The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-12-21
MANKATo FREE PRESS
FRIDAY. DEoEMBER al, 1855.
SIN AS A TASKMASTER.

SIN AS A TASKMASTER.
HOW THE WORLDS TROUBLES ARE
BORNE BY MEN.
Lifted from the Brick Kiins"-The Death
bed of the Inndei- Men Who Are Inf
deis Are Men without Hope-what Re-
ligion Does FOR Man on Earth.
BRooSLyN, Dec To- The Rev T. De Witt
TamaSe's discourse today was entitled,
"Liite from the Brick Kilns" His text
was; Though ye have lain among the pots,
yet shall We he as the wings of dove covered
with silver, and her feathers with yellow
gold ~ Psalms xviii, Is He said:
| suppose you know what the lsraeltes did
down IN Egyptian slavery. They made bricks.
| Amid the utensils of the brick kiln there
were also other utensils Of cookery-the ket-
ties, the potts. the pans, with which they pre-
pared their daily food-and when these poor
slaves, tired of the days work, lay down TO
rest, they lay down amid the implements Of
cookery and the implements of hard work.
| When they arose in the morning they found
their garments covered with the clay and the
smoae and the dust, and beSmirched and be-
grimed with the utensils of cookery. But
after while the Lord broke up that slavery,
and he took these poor slaves into land
where they had better garb, bright and clean
| ami beautiful apparel. No more bricks for
them to make. Let Pharaoh make his own
bricks When David in my text comes to
| describe the transition of these poor Israel
ties from their bondage amid the brick kilns
| into the glorious emancipation for which
God had prepared them, he says: Though
| We have lain among the pots, yet shall We be
as the wings Of dove covered with silver,
| and her feathers with yellow gold"
| Miss Whately, the author of a celebrated
book, Life in Egypt" said she sometimes
sew people in the east cooking their food on
the tops of houses, and that she had often
seen. just before shutdown, pigeons, doves,
which had, during the heat of the day, been
hiding among the kettles and the pans with
which the food was prepared, picking up the
crumbs that they might find-just about the
hour of sunset would spread their wings and
fly heavenward, entirely unsoiled by the
region in which they had moved, for the
pigeon is a very clearly bird. And as the
pigeons flew away the setting sun would
throw silver on their wings and gold on their
breast. So you see it was not a far fetched
simile, or an unnatural comparison, when Da-
vid in my text says to these emancipated Is
| racltes, and says to all those who are brought
out of any kind of trouble into any kind of
spiritual joy: Though We have lain among
the pots, yet shall We be as the wings of a
dove covered with silver, and her feathers
with yellow gold"
| HOW SIN WEIGHS UPON MANS SOUL
| Sin is the hardest of all taskmasters.
| Worse than Pharaoh, it keeps us trudging,
| trudging, in a most degrading service; but
after a while Christ comes, and he says: LET
my people CO." and we pass out from among
| the brick kilns of sin into the glorious liberty
| Of the Gospel; we put on the clean robes of a
| Christian profession, and when at las we soar
| away to the warm nest which God has pro
vided for US in heaven we shall so fairer
than a dove, its wings covered with silver,
and its feathers covered with yellow gold.
| am going to preach something which
some of you do not believe, and that is that
the grandest possible adornment is the relig-
ion Of Jesus Christ. There are great many
people who suppose that religion is a very
different thing from what it really is. The
reason men condemn the Bible is because they
do not understand the Bible; they have
not properly examined it. DR.. johnson said
that Hume told minister in the bishopric Of
Durham that he never apparently examined
| the New Testament, yet all his life warning
against it. HALEY. the astronomer, an
nounced his skepticism to Sir Isaac Newton,
| and Sir Isaac Newton said: ''Now, sir,
have examined the subject and you have
not, and | am ashamed that you, protesting
to be a philosopher, consent to condemn a
thing you never have exaIpined." And so
men reject the religion of Jesus Christ be-
cause they really have never investigated it.
| They think it something impractical, some
thing that will not work, something Peck
sniffian, something hypocrirical, something
repulsive, when it is so bright and so beauti-
| full you might compare it to a chaffinch, you
might compare it to a robin redbreast, you
might compare it to a dove, its wings COW
| cred with silver, and its feathers with yellow
gold.
But how is it If young man becomes a
| Christiani All through the club rooms
where he associates, all through the business
circles where he is known, there is commits
Grafton. They say: "What pity that q
young man who had such bright prospects
should SO have been despoiled by those Chris
tians, giving up all his worldly prospects for
something which is of no particular present
WORTH" Here is young woman who be-
comes a Christian, her voice, her face, her
manners the charm Of the drawing room.
| Now all through the fashionable circles the
whisper goes: 'What a pity that such a
bright light should have been extinguished,
that such graceful gait should be crippled,
that such worldly prospects should be oblit-
eratedI" All, my friends, it can be shown
that religions ways are ways of pleasantness
and that all her paChs are peace; that reli-
gion, instead of being dark, and doleful, and
lachrymose, ard repulsive, is bright and
beautiful, fairer than dove, its wings COW
cred with silver and its feathers yellow with
gold.
See, in the first place, what religion will
| do for mans heart. l care not how cheer
full man may naturally be before CONVEX
sion, conversion brings him up to higher
standard Of cheerfulness. 1 do not say he
will laugh any louder, do not say but he
may stand back from some forms of hilarity
in which he once INDUCED; but there comes
| into his soul an immense satisfaction. A
young man not a Christian depends upon
worldly successes to keep his spirits up. Now
he is prospered, now he has large salary, now
| he has a beautiful wardrobe, now he has
pleasant friends, now he has more money
| than he knows how to spend; everything goes
| bright and well with him. But trouble comes
\ there are many young men il the house
| this morning who can te;tify out of their
| own experience that sometimes to young men
| trouble does come-his friends are gone, his
| salary is gone, his health is gone; goes down,
| down. He becomes sour, cross, queer, mis-
| anthropic, blames the world, blames society,
| blames the church, blames everything, rushes
| perhaps to the intoxicating cup to drown his
| trouble, but instead of drowning his trouble
| browns his body and browns his soul.
THE PART OF CHRISTIAN.
But here is Christian young man.
| Trouble comes to him. Does he give up2
| No. He throws himself back on the resources
| Of heaven. He says: "God is my father
| Out of all these disasters shall pluck advan
| tage for my soul. All the promises are rhine,
| Christ Is mine, Christian companionship is
mine, heaven is mine. What though my ap-
parel he worn out2 Christ gives me a robe of
righteousness What though my money be
comet have title deed to the whole uni
verse in the promise, All are yours What
though my worldly friends fall away Lin
istering angels are my body guard. What
though my fare be poor and my bread Sx
scantl | sit at the Kings banquet"
Oh, what a poor, shallow stream is worldly
enjoyment compared with the Deep broad,
overlooking river of Gods peace, rolling mid.
way In the Christian hearth Sometimes you
have gone out on the iron bound beach of the
| sea when there has been a storm on the
ocean, and you have seen the waves dash into
white foam at your feet They did not do
| you any harm. While there, you thought of
the chapter written by the Psalmist, and per.
haps you recited it to yourself while the
storm was making commentary upon the
passage: "God is our refuge and strength, a