The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-12-26

CeuaTS Vi LeUbnOh Nc makeb1 Inen
also to skip like 6 calf Lebanon and
Sirion like young unicorn The voice
of the Lord divideth the flames of fire"
As the lion is the monarch Of the
fields and behemoth the monarch of the
waters the cedar is the monarch of
the trees. And l think one reason why
it is so glorif1ed all up and down the
characteristics in our religious life. We
have too much of the willow and are
too easily bent this way or that; too
much Of the aspen and we tremble I'M
der every zephyr of assault; too much
of the bramble tree, and our sharp
points sting and wound; but not enough
Of the cedar, wide branched and heaven
aspiring and tempest graphing. But
the reason that these cedars stand so
we'll is that they are deep rooted They
run their anchors down into caverns of
the mountain and fasten to the very
foundations of the earth and twist and
clinch themselves on the other side of
the deepest layer of rock they can
reach And that Is the difference be-
tween Christians who stand and Chris
tians who fall 1t is the difference
between a superficial character and one
that has clutched its roots deep down
around and under the Rock of Ages.
One of the Lebanon cedars was
examined by scientist and, from it's
concentric circles, it was found to be
8, 500 years old and still standing, and
there is such thing as everlasting
strength, and such a staunchness of
Christian character that all time and
all eternity instead Of being its demoli-
ton shall be its opportunity. Not such
are those vacillating Christians who are
so pious on Sunday that they have no
religion left for the week day. As the
anaconda gorges itself with food and
then seems for a long time to lie
thoroughly insensible. so there are men
who will on Sunday get such a religious
surfeit that the rest of the week they
seem thoroughly dead to all religious
emotion.
The reason that God planted these
cedars in the Bible was to suggest to US
that we ought in our religious charac-
ter, be deep like the cedar. high like
the cedar, broad branched as the cedar.
A traveller measured the spread of the
boughs of one of these trees and found
it Ill feet from branch tip to branch
tip, and have seen cedars of Christian
character that through their prayers
and charities put out one branch to the
uttermost parts of America and another
branch to the uttermost parts of Asia,
and these wide-branched Christians will
keep on multiplying until all the earth
is overshadowed with mercy. But mark
you, these cedars of Lebanon could not
grow if planted in mild climates and
soft air, and in carefully watered gar
dens They must have the gymnasium
and the midnight hurricane to develop
their arms They must play the athlete
with thousand winters before their
feet are rightly planted and their fore
heads rightly lifted and their arms
rightly muscled. And if there be any
other way for developing strong Chris
tan character except by storms of
trouble l never heard of it.
Men and women who hear this or read
this instead of your grumbling because
you have it hard, thank God that you
are in just the best school for making
heroes and heroines 1t is true both
for this world and the next Rock that
baby in cradle cushioned and canopied;
graduate him from that into a costly
high chair and give him a gold spoon:
send him to school wrapped in furs
enough for an arctic explorer; send him
through a college where he will not
have to study in order to get diploma,
because his father is rich; start him in
a profession where he begins with an
Office, the floor covered with Axmin-
lister, and library of books in Russian
morocco, and an arm chair upholstered
like throne, and an embroidered otto
man upon which to put his twelye-dol-
lar CATERS, and then lay upon his table
the best ivory cigar holder you can i'm
port from Brussels, and have standing
outside his door prancing span that won
the prize at the horse fair, and leave
him estate enough to make him indie
pendent of all struggle, and what will
become of him? II he do not die early
of inanition or dissipation, he will live
a useless life, and die an unlamented
death and go into FOOLS eternity.
Butwnat has been the history of most
of the great cedars in merchandise, in
art in law, in medicine, in statesman
ship in Christian usefulness? "John,
get up and milk the COWS: it's late; it's
half-past five in the morning. Split an
armful of wood on your way out so that
we can build the fires for breakfast"
The boys educational advantages,
long oak plank without any back to it,
in country school house, and stove
throwing out more smoke than heat
Pressing on from one hardship to an
other. But after good while fairly on
your feet, and your opportunities widen
ing, and then by some sudden turn you
are triumphant You are master of the
situation and defiant of all earth and
hell A Lebanon cedar!
John Milton on his way up to the
throne of the worlds sacred poesy must
sell his copyright of para iise Lost"
for SD in three payments. And Will
lam Shakespeare on way up to be
acknowledged the greatest dramatist of
all ages must hold horses at the door of
the London theater for sixpence, and
Homer must struggle through total
blindness to Immortality, and John
Bunyan must cheer himself on the way
up by making flute out of his prison
stool, and Canova, the sculptor, must
toll on through orphanage, modelling
lion in butter before he could cut his
statues in marble. And the great
Stephenson must watch COWS in the field
for few pennies and then become a
stoker, and afterward mend clocks be-
fore he puts the locomotive on its track
and calls forth plaudits from Parlia-