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. ‘itiMIlLuj, ! j -* ; rtlfS . -k«aC|C liS v il By Rev. Frank Be Witt Talmage, D. D. Los Aiyreles, Cal., Oct. 2.—At this time, when renewed attempts are Te- Ing made by the enemies of religion to undermine tbe old established foun dations of fniu and to revolutionize the Christiana Sabbath, this sermon makes n vivid contrast of "the old time religion” and the new. The text is Psalm xi, d, "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Emasculating, depressing and be numbing is the maxim propagated by some lazy, nonprogressive people as the rule of thought and life; that ‘‘what was good enough for our fa thers should he good enough for us.” I would yield to no man in my rever ence for the memory of the sainted dead whose sacred dust lies in our cemeteries. No flowers are there too fragrant for the family plots, no epi taphs too eloquent or too reverent to recount their virtues, nor, when the family finances are adequate, any mausoleum too imposing to enshrine their remains. I have always found out when Investigating that if a son does not respect the memory of a dead mother ho will not respect the living wife, who becomes tbe mother of bis children. We should hold sacred the dust of our dead. Tnat is true, but we should never build tbe hillock of the grave so high that it will dam back the onward flow of the “waters of knowledge" and change the "river of progress” Into the “stagnant pool of ignorance and sloth.” When the past genera tions did their work they did it well for the time and the conditions in which they jived, but tbe dead gen erations would not do as they did in the past if they were living now. Wo would not cry “bait" to the “forward march”, of scientific investigation:; neither would we compel t:% church of the Lord Jesus Christ to “mark time” by the grave of a Justin Martyr, a Calvin, a Wesley, a Luther, a Knox, or bivouac with eternal som nolence in tbe chambers of a West minster abbey, where the honored ec clesiastical fathers gathered July 1, 1643, and composed the Presbyterian Confession of Faith and our Longer 'and Shorter Catechisms. But, though we would not consider our ancestors infallible In their opin ions nor absolutely wise iu their ways of living, yet, on the other hand, we must grant that our ancestors knew a great deal more than some of us are willing to give them credit for. Though our forefathers' "lightning expresses" were only canal boats and stagecoaches ami sailing boats, In which most of us would he afraid to cross Long Island sound, let alone the Atlantic ocean, that is flo reason why they did not know how to develop Christian men and wo men as successfully as do we. Though our ancestors for the most part had no books save that of a Bible, a “Pil grim’s Progress” or a Loddridge's “Itlse and Progress of iteligion In the Soul,” that Is no proof that they did not know an flinch of Cod and hold the truth in its purity ns thoroughly ns do we who have across to such vast mod-j •rn libraries, and yet today we find a spirit of "exterminating Iconoclasm” abroad. Man's profane hands are dig ging up the old foundations and de stroying the old altars and ridiculing the old ways merely because they nro old. I would not have you bend the knee before the hillock of an ancestral grave us though it were a shrine, hut I would have you respect and not de stroy It and use that hillock of a grave as the stepping stone to a higher throne. Tin* living may in some things be right where their Christian ances tors were wyojig, yet we have only to look around at the modern Innovations and observe the effect they have on the community to he convinced that iu some things our Christian ancestors were right and the modern innovators deplorably wrong. I'd tit* mil n I ns Hit* Konntlnt Ions. In the first place, I protest against the Iconoclasm which Is undermining j the foundation stones of our ancestral Sabbath. Its descent tors have been going up and down tin* length and breadth of the laud asserting that re ligious worship can become its much a form of dissipation as drink or over eating or overcxerclslng can he. They make a wrong application of our Lord's words that the “Sabbath was made for man. and not man for the Sabbath." They affirm that It Is ab surd for a business man who has been at hard work for at least six days of the week from 7 o’clock In the morn ing sometimes until 1<) or 11 or 12 o'clock at night to he compelled to get up on Sunday In time foi an early Sunday school, then to attend two long church preaching services, ami then perhaps to attend a Christian En deavor society besides. They contend that Sunday should he a day of r<st and that what a man needs upon the Sabbath day is relaxa tion. lie should go to bod Saturday night after a hot hath with his mind perfectly at ease. As he crawls into bed he should he able to say to him self: "Now, I can lie here Just as long as I please. If I awake at D o'clock, all right. If I can sleep to 12, better still. Then aft«T 1 awake I will have a cup of coffee and a roll brought to my bedside, and I will eat a little and then slay In bed for another hour, reading toe ne spaper. Then after dinner I '• will lake my children out to <*pm of the public parks or down by the seaside and get a sun hath and a view of Cod’s trees and valleys and hillsides or 1 will go to one of our great art pr Uerier and look at the pictures. It is impossible fo” me to go and see the painters' and the sculptors’ master pieces on any other day. Therefore the city art galleries should he opened on Sunday. T1 on in tin* evening hour 1 will go to church if 1 feel like it. If I do not desire to do so 1 will go to bed again and re d. rest- yes, just rest. By such a system of rest I shall he in vigorated and shall return to my work the next Monday strong in body, clear in mind, more loving to my family, the hitman race at large, and to Cod him self. That,” says our iconoclast, "is my idea of the Sabbath day. 1 do not think a hardworking man has a right | to make his Sunday a day of hard work in churchgoing, so that he works harder on the Sabbath than he does on any other day of the week.” The Old Fashioned Monday. Sabbath iconoclasts, is that the way yoq would have man spend his Sab baths? Well, already your modern teaching in reference to the Sabbath ; too well has taken root. Your pro-; mises are wrong, for you know not to what conclusions they tend. To see' whether your grandfather’s Sabbath or your own is the better I would have you compare the two side by side. I Thirty, fifty years ago the man who; made Sunday a day of pleasure was looked upon as a blasphemer, an out and out enemy of Cod, of the church! :md of the better elements of the social! community. When Sunday morning j would come even the horses and thej stoc k of the farm knew it was a day j ^ rest. The family would arise a lit-J lie later than usual. Then they would I linger a little longer at the breakfast' table. Then the sweetest music of thej world would begin to sound. The old village bell would send its silvery notes! rolling down the valley. Then, after I morning prayers, the horses were hitch ed up, and father and mother and all | the c hildren rode to town in the same big wagon. Then the pew was a fam-1 Ily pew, and all the members were j there. Theq came the sermon, then! the* journey home, then the quiet yet bountiful dinner, then the afternoon for' reading or restful quiet, then the sing-1 Ing of the hymns around the old fash ioned piano. NO Damrosch’s orchestra! or Theodore Thomas’ stringed instru-j ments ever had such enthusiastic au diences and participants as those old family oratorios about the piano, where j our sisters played and our fathers and mothers and the* rcM of the family all joined in the singing. Then the even ing church service again or, if the' farm was too far away, the evening) prayers and early bed. You know, <> man, that old fashioned Sabbath day meant more than mere* cessation from worldly work. It meant quiet com munion with Cod. It meant Bible study and sacred readings as well as mere rest. I><> you wonder that such a Sabbath as our fathers observed was the very foundation of church life, of Christian home life, of Bible reading and of consecration to Cod? Alongside of this beautiful Sabbath day of rest I want yon to place the modern Sabbath, with its so called lib eral ideas. First, where do we find the vestibule of the Sabbath? Namely, Sat urday night. To bed early? Oh, no! Saturday night has come. In our large cities the slreet oars are crowded. Where are the people going? Some to the theaters; others, alas, to places of still more* evil resort! Men and wom en, tired from work now, are turning this Saturday night into the hardest kind of work. They are dissipating for pleasure’s sake. To the noneliurehgo- er, as a rule, Saturday night Is only too often a time for free indulgence of every desire that is had. Sunday morning is here. Where do we now find most of the* nouchurchgo ers? Again crowding our railroad trains and cars; picnics, hall games, outing parties, where the breweries and the wine sellers get their biggest revenues. The beautiful pictures of the family Bible which we used to study as a hoy have given place to the silly pictorials of the Sunday newspa- pcr. Everywhere on the Sabbath sin simply runs riot. In many cities even the saloons and playhouses are full. Instead of the quiet family group going to the village church, now almost every country road near an adjacent city has Its yelling rioters, half drunk or entire ly debauched, who are off for a day of gin. Do you mean to tell me, sensible man, that the modern way of spending the Sabbath is as profitable as a day of rest and communion with Cod as were the Sabbath days our forefathers observed? Obi>ervfin<*<* of tbe l.ord'N Day. The rigid observance of Cod’s day as a day consecrated to himself Is the most Important foundation stone of the church of Jesus Christ. Without It no true gospel consecration can ex ist. I know that In some homes the lines were too tightly drawn and lu them the Lord's day was gloomy and was a weariness to the children. Hen ry Ward Beecher, the brilliant pastor of Plymouth church, used to give a humorous description of such Sab baths. He described his brother and himself watching the sun go down over the western hills. In his boyhood Sunday was observed from the setting of the sun Saturday to the setting of the sun Sunday. No sooner would the hum sink over the western hills than these two hoys would let out a great yell, crying: “Hurrah, hurrah! Sun day's over. Now for some fun!” But, though the Puritanic Sabbath was sometimes very angular In the rigid observance, I claim that Knhhnth had ten chances to where the modern Sab bath has one of producing such a fam ily as Lyman Beecher developed. I protest. In the second place, against the Iconoclasm which would eliminate from our lives the divine principle of concern for the welfare of others. Pro fane Iconoclastic hands have been an- ctcrminlng the foundation stones of our sacred Sabbath. Aye, these enemies of (Jod have been doing more; they have been sneering and ridiculing the beautiful parable of the good Samari tan. Tney have- been declaring that a man's neighbor belongs not to the family which lives next door to him. The only neighbor who has claims he would recognize is the wife or child who !iv<*s within the four walls of his own house. He has been asserting that a man's chief duty in life is to himself and his own. “Can any good come out of such a Nazareth?” I once read of a great conqueror invading a country of the far east. One day he entered a temple where stood an idol so beautiful that not one of his followers was willing to destroy it. Witli an oath, the conquer or said, "If you will not obey my com mands I will destroy it myself.” He lifted his hattleax. As he raised him self In his stirrups-for he had ridden his horse into the temple—with a mighty blow he shattered the idol into a thousand pieces. Then, to his fol lowers' surprise, he revealed the fact that the inside of the idol was not a vacuum. It had been tilled with thou sands upon thousands of golden coins, which as a lava bed hurst from the broken statue and rolled to the feet of the western iconoclast. The iconoclast who destroys the beautiful image of efiarity and benevolence may think that he, too. will he able to grasp the wealth which it pours forth on the needy and the suffering, hut he will he disappointed. The economy which refuses to give help to those who need proves a canker to prosperity, and those who withhold their charity come to poverty. The command is that he who loves God loves his brother also, and the converse is true that he who does not love his brother proves that he does not love his God. The Golden Buie with our ancestors was a practicality and not a mere the ory. "Where are you going tonight, mother?” the father often asked. “You look tired. You ought not to he going out tonight.” "I know it,” she would say, "hut I must go. Our neighbor is very sick. I am af aid she will not get well, They have sent for me to come and spend the night with her. 1 have fixed everything for breakfast. If I do not get heck in time in tbe morning, you can get along somehow’.” The daintiest delicacies ever cooked in the mother's stove were not for the growing hoys, with healthy, vigorous appetites. They were for the poor con- Miniptive young girl who used to sit day after day upon the neighbor's ve randa in the noon sun, smiling at us as we trudged away to school. My, how we cast longing eyes at those jel lies! We then at times almost wished we could he sick, at least for a little while, to get a taste of them. And how’ warm and comfortable the mit tens looked which mother knitted for the poor children living over the hill! And when the farmer who lived down iu the valley was prostrated with ty phold fever and lay for month, hover ing between life and death, don’t you remember how your father and tin* neighbors took turns plowing his fields and sowing his grain and getting in his harvests? They say that that sick man was once a strong athlete. How ever that may ho, when upon his sick bed he beard what Ids neighbors had done and how they had kept the wolf of hunger from his door he cried like a little child. He became Just such a sick man as Ralph Connor depleted in one of his backwoods tales. Then the funerals of our fathers and forefathers. They never allowed n neigh bor to he buried like a dog or a friend less pauper, as sometimes we do. No. They literally practiced the gospel rule: “It Is better to g* to the house of mourning lhan to the bouse of feast ing.” When their neighbors wept, they wept. When their neighbors were lowered into their open graves, they , themselves held the ropes that gently j let down the coilins. Was not their way better than our way? We live and breathe only for self. Was not ti e Christian helping hand our fore fathers extended to the troubled ones In their midst better than the icy stare with which we regard our neigh- j hors? We grumble In a street car he-1 cause we have to wait for two min- 1 utes while a funeral procession, wend- rocite a piece you can have the finest i of orchestras furnish the music. If you want speaking, you can hire a pro fessional elocutionist to recite. This Is an age of progress. The clubhouse, the public recep: ion halls, the large din ners given iu large downtown restau rants. just as certainly mark the evo lution of the hu: i.m race in pleasure as a locomotive train is an improvement over the old prairie schooner or the tel egraph communication by electric wire is an improvement over the ‘cowboy’s express’ that forty years ago used to carry the mail from New York to San Francisco before the great Union Pa cific railroad was built.” Do you, my brother, think for one In stant that the advent of the modern clubhouse and public reception hall and Delmonico banquets is a moral im provement for modern men over the old fashioned quilting parties and mer rymaking frolics which once made the rafters of the old farmhouse creak like the beams of a ship at sea and bend almost like William Tell’s how? Do you think this? I do not. I believe that any enjoyment which a man is compelled systematically to find out side of the society of his wife and children and home is a depleting, en ervating and ultimately degrading en joyment. I believe that any enjoyment which systematically makes a mother relegate the care of her children to nursegirls and to hired hands Is an enjoyment which is poisoned through and through by evil influences which will ultimately bring forth harvestings not for God, hut for Satan. I believe this tendency of the human race, this evil poison almost everywhere preva lent. to find enjoyment anywhere, ev erywhere except by your own fireside, will ultimately result In a second downfall of man as dramatic and over whelming and complete as when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the for bidden* tree unless man himself, by the grace of God, halts and learns again to find his chief pleasures in the associations of his wife and children within the four walls of his own home. I once heard father say to my mother, “I hope after we are dead that our children will believe we have loved them and have wanted to he with them more than with any one else on earth.” They lived for us. Yes, our parey‘s lived for us. May we he like the I d folks. May we find our chief enj<i,."iiient not only in living for our children, hut also in the companion ship of our children, no matter how old or how young they may. he. May modern society not he involuted Into the pleasures of a clubhouse or a pub lic reception hall, hut he evoluted into the sanctified enjoyments of a Chris tian home. Worliljy Supcomm Vermin ChrlMtlunlty. But, lastly, I would state that the iconoclasts of this day are trying to sidetrack the chief purpose for which our forefathers and foremothers lived iu reference to their children. Instead of leading a parent to the altar of Jesus and saying, “Oh, fathers and mothers, the chief desire of your lives should he to consecrate your children at these altars and have them make u public profession of Christ here," they would break these altars. They would say: "Here is the statue of wisdom. Dedicate your children here. Send your boys to college and give them an In tellectual education.” “Here is the statue of Midas. Sacrifice here, that you may leave them money.” "Here is the statue of fame. Make out of your children great orators or painters or musicians or authors.” Thus we see scores and hundreds of parents working by day and night to give their children what? To give them to God and the higher life, as their parents tried to do? No. To give them to a worldly success, which those parents in their hearts know may only lead their children to moral ruin and perhaps to eternal death. O man, 1 ask of you one question. It Is a blunt question. Will you an swer me? What would you sooner have had your father to be—a great speaker, a great financier, a great general or a simple, noble, pure) hearted and devoted servant of Christ as he was and is today iu heaven? You answer wull. There is but one right answer. ^*!icn, if the noble, pure, gen tle Christian life of your father meant so much to you, can you not, will you y. ■/ .. ’ i W i •r.'.yM h'j* i \ Wm -1-. — ' I - - f C: -~-***“- Heme Curs Rheumatism Ho* sulphur bnths prive reli' f rt once, quieting the pains o! Rheumatism ami Gout, 'i he sulphur trey tim-nt, t xtcrnal and internal, will cure bot.i of these terrible diseases, but the sulphur must i e iu such fotm that it can b>* absorbed by the system. The only preparation of sulphur ever discovered ‘hat can be aosorbed by the skin aud by the diges tive organs is ffauccek’s Liquid Sulphur It is Nature's (in at< si O rmicvle. Such a certain cure that i-- guarantee it to cure Itczcina, Acne, Itch, Dandruff, Kin'worm, Pricklv Heat, Diphtheria, Catarrh, Cancer, Sore Month mid Throat, Cats, and all diseases ci the scalp. Fur sale hi/ ail reliable unn/yi. Is. Elarccoek’s Liquid Sulphur Ointment Prepared especially for Burns,Sealc1s,Ojk:u S»»res. Chafed Parts, Raw Surfaces, Boils, Piles, Roughness of Pace and Hands and all Skin Diseases. Write for booklet on the curative and toilet uses of sulphur. HANCOCK LIQUID SULPHUR C0. f Baltimore, Md. W E feel very grateful to the citizens of Cherokee County for favoring us with their trade during the years 1902, 1903 and 1904; also we have every reason to believe that they are all well pleased with the Pianos, Organs and Sewing Machines that they bought from us, as they are beginning now to see that quality figures more than a few dollars in the purchase of an article that is to be used for a long period of time, if not for a lifetime. To those who have not yet bought Pianos, Organs and Sewing Machines from us, we invite you to come and see our goods and get our prices, which will be very low during the next 30 days. We are are at all times able and willing to make every promise true and every guarantee good. So come and see our many different styles of Organs and New Home Sewing Machines at our store on Limestone St. Abbott Bros MONAZITE Bought all during the year at highest prices. Do you want to make a contract? Come and see me. It will be to your advantage. J, V. WHELCHEL, GAFFNEY, Q. C. BUYER FOR y-iMmo CARL L. KITHIL, OAK SPRINGS. N. C. * w Zj X o II ■ !■ 'M 1— III—Mil — Rural Mail Boxes. c 0Q GotoR. M. Wilkins Hardware Co. for your Engine and Steam Fittings; Gandy, Rubber g and Leather Belting, Cane Mills and Evapora- p S tors; Wagons and Buggies; Barb Wire, Wire and Cut Nails. Don't fail to see us before you buy your hardware—We want your business. td o X R. M. Wilkins Hardware Co. n w ♦ ing its way to the cemetery, is bolding llot givt . t( , your boy the same Cbrls- us at a crossing. The Golden Rule | which our forefathers practiced should never he allowed to slip out of our lives. The sick man who lives next door to us should he Just ns carefully cared for aqd nursed by us as if he > was our own son. Clubhouse Versus Home, I deplore also the Iconoclasm which iu robbing this country of the sanctity of home life. The Iconoclast’s profane bands are ruthlessly laid upon our an cestors’ Sabbath observance aud our forefathers’ doctrine of “Do to others as you would have them do unto you.” They go further than this. Those same profane hands are also snatching away our ancestral home enjoyments as well. They are saying to modern man: “Man, do not he an old fashioned granny. Do not think because your grandfathers found most of their enjoyment In the tian heritage? By the sacred altar of God’s love will you not follow their ex ample? Will you not carry out the dying wishes of your now redeemed and glorified parents and consecrate yourself to your Divine Master? Will you not here and now lead your hoys and girls to the feet of Christ and con secrate them to the Master also? Shall not the chief purpose of your Christian parents iu reference to their children he duplicated In the chief purpose of your life, to bring to Christ your chil dren and your children’s children? Today let us have some of the old fashioned purposes and ways and hah its of our forefathers. When we are dying may we never he ashamed to Utter the words which Dwight L. Moody said to his children. You all have read them; "May wff not he am bitious to make money. May we not society sf your grandmothers and your i he ambitious for worldly fame and uncles and aunts that you have to find most of your enjoyment in the society of your wives and children. Do not forever be a ’stay at home.’ Come; let us build for you clubhouses, where you can find nightly fellowship with strong and brilliant men. Come out of that little hencoop of yours. If you want to give a reception to your friends, do not give It lu your home. It Is too small. Hire a big hall In the center of the town, where you can receive In bet ter style. There, Instead of having a few cakes baked by your own hands and some lee cream which you made In your own freezers, you can have a fine caterer furnish an elaborate HUpi*er; in stead of having your own daughter ting a simple song or your little boy honors. May we simply be ambitious to find a consecrated, earnest place to work in God’s vineyard and have In that vineyard our wives, our children and nil our friends working by our side In the Master’s name.” That pur pose Is n nol le purpose. That purpose God will bless us he has blessed that holy purpose In the lives of the old fashioned folks who are now In heaven awaiting the homo coming of their chil dren. That purpose forms the true foundation, the maker and builder of which Is the living and true and par doning and redeeming and ascended and glorified Christ. May God answer the fulfillment of this prayer for pul pit and pew alike. [Copyright, 1904, by Loula Klopach.] I luive just returned from Baltimore and New York whither I had gone to purchase my Fall Stock. 1 am now receivin'; O NEW GOODS DAILY I have the biggest line of Men’s, Youths’ and Children’s Clothing it has ever been my pleasure to show my customers and friends and at the right kind of prices, too. Big lot of “Parker” Hats for Men. All styles and sizes in Men’s, Youths’ and Children’s Hats and Caps from 25c up= UP-TO-DATE LINE OF DRY GOODS, NOTIONS AND I have a large and welDaelected stock of Shoes and can fit any and everybody in price, size and style. h this space for bargains in Clothing, Hats, Trunks, and all kinds of Traveling Hags, Dry Goods, Notions, Shoes and Groceries. m Watch FRESH LOT OF FERTILIZERS FOR GRAIN. J. I. SARRATT Subscribe for The Ledger, $1.00 a year