Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-04-23

ing andsyou were everything. Suppose YOU
are selfish and overbearing and AFRO
CANT. Your first name ought to be Attila
and your lsst name Attila, because you
ale the star Norwood and you have en-
FILTERED one-third, If not three. thirds, of
the waters that roll past your employees
and operatives and dependents and $780,
ciates, and the long line of carriages
which the undertaken orders for your fu-
neral in order to make the occasion res
pectable, will be filed with twice as
many
DRY, FEARLESS EYES
as there are persons occupying them. The
clumsy pall-bearers may make the gates
of your sepulchre quake by striking your
silver-handled coffin against them, but
the world will feel NO jar 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. 1t may
may be like the circumference of the
earth or no larger than q thimble. There
are thousands OF geniuses here this
morning and in some one thing you are
star. What kind Of star are your You
will be in this world but few minutes.
As compared with eternity the
stsY OF the longest lie on
earth is not more than q minute. What
are we doing with that minute? Are we
embittering the domestic or social or
political fountains, or are we like Moses
who, when the Israelites il the wilder
ness complained that the waters of Lake
Marah were bitter and they could not
drink them, their leader cut of the branch
of certain tree aud threw that branch
into the water, and it became sweet and
slaked the thirst of the suffering host?
Are we with branch Of the Tree OF Life
sweetening sill the brackish fountains that
we can touch?
Dear Lord, send US all out on Thy mis-
sion. All around US emblttered lives, en-
Uttered by persecution, embiLtered by
hypercriticism, embittered by poverty,
embittered by pain, embittered by in
justice,
KMBTTTKRED BY SIN.
Why not go forth and sweeten them by
smile, by inspiring words, by benefaction,
by hearty counsel, by prayer, by gospel
lied behavior. Let us remember that II
we are NORWOOD to others we are
NORWOOD to ourselves, and our life will
be bitter and our eternity bitter.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only
sweetenlng power that is sufficient. 1t
sweetens the disposition. 1t sweetens
the manners. It sweetens life. 1t sweet
ems mysterious Provideuces. 1t sweetens
sfflctions. 1t swee'ens death. 1t sweet
ems everything. 1 have heard people
asked in social company: "If you could
have three wishes gratlhed what would
your three wishes be?" II l could have
three wishes met this morning l tell you
what they would be. First. More of the
grace of God. Second. More OF the grace
Of God. Third. More of the grace OF
God. In the door-yard of my brother
John, missionary in Annoy, China, there
characteristics of which are that it
always grows higher than its surround
ings and its leaves take the form of q
crown. If this emperor tree be
planted by rose bush 1t grows little
higher than the bush, and spreads cut
above it q crown. II 1t be planted by the
side of another tree, 1t grows little
higher than that tree, and spreads above
it crown. Would God that this religion
OF Christ, q more wonderful emperor tree,
might overshadow all your lives; are
you lowly in ambition or circumstances,
putting over you its crown; are you high
in talent and position, putting oyer you
its crown. Oh, for more of the saccharine
in our lives aud less of the wormwood!
What is true of individuals is true of
nations. God sets them up to revolve as
stars, but they may fall NORWOOD.
Tyre-the atmosphere of the desert
fragrant with spices coming in caravans
TO her fairs; all sess cleft into foam by the
keels of her laden merchantmen; her
markets rich with horses and cemels
from Togsrmah, her bazsars filed with
upholstery from Dedan, with emeralds
and coral and agate from Syria, with
wines from Helbon, with embroidered
work from Ashur and Cnilmad. Where
now the g esm of her towers, where the
roar OF her charlots, where the masts of
her ships? Let the fishermen who dry
their nets where once she stood, let the
sea that rushes upon the barrenness
where once she challenged
THE ADMIRATION OF AL. NATIONS,
let the barbarians who set their rude
tents where once her palaces glittered,
answer the question. She was star, but
by her own sin turned to wormwood and
has fallen.
Hundred-gated Thebes-for all time to
bethe study OF the antiquarian aad hier-
oglyphist; her stupendous ruins spread
over twenty-seven miles; her sculptures
presenting in figures of warrior and Char
iotssthe victories with which the now flor
gotten kings Of Egypt shook
the nations; her obelisks and
columns; Carnac and Luxor, the stupen-
dous temples Of her pride. Who can i'm
agine the greatness of Thebes in those
days when the hippodrome rang with her
sports and foreign royalty bowed at her
shrines and her avenues roared with the
wheels Of professions in the wake OF re-
turning conquerors? What dashed down
the vision of chariots and temples and
What hands pulled upon the
columns of her glory? What ruthlessness
defaced her sculptured wall and broke
o 1elisks and Left her INDISPENSABLE tenn
pies great skeletons of granite? What
spirit of destruction sp.e cad the lair of
wild beasts in her royal sepul-
chres, and taught the miserable
cottagerS OF to-day to build