Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1884-12-22

holiday. If the lamp-lighter ceased his
work for one week the town would ret. But
there is darkness beyond all power of gas
light. What is the use OF police stations
and almshouses and watchman's club if
there be no moral and religious influence to
sanction the law and to purify the.execu-
tive, and TO hang over legal enactment the
fear Of God and enlightened public opinion.
When in city crime runs rampant and
virtue is at q discount and jsils are full and
churches are empty and the nights
are hideeus with the howl and the whoop of
drunkards, and the saloons boil over with
scum, and public officials think more of
bribe than they do of their own conscience,
and when great tides OF wickedness set
down the streets-the first want of such
City, as that is the street lamp Of the Bible.
~ A City at Night.
Did you ever stand in a church tower and
look down upon city at night? 1t is
overwhelming But you feel that beneath
all that briliancy of gaslight there is
surging sea ofwant and suffering and woe.
History says that Dionysias had great
cave built for his prisoners. He was a
cruel man, and he used to 60 to the top of
the cave and put his ear to the opening and
listen, and the groans and the sighings of
the prisoners came up into his ear
--and made music for him. God
stands at the head of our world, but for
a different purpose and with different
heart. He puts his ear to the dungeon and
every sigh that comes up stir his sympathies
ard every groan wounding his heart, and
lie listens and listens and listens all night
long. There is but one. lamp that can
throw light into the dungeon where the
prisoner groans, into the hovel where the
beggar pines, into the cellar where the
drnnkard wallows, into the alley where the
ibertine putrifes, into the mad house
where the maniac raves. Travellers in
Africa tell US that they have seen serpents-
a vast number Of them-coiled together and
piled up in horrid fold above horrid fold,
and then they would hear hundreds of them
Kissing at once and the sight and the sound
were appalling and unbearable. But il you
should take the wickedness of our best of
cities and bring it all together ia one place
and pile it up, fold above fold, it would be
Kissing horror and ghastliness that no hu-
man eve could look at without being blasted
aud no human ear could hear without be-
ing stunned.
Gods Street Lamps.
Now how will all these scenes of iniquity
in our cities be overcome? They will not
be overcome until the church, and the
school, and christian printing press kindle
all around about US Gods streetlamp OF the
bible. Send the bible down that filthy alley
If you would have it cleansed. Send it
against those decsnters, if you would have
them smashed. Send it against those chains
ifyou would have them broken. Send it
through all the ignorance Of the city If you
would have it illuminated as by a fash from
heavens morning. The bible can do twill
do it. Gather all the ignorance and the
nickedness and the vice of our cities in one
great pile-Alps above Alps, Pyrenees above
Pyrenees, Himalaya above Himalaya-and
then give one little New Testament full
swing against the side of that noun
tain, and down it would come
Alps after Alps, Pyrenees after PyreneeS
Himalaya after Himalaya. What is the
difference between New York and
Pekin? What is the difference between
London and Madras? What is the differ
ence between Edinburg and Canton? No.
difference, save that which the Bible makes.
Oh, city missionary! Oh, philanthropist! t!
Oh, christians! 60 everywhere and kindle
up these great street lamps of the gospel;
and our city, purified and cleansed will
proclaim what the Psalmist so long ago de-
clared: Thy word is lamp"
AStore Lamp.
Still further the Bible it the best store
lamp Blessed is the merchant who under
its glow reads his ledger and transacts his
business and pockets his gains and suffers
his losses. 1t may be well TO have fine
sky-light to have magnificent glass show
window, by night to have bronze brackets
srouting fire in very palace Of merchan-
disc; but if you have not this eternal lamp
you had better quit keeping store.
What is the reason so many VINO
started in merchandise with good princi-
PIES and fair prospects and honorable
intentions have become gamblers and de
fiauders, and knaves, desperadoes, and
horse thieves? They did not have the
right kind OF store lamp. Why it is in
our day merchandise is smitten with un-
certainty, and three-fourths Of the business
Ct our great cities is only one huge species
Of gambling and society is upturned by
assignments and repudiations and lmper-
lied trust funds and fraudulent certificates
orstock and wild schemes of railroads without
any track, and banks without any capital,
snd cities without any houses, and joint
stock companies without any conscience1
And why are the thousand of our business
men ridden with nightmare enough 10
crush Hercules and Peomethus? 1t is the
want of Of right kind of a store lamp.
What ruined the merchat princes OF
Tyre, that great city Of fairs and
Cazaars and palaces; her vessels OF
trade with cedar and embroidered
sails and ivory benche, driven
by fierce blasts on Northern waters and
then dropping down on CLASSY Indian seas;
bringing wine from Helbon and chariot
cloths from Dedan, and gold and spices
from Rahmah and emerald and agate from
SYRIA; her waters foaming with lnnumer-
able keeIs; her store.houses bursting with
the treasures of all nations-that queen OF
cities on throne of ivory and ebony, un-
der crown of gold and pearl and diamond
and carbuncle and chrysophrase? The
want of q right kind of store lamp. If the
principles of religion had ruled in her trade
do you suppose that dry rot would have
unk the ships and that vermin would have
eaten up her robes and that Gods mills
would have ground up the agate, and that
fishermen would dry their nets on rocks
which once were aquake with the roar and
tread of great metropolis' Oh, what
thrones have fallen, what monuments have
crumbled, what fleets have sunk, what
statues have been defaced, what barbaris,ns
have been created, what civilization re-
tarded, what nations damned, all for the
want of the right kind OF store lamp
A Church Lamp.
Still further the Bible is the best church
lamp. care not how many chandeliers
there may be in a church, how many bril-.
liant lights there may be, the Word OF God
is the best church lamp. Oh, is there any
thing more beautiful than an audience
,.o,La-ol ~ .ba Sabbath for Christian Wor-