that you cannot
hear the akirp of bird or solo of cuuta-
trice or *veu organ in full diapason,
though yoo feel the foundations tremble
under Its inajestie roll, or even the
thunderstorm that makes Mount Wash
ington *aho. But are you not grateful
that one* you could hear trill and chant
I and ear*l 4c.\<>lnfry? I cannot this hour
bear.IcAflf; Lind sing “Ooiniu Through
tho Rye,’ 7 or ule Bull’s enchanted viol,
or Purepa Rosa’s triumphant voice over
iiiany tiMSwands of voices and many
thousand* of instrument* in the nation
al pea** gfeileo of U1J ye.vg ago, all
ItrinOM i* i- nIW
these sounds accompanied by the ring
ing of bells and the guns ou Boston
Common, but can I ever have my tars
so silenced that 1 will not remember
that I did hear them? Are you chained
to your room now, your powers of loco
motion all gone, or if coming to the
house of God every step is a torture?
Do you forget when, in childhood,
you danced and skipped because you
were so full of life you had not patience
to walk, and in aftsr years you climb d
tho mountains of Switzerland, putting
your alpenstock high up on glaciers
which lew others ever dared aud jump
ed long reaches iu competition and after
a walk of ten miles you came iu jocund
as the morning? O you shut ins, thank
God for a vivid memory of the times
when yon were free as the chamois on
the rocks, as the eagle going straight for
the sun! When the rain pounded the
roof of tho ark, the eight voyagers on
that craft did not forget the time when
it gayly pattered in a summer shower,
aud when the door of the ark shut to
keep out the tempest they did not forget
the time when the door of their home
iu Armenia was closed to keep out the
spring rains which came to fill the cups
of lily aud honeysuckle aud make all
tho tress of the wood clap their hands
Sufe From Temptation.
Again, notice that during that 40
days of storm which rocked that ship
on that universal ocean of Noah’s time
tho door which shut the captain of tho
ship inside the craft kept him from
many outside perils. How those wrath
ful seas would like to have got their
wet hands ou Noah and pulled him out
and sunk him ! Aud do all of you of the
great army of the shut iu realize that,
though you have special temptations
where you are now, how much of the
outside style of temptation you escape?
Do you, the merchant incarcerated iu
the sickroom, realize that every hour
of the day you spend looking out of tho
window, or gazing at tho particular fig
ure on the wall paper, or listening to
the clock’s ticks men are being wrecked
by tho allurements aud uncertainties of
business life? How many forgeries are
committed, how many trust fund* are
swamped, how many public moneys aro
being misappropriated, how many bank
ruptcies suffered! It may he. it is, very
uncomfortable for Noah inside the ark,
fer the apartment i* crowded aud the
air is vitiated with tho breathing of so
much human and animal life*, but it is
not half as bad for him as though he
were outside tho ark. There is not an
ox, or a carnal, or an antelope, or a
sheep inside the ark as badly off as the
proudest king outside. While yon are
on the pillow or lounge you will make
no had bargains, yon will rush into no
rash investments, yon will avoid the
mistakes which thousands of men as
good as you are every day making.
Notice also that there was a limit to
fhe shut iu experiwacc *f tboae MMieut
mariners. I r/ippoee the 40 days of the
descending an-.i uprising floods and the
lAO days before the passengers could go
ashore must have seemed to those eight
people in the big boat like a small eter
nity. “Rain, rain, rain!” said the wife
of Noah. “Will it never stop?” For 40
mornings they looked out aud saw not
one patch of blue sky. Floating around
amid the peaks of mountains Shorn and
Ham aud Japhetb had to hush the fears
of their wives lest they should dash
against the projecting rocks. But after
awhile it cleared off. Buusbine, glorious
sunshine! The ascending mists were
folded up into clouds, which instead of
darkening the sky only ornamented it.
As they looked out of the windows
these worn passengers clapped their
hands aud rejoiced that the storm was
over, aud I think if God could stop
such a storm us that he could stop any
storm in your lifetime experience. If
ho can control a vulture in midsky, be
can stop a summer, bat that flies hi at
your window'. At the right time he
will put the rainbow on the cloud and
the deluge of your misfortunes will dry
up. I preach the doctrine of limitation,
relief and disci.thrallmcnt. At just the
right time the pain will cease, the
bondage will drop, the imprisoned will
ho liberated, the fires will go out, the
body and mind aud soul will be free.
Patience! An old English proverb re
ferring to long continued invalidism
says, “A creaking gate hangs long on
its binges," and this may be a protract
ed case of valetudinarianism, bat you
will have taken the last bitter drop,
you will have suffered the lust misin
terpretation, you will feel the gnawing
of the last hunger, you will have faint
ed the last time from exhaustion, you
will have felt the cut of tho last lancet,
you will have wept under the last
loneliness. Thu last week of tho Noaehi-
uu deluge came, the last day, the last
hour, the last moment The beating of
the rain ou the roof ceased, ami tho
dashing of the billow’s on the side of the
ship quieted, aud peacefully as a yacht
moves out over quiet Lake Cayuga,
Como or Lazerne the ark, with its il
lustrious passengers and important
frieght, glided to its mountain wharf
age.
< beep Fop the Sick.
Notice also that on the cessation of
the deluge the shut ins came out, and
they built their houses and cultured
their gardens and started a new world
on the ruins of the old world that had
been drowned not. Though Noah lived
«J.j0 years after this worldwide aoci
dent and no doubt his fellow passengers
survived centuries I warrant they never
got over talking about that voyage.
Now I have seen Doro’s pictures and
many other pictures of the entrance into
the ark, two and two, of tho human
family and the animal creation into that
ship which sailed between two worlds
—antediluvian world and tho post
diluviau world—but I never saw a pie
ture of their coming out; yet their em
barkation was not more important than
their disembarkation. Many a crew has
entered a ship that never landed. Wit
ness the steamer Portland, a few days
ago, with 100 souls on hoard, going
down with all its crew and passengers.
Witness the line of sunken snips, reach
ing like a aubt'iuriMu cable of anguish
across tho ocean depth* from America
t>> Europe. If any ship might expect
complete wreckage, the one Noah com
manded might have expected it. But
no; those who embalked disembarked.
Over the plunk reaching down tho side
of the ark to tho Armenian cliffs ou
which the y had been stranded the pro
cession descended. No other wharf felt
iv solid or afforded such attractiveness
as that height of Ararat when tho oight
passengers put their leet ou it. And no
sooner had the last one, tho invalided
wife of Japheth, been helped down tho
plank upon the rock than the other
apartments of the ship were opened, and
such a dash of bird music never filled
the air as when the entire orchestra of
robin redbreast, aud morning lark, aud
chaffinch, and mocking bird, and house
swallow took wing into tho bright sky,
while tho cattle began to low and the
sheep to bleat and the horses to neigh
for the pasture, which from tho awful
submergence had now begun to grow
green aud aromatic. I tell you plaiuly
nothing interests me more in that trag
edy from the first to the last act than
the “exit” and the “cxe iut, ” than the
fact that the “shot ins” became tho
“got outs.” Aud I now cheer with this
story all the inmates of sickrooms and
hospitals, and those prisons were men
and women are unjustly endungeoned,
and all the thousands who are bounded
on the north and south and east and
west by floods, by delnges of misfortune
and disaster. The ark of your trouble,
if it doc* not land on some earthly
height of vindication aud rescue, will
land on the heights celestial.
l*at Yo*r Tra*t In God.
If you have put your trust iu God,
yon will come out iu the garden of the
King, among orchards bending with 12
manner of fruits and harvests that wave
iu the light of a sun that never sets. As
the eight passengers of that craft of
Captain Noah never got over talking
about their seafaring experiences, so
you who have been tho shut ins of earth
will add unbounded interest to the
conversation of heave* by recalling and
reciting your earthly experiences, and
the rougher those experiences tbe more
thrilling will they be to yourself and
others who listen. As when we sit amid
a group of soldiers and hear their story
of battle or a group of sailors and hour
their story of cyclones we feel stupid
because wo have nothing in our life
wortli telling, how uninteresting will
ha those souls in heaven who had smooth
sailing all their lives aud no accidents,
while Noah tells his story of the delude
and Lot his story of escape from de
stroyed cities aud Paol his Story of the
Alexandrian corn ship and you tell your
story of tho days and nights and years
of the times when yon were shutiu!
You will bo interesting and sought aftwi
in heaven in proportion as you aro mar
tyrized of persecution aud pain on earth.
And surely you d« not watrt to get the
advantage of heavenly association and
consideration without yourself adding
some interest to the interview. I bail
all the shut ins because they will be the
oome outs. Heaven will be all the
brighter for your earthly privations aud
environments. Fora man who has al
ways lived iu a mansion and walked iu
fine gardens aud regaled his appetite on
best fruits and had warmest furs for
winter attire aud coolest linens for Au
gust heat aud brilliant earthly sur
roundings heaven will not bo so much
a change of scene. He will be disposed
to say: “Why, lam usedtothis! Don’t
show me the gardens! Why, I was
brought up atChutsworth. Don’t invite
me into a chariot; 1 always had a splen
did turnout. Don't invite me to the
feast I have been accustomed to Bel-
sbnzzariau banquets. It would be a re
lief to me if 1 could leave heaven a lit
tle while aud rough it iu some other
world. ”
But what a heaven it will be for those
whose limbs were so rheumatic they
could not take a step when they get
wings I What a heaven it will ho for
those who were always sick, when they
aro always well, and after 20 years of
pain to have millions of years of health!
What a light will he the light of heaven
for those who on earth could not see
their hand before their faces! And
what will the music of heaven be to
those the tympanum of whose ears for
many years had ceased to vibrate! De
nied ou earth the pleasure of listening
to Handel and Haydn and Mendelssohn’s
symphonies, at last reaching a world
where there has never been a discord,
aud hearing singing where all aro per
fect songsters, and oratorios in which
all the nations of heaven chant! Great
heaven it will be for all who got there,
but a hundred times more of a heaven
for those who were shut in.
Dlviae Sympathy.
Meanwhile you have all divine and
angelic sympathy in your infirmities.
That satan thoroughly understood poor
human nature was evidenced when in
plotting to make Job do wrong the great
master of evil, after having failed iu
every other way to overthrow the good
man, proposed physical distress, and
then the boils came which made him
swear right out. The mightiest test of
character is physical suffering. Critics
are impatient at tho way Thomas Car
lyle scolded at everything. His TO years
of dyspepsia were enough to make any
man scold. When you see people out of
patience and irascible and lachrymose,
inquire into the case, and before you
get through with the exploration your
hypercriticism will turn to pity, and to
the divine and angelic sympathy will
be added your own. Tbe clouds of your
indignation, which were full of thun
derbolts, will begin to rain tears of pity.
| By a strange providence, for which I
shall ha forever grateful, circumstances
| with which I think you arc all fa
miliar, I have admission through the
uewspupur press week by week to tens
of thousand* of God’s dear children
who cannot enter church ou the Sab
bath and hear their excellent pastors
because of the age of the sufferer*, or
their illnusa, or the lameness of foot, or
their incapacity to ttay iu one position
an hour and a half, or their poverties,
or their troubles of komu sort will nut
let them go cut of doors, aud to them
as much ns to those who bear me I
preach this sermon, as I preach many
of my sermons, tho invisible audience
always vaster than the visible, some of
them tossed ou wilder seas than those
that tossed the eight inemberHof Noah's
faaiily. and instead of 40 days of storm
and five months of being shut in. as
they were, it has been with these in- !
valids five years of “shutiu,” or ten
years of “shut in," or 20 years of
“shutiu.” Ob, comforting God! Help 1
me to comfort them! Give me two
hands full of salve for their wonuds.
When we were !500 miles out at sea, a
hurricane struck us, and the lifeboats ,
were dashed from the davits aud all tho ,
lights iu the cabin were put out by the i
rolling of the ship and the water which
through the broken skylights had poured
in. Captain Andrews entered and said !
to the men on duty: “Why don’t you
light up and make things brighter, for
we are going to outride this storm?
Passengers, cheer up! Cheer up!” And
be struck a match and began to light
tho burners. He could not silence either
tho wind or tho waves, hut by tho
striking of that match, accompanied by
encouraging words, wo were all helped.
I.iKht In I):irk»«-nM.
And as I now find many iu hurricanes
of trouble, though I cannot quiet tho
storm. I can strike a match to light up
tho darkness, aud I strike a match.
“Whom the Lord loveth he chasteuetfa. ”
l strike another match. “Weeping may
endure for a iwgfal, hut joy cone th iu
the morning.” 1 strike another match.
“We have a grtal High Priest who can
be touched with the feeling of our in
firmities, and he was iu all points tempt
ed like a* we are.” Arc you old? One
breath of heaven will make you ever
lastingly young again. Have you aches
and pains? Tfaay insure Chri'-t’s presence
ami sympathy through the dark( st De
cember ulgfata, which are the longest
nights of the year. Aro you bereft?
Here i* a resurrected Christ, whose
voioe is full of resorrectionary power
Arc you l*cj*ly? All the angels of heav
en are ready to swoop into your com
panionship. Here ia the Christ of Alary
aud Martha when they had lost Lazarus,
and of David when he hud lost his son,
aud of Abraham when he had lost Burab,
and of your futhes and mother when is
time of old age they parted at the gates
of the tomb. When last I was iu Savau-
mth, ah th* close of tbe Sabbath morn
ing service, i wa* anted to go and see a
Christian woman, for many years an in
valid. 1 westh. I k*d not in all that
beautiful city of splendid men and gra
cious women seen a face brighter than
her* fewoMng her bedside, I put out
my band, hut she could not shako
hands, for her hand was palsied. I said
to her, “Uotr king have you been down
on this bed?” She smiled and made no
answer, for her tongue had been palsied,
but thnaa atanMnc *roaud said, “Fif
teen years.” 1 said to her, “Have yon
been able to keep your courage up all
that tims?” She gave a very little mo
tion of her head in affirmation, for her
whole body was paralytic. The sermon
I had preached that morning had no
power *n others compared with the
power that silent sermon had on me.
What wm the secret of her conquest
over pain mid privation aud incapacity
to move? Shall I tell you the secret? I
will tell you. Tho Lord shut her iu.
Lathor’a Faith.
There it • good deal of fanaticism
abroad about tbe recovery of tbo sick,
but if we hod at much faith as Martin
Luther we would have Luther’a suc
cess. His friend Myconius was very ill,
and Luther fell upon his knees and said:
“OLocd, no! Thon must not yet take oar
brother Myconius to thyself. Thy cause
will not proiper without him. Amen.”
Then he wrote: “My Dear Myconius—
There is no cause fof fear. The Lord
will not let me hoar that you aro dead.
You shall not aud must not die.
Amen.” Luther’s letter so excited My-
couius that an uloer ou his lungs broke,
and ho got well. Would to God that
like that we might be able to pray, that
wo might have similar results 1 Oh,
men and women, visible and invisible,
tho probability is you will never write
your autobiography. It is tho most dif
ficult book to write, because you are
tempted to omit passages in your lift
tbat were nut complimentary to your
self, and to quote from a diary, which
is always incomplete, because there are
some things which you do not think
best to write down. As you will not
undertake an autobiography, the story
of yourself, I will take the responsibil
ity of preventing your biography, which
is tho story of one’s life by some one
else. If yoe will give your love and
trust to him of Bethlehem and Calvary,
this will be your biography: “Born at
the right time, but the most important
event iu hi* life was when he was born
again. Died at the right time, but long
before that be hud died unto sin. He
had many crises, but iu all of them was
divinely directed; weaknesses, hut they
were divinely sympathized with. In his
life there were many sorrows, wave
after wave, storm after storm, hut he
outrode everything aud landed iu eternal
safety. Why? Why? Because the Lord
shut him iu. ”
Bit do not think that heaven is made
up of an indiscriminate population,
home of my friends are so generous in
their theology that they would let every
body in without reference to condition
, or character. Do not think that liber
tines aud blasphemers aud rejecters of
j God and his gospel have “letters of
credit” that will draw anything from
| the bank of heaven. Pirate cralts will
not he permitted to go up that harbor,
if there are those who a* to heaven are
to ho “shut ins, “there are those who
will belong to the “shut outs.” Heaven
has 12 gates, aud while those 12 gates
imply widu open entrance for those who
are properly prepared to enter them
they imply thsl there are at irast 12
possibilities that many will he shut
out, bfosito ■ *At« is of no use unless it
can sometimes he closed. Heaven is not
an unwashed mob. Show your tickets
or you will not get in—tickets that you
may get without iu«nej and witboat
price, tickets with a cross and n cr*wn
upon them. Let the imrepentsDt aud
the vile and the offscourings of eartl*
enter heaven as they now are. aud they
would depreciate aud demoralize IS so
that no one of us would want to enter,
and those who are there would want to-
move out. The Bible speaks of the
“withonts” as well as the “within*.
Revelation xxii, 15, “Without are dogB
aud sorcerers and whoremongers and
murderers aud idolaters aud whosoever
loveth and maketh a lie.” Through th*
converting, pardoning, sanctifying gaace
of God may we at last be found ament;
the shut ins aud not among th* Aafc
outs 1
YOU MUST have pure Mood flbr
■ {Tood health. Hood's Sarsaparilla
purities the blood. Take Hood’s Sar
saparilla if you would be well.
OSBORNE’S
AiiKiioa.G* Actual Hu*ines«. No Ten laakv
Short time. Cheap board. Sen? for Catalogue.
Ohio River and Charleston Railway Co.,
T IME T.\ DI.Enf t he Oh In Hirer and < bMc-
!<>n Railway Company, conjunct ly «*tt>
tlie South Carolina and (jcoij/ia Kailroatl.
Schedcle in effect May Kith. Is:is.
NoitTH sorm
Boirxn.! Eastern Jimo. ;
Lv. 7
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GAFFNEY
Ar. *a>
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Ev. 7
Trains north of Camden run daily
S tutiay.
trains between Charleston and KimNHMfc-
run daily.
For Information as to rates. Clyd* Atoc
Sailing, etc., call on local contract!** Aim!
travclimr agents of both roads, or
L. A. EMERSON. T. M.. E. ['.GRAY.
S. C. & G. K. It.. Traffic Manauta-.
Charleston. S. C. <Tncimiata,
S. II LUMPKIN.
Gen’l. Freip-ht and Pass. Agent,
lilitckshura'. S. C.
SOUTHERN RAILWAgfr
1 ftahadtei* of Fasaom*
I* Mac* Oft. 16, 1906.
!to*tbfcond.
fWo.12
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At*u»»».O.T
Atlanta, K. T
Koverm*
Buford.
fitaiBMvtta.
To««m»
Wortininatar
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Spariasbur*.
(tafferjr*. ...
Blacksburg..
hiufjr'okft ...
Gastonia
VbarAdt* .
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No. 33
Daily.
00 m
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11 31 aft i
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8» a*!
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10 86 aj 2
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12 68 pj 4
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■ 07 p { «
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.GrvrastxrN..
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Ar. Dannlta _.
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.Washington
Halt in V PI1R.
rhilatlalfihta.
New- York ...
10 50 p
7 50 a
11 * p II 5! p .
• 40 a iTIo a
SetulhhoaaH.
PhiladtOjAla
" kallMnora. .
Waakfettan.
Lr. Kirbnumd
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Lv. Norfolk .
Ar. Nreeanbora
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6 42
8 03
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No. 37
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No. Ill
Daily!
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6 45 a
610
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Lv C. r*t'**hrvro
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Lr. Atlanta, central /inn-
Ar. oaftora tin:*
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Ar. Atlanta, central tiiee.
"A" a. p. m "M" mna. “N" &V
(.;*»«u| eak* Imta Steamer* in daily
between Norfolk slid Bnitineire.
No*. 31 ia*idt*—Ita»Jy. Wn-hin tton andl
wcwtcrii VeoflUtUu Limited. 'f*«- mg-li Pullil
el«oi>.ay rar* baiwaoH How York and Newt
hims. via Waakkigten, At licits and M'lntp]
•ry, und niao Uilwaeu Kc v Y tW ■nd Mcinj
v.mIVre.hingtou.Atlantani d Kiratmghnm.
cite-* thorough!aru roacht -> hidw on Was
ton timl Athuuv Dining ear* aai va all i
an route. Pullman iDawcu' room slemiini
between Gt-MHrtbori and Norfndt. trlow
neetion at Forfulk for OLD POINT COM!
arm-ing tb«r* in time for breaUfaet.
Noe. 44 aud 16—United Ktatc* Fast
ran* eoM berw-au Wanhingtcm anti Nt
hvuia, na NwaiSm-n iUthvny, A. A W. P.
aud E. A N. A. it.. IriUig corniioaud of r
rar aud rnariioe through with cat e nance
pBH-ergrrP'«f nil e!a»«*.s Pnllinnrt drav
n-m *e«o..a< o*r« between New York*
New Orient y.a Atlanta .Aid .V ntgoBli
litering TVauhiuctoe tMch Weda»s*iriy at
electing ear wJM rue tbroagh iMiweoa'
Prancteuo with ■ut
inr-ton and Man
No*. 11. J', .A a«id -Pulfmtn •• ept
w rwven Nirhueuifl and (’IrtrluUe. vi t DuBt
i*. *1 hi.** ad Nos. a or. north bo nod
I* and 12
Fy* N « H WANNON. J. M. CULP.
Hurd V P. * (ieu Vyr.. Truffle MVp.
Washiurten. D. 0. Wa-hingtoa. Dt ti
w A. TUfcV, H. n HAEuuVk
Oen I Pun*. Af’t . Awt’t l*ea': Pn •». Ag
Mattliiagfon, B. C. __ c.7^