Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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■-■y- - -5SW’' By Rev. Frank DeWitt Talmatfc, D. D. Los Angeles, Cal., July 17.—In this eeruion a now construction is placed Upon many of the “miracles of modern science,” which are interpreted in the light of Christ’s promise to his follow ers in John xlv, 12, “Greater works than these shall he do.” Man increases not his gospel faith by lowering the standards of the cross, i You might as well expect water to run uphill of its own accord, or violets to grow during midwinter in a snowbamt, or daylight to follow after the sinking of the sun in the west, or the flush of health to be seen on the pale eh«k of a corpse, or a humming bird to volun tarily make her nest in the dark laby rinths like a ground mole, as for a ra- ; diant faith capable of transforming character to exist fn any temple uu- ; less the chief cornerstone of that tem ple is Jesus Christ. “And I, if I be lifted up from earth, will draw all men unto me,” said Jesus Christ just a short time before his crucifixion. "I am the way, the truth and the life, fs'o man cometh unto the Father but ny me," speaks our resurrected Redeemer to the gospel workers of the present day. Let it be clearly understood at the out set that by no word or thought would I seek to depreciate the power and influence of Christ’s personality and work. lie it is who fills all created things; he it is who gives life, natural, mental, social. lie is the inspifer, the Bpring from which come all our tri umphs. Rut I want to show you that the promise which he gave to his disci ples, “Greater works than these shall be do,” has been fnlrtlbnl and that man Inspired with his spirit has with the natural forces at his disposal done snore for uplifting humanity, as Christ said he should, than did Christ him- *elf. Man has taken hold of the pow er which Christ bestowed and has ap plied it bey.md the opportunities which Christ had to complete the work that he in .;,de l. * hrist fed the multitudes; ChrisL o;*d the blinded eyes and .straight''!!'d the crooked limbs; Christ hssua.' ed ; • s-i and stopped the chronic issue of l*lool. Christ was a great preacher and drew the multitudes about him. Christ fought against the heathenish doctrine that "might is right.” Christ was the greatest of all workers of wonders that the world had ever seen. There was only one Christ. There will never be another. Yet there are senses, natural as well as spiritual, in which his promise has been kept to Ids followers, and they hare been en abled through the power emanating from him t<» do works which surpass those he d 1 * l is life on e-Tt 1 '. Tint let it -■ forgotten th.-i these “greater woik» which man has done have been accomplished only because Jesus has lived and Jesus’ prophetic words have been fulfilled. In order to get a better grasp of this theme let me re.ad to you the full verse In which the words of my test am fonml "Verily, verily I say unto you he that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also, and greater worko than these shall he do, because I go nnto my Fa ther." Chrlwt A ninimm 1 Fit* (veneration. Jesus Christ was tb* amareinent of amazements to the people of his day and generation as a worker of natural phenomena. He »e«m«d to his thne superior to ail natoral laws. When he went out to vieit his dlactpfcw In their ship, he did not bare to urn the kind, as other people bad to do. F?« Stepped upon the crystal pareoieeK of I^ike Galilee as easily as an Alpine etlmber might rest his f upon solkl rock, as , easily as » v ‘iod*s feet might glue tliooi- ' selvek to mountain crag. When be spoke, the homage of obedience wes rendered to him, not alone by men in the synagogue, by beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, hot by the wiuds and tLe wares. lie called to the Galilean U-mpawt, “Peace be still.” At the glance of Ids eye the "conscious water bltniliwd to svu the face of its Lord" at to* wedding in Cann of Gali lee. At a word from his lip the fig tree dried up and withered away. Ml be had to say was. "Let no fruit glow on thee henceforward forever.” At his call came whole schools of fish to be caught by the Galilean fishermen. By his touch whole ovens full of bread teemed to be miraculously created. Wonderful were those triumphs over natural laws and forces, but what triumphs has man achieved since that time by compelling those natural laws and forces to serve his purposes and by harnessing them as his servants! What wonder can be greater than for man to speak in a telephone receiver, as I have done, In Chicago and have my voice heard in New York city, IJVII miles away? I do not consider it r.ny more of a wonder than for Theodore Roosevelt to start the great, ponderous machinery in the world’s fair at St Louis by touching a simple button. Christ walking upon the waves of l^ike Galilee excited the wonder of the spec tators, but how they would have won- lered how they have seen that sub marine tiont constructed by an Ameri can Inventor, which be supplied with such wonderful mechanism that it can (Ink to the bottom of the sen and sup port life there for twenty-four hours, jr if they could have known how a (park, ns a mermaid, could carry man’s message by running along the pathway >f a Pacific cable from Vancouver to \ustrnlla, or how a great Iron bull •ould he made to battle against storm ind tide and carry thousands of human >«‘ings. besides tons upon tons of IrviiMit. from New York to Liverpool,! I'l rist feeding the multitudes with the five !■ ives and two fishes to me is won- •I cfr.l, hut man making the dry desert. b'oss. as a rose by the stored up water.-, of irrigation, man making rain .h end in regions where for centuries nature as a forbidding angel of the Iv.euie paradise has said "Thou shalt not,” man making the fruits of the Asiatic climes to mate with tin* fruits of the California hills, man making street cars to run without horses and steam engines to shriek through a Gothard pass and disappear into a Housatonic tunnel, man making his air ships lighter than the atmosphere we breathe—all these are triumphs over natural forees so wonderful that I say, as I compare them with the phenomena of Christ’s life, how truly lias the promise been kept, “Greater works than these shall he do.” Wireless Telegraphy's Wonders. When I see an Edison making an eleetric light blaze and burn upon the tip end of a dirty piece of carbon; when I see the marvels of machinery, born with everything hut a soul; when I see ice frozen in the troplci, and when I know that nations separated by broad seas arc brought Into speaking distance by wireless telegraphy, I know that one of the fulfillments of my text has come. “Anything which excites won der, surprise or astonishment in the broad sense Is a miracle.” wrote the lexicographer. Surely Christ was al luding to man’s triumphs in the world of natural phenomena when he said, “The works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because 1 go unto my Father.” Not only did Christ astonish the peo ple in his day by his power over the forces of nature; he revealed his di vine nature by showing his power over physical diseases. He triisl to convince the people in his day of his power as a healer of spiritual maladies by proving himself the cleanser of leper spots, the opener of blinded eyes ami the only one of his time who could send the slug gish blood of health coursing through the withered limbs of him sick with the palsy. Yet today, as I study Christ, the healer of the sick, I see that the work he did has been taken up by Ids followers and its triumphs multiplied. By the word of his power he gave sight to a few blind men, but in our day the Christian surgeons, by their operations, ure giving sight to thousands. The vir tue from his garment stopped one Issue of blood, but in our day the Christian physician, with his medicaments, is stopping thousands of issues. Christ’s touch relieved a few sufferers of pain, hut in the hospitals of our time thou sands pass painlessly through suffer ing which in former times would have racked them with excruciating torture. If you would learn some of the mar vels of man as a healer, read Professor White's marvelous collection of facts in his book entitled "The Wonders of Modern Surgery.” Up to INTO, NO per •cut of all those who had fractured leg or arm with the bone protruding through the skin died. Now, through • i • • wo'ie.s result:;'it from the life's w :< !' Sir Jose;:;: Lister, practically ill those with fractured limb bones zet well. Once when a gangrened leg Had to be amputated a shrieking, yell ing patient was held down by main strength and the leg cut off as quickly is possible, as a butcher with his ax would chop meat. Then the bleeding (tump was seared with boiling pitch. Seventy-five per cent of those patients lied. Now such operations ure con sidered practically harmless. A whiff if ether, a breath of chloroform, a deep ■deep, a painless operation, and the Heavy eyelids open. All the horrors of that operation are a blank. Our nnrles, our aunts, our parents, our .frnndprw ,> b J ' died by the hundreds of «*' ..animation of the bowels. Along mines surgery and says: "Down on the table quick! Out with tbit appendix." And today clubs could he formed by Ihe hundreds of those who would have lied of appendicitis umess death had been driven back at the point of the surgeon’s knife. XVondera of Modern Medicine. But today are the "wonders of mou rn surgery” any more marvelous than the "wonders of modern medicine?” Is the power of modern medicine to cun- disease any more marvelous today than the power of modern bacterio logical Investigations to prevent dis ease? You see Christ stopping here and there to open a blinded eye or to j unstop a deaf ear or to loosen the | heavy and labored breathing of the j asthmatic sufferer. But today the achievements of the healer Include more than here and Jhere an isolated physical cure. I see the lights in thou sands of hospital windows gloaming like the stars in the heavens. I see the white robed nurses anil the doctors coming forth as did the angels of health who troubled the waters at the pool of Beihesda. crying to the sick ev erywhere, ' Come and he cured of your ; ailments!" I see thousands and tens of thousands of str nig men and wom en who would have died twenty years younger than they are now had they lived and tieen sick In the days when Christ lived and he had seen them not nr touched them not. Christ as the physician of the body was a wonder worker. But man today as n eurer of physical ailments Is accomplishing far more than Christ ever did. Man is not only opening the eyes of those born blind, but he is making by the thou sand and the tons of thousands the deaf and thV dumb speak until this an cient miracle has censed to he a won der because of Its commonness. Now, s f, idy Christ from another standpoint. What did Jesus come down upon earth to do? lie came to save the world? Oh. yes: he came to (ave the world by drawing men unto tiimsolf and handing them together as ’hrlstlans. That means men were to Detome followers of himself. Y'et, after ae came to earth and was born in the manger and lived in Nazareth, he liter ally became the “despised and the re jected of men.” After he had lived and suffered, prenehed and worked on and on until the day when be was crucified, the converts he had won were only a little handful of followers at the foot of his cross. If I should take you to a country pastor and say, "Rev. Mr. So-and so, how large is your chureh?” he would say: "Oh, very small. We have only sixseoro niem- ! hers all told. But we are part of the great Presbyterian church, with its hundreds of thousands and millions of members. Therefore we are proud to belong to the great body of this church militant.” But Jesus when he died did not have any great church. He was only the humble Naza- rone with one hundred and twenty disciples all told In Jerusalem. From a worldly standpoint Christ's life seemed to lie an abject failure. Do you wonder that Christ said to his tiiseiples in the words of my text, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do?” How has the promise been fulfill^ in the great preachers and organizers of the Chris tian church? Inspired by his life and teaching, men have arisen whose achievements, as far as they can be measured by numbers, have surpassed a thousandfold those of their Divine Master. Growth of the V. M. C. A. Compare if you will the rapid ad vancement of Christianity during the century Just passed with the seeming ly paltry number of 120 whom Christ gathered about him in Jerusalem dur ing his earthly ministry. In l.S-44 George Williams of London organized the first Y. M. C. A. assoeiation of the world. Forty-six years later, as a di rect outgrowth of his work, there were G,t»2r. different Y. M. C. A. association societies with their enrollment of 050,- j J00 members, with property worth over $20,000,000. In 1805 William Booth, a humble Methodist minister, stepped out of the church of his birth and in i Nottingham, England, organized the Christian Mission, the outgrowth of which is the modem Salvation Army. In thirty-five years that army, as a direct result of William Booth’s work, had Its 11,000 officers stationed In all parts of the world, holding annually over 2,000,000 meetings and possessing its own printing presses, scattering forth 43,000,000 pamphlets and papers of gospel news and with an Income of nearly $4,000,000 per year. In 1880 i Francis E. Clark, a comparatively un known minister, organized bis young people into a band of Christian work ers, called the Christian Endeavor so ciety. He is called “Father” Clark now. not, however, because he Is an >ld man, but because he was the fa ther of a movement which in twenty years had a society with nearly 4.000,- KK) members. Consider the work of John Wesley. Compare the first hand j of 120 members with the conversions under the power of the Holy Ghost of Whitefleld. Finney. Moody. These men led the peo;,le by the tens of thousands to kneel at tec foot of the cross. Tell me. In reference to the criterion of number, has not man as a preacher ■ind a Christian organizer done “great- ?r things" than did Christ? But, again. In tins worldwide sweep of man’s “greater works” we must see | how man is everywhere overturning the heathen doctrine that “might: makes right” rather than “right makes 1 might." We must see man as the de-, fender of the weak man, the hope of | the helpless man. the friend of the be- j reft man and In one sense the rescuer of the lost. Christ comes ns the friend : »f the friendless. But, oh, how friend- i lees and helpless he himself became! ; Tames Morrison in a wonderful review I of the works of Christ’s life pictures ; him as a mighty conqueror. Even in his defeats he saw the oncoming con-, quests. Said this mighty pulpiteer: "He strode on to victory. From his el evated standpoint he saw ns the conse quence of Ids triumphal ascent to his Father the overthrow of Phnrlsceism and Snddneeelsm. He looked farther ■ind saw the overthrow of Roman and I Grecian and Scythian idolatry. He looked farther and saw the destruction >f slavery. He looked farther and saw Ihe gradual emanclpa.lon of the mass 's from the oppression of tyrants and their elevation into political and social privileges, lie lookisl farther and saw Ihe erection of hospitals and other In- (titutions of benevolence. He saw the '*stal dish merit on the one hand of home missions extending to the hundreds of thousands who have lnpsi>il and the es 1 t iblishnient on the other hand of for eign missions, sending the gospel of j tils grace to tiie ends of the earth in hundreds of tongues.” But, though Christ In his exaltation and prophetic vision may have seen all this. yet. like Moses, with his eyes overlooking the verdant fields of the promised land, Christ was to have no direct physical contact In the consummation of the world’s salvation. Chrlnt Sever Visited India. All India was yet to give up its wld- >w burning and the tossing of its help less girl Infants Into the Ganges to he •eten by crocodiles and the heathen worship of Idols, hut Christ was not, In body, able as a man to set foot on the «ill of India. William Carey and Alexan- ler Duff and Bishop Thoburn were to lo that. Africa, with iti^urder and rapine and cannibalistic orgies, was to build Its altars to the worship of the "true God,” hut Christ, as a physical man. was never to penetrate Into those lark missionary fields. A Livingstone, i Taylor and a Hnrtzcll were to do that. Europe at that time shaking inder the tread of the Roman legions; | North and South America utterly un- tnowu to civilization; the Islands of the on, most of them unvlsltoil all nrej ot to how to Christ and come under tne reign ot love and gentleness and purity and truth. These are to be won through the instrumentality of men. Men energized by tin* Holy Spirit are to gain the whole world for him. Tru ly. as we look at such a conquest and compare it with the work that he ac complished in Palestine we see what he meant when he said, "Greater things than th<*se shall ye do.” Christ saw all this future conquest of the world, hut as a man he never went away from the Palestine hills. He grew up in Nazareth. He journeyed from Naza reth a few times to Jerusalem. There at the Davidic capital he was at last led as a guilty criminal out to the Calvary heights to ignominiously die. To his followers he left the stupendous task of evangelizing the world, prom ising that he would he with them to the end and that through his power they should lie able to win more souls than he had done. But though we have been praising man’s "greater works” we would have you bear well in mind this one tremen dous fact No work of man is truly greater than Christ’s work, because all of man’s greater works are the out come of Jesus’ work. If you read the verse in which my text is found you will find the whole trend of the thought In the one word “because.” "He shall do greater works than these because I go to my Father.” Because Christ Is In God and God is in us is the rea son man is able to accomplish greater works than did Christ. Never lie deluded by the idea that man in his own strength is able to do anything apart from God. This idea seems to he running riot among many weak brains. A short time ago I stood upon one of the Pasadena hills and looked off upon the mighty peak of Mount Lowe, lifting itself above the clouds. There In the valley at my feet were the California orange groves and the flower gardens and the trees which have made this land famous all around the world. “Do you see that little hill yonder?” said a gentleman by my side. "Yes.” I answered. “That hill.” said he, “looks much lower than we are.” “It certainly does,” I replied. “That hill must be at least three hun- Ired feet below us.” “But it Is not,” he answered. “That hill seems lower because yonder lofty mountain Is hack if It. Water from that hill flows down ;o this hill. That hill yonder Is much higher than we are.” So some people, standing upon man’s “greater works,” seem to think man’s throne Is higher ;han Christ’s throne. But it is not. Only as Christ’s life In Its influence touches our lives are we able to do the ‘greater works” which are given man to do. ElevntiiiK Power of ClirlMtlanit "Oh, no,” says some one. "that can not be. Some of the greatest inventors, some of the greatest statesmen, some Df the greatest of American men have jeen agnostics and did not believe in Christ at all. How then could they get their power from God?” By the law if association. The influence of Chris tianity is an elevating, civilizing, In spiring power. Even those who are personally strangers to it are affected by the atmosphere It produces. Have you not noticed that nearly all inven tions. nearly all tine progress, nearly all the world's best blessings are found In Christian lands alone. It is said that one day the great landscape painter, Joseph Turner, came Into the studio of that other famous English artist, T. Sidney Cooper. Looking about at the pictures Turner saw one and gave a dab with his brush, saying, “Put that pillar out. It destroys the breadth of the picture.” A short time after GJ1- lott, the great art dealer of Lon don. heard what Turner had done, he came to Cooper and said, “I will give you three hundred pounds for your pic ture of the Welsh scene.” “But,” said Sidney Cooper, “Glllott, you have not even seen my picture.” “I know It,” unsworn! Glllott. “But I also know one fact, Joseph Turner would never have touched that picture with his brush unless It had been worth hav ing.” And so methlnks God blesses the just and often the unjust in a Christian land, because Christ’s work and sacri fice have been blessed In that land. Therefore, my brethren, the only way for man to achieve his greater works is by spreading abroad, as far ns he can. the works of Jesus Christ, upon which all men’s greater works are de pendent. When Christ goes up, man goes up. When Christ goes down, man goes down. Oh. what could Moses’ rod have done Had ho not been directly sent? The power was from God alone And Moses but the Instrument. ’flpilny will you not feel that you can on 5' accomplish the greater work Christ has given to you to do by living and working in Christ? When Mar shal Bernadotte, who afterward be came King Charles XIV. of Sweden, was a young man he was a revolution ist. At the beheading of King Louis XVI. of France, in order to show his hysterical Joy, he had tattooed upon his arm this sentence: "Death to all kings and royal tyrants.” Bernadotte afterward was himself raised to a throne. He closely guarded that tat- toolng from the eyes of his people un til he was dead. Oh, my friend, mark ed with the signs of infamy upon your heart, marked with the signs of rebel lion against Christ, will you not change your belief, as Bernadotte did, to be come an enthroned king? You bear on your soul the marks of sin, but if you will come to him he will take you Into his employ and will send you forth to bless and help the world. As the apos tle Imre on his body the marks of the Lord Jesus, so you may wear the badge of his rcrvlee and In his name and by his power carry on the work that ho began. To you, too, the prom ise is given, “He that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also, uni greater works than these shall he lo, lieemse I go unto my Father." fConvr'irht. 1D04 hv Louis Klor>*oh.l y Vl rjiANcccK's Lfe iULPH^ ttr&iciJ* HukoU I Co. By its combined therapeutic action upon the LlooT and the mucous \ nieml ! oi , Ila.i-cck’i Liquid ***sV»»\ Sub-hur ; v. iv and urcly Cures Catarrh Catanh i .a c .n .tiiutional dis- ea e, and locr.l treatment alone will not cur..' it. Sulphur is the greatest i-.cmii ide known, and a hurmiebsli^i.powerful constitution builder. Its v.duc has been recog nized forage .hut i 1 . cu. at; ve effects were never >ot 1 ’’o 'd the discovery of Kar.roc'.’i ! 1 S.'’-vr. bo ] on* tive is its act-ou that ve guarantee it to cure Catan-h, ' ■ : r*a, A tne. Itch, Dan druff. R: nr worm. Prickly Heat, Diphthe ria, Sore Mouth and Throat, Granulated Eyelids, and all diseases of the Scalp. HANCOCK S LIQUID SULPHUR OINTMENT. Prepared especially for Purus. N<-ald*, Open Kotes, Chaled Parts, Haw Surfaces, Roils, Piles, Kuuiihnesri of Face aud Huuds, and all Skin diseases. Sold at all rcliaUe ilnicutorcs. Write for frw booklet ou the curative an 1 toilet Uce of nulpimr. HANCOCK LIQUID SULPHUR CO, Baltimore, MU. Now Is Your Time To Buy Summer Dress Goods Wo are offering some excellent values at prices cut in half—goods we wish to clean up. .Ific Thistle Silks at 25c. 50c Grenadines at 25c; there are no prettier goods on the market at 50 cents per yard. Colored Lawns, Batistes and many other things at reduced prices. In Silk and Wnol Dress Gnnds We Have A Strong Line All pure Silk Grenadines, unsurpassed by anything for a nice, dressy dress, at 98c, 44 inches wide. See these if you are in need of a nice black dress. Guaranteed Taffeta for $1.00 per yard—the best you ever saw tor that price; sold for more money everywhere. All Remnants to Go Cheap In our large stock you can find something in these Remnants to suit all the children. See us for your Children’s Slippers, Misses’ Slippers, Ladies’ Slippers— something to suit you all. In many of these we can give prices so low that competitors wonder how it’s done. < - W. WILPCIINS Gaffney South Carolina RUBBER STAMPS Are my long suit. I make any kind except the bad ones. I furnish a Name Stamp and an Indelible Pad for Marking Linen for 4Q CENTS. I have some other good things. j wijusotv oiulmss. 1334 MAIN STREET. Typewriters, Office Supplies, Etc. COLUMBIA, S. C. Commercial Printing Of every description executed with neatness and dispatch at The Ledger office, Gaffney, S. 0. New Type, New Presses, the finest quality of Ink and Paper, and Compe tent Workmen. Send us your orders. The Gaffney City Land and Improvemenf Go. Offers (or sale Building Lots in this flourishing town, Gaffney; also Farms ne by and In reach of the Schools of Limestone Springs and ot this place, In lots of 30 to 100 acres on liberal time rates; also Agricultural Lands to rent for Farm purposes For full particulars apply to J. V. SARRATT, Agent. N. B.—All persons are forbidden to enter on. walk or ride through or over the lands of this company, cutting and removing timber, flshjng or hunting, under penalty of law. N O 'W I t’s O ->c f O If cl S. The knowing ones who keep posted on footwear styles will realize the combination of fashion, comfort and economy shown in the handsome Hue of Ladles' Oxfords on display here. In variety of material and shapes our stoek.ls superior In every detail. 'ro We are offering some 8PF.CI\L INDUCEMENTS on Oxfords and White Goods to close out the season's stock. It will be to your interest to inspect these goods and the prices before you buy. Come early. Acistell & L'ijpsc^or - r:i.fc>.