The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-05-02

you Lle star oil peace, tne star OF Betnie-
hem, or are you the star WOrmwOod2 How
is II in your community? What is your
influence in your city, your village, your
neighbOrhood Perhaps you are star of
Wit. Does the star shed baleful influence
or good influence? Do YOU use that
splendid faculty to iTadiate the world
or to rankle it? / hail the apOs-
tolic college OF hunbrists. Any man
who makes me laugh at the right
time and in the right place is my benefac-
tor. do not ask any man TO make me
cry. ] can do that without any assistance.
We all cry enough and have enough To
CRY about. God bless the Skiilful punster
and reparteeists and those who PROFOUND
ingenious cOnundrums and mirthfully sur
prise us with unusual juXtapOsitiOn OF
words Charles Lamb and Thomas Hood
and Sidney Smith had divine mission rs
have their successors in our time. The
humoTists stir sacchrine into the acid cup
OF this life The cup OF earthly existence
sometimes becoming stale, they make 1t
ehervesce and bubble. They placate ami
mosities They foster longevity. They
slay follies which all the pulpits OF the
land can not reach. Is your wit, is your
humor besmirched with profanity and un-
cleanneSs? Do you make fun OF the ply
steal defects for which the victim is not re-
powers of mimicry to bring
religion into contempt? Is it mirth at
the misfortune or defeat of anyone? Then
YOU are the star Norwood. Your fun IS
/ like that of rattlesnake trying how we'll
it can sting. Your fun is that OF a hawk
trying how quick it can strike at the eye
of dove. But do you grind the face OF
the poor? Do you keep back wages when
YOU might pay them because the employee
cannot help himself? When one of your
operatives comes TO YOU and says Il
have had great sickness in my household
the past year and much expense; VIII you
raise my wages for this year? and he
speaks to you politely, do you answer HIM
in a rough way, saying; III you want
better place. get it?' Do you act as
though he were nothing and you We're
everything? Are YOU proud and arrogant
aud overbearing? Then you are the star
Norwood, and you have fallen upon
one-third ave, twO-thirds of all the
waters that roll by your en-
ploycs and your dependents and your
associates and the long line OF carriages
at your funeral. ordered by the under
taker in order to make your departure re-
spectacle. will have in them twice as many
dry and fearless eyes 81 there are people
in the carriages. The clumsy pall-beareTs
may make the gates OF your sepulchre
quake by running the sllvcr-handled cas-
ket against them; but there Will be no i4r
in the world because Of your departure.
There IS "A mistaken notion abroad, and
that Is that there are but few, very few
/ geniuses in the world. There are millions
of them BY which / mean people who
have especial adaptation and quicknesS
! for some one thing. 1t may be great, il
NAV be small. That one thing may be
I like the circumference OF the earth, or II
may be like the circumference OF thlm-
bic; but there is something, Oh, man,
/ Oh woman, that you can do better
( than any other man or woman in the
/ universe In that one thing YOU are q
/ star What is its influence? You Will be
I in this world only few minutes. The
! longest life as compared with eternity Is
| only a minute. What are we doing with
/ that minute? All around us embittered
/ lives-embittered by persecution, embit-
/ tered by hypercriticism, embittered by
| pain, embittered by poverty, embittered
/ by injustice, embittered by sin. What are
! we doing TO sweeten the lives of these peo-
pie? Are we embittering still more the
/ domestic, or the social, or the political
/ fountains, or are we initiating Moses, who,
/ when he found that the Lake Mara was
| very bitter and the Israelites could not
| drink of it, cut off q branch from a certain
| tree and threw it into the water, and the
water became so sweet that the suffering
/ host had their thirst saked? Are we en-
/ differing the lives of others, or are We
/ taking the branches of the tree of life and
] throwing them into these embittered
! fountains? Are we exerting good intiu
! ence or q bad influence? There is only
/ one real sweetening power in the universe
/ and that sweetening power Is the religion
! of Jesus Christ. Itsweetens the disposition,
| itsweetens the manners, it swectens PrOvi-
/ dental mysteries, it sweetens affiiction, it
4 sweetens everything. Are We bringing
/ that influence upon those over whom we
/ have any influence? Are we by smiles
! by genial conversation, by hearty counsel,
/ by prayer, by gospelized behavior, trying
/ to make the world happy as well as better?
/ No one can answer the question except he
I answers it for himself have been in
/ social circles where the question was asked
all around: Now, if you had three wishes
+ that you could have gratitied, what would
/ your three wishes be?" Some one said
/ one thing and some another. Ii | had
/ three wishes that could be met ! will tell
/ YOU what they would be. Ny first wish
would be more of the grace of God
/ ["AmenW1 NV second wish would be
U
would be more of the grace OF God. In
/ the dooryard OF my brother John, who is
missionary OF Amey, China, there is a
tree that is called the Emperor tree,
and it has these characteristics.
1t always grows higher than that
which is planted by it, and its leaves
spread forth in the shape of a crown ii
this Emperor tree be planted by rose
bush il grows little higher than the bush
and spreads over il a crown, and ii planted
by tall tree it rises higher than that and
puts over that crown. Oh, this religion
of Jesus Christ is mightier emperor tree
than that Ii your ambitions are lowly,
if you are making no great pretensions in
the world, if your circumstances are hum
BILE, it will put a crown over your life. If
your are mighty, if you have great equip
ments, if you are like cedar of Lebanon
for power, it will put crown over your
life. Oh that the eternal God would help
US to put more of the saccharine in our
life and less of the NORWOOD, for let us
remember that if we are NORWOOD to
other we are NORWOOD TO ourselves.
A Common Sense Book.
THE independently
The bible does not deal exclusively with
| subjects in regard TO which we would 9TH
erwise be wholly ignorant. 1t has much
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