The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-12-07

tue iuleTnul CruSaue, ne says 10 Que Oh MS
sergeants: go up to Brooklyn and in
such a street, on such a corner, get that
gossiping woman, and she will be glad to
do it." And sure enough, like hungry
| fish, she takes the hook i'm her mouth, and
| Satan slackens the line and lets her run
out farther and farther, until after awhile
| he says: SIT is time to haul in that line"
and with few strong pulls he brings her
to the beach of fire. What do you say!
| That she was member of the church: l
can not help that.
When Satan goes a-fishing he does not
care what school the fish belong to, whether
il is 4 Presbyterian mackerel or an Epis.
copalian salmon. Amidst the thunder
crash of Sinai God said: "Thou shalt not
bear false witness against thy neghbor."
And in Leviticus he says: "Thou shalt not
go up and down as a tale-bearer." Take
not into your ear that scum of hell that
people call tittle-tattle. Whosoever will
ingly listens to SANDER is equally guilty
with the one who tells it, and an old writer
says they ought both to be hung, the one
by the tongue and the other by the enr.
Do rot smile upon such spaniel, lest like
| a pleased dog, he put his dirty paw upon
you. Throw back the shutter of your soul,
o Christian men and women, and see if
there be within you a vulture with filthy
talons and cruel beak. Let not this I'M
clean thing roost in your soul, for my text
says: aye shall hold in abomination among
the fowls the vuIture."
Again, taking the suggestion of the text,
drive out the bat from your soul. No
wonder God set this bird among the UNI
clean. 1t is an offense to every one. Let
it fly into the window of a summer night,
and all hands, young and old, are against
it 1t is half bird and half mouse. 1t
seems made partly to walk and partly to
fly, and does neither well; and becomes
an emblem of those Christians who try to
cling to earth and Heaven at the same
time. They want to walk on earth in
worldliness and yet fly toward Heaven in
spirituality; and their soul, between feet
and wings, is constantly perplexed. o,
my brethren, be one thing or the other!
Choose the world if you prefer it, and see
how much applause you can gain, and
how large a business you can establish,
and how grand a house you can build, and
how fast a span of horses you can drive.
You may be prospered until you can fail
for 500, 600, instead of having the disgrace
of failing for only $4,000 as some unenter-
prising people do.
1t is quite reward to be able for ten or
twenty years to be called one of the solid
men of Brooklyn or Boston, and then, to
make your fortune last as long as posi-.
bic, we will give you a splendid funeral
and you shall have twenty-five carriages
following you, with somebody in most of
them, and your coffin shall have silver
handles on the sides, and we will mourn
for you in splendid pocket-handkerchefs
bound with Grape, and with bombazine
full twenty yards long. trailing half across
the parior, so that all the company may
stand upon it, and we will write our letters
for the next six months on paper edged
with black But, my friends, your worldly
fortunes will not last. 1 will buy out now
all that you will be worth in worldly
estate seventy-five years from now. l
have the money in my pocket with which
to do it. Here it is! Two cents. 1t is a
large sum to offer for all you will possess
at the close of seventy-ifve years. Choose
the world, if you will; but, if not.
then choose Heaven. That estate lies
partly on this side of the river, but mostly
on the other. 1t is ever accommodating.
The prospects of it makes one independent
of earthly misfortunes; so that Rogers,
fore his burning, they violently shook him
in order 10 get him awake in time for the
execution; and Paul exults at the thought
of the "joy unspeakable and full of glory"
o, choose earth or Heaven! Make up your
mind whether you will walk in earthly
joys, or fly with Heavenly expectations.
Be not a bat, fit neither to walk nor fly,
having just enough of Heaven to spoil
-orlA nd Of Il 10,
spoil Heaven. Christ says that your pres
ent condition nauseatss him to positive
sickness: Because thou art neither cold
nor hot, 1 will spew thee out of my mouthv'
In the ruins of Pompeii there was found
a petritied woman, who instead of trying
to fly from the destroyed city had spent
her time iii gathering up her jewels. She
saved neither her life nor her jewels
There are multi:udes making the same
mistake. In trying TO get earth and
Heaven they lose both. I'VE cen not serve
God and Mammon.: Be one thing or the
other. Tread the earth like q lion. or
mount the air like the eagle. for my text
says: We shall have in abomination
among the fowls, the bat"
Again, taking the suggestion of the
text, drive out the chameleon from your
soul. There is some difference among
good men as to the name of this creeping
thing which God pronounced unclean, but
| shall take the opinion which seems best
suited to my purpose. The chameleon is a
reptile, chiefly known by its chaTgeab!e-
ness of color, taking the color Of the thing
next to it, sometimes brown, sometimes
red and sometimes gray, but always the
color of its surroundings, type of that
class of Christians who are now
one thing in religious faith and now
another, just to suit circumstances, always
taking its color of religious belief and the
man they are talking to- They so to one
place and are first water Unitarians Jesus
was q good man, but nothing more" They
90 to Princeton and they are Trinitarians,
almost willing TO die for the divinity of
Jesus. Among the Universalists they Ie-
fuse the idea of future punishment; and
going among those Of opposite belief, an
nounce that there is a hell w.th a gusto
that makes you think they are glad of it.
Drive out that unclean chameleon from
your soul Do not be ever changing the
color of your faith.
NV friends, liberal Christianity, falsely
so-called, believes in nothing. God is any
thing you want to make Him. The Bible
to be believed in SO far as you like it
Heaven a grand mixing up of Neros and
PauIs. The man who dies by suicide in
his right mind in the year 1888, beating
into glory by ten years the Christian man
who dies Christian death in 1885, the
lsuicide proving himself wiser than the
Christian. o, my friends, let us try to be-
lieve in something. An inidel was called
to the bedside of his daughter. The
daughter said: "Father, which shall l
believe. you or mother: Mother took the
religion of Christ, and died in its embrace.