Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-09-27

Come, let US measure Nicholas around
the head As many inches of brain as any
other intelligent man. Let US measure
him around the heart. 1t is so large it
takes in all the earth and all the heavens.
Measure him around the purse. He has
more resources than nine-tenths of
those who on that Monday, September 20,
came in on any of the railroads from north
or south, or east or west.
But that Sabbath afternoon while in the
back room, Nicholas and his father are
talking over any attempt at the reclama-
ton of Edward, there is ringing of the
door-bell and man with the uniform of 4
policeman stands there, and man with
some embarrassment and some halting,
and in q roundabout way says that in a
fight
IN SOME LOW HAUNT
Of the city Edward had been hurt. He
saws to Nicholas: 81 heard that he was
some relation OF yours and thought you
ought to know ii. F"
"Hurt? Is he badly hurt?"
Eyes; very badly hurt"
rs the wound m0rtal?"
''Yes; it is mortal. To tell you the
whole truth, SIR" says the policeman,
although / can hardly bear to tell you,
he is dead"
'Deadr' cried Nicholas. And by this
time the whole family are in the hallway.
The father says: 'tJust as | feared. 1t
will kill his mother when she hears of it.
Oh, my son, my son! Would to God /
had died for thee. Oh, my son, my son"
"Wash off the wounds" says Nicholas,
"and bring him right here to my house,
and let there be all respect and gentleness
shown him. 1t is the last we can do for
him."
Oh, what obsequies! The next door
neighbors hardly knew what was going on;
but Nicholas and the father and mother
knew. Out of the Christian and beautiful
home of the one brother is carried the dis
solute brother. No word ofblame uttered.
No harsh things said. On bank of cam
elias is spelled out the word Brother.
Had the prodigal been true and pure and
noble in life, and honorable in death, he
could not have been carried forth with
more tenderness, or slept in a more beau
tiful casket, or been deposited in q more
beautiful garden of the dead. Amid the
loosened turf the brothers who left the
country TOR city life five or six years be-
fore, now part forever. The last scene Of
of the fifth act of an awful tragedy OF
human life is ended.
What made
THE DIFFERENCE
between these two young men? Religion.
The one depended On himself, the other
depended OH God. They started from the
same home, had the same opportunities of
education, arrived in the city on the same
day, and if there was any difference, Ed
ward had the advantage, for he was
brighter and quicker, and all the neigh
bors prophesied greater success for him
than for Nicholas. But behold and won
der at the tremendous secret. Voices come
up out of this audience and say: did
you know these brothers?" Eyes; knew
them well. "Did you know their par
entS?" eyes; intimately" What was
the city, what the street, what the last
names of these young men? You have eS-
cited our curiosity; Now tell us all
will. Nothing in these characters is
ficticiOus except the names. They are i'll
every city, and in every street of every
city, and in every country. Not two OF
them but ten thousand. Aye, aye! Right
before me to-day, and on either side
of me, and above me, they sit and stand,
the invulnerablc through religious de-
fence and the blasted of city
allurements. Those who shall have Ion
gevity in beautiful homes and Others who
shall have early graves for iniamy. | am
here t0-diy in the name of Almighty God
to give you the choice of the two charac-
tcrs, the two histories, the two experiences,
the two deStinies, the two worlds, the two
eternities.
Standing with you
AT THE FORKS OF THE ROAD
something makes me think that il to-day
l set before the people the termini of the
two roads they will all of them take the
right one There are before me in this
house and in the invisible audience back
of thiS-fOr Journalism has generously Civ
en- me every week full opportunity to adj
dress the people in all the towns and cit
les of ChriStendom-l say, in the visible
and invisible audience there are many who
have not fully made up their minds which
road to take. Come with u.s." crya1l the
voices of righteousness. ''C0mo with u.s."
cry all the voices Of sin.
Now, the trouble is that many take dis
graceful surrender. AS we all know there
is honorable and digniied surrender, as
when a small host yields to superior num-
bers. 1t is no humiliation for thousand
men to yield to ten thousand. 1t is better
than to keep on when there can be no re-
suit except that of massacre. Bat those
who surrender to sin make surrender
when on their side they have enough re-
serve forces to rOut all the armies Of Perdi-
ton. whether led on by what demOnO-
grapher calls Relial, or hcelzebIb, or
ApOllyOn, or .AhaddOn, or Ariel. The dis
graceful thing about the surrender at Sc
dan was, that the French handed over
4I9 field guns and mitrailluscS, six thOus-
and horses and SO thousand armed men.
And it is base for that man to surrender to
sin when all the armaments of almightl-
ness would have wheeled to the front to
fight his battle he had waved one earnest
signal. But, no. lie surrendered mind,
body, soul, reputation, home, pedigree,
time and eternity, while yet all the pray
ers ofhs Christian ancestors were on his
side and all the proiIerred aid-supernal,
cherubic, seraphic, angelic, deitic.
we have talked so much the last few
weeks about the abdication of Alexander,
of Bulgaria, but what paltry throne was
that from which the unhappy king de-
scended compared with the ahdication OF
that young man, or middle-aged man, or
old man who quits the throne OF his OPP
portunity and turns his back upon heav-
enly throne, and tramps off into iguomny
and everlasting exile! That is an abdica-
ton enough to turn a universe. In Persia
they will not have blind man on the
throne, and when reigning monarch is
Jealous of some ambitious relative he has
his eyes extinguished so that he cannot
possibly ever come to crowning. And that
suggests the difference between the way
sin and divine grace takes hold of a man.
The former blinds him so he may never
reach throne, while the latter illumines
the blind that he may take coronation.
Why this sermon: Il have made up my
mind that our city life is
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