The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-09-14

into i'll health, you might hurt them as much
as they have hurt You, but, after all, it Is not
worth while. You only have hurt a hound.
Better be off for the Upper Saranac, into
which the mountains of Gods eternal
strength look down and moor their shadows.
As for your physical disorders, the worst
strychnine o can take Is fretfulness and
the best medicine is religion. I know peo-
pie who were only a little disordered,
yet have fretted themselves into COM
plete valetudinarianism, while others put
their trust in God and came up from the
very shadow Of death, and have lived COM
fortably twenty-five years with only one
lung. A man with one lung, but God with
him, is better off than a goddess man with
two lungs. Some Of you have been for a
long time sailing around Cape Fear when
you ought to have been sailing around Cape
Good Hope. Do not turn back, but go ahead.
The deer will accomplish more with its swift
feet han with its horns.
saw whole chains of lakes in the Adiron-
dacks, and from one height you can see
thirty, and there are said to be over eight
hundred in the great wilderness. So near are
they to each other that your mountain guide
picks upSand carries the boat from lake to
lake, the mall distance between them for
that reason called a "carry." And the realm
OF Gods word is one long chain of bright,
refreshing lakes; each promise a lake, a very
short carry between them, and though for
ages the pursued have been drinking out Of
them, they are full up to the top of the green
banks, and the same David describes them,
and they seem so near together that in three
different places he speaks of them as a con-
tinuous river, saying: "There is a river the
streams whereof shall make glad the city of
God" "Thou shalt make them drink of the
rivers of thy pleasures" ''Thou greatly en-
richest it with the river of God, which is full
of water"
But very many of you who are wronged OF
the world-and il in any assembly between
Sandy Hook, New York, n Golden Gate,
San Francisco, it were asked that all those
that had been sometimes badly treated should
raise both their hands, and full response
should be made, there would be twice as
many hands lifted as persons PRESENT. say
many Of you would declare: "We have al
ways done the best we could and tried to be
useful, and why we should become the vic
TINS Of m~alignment, or invalidism, or mis-
hap, is inscrutable." Why, do you not know
tina the finer a deer and the more elegant its
proportions, and the more beautiful its bear
ing, the more anxious the hunters and the
hounds are to capture 1t? Had that roebuck
q ragged fur and broken hoofs and an obliter-
ated eye and a limping gait, the hunters would
have said: "Pshawl don't let US waste our am
munition on a sick deer" And the hounds
would have given a few shifts of the track,
and then darted Off in another direction for
better game. But when they see a deer with
antlers lifted in mighty challenge to earth
and sky, and the sleek hide looks as If it had
been smoothed by invisible hands, and the
fat sides enclose the richest pasture that
could be nibbled from the bank of rills so
clear they seem to have dropped out Of
heaven, and the stamp Of its foot deies the
jack shooting lantern and the rife, the horn
and the hound, that deer they will nave If
they must needs break their neck In the
rapids. So if there were no noble stuff In
your makeup, if you were a bifurcated moth
ing, if you were a forlorn failure, you would
be allowed to go undisturbed; but the fact
that the whole pack is in full cry after you
is proof positive that yeu are splendid game
and worth capturing. Therefore, sarcasm
draws on you its 'finest bead" Therefore,
the world goes cunning for you with its best
Maynard breech loader. Highest compli-
ment is it to your talent, or your virtue, or
your usefulness. You will be assailed in pro-
portion to your great achievements. The
best and the mightiest being the world ever
saw, had set after him all the hounds,
terrestrial and diabolic, and they Tapped his
blood after the Calvarean massacre. The
world paid nothing to its Redeemer but a
bramble and a cross. Many who have lone
their best to make the world better have had
such a rough time of it that all their pleas.
ure is in anticipation of the next world, and
they could express their own feelings in the
words Of the Baroness of Marin at the close
of her long life:
Would you be young againr
So would not L;
One tear Of memory given;
Onward I'll HE;
LIES dark wave forded DER,
All but at rest on shore,
Say Wv, would Soh; you " plunge Di y Onoe more
ryou might, would you now
Retrace your wayf -
Wander through stormy wilds
Faint and astrayf
Nights gloomy watches fed,
Morning all beaming red,
Hopes smile around US shed,
Heavenward, awayi
Yes; for some people in this world there
seems no let up. They are pursued from
youth to manhood, and from anhood into
old age. Very distinguished are Lord Stat,
fords hounds, and Earl Of Yarborough's
hounds, and the Duke Of Rutland's hounds,
and Queen Victoria pays $500 per year to
her master Of buckhounds. But all of them
put together do not equal In number or
speed or power to hunt down the great
kennel of hounds Of which sin and trouble
are owner and master.
Sui what Is a relief for all those pursuits
Of trouble, and annoyance, and pain, and
bereavement My text gives it to you In q
word Of three letters, but each letter is q
chariot If you would triumph, or a crown II
you a to be crowned, or a lake IL you
would Stake your thirst-yea, q chain of
three letters-G-o-d, the one for whom David
longed, and the one whom David found.
You might as well meet a stag which,
after its sixth mile Of running at
the topmost speed through thicket and
gorge, and with the breath of the dogs on its
heels, has come in full sight of Scroon lake
and tried to cool its projecting and blistered
tongue with a drop of dew from a blade of
grass, as to attempt to satisfy al immortal
soul, when flying from trouble ands sin, with
anything less deep and high n broad and
immense and infinite and eternal than God.
His comfort, why it embossoms all distress
His arm, it wrenches off all bondage. His
hand, it wipes away all tears His Christly |
atonement, It makes us all right with the
past and all right with the future and all
right with God, all right with man, and all
right forever. Lamartine tells us that King
Nimrod said to his three sons: "Here are
three vases, n one is of clay, another OF
amber, and another of gold. Choose now
which you will have" The eldest son, hav-
ing the first choice, chose the vase Of gold, |
on which was written the word 'empire,"
and when opened it was found to contain
human blood. The second son, making the
next choice, chose the vase of amber, in
scribed with the word "glory," and when
opened it contained the ashes Of those who
were once called great The third son took
the vase of clay, and opening ii, found 1t
empty, but on the bottom Of it was inscribed
the name Of God. King Nimrod asked his
courtiers which vase they thought weighed
the most. The avaricious men of his court
said the vase of gold. The poets said the one
of amber. But the wisest men said the
empty vase, because one letter of the name
Of God outweighed a universe.
For hin l thirst; for his grace I beg; on
his promise / build my all Without him ]
cannot be happy. I have tried the world,
and it does well enough as far as 1t goes, but
1t is too uncertain a world, too evanescent q
world. l am not a prejudiced witness. ]
have nothing against this world. / have
been one of the most fortunate, or, to use q
more Christian word, one of the most blessed
OF men-blessed in my parents, blessed in the
place Of my nativity, blessed in my health,
blessed in my field of work, blessed In q
natural temperament, blessed In my family,
blessed in my opportunities, blessed in my
comfortable livelihood, blessed In the hope
that my soul will go to heaven through the
pardoning mercy Of God, and my body,
unless it be lost at sea or cremated