Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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w$ vr W‘ r ' • r 1 lALiv <\G£ SERMON r> By Rev. PRANK DE WITT IALMAGE, D.E., Pastor cf Jn-Torscn Tark Presby terian 0.;u:cli, Chicasro Chicago. Nov. 2.—Manly sympathy With a class peculiarly subject to hard ships and temptations is manifested In this sermon by Rev. Frank De Witt Talmage on the text Nehemlab xbi, 20. “So the sellers of all kind of ware lodged without Jerusalem once or twice.” President Harrison once sent forth a proclamation which aroused wide spread interest. In it he announced that the claims of many Indian tribes had .been bought up by the govern ment: therefore, by the power which was vested in him as chief executive of the United States, he would on April 22, 189b, open the central portion of Oklahoma to the American people. Ad the men and women who at that time entered the new country could stake themselves < it a claim or a lot or a farm. On the appointed day thousands upon thousands of people assembled upon that borderland. Some si t upon fleet thoroughbreds, ready to make the race for the choices!: lots in the chics which would within a few days spring up as if by magic and the stmt> o." which wuv already laid out. Swtv> came on foot. These divested themselves of all superfluous clothing, so tout they could run as swiftly as poss ole. When the signal was given by lbr» pistol held in the cavalryman’s hand, the great multitude broke into a run. The would be settlers rushed -ahead sj fast that within a few hours tl’ r * whole land was token possession of. and cities like Guthrie began to teem with life. Oklahoma, only ton years after it was first opened to the ■white man, had nearly 400,000 inhabit ants. But no sooner was Oklahoma settled and the little country stoi cs set up than the wholesale merchants of New York and Philadelphia and Chicago and St. Louis began to send into this new ter ritory another great army of invaders made up of the representatives of their different establishments. These mod ern crusaders have been aptly termed in the commercial traveler’s parlance the “knights of the grip.” Instead of riding a war charger, like the knights of olden time, they rode behind an “iron horse,” which is called a locomo tive. Instead of carrying a spear or a shield, they carried models or pictures, showing how the steel and iron had been melted Into plows and reapers and spades and axes and hammers and saws. Instead of having mailed armor, they had pieces of cloth, which they carried as samples of clothing, which they wanted to sell to the storekeepers for the new farmers and their wives and children. There is not a town in the United States, no matter how small it may be or how newly established, .which has escaped the weekly, if not daily, invasions of the commercial travelers. Anelcnt Commercial Traveler*. In the scene of my text can be found almost an exact duplication of the in vasion of the newly settled regions of Oklahoma by the knights of the grip. No sooner did Nebemiab, the governor, return from his Babylonish exile and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and make it a safe place in which to live than the commercial travelers of that day began to flock toward the Davldtc capital to dispose of their goods. But there was one habit about many of these ancient commercial travelers which Nehcmiali did not like. Some of them would persist in arriving at the city walls on the Sabbath day and try ing to turn God’s day of rest into a day of barter and gain. The governor, lu order to stop the sin of Sabbath dese cration, ordered that the city gates should be closed on the night before the Sabbath and not he opened again until the morning after the Sabbath, no matter how much these ancient com mercial travelers might want to get in and escape the dangers of being mur dered by the robbers who nightly in fested the surrounding hills. ’Thus we read the words of my text with u clearer interpretation, “So the sellers of all kind of ware lodged without Jerusalem once or twice.” As we walk In and out among the sellers of Nehemiah’s time, barred without the city walls, and examine their piled up bales and hear the mut tered curses of the men blaspheming because they could not enter the Jeru salem gates and watch the prepara tion* they are making to resist the at tacks ^ robbers I aun. reminded of tho to which mir modern knights . JHgrlp are exposed. They, too, have TcKlng enemies who would despoil them! and because those ene mies are more treacherous, more in sidious and more ruthless than the Bedouin hordes who menaced the an cient commercial travelers of Nebe- mlab’s time I am anxious to point them out and put the Imperiled men on their gnard. The evil dangers threaten a commer cial traveler's life when be is away 'from home. They try to ambush the 'seller of all kinds of ware when he is 'on the march; they strike at bis heart •In a time and In a place when be is apt to think be can sin with impunity, t>ecause no one will be the wiser, as he can cover up his tracks; they come to the knights of the grip in the insinu ating and dangerous ways that evil •temptations sometimes overthrow Chris tian people when they are traveling abroad. It la a well known fact that the average European travelers will commit sins In Paris or Vienna or Boom or Monte Carlo or Peking or Cauunn that <h y would u„»ver dream • f (! in,' if th y were at home among their own friends and neighbors. The young Hutch (ju< eu Wiihelminu illus- trntod thi- cou.nion tendency of the human race to lie \v. rse away from homo than they are by their own tire- sid- in the quaint and pointed answer which site gave to the Prince of Wales when visiting Queen Victoria some years ago. The then heir apparent to the Ki.glish throne asked her what she was most impressed by in England. “It Is to find that the English people are so refined and gentle and kind and religiously de>vout in their own homes,” she replied. “One would never have guessed it from the specimens I have seen traveling in Holland.” SinnlnK Awny Krum Home. An average man can commit as a rule twenty sins away from home, when he is traveling alone, in a railroad train, or stopping alone in a hotel, or living alone with strangers, fur more easily, with less risk of injury to his position and reputation, than one sin when he is being watched by his employer's eyes or when he is in daily companion ship with a Christian mother, wife or child. It makes an immense amount of difference how a locomotive will act when it is on the down grade whether or no the engineer has perfect control over its powerful Westinghouse brakes. It makes an immense amount of dif ference with some of us when we are heading toward the open drawbridges of sin whether or no we have our loved ones near by, who are ready to reach out their bands 1o help us close the throttles and apply the spiritual brakes, so that we can halt before we have gone too far and it is too late to try i to stop. But though the swift moving currents I of daily influences in a commercial j traveler’s life are apt to flow in the wrong direction when he is away from ; home, yet that is no valid excuse for his yielding to temptation. In the first place, Goil has distinctly declared that i he will never allow any temptation to i come nigh us which is greater than we | can bear, if we will only throw our- ! selves upon his mercy and plead and - continue to plead for divine strength, i Mighty as are the temptations the com- i mercial traveler meets when he is away \ from home, the divine power which is at his disposal is infinitely stronger. It s can triumph over every opposing force. But there is still another reason why the commercial traveler should not yield to the temptations which he meets away from home. The modern knight of the grip is naturally a stron- : ger man, mentally, morally and physic- 1 ally, than the average man who is i compelled to stay at home and work. ! It takes brains, and lots of brains, to 1 ho able to sell goods away from home. | The time is past when the great mer- i chants think that any drunken, gam bling. blaspheming employee is good i enough to go upon the road. The em- ; ployors today demand that their com mercial travelers he men of character, | of brain, men with the moral stamina | to say yes and no. And. young man, ! the mere fact that you are a com- | men ial traveler is proof positive that j you have character enough, by the | grace of God. to be able to resist any ] temptation which you may meet in | your travels. Temptations assail the commercial j traveler alike when he is buoyed up | with great success and when he is i discouraged by great financial de- | pressiou, when he is thrown off his guard by exultation or disheart ened by a long succession of bit ter disappointments. Many commer cial travelers do not receive a reg ular guaranteed salary. They work on a system of commissions. The more goods they sell the more money they receive. The less goods they dispose of the less income they have. The aver age commercial traveler’s income is apt to ebb and flow like the tides. In one town the knight of the grip may sell thousands of dollars’ worth of goods. In every store he enters he finds a large purchaser. In another town he may not even meet expenses. Then, when the average commercial traveler has what be calls a run of luck, he is apt to be unduly elated, and that ela tion is often the means Satan uses to trip him up. The imminent dangers of exultation and disappointment are the Charybdis and the Scylla which every commercial traveler has to face. Now. my friend, you who spend most of your life selling goods upon the road, I want to warn you against the dangers which come from either exul tation or discouragement. Henry Ward Beecher cured one of his parishioners of the temptation of entering into Wall street speculations by an experiment. The pastor of Plymouth church asked his friend not to gamble In stocks for at least three years. During those three years Mr. Beecher wanted him to make a study of the stock market. Every time he thought stocks were go ing up he was to make a memorandum of the same and decide how much he wanted to buy and every time he thought be ought to sell stocks to make a memorandum of the same. Then, at the end of three years, Mr. Beecher said, “Count up your results and find out where you would have stood if these purchases and sales had actually been made.” This the parishioner did, as Mr. Beecher desired. At the end of three years he found out that If he had entered Wall street and speculated as he wished to do he would have been bankrupted ten times over. You, my commercial friend, may learn the same lesson. You do not have to experi ment yourself, hut you may see in the lives of other commercial travelers the results of allowing either exultation or despondency to overcome you. Re call the history of those commercial travelers whom you have known for the last five or ten years. I want yon to try to remember all the drinkers and car misers who started out with yon upon the road. Almost without excep tion, yon know they have lost their po sitions ami are i. i.^ . cjiiiparatlve poverty or are lying in drunkards’ graves. Now, my friend, dare you us an Intelligent man have run any such risks? Dare you in any circumstances drink or dissipate, no matter how in tense may he your disappointments or how exultant your Joy? Dangers threaten a modern commer cial traveler’s life because his mind is often beclouded on account of physical debilitation. To he a really successful commercial traveler a young man ought to have a physical constitution of iron. He ought to have the same kind of bone and muscle and sinew which made the knights of old famous. He ought to be able to digest any kind of food, sleep in hard or soft beds, sleep on a hall lounge or on a chair, or lying ui>on the bare wooden scat of the caboose of n freight train. He ought to be nble to walk along a dark country road at midnight in midwinter to catch the 1 o’clock train for the next town. He ought to 1)0 able to assimilate ir regular meals, and have his nightly rest broken up once or twice, and sometimes even thrice, by the chang ing of cars, and yet he cheerful and happy and sell his goods just the same during the day. Alas, I well know what are the physical difficulties of a traveler’s life! For many years I have, off and on, traveled around the country as a lecturer. I have bad to suffer all those trials, and have met and talked with the knights of the grip in many n lonely station in the midnight hour while waiting for a belated railroad connection. Von Mubt I’nj- the Price. But. even under the very brightest of conditions and even though a man’s backbone may seem to be made of steel, nature will assort Itself. A com- mercial traveler must always pay the price and have his physical frame re bel at the hardships which it has been made to suffer, and so during those times of physical exhaustion a com mercial traveler, on account of the physical becloudment of his mind, is often apt to take a depressed view of life. He is apt to often lose his faith in < lod and in his ft How men and to fed that his own life is not worth the living and that he is but of little use to ids fellow man. My brother, I want you, if you are a commercial traveler and a stranger who have just by chance dropped into this church, to know and feel that your life is worth living. God docs love you. Your dear ones are dependent upon you. It is of infinite importance whether you do right or wrong. You must not let y<mr belief in God falter when you need a physician and a dose of medi cine and a good rest; you must not let the hand of Satan touch you and lead you into the paths of sin when your head aches and your digestive organs refuse to do their proper work. One of the greatest generals of the ages was defeated in battle and driven into exile because the night before the bat tle opened he was writhing in physical torture produced by a sudden and vit>- lont attack of dyspepsia. Many a commercial traveler has been defeated in life's spiritual battle because his health has become undermined and un- dertonod. Oh, ye knights of the grip, be very careful of your physical health, for your spiritual happiness and faith fulness may be destroyed through your I'll ysical debilities. Dangers threaten a modern commer cial traveler also unless he rigidly ful fils his religious duties and spiritually employs himself on the Lord’s day. It is very easy when Sabbath morning comes, in a little town where the com mercial traveler has to spend his Sun day, for him to say to himself: “Well, 1 guess I will not go to church today. I will stay in my room and read the morning newspaper or write some let ters.” It is very seductive after a hard week’s work for the commercial trav eler to go to bed Saturday night with the intention of staying there until half past 10 o’clock the next morning and then, in order to save time, to break the Lord’s day and take the Sun day train for the next town. Or, if a commercial traveler is spending Sun day in a large city, it is very easy for him to go and hear the different popu lar preachers in the same way that, out of curiosity, be might go to see the great tragediaus act the part of a “Hamlet” or an “Othello,” a “Riche lieu” or a “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” The T>-ae Wor»hli». Though all those attractions may be very fascinating, yet, my friend, you must remember that the true worship of God do^s not consist in the mere sat isfying of our intellectual curiosity or in lying in bed on the Sabbath day, but in work, hard, conscientious work, for the Master. The old adage tells us that “Satan has to hunt the busy man, but the Indolent man hunts the devil.” Therefore, my brother, the easiest way to overcome the temptations which be set the commercial traveler during the long, lonely hours of the Sabbath day is to worship God while away from home in the same way you would, or rather ought to do, if you were at home. Go to the little village meeting house bright and early and offer your serv ices to the Sunday school superintend ent, and say that you will take a class for the day if any teacher is absent. Go to the Young People’s meeting at night and offer there your most earnest prayer, and give them the most practi cal, helpful talk you can. After the morning or evening sermon go to the pulpit and take the country or the city minister by the hand and tell him that you Intend to pray for him and his work during the whole week. If you will do all this regularly and systemat ically every Sabbath day, you will find, oh. commercial traveler, that you have not only been a messenger to help others, bat that yon have deep ened your own spiritual life. By such an evangelistic mission as this yon will not only by divine grace overcome the sins peculiar to the Sabbath, bat also the besetting alns which every week- I i.u.. lurk along the wayside of every commercial traveler’s journey. The worst dangers of a modern com mercial traveler's life generally assail him when he is comparatively a young man. Once in awhile you may find an old man who still travels upon the road, but as a rule the commercial travelers are comparatively young men. The life is so hard an older man can rarely stand the physical strain. Un less protected and restrained by the grace of God these young men are apt to fall into the traps of sin Impulsively. They are apt to say to themselves: “Well, I know I ought not to sin, but I am young yet. Therefore I can afford to sow a few wild oats, and then I can repent and at last live to a respectable middle age, and even be honored in my old age.” This expectation, my young friend, might be all right if it were true, hut, as a rule, it is not true. Generally a sinful young age means a sinful mid dle age. A sinful middle age means a sinful old age, if the human body is not destroyed by sin before the three score years have been lived out. The sins of youth will generally follow a man and curse his whole after life, ns the sins of Benedict Arnold's youth cursed him to the grave. Talleyrand, the great French statesman, gave a dramatic account of the desolation of the traitor. When he was exiled by the order of Napoleon and had to leave France, lie intended to sail for Ameri ca. Homing to the little French seaport town where he was about to embark, he heard that an American gentleman was living In the hotel. So lie sent up a card and asked for an interview. Talleyrand was ushered into a dark room, where this American gentleman sat. Then Talleyrand said: “Sir, I have boon exilod from France, and ex pect to cross the sea and live in Ameri ca. I hear that you are an American gentleman. Therefore I craved an in terview to ask you to give me a few letters of introduction to some of your friends in New York city.” With that the gentleman laughed a horrible augh. As he retreated toward the door he said: “No, Mr. Talleyrand, 1 cannot give you any letters to my friends in America. The reason is that I have no friends in Amer ica. I am the only man today who was horn in America, and who has shed his blood for freedom, who has not one friend in all America. My name, sir, is Benedict Arnold. I am Major General Arnold of his majesty’s service. I am Benedict Arnold, the traitor.” As Benedict Arnold’s youth ful sin followed him to his grave, so the sin into which the youthful commer cial traveler falls follows him to the grave. Oh, my young friends who spend most of your life upon the road, I beg of you to seek divine help and pray and continue to pray that you may overcome the daily temptations of the commercial traveler’s Lil'e. Row to Overcome Sin. I would plead with each one of you to consecrate yourself to the Divine Master’s service, so that you may over come the besetting sins of a life away from home. You are not at heart a bad man. You have many tender ties which ought to bind you to a life of purity and truth. In all probability you have the same kind of home ties as had the commercial traveler I once met upon the road. It was during a long, tiresome journey. Toward the evening hour, ns it gradually began to darken, I closed my book and began to think about the mother of my chil dren and the little babies at home. I said to myself, “Yes, the little white nightgowns are now about to he put on; yes, they must be saying their prayers about now; yes, I ran almost hear them say, ‘God bless papa and mamma!’” Then, looking across the aisle, I saw a young man about my own age open his satchel. He took out of that satchel a little paper pack age. He begun to unfasten the cord. Then he exposed to view three or four photographs and began to look long and earnestly at them. I crossed the aisle. IV ting my hand upon the young man's shoulder. I said, “Well, old fellow, I have a wife and some ba bies too.” “Have you?” he answered as his face lighted up with a smile. “Would you like to see mine?” Then we talked about home. Then his eyes became moist when he laughingly and yet pathetically said, “Let me show you a letter I received this morning from my baby.” He held up an old crumpled brown piece of paper, over which a little child’s chubby finger had scrawled a lot of hieroglyphics, which writing looked like a lot of hen trucks in a barnyard. Then I turned and said, “You ought to be a good man with such a family of little ones.” “Yes,” he answered, “I know I should, and, do you know, I feel that If It was not for my lovely, consecrated home and my wife’s prayers and the thought that my little children are every night praying for me I might yield to the many temptations of a commercial traveler’s life. But every time I start to do wrong my little children’s arms teem to cling about my neck as they cry: "Don’t, papa. For your dear little babies’ sake, don’t sin.” And so in that evening hour, as the train was speeding toward my destina tion for lecturing, I felt as 1 feel now. I felt that, though the average com mercial traveler has many sins beset ting him, yet he Is armored and hel- meted from the attacks of temptations by bis absent loved ones’ prayers. The average commercial traveler ought to be true to his gospel faith when God has given to him a lovely, consecrated, Christian home. Ob, ye knights of the grip, will you be true to the Christ who Is pleading with you todi y to bow at his feet? Will you be true to Jesus on account of tha prayers of your loved ones even if your conscience tells you that no prayer Is so appro priate for you as that of the publican, which you can utter In your own be half? [Copyright, 1903, Louis Klopscb, N. Y.] Thoroughly eradicate* the excess of Uric and Lactic Acids from the system, starts the kidneys into healthy action, cures constipation and indigestion. THIS DONE, YOU ARC WELL Of RHEUMATISM, AND ANY OTHER DISEASE CAUSED SY IMPURE BLOOD. Do not be discouraged if other remedies have failed. RHEUMACIDE has made its reputation by curing alleged incurable cases. Does not injure the organs of digestion. Goldsbobo, N. C., Aug. 26,1903. Gentlemen—Some six year* ago I began to have sciatica, and also a chronic OMe of muscular rheumatism. At times I could not work at all (my business being baggage master on Southern It. R.). For days and weeks at a time I could not work. My suffering was intense. Physicians trrated me, without permanent relief, however. Tried a number of advertised remedies without permanent benefit. Finally I tried ItHECMACiDK.’’ It did the work, and I have had ex- eellent health for three years. I can cheerfully say that all rheumatics should use ‘ Rhbcmacidk,” for it Is by far the best remedy. R. A. LOMAX Price $i.oo prepaid express, or from your Druggist. Bobbitt Chemical Co. t - - Baltimore, Hd., U. S. A. Health FOR A QUARTER! People who have torpid livers find life a miser able existence, and take purges and drastic drugsV which gripe and rack the howela, when all they need is’ a gentle tominder to the liver to do its duty fS LIVER PILLS audTOMIC PELLETS } are mild in their action. The pilla Ktimulatc the liver to its/ proper work, &n<l tho peliets invijp , ,rate the system as a t whole; in snort, they both assiut Nature, which is all a medicine should do. Remember the' 25 doeea for 25 days costs 2ot. You can have a free sample if' you want it. BROWN MFC. CO. New York aivi GreeneviMe, Tenn. For sale by Cherokee Drug Company. Here is a Bargain. Two excelent corner building lots within five minutes-walk of Carpet Mill. These lots will be sold on the Easy Payment Plan of only $3 per month. Here is an opportunity of a lifetime for working people. Apply to I£I>. IT. lleGiVIVTI 3 . PARKER’S HAIR BALSAM ClcaruM and beautifies the hair. Promotes » luxuriant growth. Never Falls to Bestore Oray Hair to its Youthful Color. Curea ecalp disra* < b hair falling. £0c, ami * l.oi i ar Druggiita ;;flCH?STr.R’S ENGLISH nmimm pills Always reliable. a«k Druggist for . »M« IfERTKtt M eNUMMfl in Brd and «•)•«! UK-Utlllc nott-s, seah-d with blue ribbon. I *>wr no other. K.Tu««- (Inngorou* aubdll. i.-t on. anil Imimtlon.. Huy of your Druggist, > (end le. in Htnjnps for Hnrtlrular.. Tell- i.onta!« and "Strlirr for l.ndlc.'* (n Ir/frr f kwtnrn mnll. lO.MUtt T>hliinonlals. Sold b) \> •'••••ggl-!*. CHICHESTER CHEMICAL CO. *.<Rt JltMlUon .Square, Fill LA.. PA. M.ntl.a this p.rer- One Minute Cougn Cura For Coughs, Cold* and Croup. SENT FREE to Alt users of morphine, oplam, laudanum, elixir of opium, co caine or whiskey,! large book of par ticulars on home or sanatoriam treat ment. Address, B. M. WOOLLKY CO., 104 N. Pryor Street, Atlanta, Georgia. Dyspepsia Cure Digests what you eat. This preparation contain* all of the digestanu and digests all kinds of food. It gives instant relief and never falls to cure. It allows you to eat all the food you want. The most sensitive stomachs can take it. By its use many thousands of dyspeptics have been cured after everything else failed. Is unequalled for the stomach. Child* ren with weak stomachs thrive on it. Oupm aH stomach trouble* Prepared only by E. O. DxW itt A Co., Chicago The |1. bottle containstime* tlx-50c. slaa. Foley's Kidney Cure make* kidneys end bledder right Advertising is called by some an art. If it be an art it is the art of telling a story simply and convincingly. Nobody knows more about the strong qualities of an establishment than the proprietor who oversees it. Other things being equal, nobody should be able to write more convinc ingly of the articles he of fers for sale. In a store where the employer sells goods side by side with his clerks It is rare that tha employer will not ba tha best salesman. The reason is simple. He knows the goods from A to Z. He probably has pur chased them. He knows his aims. His arguments cany weight because they are convincing. The same arguments pre sented in the same way, with the same enthusiastic spirit, the same knowledge of detail, would attract new customers if presented through the advertising col umns of this paper. If you have not triad it, why not begin? If you have tried it and an sol safla fied, let us know about it