The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-12-03

there would b, any hesltaucy m surrenoer>
ing al preferences before such an opp0r.
tunitv Of salvation and heavenly rcunioni
If you, Christian wife, are an at
teniant upon this Brooklyn Tabcf-
nacle, AMI your unconvertod husband
does not come here, because ha does not
like its preacher, or its music, or its arch
itccture, or its uncomfortable crowding,
and goes not to any house of worship, but
would go il you would accompany him
somewhere else, change your church rela-
tons. Take you hymn-booa home with
you To-Day. Say goodbye to your friends
in this ueighboring pews, and 60 with him
to any one of hundred churches, till his
soul is saved and he joins you in the march
to Heaven More important than that
ring on the third finger of your left hand it
is, that your Heavenly Father command
the angel of mercy concerning your hus-
band at his conversion, as in the parable OF
old: "Put ring on his hand"
No letter of more importance ever camo
to the great city Of Corinth, situated on
what was called the "Bridge Of the Sea-"
and glistening with sculpture, and gated
with a style Of brass the magnificence of
which the following ages have not been
able successfully to initiate, and overshad-
owed by the Aero Corinthus, a fortress Of
rock two thousand feet high-I say, no let
ter ever came to that great city Of more i'm
portance than that letter in which Paul
puts the two startling questions: What
knowest thou. oh wife, whether thou shalt
save thy husbanda Or how knowest thou,
oh man, whether thou shalt save thy wife"
The dearest sacrifice on the part of the one
is cheap il it rescue the other Better go to
the smallest, weakest, most insignificant
church on earth, and be co-partners in cter-
nal bliss, than pass your earthly member
ship in most gOrgeously attractive church
while your companion stays outside Of
evangelical privilege. Better have the
drowning saved by a scow or sloop than let
him or her go down while you sail by in the
gilded cabins of Britannia or Q Great
Eastern.
Second: II both Of the married couple be
Christians, but one is SO naturally con-
structed that it is impossible to enjoy the
services of q particular denomination. and
the other is not so sectarian or punctilious,
let the one less particular 60 with the other
who is very particular. As for myself, l
feel as much at home in, one denomination
Of evangelical Christians as another, and
think must have been born very near the
L
pal liturgy, and like the spontancity of
the Methodlsts, and l like the Importance
given to the ordinance of baptism by the
Baptists, and like the freedom of the Con-
gregationalists, and like the government
and the sublime doctrine of the Presbytc-
rians, and like many of the others Just as
good as any have mentioned, and could
happily live, and die. and preach, and be
buried from any Of them.
But others are born with so stout and I'M
bending and memorable liking for some
denomination that it is a positive necessity
they have the advantage of that one. What
they were intended to be in ecclesiasticism
was written in the sides of their cradle, if the
father and mother had eyes keen enough to
see it. They would not stop crying until
they had put into their hands as playthings
a Westminster Catechism or the Thirty
nine Articles. The whole current of their
temperament and thought and character
runs into one sect of religionists as nat
urally as the James river into the Chesa-
peake 1t would be a torture to such per-
sons to be any thing outside of that one
church. Now, let the wife or husband who is
not so constructed sacrifice the milderp pref
erence for the one more infexible and rigor-
Gus. Let the grape vine follow the rugosities
and sinuosities of the oak or hickory. Abram.
the richer in f1ocks of Christian grace,
should say to Lot, who is built on smaller
scale: "Let there be no strife, l pray
thee, between me and thee, and between
my herdmen and thy herdmen. Is not the
whole land before thee!" As you can be
edited and happy any where, go with your
companion to the church to which he or
she must 60 or be miserable.
Third: If both the married couple arc very
strong in their sectarianisms, let them at
tend the different churches preferred. 1t
is not necessary that you attend the same
church. Religion is between your con-
science and your God. Like Abram and
Lot, agree to differ When on Sabbath
morning you come out of the door of your
home together, and one goes one way and
the other the other, heartily wish each
other a good sermon and time of profita-
bic devotion, and when you meet again at
the monday repast let it be evident each to
each, and to your children and to the hired
help, that you have both been on the Mount
of TRANSPORTATION, although you went by
different paths, and that you have both
been fed by the Bread Of Life, though
kneaded by different hands, in different
trays, and baked in different ovens.
"But how about the children!' I am
often asked by hundreds Of parents. Let
them also make their choice. They will
grow up with reverence for both of the de-
nominations represented by father and
mother. if you, by holy lives, commend
those denominations. If the father lives
the better life, they will have the more IA
orable opinion of his denomination. II the
mother lives the better life, they will have
the more favorable opinion of her denom-
ination. And some day both the parents
will, for at least one service, 60 to the
same church. The neighbors will say: +"
wonder what is going on to-day, for I saw
our neighbor and his wife. who always 60
to different churches, going arm-in-arm to
the same sanctuary"
Well. will tell you what has brought
them together, arm-in-arm, to the same
altar. Something very important has hap
pened. Their son is to-day uniting with
the church. He is standing in the aisle
taking the vows of Christian. He had
been somewhat wayward, and gave father
and mother q good deal OF anxiety, but
their prayers have been answered in his
conversion. and as he stands in the aisle and
the minister of religion says: do you con-
secrate yourself to God who made and re-
deemed you, and do you promise to serve
Him all your days!' And with manly voice
he answers: ~ do" There is an April
shower in the pew where father and mother
sit, and a rainbow of joy which
arches both their souls, that makes
all differences Of creed infinitesi-
NAL. And the daughter, who had been
very worldly. and gay, and thoughtless,
puts her life on the altar of conservation,
and as the sunlight Of that Sabbath streams
through the church window and falls upon
her brow and cheek, she looks like their