The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-22

sat in darkness. Between II o'clock at night
and o'clock in the morning, in the dark and
unlighted places of the town crime has It's holt
Hday. If the lamplighter ceased his work for one
ness beyond all power of gaslight What is the
use of police-station and almsnouse and watch
mans club if there be no moral and religious
Influence to sanction the law and to purify the
executive and to hang over legal enactment the
fear of God and an enlightened public oplnlon'
When in city crime runs rampant, and virtue
Is at a discount, and jails are full, ana
churches are empty, and the nlShts
are hideous with the howl and whoop OF drunk
ards and the saloons boil over with scum, and
public officials think more of bride 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. Did you ever stand in church tower
and look down upon city at nightl 1t is over
Fwhelming But you feel that beneath all that
'brilliancy of gas-light there is surglng
sea of want, and suffering, and woe. His
tory saws that Dionysius had great cave built
for his prisoners. He was cruel man and be
used to go to the top of the cave, put his ear to
. the openng and listen, and the groans and sigh
ings 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 comes uD stirring LIS
sympathies and every groan woundlng his heart
and he listens and listens all night long There
geon where the prisoner groans, into the howell
where the beggar pines, into the cellar where
the drunkard wallows, into the alley where the
lbertine putre6es into the madhouse where
the mariac raves. Travellers in Africa tell us
that they have seen serpents-a vast number of
them-cOiled together and piled up in horrld
fold above horrid fod and then they would hear
hundreds of them Kissing at once, and the sight
and the sound were appalling and unbearable.
But if you should take the wickedness of our
best of cities and bring it all together in one
place and pile it up fold above fold, it would be
a Kissing horror and ghastiness that no human
eye could look at without being blasted and no
human ear could hear without being stunned,
THE WORK THE LAMP WILL DO.
Now how will all these scenes of iniquity in
our cities be overcomel They will not be over
come until the church. and the school, and
Christian printing press kindle all around about
US Gods street-lamp of the Bible. Send the
Bible down that filthy alley if you would have
it cleansed. Send it against those decanters if
you would have them smashed Send it against
those chains if you would have them broken.
Send it through all the ignorance of the city if
you would have it illumined as by a fash from
heavens morning The Bible can do it, will do
it. Gather all the ignorance, and the wickedness,
and the vice of our cities in one great fle-Alps
above Alps, Pyrenees above Pyrenees, Himalaya
above Himalaya and then give one little New
mountain and down it would come, Alps after
Alps Pyrenees after Pyrenees, Himalaya after
Himalaya. What is the difference between New
York and Pekin2 What is the difference be-
tween London and Madrasl What is the differ
ence between Edinburg and Cantonl No differ
ence save that which the Bible makes. 0 city
missionary o, philanthropist! o, Christian
Go everywhere and kindle up these great street.
lamps of the gospel; and our city, purified and
ceansed, will proclaim what the Psamst so
long ago declared: '1'hy word is a lamp"
Still further, the Bible is 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-lght, to have a mag
nifcent glass show wi ndow, by night TO have
bronze brackets spouting fire in a very
palace of merchandise; but if you
have not this eternal lamp you had
better quit keeping store. What is the reason
so many who started in merchandise with good
principles, and fair prospects, and honorable in
tentions have become gamblers, and defrauders,
and knaves, and desperadoes, and liars. and
thevesl They did not have the right kind of
store-lamp Why is it that in our day mer
chandise is smitten with uncertainty, and three
fourths of the business of our great cities is
only huge species of gambling, and society is
upturned Uy false assignments and repudi-
ations and ilnperiled trust funds, and fraudu-
lent certificates of stock, and wild schemes in
railroads without any track, and banks without
any capital, and cities without any houses, and
joint stock companies without any conscience2
And why are ten thousand of our business men
ridden with a nightmare enough to crush Her
cules and Prometheusl 1t is the want of right
kind of a storelamp. What ruined the
merchant princes of Tyre, that great city of
fairs, and bazaars and palaces-her vessels of
trade with cedar masts, and embroidered sails,
and ivory benches, driven by fierce blasts on
northern waters and then dropping down on
CLASSY Indian seas bringing wine from Hebon,
and chariot cloths from Dedan. and gold and
spices from Rahmah. and emerald and agate
from Syria-her waters foaming with innu-
merable keels, her store houses bursting with the
treasures of all nations-that queen of cities on
throne of ivory and ebony, under a crown of
gold, and pearl and diamond, and carbuncle,
and chrysophrasel The want of a right kind of
store lamp If the principles of religion had
ruled in her trade do you suppose that dry rot
would have sunk the ships, and that vermin would
have eaten up her robes, and that Gods mills
would have ground up the agate, and that fish
ermen 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 bar
barisms have been created. what civilization re
tarded, what nations damned-all for the want
of the right kind of a store-lamp
Still further, the Bible is the best church lamp.
care not how many chandeliers there may be
in church, how many brilliant lights there
may be, the word of God is the best church
lamp Oh, is there anything more beautiful
than an audience gathered on the Sabbath for
Christian Worship There may be no dazzle Of
theatric assemblage, there may be no glitter of
foot-iights, there may be no allegorc images
POISONING from pit TO DOME but there is some
thing in the place and in the occasion that
makes it supernatural In the light of this lamp
1 see your faces kinGle with great joy. Glori-
GUS church-lamp this Bible! Luther found it
in the coster of EnfCrt, and ne lifted
it until the monasteries aud cathedrals
of Germany, and Italy, and France and
England, and the world saw it's Illumination. 1t
shone under the breastplate of sacerdotal au-
thority, and in the mosques of Turkey, and IS
the pagodas of India and in the ice huts Of Green
land, and i'll the mud novels of Africa, and in the
temples of China, Gods regenerated children in
sweet Italian, and nasal Chinese, and harsh
Choctaw cried out; Thy word is lamp
a bulwark of TRUTH on the baptisma cup. uu
til its Maters elitter ike the crustals of