Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-10-17

uOb Plink LndI Tue SIccuyJ hlue-Open jaw
of the grave ought to be satisfied if filed
by natural causes with hundreds of thou
sands Of corpses a year? DO you not
think we can do something better with
men than to dash their life out against
easements or blow them into fragments
by torpedoes or send them out into the
world, where they need all their faculties,
footless, armless, eyeless? Do you not
think that women might be appointed to
an easier place than the edge of grave
trench to wiring their pale hands and
weep out their eyesight in widowhood and
childessness? Why, the last glory has
gone out of war.
There was a time when it demanded that
quality which we all admire-namely,
courage-for a man had to stand at the
b lit of the sword when the point pierced
the foe, and while he was Staying another
the other might slay him or it was bayo-
net charge. But now it is cool and deliber-
ate murder, and clear out at sea a bomb.
shell can be hurried miles away into a city,
or while thousands of private soldiers.
who have no interest in the contest for
they were conscripted, are losing their
lives, their General may sit smoking one
of the best Havana cigars after dinner
for graduating students Of colleges on
commencement day to crate about the
poetry of war, but do not talk about the
poetry of war to the men of the Federal OF
Confederate armies who were at the front
or to some of US who, as members OF the
Christian commission, saw the ghastly
hospitals at Antietam and Hagerstown.
ALL you may worship the Lord of Hosts
I he Id NJ hn hrc oh
again from the dead our Lord Jesus
Christ, that great Shepherd of the sheep"
War is an accursed monster and it was
born in the lowest cavern Of perdition.
and pray that it may speedily descend
to the place from which it arose. its last
sword and shield and musket rafting on
the bottom of the red-hot mari Of hell.
Let there be called a peace convention Of
1892, with delegates sent by all the decent
governments of Christendom, and while
they are in session, IL you should some
night go out and look into the sky abovs
the Exposition buildings you may fine
that the old gallery Of crystal, that was
taken down after the Bethlehem anthem
Of eighteen centuries ago was sung out i.
rebuilt again in the clouds, and the SAME
angelic singers are returned with the
God in the highest and on earth peace
good will TO men,"
Again, 1 suggest in regard 20 the
Worlds Fair that, while appropriate
places are prepared for all foreign exhib-
it's, we make no room for the importation
of foreign vices. America has enough OF
its own, and we need no new installments
of that kind. A Worlds Fair will bring
oil ind ~ hon
good we must prepare to welcome, the
bad we must prepare to shun. The at.
tempt will again be made in 1892. as in
1875 to break up our American Sabbatbs.
The American Sabbath is the best kept
Sabbath on earth. We do not want il
broken down, and substituted in the place
thereof the Brussels Sabb ath, the Vienna
Sabbath, the St Petersburg Sabbath, OF
any of the foreign Sabbaths, which are
no Sabbaths at all l think the Lord is
more than generous in asking only fifty
two out of the 365 days for His service.
You let the Sabbath GO and with it will
go your Bible, and after that your liber-
ties, and your children or grandch ldren
will be here in Amer ca under a despotism
as bad as in those lands where they turn
the Lords day into wassail and frolic.
Among those who will come here will be,
as at other Expeditions. lordly people who
will bring their vices with them. Among
the Dukes and Duchesses and Princes and
Princesses Of other lands are some of the
best men and women of all the earth. Re-
member the Earl of Kintore, Lord Cairns
and Lord Shaftesbury. But there is a
snobbery fiunkeyism in American society
that runs after grandee, Duke, Lord
or Prince, though he may be walking
lazaretto and his breath a plague. 1t
makes the fortune of some of our
queens of society to dance one
cotilion with one of these princely
lepers. Some people can not get
their hat off quick enough when they see
such foreign lord approaching, and they
do not care for the mire into which they
drop their knees as they bow to worship.
Let no splendor or pedigree or any pomp
and paraphernalia of circumstance make
him attractive. There is only one set of
Ten Commandments that ever heard of,
and no class of men or women in all this
world is excused ON obedience to those
laws writ en- by finger of lightning on the
granite surface of Mount Sinai. Surely
we have enough American vices without
making any drafts upon European vices
for 1892
By this sermon / would hav the Nation
made aware of its opportunity and get
ready to improve it. and OF some perks
and get ready to combat them. rejoice
to believe that the advantages will over
top every thing in the Worlds Fair.
What an introduction to each other Of
communities, of States, of Republics, Of
Empires, of zones, of hemispheres! What
doors of information will be swung wide
open for the boys and girls now on tbs
Threshold What national and interna-
tional educationl What crowning of i'm
dustry with sheaves of grain, and what
imperial robing of her with embroidered
fabrics! What scientific apparatus
What telescopes for the infnitude above
and microscopes for the infnitude be-
meath, and the instruments to put nature
to the torture until she tells her last secreti
What display of the munificence of the
God who has grown enough wheat to
make loaf of good bread large enough
for the human race, and enough cotton to
stocking every foot, and enough timber to
shelter every head, making it manifest
that it is not Gods fault, but either mans
oppression or Incidence or dissipation if
there be any without supply.
Under the arches of the chief build
ing of that Exposition let capital and
labor, too long estranged, at last be mar
ried, each taking the hand of each in
pledge of eternal fidelity, while Iepresen-
tations of all nations stand round rejoice
ing at the nuptials. and saying: what
God hath Joined together let not man put
asunder." Then shall the threnody Of the
needlewoman no longer be heard:
Work, work, work.
Till the brain begins TO swim;
Work, work, work.
Till the eyes are heavy and dim
Seam and rvuSset and hand