Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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TALr AGE SERMON By Rev. FRANK DE WITT TALMACE, D.D., Pastor of Jefferson Park Presby* teria.n Church, Chica.go Los Angeles, Cal., Feb. 28.—In this sennon the preacher makes a strong ap’teal against the evils of race and social prejudice and in favor of candid and friendly dealings with each other in all the relations of life. The text is John iv, 4, “And he must needs go through Samaria.” No man’s education is complete un less he has traveled. There is a higher diploma than that of Yale, Harvard, Princeton. Oxford, Cambridge, Heidel berg or the University of Paris. The rough diamond must be cut and pol ished before it can sparkle and glit ter and flash. The scholar’s ragged metal edges should he smoothed off by personal contact with those peoples whose histories he has been studying as a recluse and as a delver In musty tomes. The word "Venice” has for the most of us a poetic significance, hut the name never has its full charm for any but those who have floated in a gondola under the moonlight along the canals of that queenly city and have listened to the lover wooing his mistress in mu fiic so soft and sweet that its echoes blend with the dip of the oars and gradually melt into silence. The most realistic picture ever photographed is Been with the naked eye when, with the mountains underfoot, we sweep the horizon and have cities for landmarks and pyramids for statuary and conti nents for gardens, where the mighty rivers off in the distance look like sil ver threads webbed together, and where the fleecy clouds drifting over the hills look like great flocks of white woolly sheep pasturing upon the heav enly hillsides of blue. No man ever caught the full inspira tion of Gray’s elegy unless he has been able to dream his dreams within the Tfltle hedged in burying ground of Stoke Pogis and under the evening shadow of the village church spire has seen the poet's "urn” and his “sol dier's grave” and the last resting place of his "youth unknown to fame” and has heard at sunset “the lowing herds" wandering back for the evening milk ing. So to fully realize this scene in which our Lord’s interview with the woman took place one “must needs go through Samaria.” I remember well that hill once crowned with the capital o$ Samaria at the foot of which still grow the descendants of those far famed olive groves, and whose path ways are still resonant with the per sonal histories of an Omri, an Ahab, a Ahaziah, a Jehu, a Jehoahaz, a Joash, a Herod Antipas, a Herodias, a John the Baptist and the evangelist Philip. I cannot portray that scene so grand and majestic in its lonely beauty, but I would have you realize some of the circumstances which gave special sig nificance to that momentous journey of our Lord and present some of the reasons why “he must needs go through Samaria.” Jena*' Journey Throuicli Saniurin. One reason, I think, was that Jesus wished to reprove racial antipath} - . The Samaritan colonists were interlopers. They were not indigenous to the soil. After the Shalmaneserian conquest the Assyrian king carried away ten out of the twelve Hebrew tribes into captiv ity. Then, the eastern conqueror hav ing depopulated the best part of the land “flowing with milk and honey,” he repeopled it with his own followers. In other words, the Assyrian king gave to his own followers a right to settle upon and cultivate and own that land. Just as King James I. gave a charter to William Penn for the American tract of land now called Pennsylvania and Charles I. gave a charter to Lord Bal timore to take possession of the present state of Maryland, to be settles! by him anel his Catholic friends. After the Jews had returned from the Babylo nish captivity and had rebuilt the Jeru salem walls and temple they wante_*d to drive out the*se foreign colonists from the garden si*>t of Palestine. But they could not. Ye-ar after year, den.-ade after decade and century after century the Samaritans held on to the region lying directly betw-en Juda a, or north ern Galilee, and the Jerusalem capital. Then- they dwelt, ready to slay any Jew or collection of Jews who attempt ed to molest them. There they contin ued to dwell. Each year‘the hatred between the two races grew more bit ter and mortal. 'V hough the Samaritan and the Jew ( for centuries had lived side by side, ' yet they hated each other only as a Carthaginian could hate a Roman, a Moor could hate a Castilian, a Turk could hate an Armenian, a Mexican Aztec could hate a Spaniard. These two peoples hated each other unto death, yet when Jesus, with the object of setting at rest the invidious com ments of the Pharisees on his rivalry of John the Baptist, left Judaea for his borne in Galilee he decided to pass through Samaria. He did so, though he was fully aware of the fact that every man, woman and child in Sa maria hated the Jew - as every Jew h{ite0 the Samaritans. All Alike to the Saviour. By that Journey Jesus said to all mankind: “The man with the flattened nose and the thick lip of the negro and with the aquiline nose of the Hebrew and with the low forehead of the Aus tralian aborigines and with the calve- ■' rUTi**, css limb of tli** Bengali and with the stunted stature of the Eskimo and with the herculean form of the Saxon Mid the gigantic Slav are all brothers. The Jew lias no right to hate the Sa maritan; neither has the Samaritan a rigid to hale the Jew.” But, though the Samaritan should love the Jew and the Jew love the Sa- maritan, just study how the old racial prejudic’s against the Hebrew race, as a venomous serpent with its slimy coils, lias come wriggling down through the ages. Why is that finely dressed and courteous gentleman refused ad- mittainv into sm oof tlx* leading hotels of Saratoga and New York? He is ti Jew. Why was Alfred Dreyfus sent to Devil's island to be more inhumanly treated than any government would allow any man to treat a dumb brute? He was a Jew. Why the clannishness of the ghetto? Because the gentile by sneers and scoffs refuses to associate | with the Jew; therefore the Jew finds most of his associations with the Jew. Why the public ridicule against a class of men who are the greatest financiers and masters of barter and gain of the world? Because for centuries the Jew had no way of making a living except through barter sind gain and as a money lender. He could not hold land, for the princes and the people would rob him of his land. He could not go J into statecraft or into the army, be- ! cause then; he was not allowed to go. > Though social recognition in certain regions is now accorded to the Hebrew 1 race, as the British house of lords has been opened to them, yet even today a ; strong barrier to social preferment is the fact of a man belonging to that race, a representative of which Shake speare immortalized in Shylock, the i cruel and remorseless cn*ditor. Obliterate Social Prejudice. I contend that racial prejudice is op- I posts! to the spirit of Christ and Chris- ; tianity, and I base my belief, first, on this Journey that our Lord took through Samaria; secondly, on account of the j lesson which Christ taught In the para ble of the “good Samaritan,” which he spake unto the shrewd lawyer who was trying to entrap him by a series of catch questions; thirdly, 1 plead for this obliteration of social prejudice be cause the Jew is not only as honest as the gentile, but mentally, morally and physically is in every way his equal, if not his superior. Equal in honesty; I Benjamin K. Butler a few years before I his death gave this testimony: “Fori forty years, save one, I have been con- j versant with the criminal courts of Massachusetts, and I have never yet had a Hebrew client Thinking this | matter over as I was coming home, I met the learned judge of one of the I highest courts, and he bore witness I with me to the same effect. He, nei- | ther at the bar nor on the bench, had ever seen a Hebrew arraigned for crime.” Governor Vance of North Car olina when in otflee pardoned a Jew because he was the first Hebrew who had ever been arraigned and convicted for crime in all the history of the state. Where there was one North Car olina Hebrew thief there had been ten thousand gentile criminals. Am I not right in saying that the Hebrew is as honest as the gentile? J«‘\v find Gentile Equal. Equal is the Jew to the gentile in I the sweetness and purity of his do- | mestic life. Not only are they faithful ; as a race as husbands and wives, but ! they are also irreproachable in their relations as parents and children. You never hear a Hebrew girl insulting her mother. You never see a Hebrew son sitting in the presence of an old father when that father has to stand. Filial duty is always practiced in the Hebrew home. The Hebrew fireside is as pure and noble as any gentile fireside. Equal Is the Jew to the gentile in reference to brains and philanthropy, as well as purity and honesty. Who were Meyerbeer and Mendelssohn, among the greatest of composers? Jews. | Who were Benedict Spinoza and Baron Rothschild? Jews. Who was the might- I iest opponent of William E. Gladstone and the favorite prime minister of all the Victorian era? Benjamin Disraeli, a Jew. Who was Judah P. Benjamin, j whom the great senator of Missouri. | George Vest, declared was the best mentally equipped man he ever knew in public life and who after the civil War became the leader of the London bar? A Jew. He was, like 8ir George Jessel and Moses Montefiore and Baron Hirscb, a Jew. Ob, my friends, on 1 account of the gospel teachings, on ac count of the honesty and purity of the Jew, let us try to break down the clan nishness of the ghetto. Let us try to do this not by social prejudice, but by learning to welcome the Jew into our homes as we would be willing to wel come an Italian, a Frenchman, an Englishman, a Scotchman, a Russian or a Swede. I^et us break down the clannishness of the ghetto by going forth with brotherly love to greet the Jew as Christ the Hebrew went to visit the Samaritans. Wit}’’ Jeauii Revealed Himaelf. A second reason. I think, why Christ must needs go through Samaria was that he wished to reprove a social prejudice. He held converse on that Journey with a notorious female out-1 cast. She was not a “respectable” sin ner. By that I mean she was not one of those able to travel forbidden paths and yet cover up her sinful tracks so that the world’s prying eyes did not see them. She was not a hypocrite, living two separate lives —one life which made her outward reputation good and another life which showed her inner character to be bad. She did not sin in secret. She sinned openly. She was like the far famed Catherine of Russia, she was like ex-<lueen Isabella of Spain, she was as vicious as Cleo patra of Alexandria, whose poisonous blood oufcut to have choked to death the fata) asp which she once hugged against her white skin. She was one who not only o|>enly sinned, but boust- f.illy and defiantly seemed to glory In J.er sin. To show her that he knew how stained wins her life Christ said unto her: “Thou hast well said, I have no husband. For thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband.” She was a wom an at that time living in open adultery. Yet it was to such a social outcast as this that Christ offered the “water of life.” It was to such a human being as this that Jesus revealed himself and permitted her to become a gospel mes- senger to summon her people to hear his discourse. Do on Chrlnl Did. O ye evangelists and gospel preach ers. why do we spend most of our time trying to offer the "bread of life” only to the “respectable” sinm s of society, who will not receive it? Why do we not do as Christ did—go into the en emy’s country and talk with the out casts by the Samaritan well, who are willing—oh, so willing—to receive the gospel if we only go to them in Christ’s name? Like the Samaritan woman, have not the greatest sinners believed in Christ and sometimes become the greatest of his disciples and martyrs? Have not the Peter', who denied him thrice and the Pauls who were once the greatest persecutors of his follow ers been willing to seal their testi mony for Christ with their lifeblood? Who was Richard Baxter, who wrote “Saint’s Rest?” Once a notorious sin ner. Who was John Bunyan, the dreamer of immortal dreams? Once a notorious sinner. Who was Father Tay lor, the great sailor preacher of Bos ton? Once a notorious sinner. Who were Harr}* Munroe and Jerry Mc- Auley and Peter Cartwright and John Somerville and John B. Gough? All once notorious sinners. Ah, it is worth while for us to take a long Journey if we can only semi forth a “woman of Samaria” as a messenger of Jesus Christ. It is worth whfle to go long distances—aye, a very long distance— if, like the good Ananias, we can only say to the chief of sinners, “Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus that appear ed unto thee in the way as thou earn est, hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost.” It is far easier for Jesus Christ to save a seventy deviled sinner who knows that he is all wrong than to save a so called “respectable” sinner who thinks that lie is all right. Christ was the Saviour of the social outcast at the Samaritan well. Y’et the strange fact remains that most Christian evangelists seem to act upon the supposition that it is easier to save tlie so called “little” sinner than the big. We seem to be unwilling to reach out after the outcasts. Mr. Beecher in one of ids sermons tells how a reform ed criminal, an ex-convict, who had been a counterfeiter, once came to him in complete discouragement. “Mr. Beecher,” said he, “the good people will not have anything to do with me. I seem to receive sympathy from none but the worst of folks.” Oh, ye work ers for Jesus, carry the “bread of life” to those who know they are hun gered and “water of life” to those who know they are athirst! Seek the seventy deviled social outcasts down by the Samaritan well. l-'ccleniaHtlcal Prejudice. Another reason why Christ “must needs go through Samaria” was that he wanted to reprove ecclesiastical and religious prejudice. The disciples of John tiie Baptist and of Jesus were an tagonistic and jealous of each other, just as the Episcopalians and the Puri tans were bitter during the third year of the Pi; mouth settlement. They were bitter in the same way that the Established Church and the Methodists were bitter against each other during John Wesley’s life. They were bitter as the Baptists and the Presbyterians were bitter against each other in this country 100 years ago. The disciples of John the Baptist angrily declared that John had baptized more followers than Jesus Christ, while the followers of Jesus angrily replied that Christ had baptized more disciples than John. It was in order to stop this bitterness that Jesus left Juda a and started north to ward Lake Galilee and went by tin* way of Samaria. Christ was ready to ;e» n ?ct!on cf small evils may accom plish. In the Teester valley of the illimalayas he found a small leech, no thicker than a knitting needle. But, though very small, this little leech was a pest. As an enemy of man and beast it was reaching forth for its ani mal victims from every twig and leaf and blade of grass. No sooner would it touch your flesh than it drove in its little lance and began sucking out the lifeblood. That little leech, though small, had literally depopulated that val' *}’ of every beast and bird and rep tile. The huge elephantine monsters and the striped and furred tigers, as well as the small rabbits and the grace ful fawns, had fled before its attacks. So in church work, the little frictions, the little bitternesses, the little “fault findings,” like the fatal leeches of the Teester valley, can destroy the spiri tual life of any church. Christian friends, as with Christ when he took his Samaritan Journey, pray hard, sac rifice, plead, apologize, overlook fan cied insult, do anything and everything in your church family that Is honora- Me rather than have one pew un- Christianly find fault with another pew. A forgiving layman bowing at the mercy seat is just as essential for church harmon- as a forgiving minis ter breaking the bread and pouring out the wine at the table of the holy com munion. The Shorteat Way Beat. Lastly I think Christ took this Samaritan Journey to prove that the shortest way in life’s work is generally the best way. This is not absolutely an invariable rule, but it holds good in nearly ever} - case. The country of Samaria lay directly between Jeru- salem and Galilee. It was as much between these two regions as the states of Indiana and Ohio lie in the direct line between New York and Chicago. But because the Jew hated the Samaritan he would not go through the Samaritan land. Therefore he made a big detour. In one sense he made as big a detour as the traveler coming from New York to Chicago would make If he went by the way of Louisville, Ky., instead of by the way of Buffalo or Pittsburg. Christ in Journeying to Galilee simply took the straight path. He went as a bird would fly overland. He went to Gal ilee through Samaria. The straight path is nearly always the right path. When that young man comes into your store and asks for a position, if you have not any vacant place for him tell him so. Do not say to yourself, "Now I do not want to hurt that young man’s feel ings, therefore I will tell him to come back next week or next month.” By such an answer you are doing an injus tice to the young man, and you are doing an injustice to yourself. The shortest way out of a difficulty is gen erally the right way. Even for a sur geon it is never a pleasant act to drive a knife into the quivering flesh to cut out the virulent cancer. Neither is it always a pleasant task to tell a person of his faults. But when that young girl who is doing wrong comes to you for advice tell her the truth. Warn her as you would like some one to warn your morally endangered child. The direct way out of a difficulty is gen erally the right way. So, my brother, when you yourself have done wrong- wrong to your fellow men and wrong to God—be a Christian man and straighten out the wrong and make restitution for your moral deficiencies. Confess your sins to God. The short est way out of a difficulty is generally the right way—the Christian way. Therefore, O man, O woman, will you not today at the Samaritan well seek Christ and ask his pardon for your sins? Will you not do as did the so cial outcast who at the Samaritan well found there her Saviour many cen turies ago? A C.'hrlatly Refuge. The word “Samaria” as a Christly refuge in all probability will always mean more to me than to any one else gathered today within these walls. On the afternoon of Oct. 2<>, 1S!)4, with a brother minister. G. B. Trout by name, I was resting among tlie Palestine hills. Our dragoman had left us some Tv® Physicians had done their best to cure James WUIces, of Dilloa, S. C.« who had one of the most terrible cases of RHEUMATISM oa record. They all failed until one doctor prescribed— IT CURED HELPLESS CRIPPLE. Mr. Wilke* write* In the cour*e of * lone letter, ditcd August 18,1902: “My leg* were drawn back until my feet touched my hips. I was at helpless ss a baby for nearly 12 months. Th<: mutdea of my arms and leg* were hard and ahriveled up. I suffered death many time* over. Was treated by six different ph ysiciana in McColl. Dillon and Marion, but none of them could do me any good, until Dr. I. P. Ewing, of Dillon, told ■e to try your RHEUM ACIDE. I began to take it. and before the fiiat bottle was used up 1 began to get better. I used S) bottle* and was completely cured." Dr. J. P. Ewing confirm* Mr. Wilkea’ statement in every particular. race TRIAL BOTTLE SENT ON APPLICATION TO BOBBITT CHEMICAL CO., PROPRIETORS. BALTIMORE, MO North British and Mercantile Insurance Company. Our friends will be interested in learning that our losses in the Baltimore conflagration, amounting to about $1,000,000 00, will be paid in cash without discount immediately upon adjustment. Our instructions from London are to draw for the funds neces sary to meet these claims and thus avoid disturbing our Ameri can securities. Yours truly, New Yoik, Feb. 10, ’04. E. G. RICHARDS, Mgr. This Company lost and paid $2,330,000.00 in Chicago Are Oct., 1871; $742,067.56 iu Boston fire, Nov. 1872; $860,000,00; St. John fire, June 1877. THE TRADERS’ INSURANCE CO.’S LOSS today, in the Baltimore fire is $170,000.00. Cash in Bank $264,000.00. Policv holders’ surplus, $1,579,462.61. Chicago, Feb. 9th, ’04. S. A. ROTHERMEL, Sec’y. THE WESTERN ASSURANCE CO. As you are doubtless interested in knowing how the Company fared in the Baltimore fire. I am pleased to say that our losses are $350,000, aud that our adjusters who are now in Baltimore, have been instructed to adjust and to pay all losses by draft^on home office. Very truly yours, GEO. A. DEXTER, Mgr. Atlanta, Ga., Feb. 19, ’04. The above company is represented at Jones J. Darby’s agency, who solicits your bu4iness. O J i J Liberal Treatment Prompt Service Absolute Safety are some of the features of our service guaranteed to patrons of this Bank. We want your business. Call on us at any time. National Bank of Gaffney. « ja #>3 do almost anything to stop tht* internal j two hours before to hunt up a saddle- dissensions among those who would ul timately accept him as their Saviour and their Christ. Cannot we all realize that no church can rightly accomplish a sanctified glorious work for the Mas ter unless that church has complete gospel harmony within its own ranks? Absolutely necessary is it for Chris tian people to love one another before they can as a church welcome tlie man of the world into their midst with the "everlasting peace of the gospel.” And yet, my brother, there are scores and hundreds of churches in tills land which are practically a source of dis sension to the world instead of a Chris tian harmony. They are rent and torn into factions by Internal strife. The Young People’s society is pulling against the session; the session is find ing fault with the l»oard of trustees; the Ladies’ Aid society is sulking be cause its members do not like the min ister’s wife; tlie choir loft Is in open mutiny because the minister will not let the quartet sing as much us they want. Instead of the Christian people of the church getting together aud praying for each other and trying to help each other for the good of the church they are now magnifying each other’s faults and minifying each other’s virtues. Danger of Bmatll Evil*. Want of gospel harmony in a church, qjtbougb it be composed of only a long series of little frictions aud disturb ances, will after awhile suck out tlie life’s blood and kill the usefulness of a church. Indeed, the little church disturbances, like the little sins of life, are more to be dreaded than the great church tornadoes, which may arise and subside In a day. Major Waddell, in bis book of travels, once illustrated the Infinite damage which a multitudinous bag'which had fallen from my horse. While there, alone and unarmed, we were attacked by tlie eastern bandits. We were attacked in almost the iden tical place where, tiiree weeks before, two English travelers had been slain. We were driven back and back to the edge of tlie precipice. I saw the club raised to strike down my companion and knew that my turn was to come next, when succor and rescue suddenly came to hand. That night was dark when we ended our journey in Sa maria, but, oh, iu the darkness what Joy and peace came to us both when, by tlie Samaritan well, we knew - that we at last had safety! As we found physical refuge* in Samaria on that October night so may you find spiritual safety. O man, O woman, for you, too, Christ “must needs go through Samaria!” Not for that degraded woman alone was that journey taken. The revelation of himself that he made by that well is an eloquent invitation to all in every age to come to him for the “water of life.” Are you weary with the troubles of the way? Are you athirst for the water that will satisfy the longings of your soul? Are you fearful of the grave and the judgment of God? Come to the well and hear him say that to all who come he will give “living water,” whereof If a man drink be shall never die. [Copyright. 1904, by Louis Klopsch.] Ten As fine Poultry as can be found in any poultry yard. Come and see our different stratus, and give us your order for eggs now. Prices for eggs as follows: White Plymouth Hocks, Jl.’iO for 13. Barred P. Bocks, 75c for lf> Cornish Indian Game, #1.50 for 15. Kosecomh It. 1. Beds, $1.(10 for 15. Sfnglecomb It. I. Beds. $1.00 for 13. Iloudans, $l.oo for 13. White Wyandottes. $1.00 for 13 S. C. Brown Leghorn*, 75c for 15. S. White Leghorns, 75c for 15. Mammouth Pekin Duck. 75c for 13. Arn book Pig orders for futurede- livery. Send in yojr ordes now. or Come and see tbe fowls. You will always find Mrs. <'a-h at home to wait on you. E. R. CASH. The Accompanying Cut Represents the latest im proved New Home Sewing Machine with ball-bearing stand—Full set of best steel attachments, complete in every detail. The only sew ing machine made with cog motion in the arm and with double feed. These are the most important features in any machine. Not peddled, not sold by so-caUed cata logue bargain houses. Price a little higher and the ma chine lots better than others. When you need a machine or any supplies call on ABBOTT BROS., Limestone Street. Rot la It. Mrs. De Smithe—Why did you refuse to attend Mrs. De Well’s S o’clock tea) Mrs. De Jones—Because tbe horrid thing baa bought a phonograph. What chance would a company of ladles have Jn a room with a machine like that?— Philadelphia Telegraph. fit Gaffnej Citj Land and Improvemtni Com pa in Ofitersfor sale Building Lou la this flourlarilng town. Oaffory oitv ai«> byaadlaraachof tbaSeboolsof Limaetoa® gprlQffutnd of thu ui* • • •» M to 100 acres on liberal time rafcesi also Agricultural Land* •< — »•* *■ poess. For full particulars appl? to p'tr- J. V. A t£« ’ a i • M. B.—All persoasar® forbidden to cater on.'walIt or ride through or v-r xi.o* ,,r ti.ie oompaay, cutting aad removing timber, fishing or hunting, under penalty of u*. -rig, )£«>.■ . JLL. {