The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-04-27

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
have to wait very long before your house Is
stiller than you want It, Alasl that there
are 30 many homes not known to the Society
for the Prevention Of Cruelty to Children,
where children are put on the limits and
whacked and cuffcd and ear-pulled and sense
lefsly called to order and answered sharp and
suppressed until 1t is a wonder that under
such processes they do not all turn out Mo
docs and Mana Sahibs
What Is your influence upon the neighbor-
hood, the town or the city Of your residencei
will suppose that you are a star of wit
What kind Of rays do you shoot forth3 Do
you use that splendid faculty to irradiate the
world or to rankle iti l bless all the apos-
tolic college of humorists. The man that
makes me laugh Is my benefactor. do not
thank anybody to make me cry. l can do
that without any assistance. We all cry
enough and have enough to cry about. God
bless all skillful punsters all reparteeists, all
propounders of ingenious conundrums, all
those who mirthfully surprise US with I'M
usual juxtaposition Of words. Thomas Hood
and Charles Lamb and Sidney Smith had a
divine mission, and 80 have their successors
In these times. They stir into the acid bever
age Of life the saccharine. They make the
cup OF earthly existence, which Is sometimes
stale, effervesce and bubble. They placate
animosities. They foster longevity. They
slay follies and absurdities which all the
sermons OF all the pulpits cannot reach.
They have for examples Elijah, who made
fun Of the Baalites when they called down
fire and it did not come, suggesting that their
heather god had gone hunting, or was off on
a journey, or was asleep and nothing but
vociferation could wake him, saying: "Cry
aloud for he is a god; either he is talking or
pursuing or peradventure he sleepeth and
must be awaked." They have an example in
Christ, who with healthful sarcasm showed
up the lying, hypocritical Pharisees, by sug-
costing that such perfect people like them
selves needed no improvements, saying: 1.-THE
whole need not q physician, but they that
arc sick"
But what use are you making of your witt
Is it Eesmirched with profanity and unclean-
nessl 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 contempti Is it a
bunch of nettlesome invectivef Is it bolt
Of unjust scorni Is it fun at others mis-
fortunei Is it glee at their disappointment
and dcfeatl Is it bitterness put drop by drop
into cup? Is it like the squeezing of arte-
misia absinthium into drausht already dis
tastefully pungentl Then you are the star
Norwood Yours is the fun of rattle
snake trying how well it can sting. It is the
fun of a hawk trying how quick it can strike
out the eye of dove.
But will change this, and will suppose
you are a star of worldly prosperity Then
you have large opportunity. You can en-
courage that artist by buying his picture
You can improve tine fields, the stables, the
highway, by introducing higher style of
fowl and horse and COW and sheep. You can
bless the world with genealogical achieve
ment in the orchards. You can advance
arboriculture and arrest this beautiful icono-
cIasm of the American forests. You can put
a piece of sculpture into the niche of that
public academy. You can endow college
You can stocking a thousand bare feet from
the winter frost. You can build church.
You can put missionary of Christ on that
foreign shore. You can help ransom world.
4 rich man with his heart right Can you
toll mo how much good James Lennox or a
George Peabody or Peter Cooper or a Will.
lam T. Dodge did while living, or is doing
now that he is deads There is not a 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 expenses
he should politely ask you to raise his wages
for this year, and you roughly tell him if he
wants a better place to go and get it, Sup
pose 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 to be At
tia, and your last name Attila, because you
are the star Wormwood and you have en-
Filtered 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 un-
dertaiier orders for your funeral in order to
make the occasion respectable, will be filed
with twice as many dry, fearless eyes as there
are persons occupying them. The clumsy
pail bearers may make the gates of your
sepulcher quake by striking your silver
handled coffin against them, but the world
will feel no jar as you go out of 1t.
There is an erroneous idea abroad that
millions of them; that is, men and women
who have especial adaptation and quickness
for some one thing. 1t may be great, 1t may
be small The circle may be like the crcum-
ference of the earth or no larger than O
thimble. There are thousands of geniuses
here this morning, and i'm some one thing
you are a star. What kind Of star are
you. 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
tRn a minute What are we doing with
that minutei Are we enloitterins the domes-
tic, or social. OF political fountains, or are
we like Moses, who, when the Israelites in
the wilderness complained that the waters
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 tho thirst Of the suffering hosti
Are we with n branch of the tree of life
sweetening nj the brackish fountains that
VIC can touchi Dear Lord, send US all out
on thy mission. All around us embittered
lives, embittered by persecution, embittered
by hypercriticism, embittered by poverty,
embittered by pain, embittered by In
justice, embittered by sin. Why not
60 forth and sweeten them by
smile, by inspiring words, by bene-
factions, by hearty counsel, by prayer,
by gospelized 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 10 the only sweetening power
that is sufficient It sweetens the DISPOSE
ton. 1t sweetens the manners. It sweetens
3
It sweetens Affections. 1t sweetens death.
It sweetens everything. have heard people
asked in social company: "If you could have
three wishes gratified what would your three
wishes BET" II l could have three wishes
met this morning tell you what they would
be. First-More Of the grace of God. Sec
ond-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 Is a tree called the emperor
tree, the two characteristics Of which are
that It always grows higher than its sur
roundings, and its leaves take the form of a
crown. II this emperor tree be planted by a
rose bush it grows a little higher than the
bush, and spreads out above It a crown. IL
it be planted by the side Of another tree it
grows little higher than that tree and
spreads above it crown Would God that
this religion Of Christ, more wonderful
emperor tree, might overshadow all your
lives; are you lowly in ambition or circum-
stance, putting over you its crown; are you
high in talent and position, putting over you
its crown. Oh, for more of the saccharine
in our lives and less of the wormwoodi
What is true of individuals is true of ma
tions God sets them up to revolve as stars,
but they may fall NORWOOD.
Tyre-the atmosphere of the desert fra
grant with spices coming In caravans to her
fairs; all seas cleft into foam by the keels of
her laden merchantmen; her markets rich
with horses and camels from Togarmah,
her bazaars filled with upholstery from