The Nicodemus cyclone. [volume] (Nicodemus, Graham County, Kan.) 1887-1888, 1888-04-27

| reslstlDle treshet. Do not be too much offend
ed at the noise your children now make. 1t
Will be still enough when one of them is dead
Then you would give your right hand to hear
one shout from their silent voices or one step
| from the still foot. You will not any of YOU
| nave TO wait very long long before YOUR house
| is stlller than you want it, Alas that there
| are SO many homes not known to the Society
Tor the prevention of Cruelty to Children,
| Wnere children are put on the limits and
whacked and cuffed and ear-puIled and sense
Iessly called to order and answered sharp and
| suppressed until it is u wonder that under
| such processes they do not all turn out Modocs
! and Mana Sahibs
What is your influence upon the neighbor-
hood, the town or the city of your residence
| will suppose that you are a star of wit
| Wnat KIND OF rays do you shoot forth: Do
| you use that splendid faculty to irradate the
| world or TO rankle it9 | bless all the apOstOl-
ic college of humorists. The man that makes
| me laugh is my benefactor. | do not thank
anybody to make me cry. | can do that with
out any assistance. We all cry enough and
have enough to cry about God bless all skill.
tuI punsters, all reparteeists, all prOpounders
OF ingenious cOnundrums, all those who mirth-
FULLY surprise us with unusual iuxtapOsftiOn
OF words. Thomas Hood and Charles Lamb
and Sidney Smith had a divine mission. and
so have their successors in these times They
stir into the acid beverage of life the saccha-
flnes They make the cup of earthly existence.
which is sometimes stale, etferVesce and bub-
bic. They placate animosties. They foster
longevity They Stay fOlles and absurdities
which all the sermons Of all the pulpfts can
not reach. They have for examples Elijah,
who made fun of the Baalites when they called
down tire and it did not come, suggesting that
their heather god had gone hunting or was
OIL on journey or was asleep and nothing
but vociferatiOn could wake him, SAYING:
Cry aloud for he is god; either he is talk
,1v-ar, Ia
sleepeth and must be awaked" They
have an example in Christ who with healthful
scarcasm showed up the lying, hvpOcritical
Pharfsees by suggesting that such perfect
people like themselves needed no improve
mentS, saying: "The whole need not a ply
sician but they that are sck.''
But what use are you making of your wit?
is 1t Desmlrched with profanity and unclean-
ness! Do you employ it in amusement at
physical defects for which the victims are not
responsible: Are your powers of mimicry
used to put religion in contempt! Is it a
bunch of nettlesome inyective! Is it bolt
OF unjust scorn! Is it fun at others mis-
fortunes Is it glee at their disappointment
and defeat! Is it bitterness put drop by drop
into cup! Is it like the squeezing of
Artemisia Ab6inthium into a draught already
distastefully pungent? Then YOU are the
star Wormwood Yours is the fun of a rat.
tlesnake trying how we'll it can sting. 1t is
the tun OF hawk trying how quick it can
strike out the eye of dove.
But | win change this and / will suppose
you are star of worldly prosperity. Then
YOU have large OppOrtunity. YOu can en-
courage that artist by buying his picture.
You can improve the fields the stables, the
highway, by introducing higher style of fowl
and horse and COW and sheep. You can bless
the world with genealogical achievement in
the orchards. You can advance arboriculture
and arrest this deathful iconocasm of the
American forests mt nio Of
sculpture into the niche of that public
academy. You can endOW college. You can
stocking a thousand bare feet from the VIM
ter frost. You can build church. You can
put missionary of Christ on that foreign
shore. You can help ransom a world A rich
man man with MS heart right-can you tell me
how much good James Len
nox or George Peabody or Il Peter
Cooper or a William E. Dodge did while
living or is doing now that he is deads There
is not city, town or neighborhood that has
not glorious specimens of cOnsecrated
wealth
But suppose you grind the face of the poor.
Suppose when mans wages are due you
make him wait for them because he cannot
help himself Suppose that because his
family is sick and he has had extra ex-
penses he should politely ask you to raise his
wages for this year and you roughly tell him
II he wants better place to 90 and get it,
Suppose by your manner you act as though
he were nothing and YOU were everything
Suppose YOU are selfish and Overbearing and
arrogant. Your first name ought 10 be Attila
and your last name Attila, because you are
the star Norwood and you have embittered
one-third, if not three-thirds, of the waters
that roll past your employees and operatives
and dependents and associates, and the long
line Of carriages which the undertaken
orders for your funeral in order to make the
occasion respectable, will be flied with twice
as many dry, fearless eyes as there are per-
sons occupying them. The clumsy pail
bearers may make the gates of your sepuichre
quake by striking your silver-handled coffin
against them, but the world will feel no lar
as you go out of it.
There is an erroneous idea abroad that
there are only few geniuses. There are
millions OF them; that is, men and women
who have especial adaptation and quickness
for some one thing, Ii may be great. it may
be small. The circle may be like the cir
conference of the earth or no larger than
thimble There are thousands of geniuses
here this morning and in some one thing
you are star. What kind of a star are
you9 You will be in this world but
a few minutes. AS compared with
eternity the stay Of the longest life on
earth is not more than a minute. What are
we doing with that minutea Are we embt-
tering tie domestic or social or political
fountains, or are we like Moses who, when
the Israetes in the Wilderness complained
that the water of Lake Marah were bitter and
they could not drink them, their leader cut
off the branch Of a certain tree and threw
that branch into the water, and it became
sweet and slaked the thirst of the suffering
hCStl Are we with a branch of the Tree of
Life sWeetening all the brackish fountains
that we can touch! Dear Lord, send US all
out on Thy mission. All around US embitter-
ed lives, embttered by persecution, embtter-
ed by hypercriticism, embittered by poverty
embittered by pain, embittered by Injustice
embittered by sin. Why not 30 forth and
sweeten them by smile by inspiring words,
BY benefactiOns, bv hearty counsel by PRAYER.
by gOspeliZed behavior Let us remember
that If We are wormwOOd to others we are
to ourselves, and our life will be
bitter and our eternity bitter. The Gospel Of
Jesus Christ is the only sWee teuing power
that is sufficient. 1t sweetens the disposition.
1t sweetens the manner. 1t sweetens life
II sweetens mysterious PrOYidences. II sweet
ems affections. 1t sweetens death. 1t sweet
ems everything. l have heard people ask IN
social company: If YOU could have three
wishes gratifed what would your three
wishes et' If / could have three wishes
met this morning tell YOU what they would
be. First: More Of the grace Of God. Sec
Old: More Of the grace Of God. Third
More Of the grace of God. In the door ward
Of nv brother John. missionary in Amoy,
tree. the two characteristics Of which are
that ii always grows higher than its sur
roundings and its leaves take the form