Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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..... . .. . ▼ -*r-' TALMAGE SERMON * By Rev. FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE.D.D.. Paator of Jpfferson Park Presby terian Ohurch, Chicago I’h^cuRo, April 5.—In this sermon, ap propriate to the day, the pnaicher pre sents a vivid picture of the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem amid the acclamations of the common peo ple, whose plaudits were so soon to give way to execration. The text is John xii, 13, "Took branches of palm tnees^nd went forth to meet him and oried Oosanna.” ( This is Palm Sunday. In the ecclesi- , astieal year it is the day on which we commemorate the strange scene on the ( Judiean road which constituted the one sole pageant of our Lord's life. It is the day that ushers In holy week, the beginning of which saw him riding Into Jerusalem in triumph and the end lying in Joseph of Arimathea's tomb. This is the time when tin* same surging crowds which, a few days later, will cry: ‘‘Crucify him! Crucify him!’’ now make the Judaean hills echo and re echo with their exultant shouts of “Hosanna to the Son of David! Hosan na to the King!” • Appropriate, also, is my subject in reference to the audience to which 1 speak. I know not of any class of peo ple to whom the sigmlicant lessons of Palm Sunday can be better applied than to ourselves. Ghrist among the waving palms ought to have for us gospel teachings, as well ns Christ in Pilate’s judgment hall. Christ among the vociferating multitudes should ap peal to us suggestively, as well as ■Jesus carrying ids cross, Jesus resur rected from the grave, Jesus appearing unto his disciples after the crucifixion or Jesus ascending from Mount Olivef. Palm Sunday emphasizes the truth that a false and a selfish adoration of Jesus Christ never results in a tri umphant and a lasting worship. Why did that great concourse of people. Which came forth to welcome Jesus Into the Pavidie capital, soon turn upon Christ and become Ids taunting execu tioners'.' \\ hy did thoy one day throw under hi feet the branches of palm, which lor e always been the symbol of victory, and within a week be e»iger to mock ids dying agonies upon Cal vary? They were not welcoming Christ ns their spiritual Saviour. They were icrely greeting him as a temporal king, who would lend them on to na tional victories, as Napoleon did the French, Frederick the Croat the I'rus- Biaus, Alexander the Creeks, as Kam eses'; il. the Egyptians or Saladin the Saracens when he totally defeated the crusaders near Tiberias and captured their leader, titty do Lusignau, in 11S7. They were not welcoming a Messiah for whom they must if necessary suffer and die, but they were greeting one whom they believed to be about to drive the Roman tyrants off the He brew soil; one who would restore the Solomonic grandeur, when the national treasury would be full of gold, and the kingi+und the queens of the north, east, south and west would make pilgrim ages to Jerusalem, as the queen of Sheba came, bringing her presents of spices and precious stones. Thus, when Christ allowed himself to be arrested as a common criminal, the rabble want ed to destroy him because they had cherished in their breasts the false hope of a temporal champion. Do We Worship Selfishly* My friends, is our faith in Jesus un satisfactory V Are we, too, worshiping Christ from selfish and not from spir itual motives? Do we attend the fash ionable church in our neighborhood merely to win social prestige rather than with the desire to tit us to help the troubled and the lost? 1 once had a physician bluntly tell me that he Joined the church with the same pur pose for which he joined the club—he went to both places so that he could be brought Into contact with people and ^win as many patients as he could. I wonder how many of us are kind to our friends solely from the selfish mo tive to make our friends kind to us. It is possible to even feed the hungry with the most mercenary of desires. Christ stated this when he said, “When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, nor thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors lest they also bid thee again and rec ompense can be made thee. In other words, we should not make our Chris tian engagements merely a case of reciprocity — you do so much for me and I will do so much for you. But when you make a gospel feast ask that young man to your home who has no friends and is alone In a great city. Ask that young girl who has no chance If coming in touch with a refined fam- fij circle unless you give her an invita- l tlon. “Call the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind and thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense th<£.” Are we, this Palm Sunday, hon amg Christ with the unselfish pur pose of his disciples, who were accom panying him from Bethany and who not only threw the palm branches in bis way, but who were also ready to die for him, or are we worshiping Jesus with the selfish adoration of the great host that came out from Jerusa lem to welcome him as a temporal king? If we are selfishly worshiping Christ for what we can get out of him, may we not here and now change that pur pose, as did Dr. Bonar, through the Influence of an inspired dream which ne had in his Edinburgh parsonage For many years he had been a popular preacher, but his ministry bore but little spiritual fruit. He himself had but little spiritual faith. One night, as be slept, he thought an angel came nnu stood by his bed and said, “Horntius, what is troubling thee?” “Oh,” an swered the minister, “l do not seem to derive any happin ss from my Chris tian belief, and 1 have practically no spiritual results! that is easily ac counted for.” said the angel. “Let us analyze your ministerial ambition. We shall say the whole represents 100 per cent. How large a percentage of that represents your s •ftish pride In preach ing to a big audience? Fifteen per cent. How large a percentage repre sents the desire to live in a line house? ’ifteen per cent. How large a per- ivntage represents a desire to bring in a large addition to your church, so that your brother ministers will speak well of you? Forty per cent. How large a percentage represents the de sire to be intellectual and to have the brainy men of Edinburgh praise your sermons? Ten per cent. How large a percentage represents your desire to have your children move in good so ciety? Fifteen per cent. What per centage of your ambition is left to serve, for Christ’s sake, the poor and the helpless? Only about 5 per cent of your whole life.” Dr. Bonar awoke from the dream horror struck. In that midnight hour hi* then and there prom ised to give himself wholly up to the higher motive of serving for Christ’s sake alone. Like that Edinburgh min ister. may we be willing to honor Jesus not so much for what he may do for ns as for what we may do for him. The Kicklene** of II u inn n It y. Balm Sunday emphasizes the reckless and unreasoning fickleness of the hu man race. Christ, the popular favor ite. being led to crucifixion within six lays after his triumphal entry into Je rusalem. has his counterpart all over the world. Human likes and dislikes, adulation and denunciation, approba tion and prejudice are very apt to tread upon each other's heels. The oscillat ing pendulum which swings one way gathers momentum to swing as far the other way. If we make an idol of common hu man clay, as the French did of (Jeneral Boulanger in issti. then in a very little while we may become iconoclasts and smash our idol and also the shrine be fore which we once worshiped. Presi dent Carnot understood this fickleness of the human race. When the “Man on Horseback." as Boulanger was called, threatened to ride down the Champs Ely sees and overthrow the French re public, some of the leading statesmen, like ex Premier Waldeek - Rousseau, wanted the president to quietly lead Boulanger to the outskirts of the city and have him shot for the good of Fra nee. The president only smiled at Ids friends' anxiety. He said to them: "Wait, wait just a few months. The rabble will turn. Then the most popu lar man of France will be the most de spised. Such popular adoration as this is always short lived.” Carnot spoke better than Ik* knew. Not only did the tidal wave of public adoration which threatened to lift the “Man on Horse back" into the Tuileries subside, but within a few months (leneral Boulan ger was friendless. In despair he com mitted suicide by the grave of his mis tress. Mine. Bonnemain. while an exile in Brussels. The Duke of Wellington well under stood the fickleness of popular ap plause. Long after the conqueror of Na poleon had regained his popularity and had become the most beloved subject of the Victorian empire he always kept the fence around his city home broken down as an object lesson to recall the time when the London mob battered it down to show their disgust at one of his official acts as prime minister. William E. Gladstone was again and again execrated in the streets of the British capital, through which his dead body was afterward carried to sleep its last sleep among the honored dead of Westminster, the Prince of Wales, now king, being among the pallbearers. Joan of Arc. who led the French ar mies to victory, was deserted by her followers, who came to Ivdieve her a witch and a devil. The same tongue which once charmed the Roman assem blies was afterward cut out from tin* mouth <d' Cicero by the mobs and nailed uj) in the Roman Forum, with the epi taph. “Thou fool, wag no more!” Ah. we do not have to stand among the vo ciferating multitudes of Palm Sunday to hear and see the fickleness of l te human race! We can see everywhere the human idols being shattered. The same voices that are ready to cry to us. "Put him upon a throne!” are the voices which tomorrow will call, “Lead him away to execution!” In I'ofiulnr Applause Worth Seeklnfc? Now, my brother, as the adoration of the human race is so short lived, it does not pay to sacrifice everything for popular applause. Cannot and will not we live with the nobler and higher pur- pose of trying to have God rather than man think well of us? Would that we might one and all heed the blessed ad vice which “Chinese” Gordon a short time before his death wrote to a friend, then living in distant England: “Dear Friend—Why will you keep caring for what the world says? Try, oh, try to be no longer a slave to it. You have little idea of the comfort of freedom from it. It is bliss. All this caring for what people will say is your pride. Hoist your flag and abide by it Thank God, I am quite well and so happy now that I resigned the govern inent of the province and put all the faults on my ‘Friend.’ He is able to bear them and will use me as long as he pleases as his mouthpiece, and when he is done with me he will put me one side. ‘Casting all your care on him’ has Just come to mind.” Palm Sunday Indicates the city as the greatest of all battlegrounds where the spiritual ci nquest of a sinful world Is to be decided. It is the held of Eh- draelon, where the Satanic and divine powers will make their last stand and grip and wrestle in mortal combat. It is the Sedan where the demoniac in vaders will be annihilated as a chemist with a pestle crushes a substance in a mortar. It is the Waterloo, the York- town, the Agrigentmn, the Solferino, the Chalons, the Thormopyla*, where all the powers and principalities of darkness shall be forever overthrown by the principalities and powers of light, and Christ shall be proclaimed King of kings and Lord of nil. Why is the city to be tin* great field whereon the sovereignty of Christ shall be universally recognized? In the city there is a commingling of all classes. Among the throngs who came forth on Palin Sunday to greet Jesus I see the good and the bad, the autocrat and the plebeian, the mighty capitalist and the small shopkeeper, the Pharisee, the disciple, the curiosity seeker, all com mingling, all circling, some cheering and some cursing under their breath. We are not to suppose for a moment that all who came forth to see Jesus threw branches in his way. Oh, no! '1 ue high priest’s hirelings were in that crowd, as well as Jesus’ disciples. I am thankful that you and 1 live in a great city. We live in a city where our influence for good can tell most effectively if we only use that influ ence as Jesus would have us do. If we capture Paris for Christ we cap ture France; London for Christ means England saved; Berlin for Christ means Germany bowing before the cross. If we capture New York and Chicago and our other great cities for Christ, we capture America for Christ. Oh, what a blessed opportunity it is for us to be able to fight under the standard of the cross, where the Satanic forces are un limbering their heaviest artilleries and where every blow struck for Jesus can redound with the best of all results! The City unit the Country. But while 1 congratulate you because you are able to testify for Jesus in a large city 1 also cast my eyes over the hills and send forth gospel congratula tion to the Christian farmhouses that are helping us in this Christian strug gle. A city is a great human reservoir which collects its streams of life from everywhere. Many of those streams trickle down from country hills, where cattle are lowing and horses neighing and sheep bleating and harvests wav ing. These country streams of human life are the brooks which clarify the muddy waters of a large metropolis. The country farmer and his wife are very apt to fear that their boys and their girls will be swallowed up in a large city and never heard from again. But I want to tell you that the major ity of tin* mightiest workers for Christ in the large cities have been born upon a farm. A short time ago thirty-eight prominent business men of New York city sat at a banquet in the Union League club on Fifth avenue. How many of them do you suppose came from the country? Thirty-six out of the thirty-eight. A history of promi nent lawyers, ministers, doctors and merchants in a large city was once compiled. Eighty per cent were found to come from the country. Thus, ye farmers and farmers’ wives, do not mourn whenever your stout limbed boys and beloved girls leave you for the great cities. Remember that you are giving them to the service of Jesus Christ. Remember that your prayers and Christian training are now to bring forth their gospel results in the place where they are most needed. When my father, then a young coun try minister, was called to a large city church, my grandfather, David Tal- mage, protested against his going. He said: "I )e Witt, you are doing well now in your little country church. Why do you go into that large city where your influence will be swallowed up and no one over hear from you again?” But De Witt Talmagu answered: "Father, I must go. It is my duty to go. 1 be lieve God is calling me to that Ucld. And if I go in his name he will bless me.” God did bless him. And so, farmers and farmers’ wives, God will also bless and is blessing the Christian work of your Christian children in the same way if he has called them to live in a great city. Palm Sunday emphasizes the fact that the easiest way to capture a city for God is to go after the masses. Who are the masses? They are the most of folks. They are the common people who for the most part fill our churches. And yet they are the common people who today, if they are only roused with holy enthusiasm, can conquer this old world for Christ. They can do it as easily as the common people who came out to greet Jesus on Palm Sunday made the Pharisees and the high priest’s hirelings at that time afraid to lift their threatening fingers or to do Jesus any harm. Today that religious organization which is most spiritually influential for Jesus is the church which appeals to the employee as well as to the employer, to the poor man’s hut as well as to the rich man’s pal ace, to the artisan and the mechanic and the laborer as well as to the mer chant prince, the capitalist or the man dressed in broadcloth. Tower of the Common People. Oh, the Infinite influence of the com mon people! If we could only by the power of the Holy Spirit enlist the common people to tight for Jesus Christ, under the standard of the cross, there would be no doubt as to the ulti mate condition of our nation. When Robert G. Ingersoll was a candidate for the gubernatorial chair of Illinois, he was defeated for the nomination. Why? Because if he had been nomi nated every church pulpit would have become a political rostrum. Every lit tle meeting house and prayer meeting room would have been filled with Chris tian workers, who would have worked and voted against him. Thus, If we could only inspire the great mass of the church members, made up of the com mon people, with a holy enthusiasm for Christ, It would mean our political sal- vutlon. It would mean the extinction of tin* saloon. Then no Christian would vote for a candidate unless he emphat ically stated he would do all in his power to drive out the destroying demi john. It would mean the purification of the home and of the church. The heart of the common people rings true when it is not misled. No wonder that it was among them that Jesus passed the most of his earthly minis try. They were the first to recognize him. From them came the first mem bers of his church, and it is with feel ings of gratitude to them that we re member that it was they who gave to our Lord the only public welcome and acclamation that lie ever received. But Palm Sunday also throws into our raptured eyes the sunrise of Easter dawn, as well as it overshadows our heavens with the dark clouds of the blackest of all “Black Fridays.” Palm Sunday practically says to us: “You may have to carry your cross and bear your burdens and suffer your death as Jesus Christ had to suffer and die, but you may also, like Christ, have your emancipation and resurrection and ul timate triumph. This was the reason why the ancient Christians chiseled the palm leaf upon their tombstones. This was the reason why they also had the palm as the symbol of martyrdom. It meant victory—victory in the name of the Lord Jesus, victory over this world, victory over sin. It meant the kind of victory that St. John described in Revelation when he cried out, “Aft- er this I beheld, and, lo, a great multi tude which no man could number, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands.” Cicero de scribed an athlete who had won a great number of prizes as “a man of many palms.” So today as we see the palm branches thrown under the feet of Christ we know that they may be future symbols. They may remind us of the palms of many heavenly re wards. The Triuiniih of (he TiiIiiin. What a happy day that will lx* when Christ greets his loved ones in heaven ly lands and gives to them their victo rious palms the palms of reward for all their past sufferings and trials and sacrifices which were undergone for him! When Agrippa. the grandson of Herod the Great, expressed a wish that Caligula might some day sit upon the Roman throne. Emperor Tiberius was angered. He threw Agrippa into a loathsome dungeon. There he lan guished week after week and month after month, but when the passing time did place Caligula upon the throne then the new emperor went in person and opened the prisoner’s gates. He robed Agrippa in royal purple; he gave him a palace in which to live; he took the heavy chains which had once man acled the prisoner's feet and weighed them, and for every heavy link of iron he gave to him a heavy link of gold. Our Divine Master on that happy day of the rewardings in heaven will give to each one of his suffering children greater compensation than ever Em peror Caligula gave to the ragged pris oner Agrippa. Jesus will clothe us in white, not only the symbol of victory, but of purity. He will make the jew els of our crown out of the crystallized tears we have shed in his service, and in each one of our hands Christ will place a palm—the palm of victory, the p dm of never ending joy. Oh, Chris- ,inu brother, do not worry because you have to sutler for Jesus! It means a palm a waving, triumphant palm. The palm is such a suggestive symbol of victory that today I would that we might have had this pulpit decorated with palm branches as an object lesson. Then, alter tin* service is over, 1 would have you. members of this congrega tion, each take a palm leaf home, as the priests allow the worshipers to do this day in Catholic churches. Then, after you had gone to the quietude of your own homes. I would have had you look long and earnestly at that palm leaf and decide what you are to do. Would you accept the palm leaf as the Grecian athlete received it, merely as a symbol of a worldly victory, or would you accept it as a symbol of a heaven ly triumph? Accept it h: the same spirit that the Christian martyr who was about to be torn to pieces in the Roman Coliseum accepted it. But, as we have not a palm leaf here for you to take home as an object lesson, 1 ask you here and now to decide the ques tion of vour life. How will you deal with your worldly conquests? Have your efforts won for you the palm of wealth? Have they won for you the palm of political power or popularity? Then, can you cast them down at Christ’s feet and pledge yourselves and all you are and have to his service? If you can do this, you shall become a spiritual palm tree, planted by the river of life, a palm which will blossom on earth and which will some day be transplanted to the heavenly gardens of the New Jerusalem. [Copyright, 1903, by Louts Klopsch.] Spider Webs and Acoustics. There is hope for the spider. Hither to he has been evilly regarded as a predatory parasite, which tolls not, though he spins. His tolls and bis cas tles in the air have been rudely breach ed by the long broom of the house maid. But he may yet come into his own, for Dr. Javal suggests that the gossamer tissues with which this artist among insect craftsmen hangs our ceil ings may have acoustic virtues. Speak ing recently at the opening sitting of the Paris Academy of Medicine in its new hall (which is acoustically defi cient), he told a story of a public hall in England which was noted for its acoustic properties until In an unhappy moment the ceiling was given a spring cleaning and a clean sweep made of all the spiders’ webs and, with them, of the hall’s good name. The doctor does not suggest Installations of spiders’ webs, but thinks it might be a good thing to hang cotton threads over the auditorium. Tapestries hung behind all the openings on to the rostrum of his hall were found greatly to enhance the acoustic effect. Z i c The great rheumatic remedy »ioi only cures every x form of rheumatism, but makes radical cures of ^ Contagious Blood Poison, ) - " ... £ Scrofula, Sores, Boils, Catarrh, • V = I? " and all diseases arising from impurities in the blood. $ ^ Endorsed by physicians and prominent people every- £ £ where after thorough trial. a ? DOE£ NOT INJURE THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. £ Ralzioh, N. C. 4 ? Gentlemen T take pleasure In bearing testimony tothecurntive properties V of your “ Rhkcmacide." Two bottles cured my son of n hstl case. If this will P be of any benefit to you In advertising your meritorious r« medy, you can use it. !£ Yours truly, "W. H. HASD, Steward State Blind Institution. J ? t ^ All Druggists, $i.oo\ or prepaid on receipt of price. ^ Bobbitt Chemical Co., - - Baltimore, rid. por sale by the Cherokee Drug Company. FOR BILIOUSNESS The liver must be gently stirred so that the bile will be thrown off in the right channel; the system at the same time should be invigorated by a tonic that Nature may begin her work and complete the cure. LIVER PILLS andTONIG PELLETS R« Form the modern mild power cure that completely does (be work, without shock or injury to any part ot the system. Booklets and samples free of any dealer, or complete treatment, Twenty-five Doses, 25c. BROWN MFC. CO. NEW YORK AND OREENEVILLE. Tenn. 1 / . , (/ ALL COOKS ARE UK / THE LARS COMPOUND Ofica Tried Always Used *k. , X / J'S- V !V*D A morNEY SAVER- Gives Perfect Satisfaction'(• FftS IMFJRiVvTlON ADDRESS ' i T!i3 Siten Cottn Gil Co. , i > \V ' V* v e.Av ANfMAM. OA. N ^ : Y A. N. Wool). President. R. U. Brown, Vice-President THE MERCHANTS AND PLANTERS BANK, OF GAFFNEY. 8. C. Established 1901. Capital $50,000.—Surplus and Profits $8,500. STATE, COUNTY AND TOWN DEPOSITORY. Does a general Ranking and Exchange business. Is well fitted up with Fire Proof Vault and Rurglar Proof Safe, with Automatic Time Lock. We solicit the business of people of all occupations. O. XI. n»«hler LOOK TO YOOR INTEREST. If it’s the best you are looking for in fertilizers this is the place to buy. I handle only the best grades and guarantee prices against all honest competition. I still have ajfew wagons and buggies which I will selll cheap to close out. Wagon and buggy harness. I am proud of the record I have made in the shoe business. Nearly every sale makes a permanent customer. Honest goods at^air prices have done the work. We often hear expressions like this, “I get better value in those at J. I Sarratt’s than any place in the city.” I continue to keep my stock of farming tools and farmers’ sup plies up to the standard and will save you money on anything in either line. NOW IN STOCK Seed oats for spring sowing. IJcan save you money on Clothing, Dry Goods, Hats, Trunks, Valises, Satchels and Bags. See me before buying, I have several good farm mules which I will sell cheap for cash or on time for good papers. Respectfully, J. I. 'Ik Vi jLffrlyiyftiiiii'l ■ A. . .