The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-10-19


| trying TO bring to bear some one of
thousand Christian influences. You
would not have to go far. II. for instance,
you know among your acquaintance a
young woman who is apt to appear on the
streets about the hour when gentlemen
return from business and you find her re-
spending to the smile of strangers, hogs
that lift their hat, go to her and plainly
tell her that nearly all the destroyed wom-
anhood of the world began the downward
path with that very kind of behavior.
Ur if, for instance. you find a woman in
! financial distress and breaking down in
health and spirits trying to support her
children. now that her husband is dead or
an invalid, doing that very important and
honorable work. but which is little appre-
ciated. keeping boarding house, where
| all the guests, according as they pay
small board or propose, without paving
| any board at all, to decamp. are critical of
avery thing and hard to please, busy your
| selves in trying to get her more patrons
aud tell her of divine sympathy. Yea, il
you see a woman favored of fortune and
with all kindly surroundings. find
ing in the hollow batteries of the
world her chief regalement living
for herself and for time as il there
were no eternity, strive to bring her into the
kingdom of God, as did the ether day a
Sabbath school teacher who was the means
of the conversion of the daughter of man
of immense wealth, and the daughter re-
solved to join the church and she went
home and said: Father. | am going to
join the church and / want you to come"
30, no." he said. Il never 90 to church,
''Well," said the daughter, ''if [ were
going to be married, would you not go to
see me married." And he said, 20. yes.'i
"Well," said she. "this is of more impor-
lance than that" So he went and has
gone ever since and loves to go. |
do not know but that faithful Sabbath
school teacher not only saved a woman
but saved a man. There may be in
this audience gathered from all parts of
the world, the most cosmopolitan assembly
in all the earth. there may be man whose
behavior toward womanhood has been
perfdious. Repent. Stand up, thou mas
terpiece of sin anil death. that l may
charge you. As far as possible, make
reparation. Do not boast that you have
her in your power and she can not help
herself. When that fine collar and cravat
and that elegant suit of clothes comes of
and your uncovered soul stands in judg-
ment and before God you will be better of
if you save that woman.
There is another exploit you can do, and
that is to save a child. A child does not
seem to amount to much. It is nearly a
year old before it can walk. For the first
year and a half it can not speak a word.
For the first ten years it would starve if it
had to earn its own food. For the first
fifteen years its opinion on any subject is
absolutely valueless. And then there are
so many of them nv. what lots OF chill
dren. And some people have contempt for
children. They are good for nothing but
to wear out the carpets and break things
and keep you awake nights crying. Well,
your estimate Of child is quite different
from that mothers estimate who lost her
child this summer. They took it to the
salt air of The seashore aud to the tonic air
Of the mountains, but no help came. and
the brief paragraph Of its life is ended.
Suppose that life could be restored by
purchase, how much would that bereaved
mother give.
Come. all We surveyors of the earth and
bring link and chain, and measure if you
can its possible possessions. Come, all We
astronomers of the earth, with your tele-
scopes, and tell us if you can see the range
of its eternal fight. Come, all We chronol-
ogists, and calculate the decades on de-
cades, the centuries on centuries, the cycles
on cycles, the eternities on eternities of its
lifetime. o, TO save a child! Am not
right in putting that among the great ex-
ploits: Yea, it beats the other two, for if
YOU save the child you save the
man or YOU save the woman. Get
the first twenty years of that boy
i'll lr,.- T
manhood or womanhood all right and
their entire earthly and eternal career all
right. But what are you going to do with
those children who are worse off than If |
their father or mother had died the day
they were born: There are tens OF
thousands of such. Their parentage was
against them. Their name is against them. |
The structure of their skulls is against |
them. Their nerves and muscles contami. |
mated by the inebriety or dissoluteness of |
their parents, they are practically at their |
birth laid out on plank in the middle of |
the Atlantic ocean in an equinoctial |
gale and told to make for shore. |
The first greeting they get from
the world is to be called brat or a rag
muffin or a wharf-rat. What to do with |
them is the question often asked. There |
that is, what are they going to do with us: |
They will, ten or eleven years from now,
have as many votes as the same number Of |
well-born children. and they will hand |
this land over to anarchy and political /
damnation Just as sure as we neglect |
them. Suppose We each one Of US save a |
boy or save a girl You can do it. Will |
you: l will. Take a cake of perfumed |
soap and a fne-toothed-comb and New
Testament and a little candy and prayer
and a piece of cake and faith in God and |
common sense, and begin this afternoon.
But how shall we get ready for one or
all of these three e1ploitss We shall
make a dead failure il in our own strength
we try to save q man or woman or child.
But my text suggests where we are to get
equipment. The people that do know
their God shall be strong. and do exploits."
We must know Him through Jesus Christ
in our own salvation and then we shall
have His help in the salvation of
others. And while you are saving
strangers You may save some of
your own kin. You think your
brothers and sisters and children and
grandchildren all safe, but they are
not dead and no one is safe till he is dead.
On the English coast there was a wild
storm and a wreck in the ofiiug and the
cry was: Man the lifeboat-" But Harry,
the usual leader or the sailors crew, was
not TO be found. and they went without
him and brought back all the shipwrecked
people except one. By this time Harry.
the leader of the crew, appeared and said:
why did you leave that one:" The
answer was: He could not help him.
self az all and we could not get him into
the boat" 'Man the lifeboat," shouted
Harry, .tand We will go for that one."
NO" said the aged mother standing by,