The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1884-12-31

mans club II there be no moral and relig-
ious influence to sanction the law and to
purify the executive, and to hang over
legal enactment the fear of God and an en-
lightened public opinion. When in city
discount, and jails are full and churches
are empty, and the nights are hid
eous with the howl and the whoop
sf drunkards, and the saloons boil over
with scum, and public officials think more
,f a bribe than they do Of their own
conscience, and when great tides Of wick
sdness set down the streets-the first want
II such city as that is the street-lamp of
The Bible. Did you ever stand in church.
lower and look down upon city at nightp
It is overwhelming. But you feel that be-
meath all that brilliancy Of gas-light there
IS surging sea of want and suffering and
woe. History says that Dyonysius had O
great cave built for his prisoners. He was
cruel man, and he used to go to the top
Of the cave, 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 different pur-
pose, and with different heart. He
puts His ear to the dungeon, and every
sigh comes up stirring his sympathies and
every groan wounding his heart; and he
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 drunkard wallows, into
the alley where the libertine putrifies, into
the mad-house where the maniac raves.
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 altogether in one place and pile it
up, fold above fold, it would be a Kissing
horror and ghastliness that no human eye
could look at without being blasted and no
human ear could hear without being
stunned.
Now, how win all these scenes of in
lquity in our cities be overcome2 They
will not be overcome 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, IL you would have 1t
cleansed; send it against those decanters,
IL you would have them smashed; send 1t
against those chains, II you would have
them broken; send it through all the ig-
norance Of the city, If you would have 1t
lllumined as by a flash from Heavens
morning. The Bible can do it, will do it.
Gather all the ignorance and the wicked
ness and the vice of our cities in one great
pile-Alps above Alps, Pyrenees above
Pyrenees, Himalaya above eHimalaya-and
then give one little New Testament full
swing against the side of that mountain,
and down it would come, Alps after Alps,
Pyrenees after Pyrenees, Himalaya after
Himalaya. What is the difference between
New York and PekinY What Is the differ
ence between London and Madras? What
Is the difference between Edinburgh and
CantonY No difference save that which
the Bible makes. o, city missionary! O,
philanthropist! o, Christian! Go every
where. Kindleup these great street. lamps
of the Gospel, and our city, purified and
cleansed, will proclaim what the psalmist
so long ago declared: "Thy Word is q
lamp"
Still further, the Bible is the best store
lamp. Blessed is the merchant who, un-
4 gN.. A.. I.la
acts his business, and pockets his gains
and suffers his losses. 1t may be well TO
have fine sky-light, TO have a magnif-
cent glass show-window; by night to
have bronze brackets spouting fire in
q very palace of merchandise. But II
you have not this eternal lamp you had
better quit keeping store. What is the
reason so many who started in merchan-
disc with good principles and fair pros
poets and honorable intentions have be-
come gamblers and defrauders and
knaves and desperadoes and liars and
thievesS They did not have the right kind
Of store-lamp. Why is IL in our day that
merchandise is smitten with unce tainty,
and three-fourths Of the business of our
great cities is only one huge species of
gambling, and society is upturned by
false assignments, and populations, and
imperiled trust funds, and fraudulent cer-
tihcates OF stock AMI wild schemes In rail-
roads without any track, and banks with
out any capital and cities without
any houses and joint stock COM
panies without any consciencep And
why are ten thousand Of our busi-
ness men ridden with a nightmare
enough to crush Hercules and PrometheusY
IL is the want Of right kind OF store
lamp. What ruined the merchant princes
Of Tyre, the great city Of bazars and fairs
and palaces; her vessels Of trade with
cedar masts and embroidered sails and
ivory benches, driven by fierce blasts upon
Northern waters and then dropping down
on CLASSY Indian seas; bringing wine from
Helbon and chariot cloths from Dedan,
and gold aud spices from Rahmah and
emerald and agate from Lyric; her water
foaming with innumerable keels; her
store-houses bursting with the treasures of
all Nations-the Queen of cities on
throne OF ivory and ebony, under a crown
Of gold and pearl and diamond and car
buncle and chrylophraseS The want Of
right kind of store-lamp. II the principles
Of religion had ruled in her trade, do you
suppose that dry rot would have sunk the
ships, and that verinin would have eaten
up her robes, and that Gods mills would