Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-01-30

Tlre II Eagle
N. n. MURDOCH. Editor.
TWO DOLLARS IN ADVANCE
,,,,ea q frssay Zach vsstsa eses n Eagle ssi,aas
OUR SUNDAY SERMON
In Which the Shortcomings Of Men and
Women and Dudes are
Elucidated.
Beloved now are we the sons of God; and IL
doth not yet appear what we shall be; but We
know that when He shall appear, We shah DC
like Him; for we shali see Him ~ ne Isl
John iii ?.
Our discourse this morning, dearly be-
loved. is for that class who never hear any
better sermons than we preach, and who, if
they did, couldn't appreciate them; for that
class who have contemporary sneered al
sentiments merged in some Of our former
Sunday morning discourses, and who elevated
their incredulous and impious SHOOTS pro-
portionatelv as their souls settled down to
the dead level Of gizzards; for you, my dear
fellows, who entertain loftier appreciation
of hog, because of the money there is IN
him, than you do Of full-hedged cherub IN
all its glory. You are class which our
sermons alone can reach, for you would as
soon think of doing something mean as TO
listen 10 proposition that might lead you
under the droppings of the sanctuary. These
are they who prefer TO go fishing On sun
days in the Arkansas river than to fish for
the river of life, rather straddle rotten log
with bottle of Snitzler's beer and sinking
pipe. and cast lines for mud-cat ali day than
tbst their lines should be cast for them along
the margins of the delightful stream
whose crystal flow is in the
midst of the Beulah land, whose
fragrant grasses do not stain dude-clothes,
hut, 10 breathe whose ambient air is an ex-
istence of unending qualification To talk
to these of beatific glories, of the gold-paved
streets and jaspar-walled New Jerusalem,
makes them tired. Their ideal sweeping
angel is only crude confusion of claws and
tail-feathers, and the playing of golden
harp an apprehension of a load or sug-
gestion of sore fingers from whanging at
strings for thousand years or more. They
think of God-and they do think more about
Him than they LET on-as some great terribly
solemn corporesl personality, who, with
consuming anger in his sleepless eyes, goes
roaming around up in The skies keeping
track of fellows who 90 hunting on Sunday.
As for the devil they only comprehend an
other more familiar personality, half human,
half demon with a fanciful tail, ramsacking
about the confines of all creation making
himself solid with everybody except the
elect psalm-singing crowd whose proposed
concert of million years duration Is ms
special detestation as il is theirs also. These
brothers, and We may add many sisters, OF
our congregation, entertain not the remotes'
notion of whence came they into this world
or what they are here for. They realize
simply that they are on hand, every mas
scratching for living and every woman
scratching for a man, snatching what litti'
fun they can as they go plugging through TIM
vale of tears.grunting over unexpected pains
still clinging to life'for all it is worth without
being particularly sorry upon the who'll
that thew were ever born, yet one and a.
dreading the hour of his or her final .ant
inevitable flop and the succeeding solemn
dead-head ride over TO the ghost headquar
.ars hevond Chisholm creek. With an audi
ence of such gall the average preacher or tn
NEST exhalted pulpit can do nothing, ans
they listen 10 us only because they can't helT
themselves. As for the big end of time We de
nominate eternity, they look npon 1t as
place "where you expect to die when yo'
90 TO-" divided up into one half all happi
ness and the other half all weeping an'
wailing ane gnashine of teeth and grindini
of rrindstones," for which notion they ar
ever ready to fight but never ready tina
Death for them shah Dissolve the mystery.
II we have hit your case, dear sinner
then have we made all the point necessar,
TO a full appreciation of what is to follow
That YOU are woefully ignorant Of thos'
interests touching your real life, OF whiei
this earth-existence of three score years ant
ten of battles and storms ending In physica
wreck and ruin, is bui the briefest span, w
are well satisfied. Ard, were we not per
suaded that there is light after darkness
gain after loss. sun after rain, peace ate
main. calm after storm and life after death
we would ''let up" on wearing out this ole
stub of pencil in trying to enlighten yor
on very, to you, dark subject. This life
you all agree, cannot solve the strange eng
ma of the passing years. If you do no
know shat there is future Ef'
it is equally certain you do not know tina
there is NOT a future life. All things in thu
material universe, everything in the realnes
of philosophy and human observation uner
ringlv point to an affirmative answer. Ths
being so, then read again our text, and de
eide whether you are the child of God, II
any sense. or the mere result OF time, chang
and chance, your original progenitor being
a taiIless tad-pole or something lower anc
meaner That you are one or the other TIT
conclusion is inevitable, and, if the other, g
on with your mud-cst fishing and your Sun
dsv iamboreeing, Upon the other hand, j
YOU conclude tie other way, then why IL
the name of ordinary gumption don't yor
give little more attention 10 the attributes
of your Father and the probable Location
of your final port, and less TO greed, gold
and side shows. The author of our text al
so wrote that God is Love" That settles
II. 1.-THE apostle wasn't "awfelly of there
can't be any trouble. If you are from Tho
hands Of the Almighty and not patent or
an improved baboon, linked to the monkey
tribe by evolution and survival of the fet'
test, you are all right. Ifyou are child OF
a Father whom the author OF our text de-
clared to be Love, then YOU amount &c
something. You can't make anything
harmful out of Love nor can anything unde'
sirable come of Love. II, therefore, Heaven
is not place of golden streets and an ever
lasting concert in which every fellow plays
the same old instrument, heaven of senti-
meat merely,
Where peariy streame
Glide over silver sands,
Like childhood's rosy dazzling dream
OF some far fairy land.
but q heaven of God or in other words
Love, then it can only be PERFECTION and
you miss the main chance of life il you fail
of one Of its many mansions.
Finally, dear dudes and dudelsts, you
can't get no better preaching than this un-
less YOU go and hear men who have made
these matters OF such trsnscerdent import
study of their lives. You will be bettered