New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-05-02

/ any of you have to wait very long before
: your mouse Is stiller than you want it. Alas.
that there are SO many homes not known to
the Society for the Prevention OF Cruelty to
! Children, where children are put on the
| limits and whacked and cuffed and ear-pulIed
and senselessly called to order and answered
sharp and suppressed until 1T is wonder
that under such processes they do not all
turn out AIodocs and Mana sahibs.
What is your influence upon the ne1gf1bor.
hood. the town, or the city OF your residence
will suppose that you are star of wit.
What kind OF rays do you shoot forth? DO
you use that splendid faculty to irradiaie
the world or to rankle it? I bless all the
apostolic college of humorists. The man that
makes me laugh is my benefactor. [ do not
thank anybody to make me CRY. j can do
, THAT without any assistance. We all cry
enough and have enough to cry about. God
bless all skill1ul punsters, all reparteeists. ali
propounders OF ingenious conundrums, AL
those WHO mrthfuliy surprise us with I'M
usual JuXtapoSltlon OF words. Thomas
Hood and Charles Lamb and Sidney Smith
had divine mission, and SO have their sue
cessors in these times. They stir into the
acid beverage Of life the saccharine. They
make the cup of earthly existence, which is
sometimes stale, effervesce, and bubble
They placate animoslties. They foster
longevity. They STAY 1ollies and absurdities
Which all the sermons of all the puipits can
not reach. They have for examples Elijah,
who made fun Of the Baalites when they
called down ire and it did not come, sug-
costing that their heather god had gone
hunting or was OFF on journey or was asleep
and nothing but moderation could wake
him, saving: Cry aloud, for he lsa god;
either he is talking OF pursuing, or perad-
venture he sleepeth and must be awaked."
they have an example in Christ, who with
he althful sarcasm showed up the lying, hypo-
critical Pharisees by suggesting that such
perfect people like themselves needed no
improvements, saying: ''The whole need
not physician but they that are sick"
But what use are you making Of your wit?
Is it besmrched with profanity and uncean-
ness? DO you employ it III amusement at
physical defects for which the victims are
not responsible? Are your powers of mimi
cry used to put religion in contempt? Is it
4 bunch Of nettlesome lnvective? Is it
bolt Of unjust scorn? Is it fun at others
misfortune? Is it glee at their disappoint-
ment and defeat? Is it bitterness put drop
by drop into cup? Is 1T like the squeezing
of a,temlsla absiathiUm in draugnt al
ready dlstastetully pungent? Then you are
the star Wormwood Yours is the fun of a
rattlesnake trying how we'll it can sting. 1t
! is the fun of Il hawk trying how qucih it can
strike out the eve Of a dove.
But l 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 the fields, the stables the
highway, by introducing higher style of
fowl and horse and COW and sheep You can
bless the world with pomological achieve
ment in the orchards. You can advance ar
horticulture are arrest this beautiful icono-
clasm 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 Thousand bare feet from
the winter frost. You can build church.
You can puta missionary of Christ on that
foreign shore. You can help ransom world.
A ricn man with his heart ught-can you
tell me how much good a James Lennox or
George Peabody or Peter Cooper ora Will
lam %: Dodge did while living or is doing
now that he is dead? There is not CITY,
specimens OF cOnsecrated wealth.
But suppose you grind the face of the
poor. suppose when a mans wages are due
you make him wait for them because he can
not 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 loughly tell him if he
wants better place to go and get it. Sup
pose by your manner you act as though he
were nothing and you We're everything.
Suppose you are selfish and oyerbearing 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-thlrds of the
waters that roll past your employees and op-
eratives and dependents and associates, and
the long line Of carriages which the under
taker orders for your funeral in ordar to
make the occasion respectable will be filled
with twice as many dry, fearless eyes as
there are persons occupying them. The
clumsy pall-bearers may make the gates of
your sepulcher quake by striking your sill
yer handled coffin against them but the
world viii feel no jar as you go out of it.
There IS an erroneous idea abroad that
there are only a few geniuses. There are
millions of them-that IS men and women
Who have especial adaptation and quickness
for some one thing. 1t may be great, it may
be small. The circle may be like tile circum-
ference OF the earth Or no larger Than a
thimbe. There are thousands OF geniuscs
here this morning, and in some one thing
YOU are star. What kind of star are YOU?
You will be i'll this world but a few minutes.
AS compared with eternity the stay OF the
longest lite on earth is not more than a min.
Ute. What are we doing with that minnie?
Are we embittering the domestic or social
or political fountains, or are we like Moses,
who, when the lsraelites in the wilderness
complained that the waters IN 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 host? Are we with a branch of
the tree of life sweetenirg all the brackish
fountains that we can touch? Dear Lord,
send us all out on Thy mission. All around
us embittered lives, embittered by persecu-
ticn, emlittered by hypercrticism, embit.
tered by poverty, embittered by injustice,
embittered by sin. Why not go forth and
ssweeten them by smile, by inspiring words,
by benefactions, by hearty counsel, by
prayer, by gospelizing behavior. Let us
remember thatif we are wornwood to 9th
ers we are wormWood to ourselves, and our
life will be bitter and our eternity bitter.
The gospel Of Jesus Christ is the only sweet
ening power that is sufficient. Itsweetens
the disposition. Itsweetens the manners. 1t
sWeetens life. Itsweetens mysterious proyi-
dences. ltsWeetens atflictions. 1t sWeeteus
death. 1t sweetens everything. l have
heard people asked in social company: eff