The Russellville Democrat., 1890-12-25


 committing assault and battery on those intruders, who come with pale faces and stories of distress and subscription papers The reason that God planted these cedars in the Bible was to suggest to. us that we ought, in our religious character, to 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 one hundred and eleven feet from branch tip to branch tip, and l 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 Leba- non could not grow if planted in mild climates and in soft air, and in careful ly-watered gardens. They must have the gymnasium of the midnight hurri- cane to develop their arms. They must play the athlete with thousand win ters before their feet are rightly plant ed and their foreheads rightly lifted and their arms rightly muscled. And if there be any other way for developing strong Christian character except by storms of trouble, never heard of it. Call the roll of martys, call the roll of the prophets, call the roll of the Apos ties, and see which of them had an easy time of it. Which of these cedars grow in the warm valleys? Not one of them. Honeysuclxles thrive best on the south side of the house, but cedars in q Syrian whirlwind Men and women who hear this, or read this, in- stead 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; grad uate him from that into a costly high chair and give him 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 a diploma. be- cause his father is rich; start him in a profession where he begins with an office the floor covered with Administer, and library of books in Russian morocco. and an arm chair upholstered like throne, and an embroidered otto man upon which to put his twelve-dol- lar gaiters. and then lay upon his table the best ivory cigar holder you can i'm port from Brussels, and have standing outside his door a prancing span that won the prize at the horse fair, and leave him estate enough to make him independent of all struggle, and what will become of him? If he do not die early of hamilton or dissipation, he will live a useless life, and die an unla- mented death and go into fools eter- nifty.
 But what has been the history of most of the great cedars in merchandise, in art, in law, in medicine, in statesman ship, in Christian usefulness? 'sJohn, get up and milk the cows: it's late, it's 5;30 in the morning. Split an armful of wood on your way out, so that we can build the fires for breakfast. Put your bare feet on the cold oil-cloth, and break the ice in your pitcher before you can wash; it has been showing and drifting again last night, and we will have to break the roads" The boys educa- tional 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 another. After a while a position on salary or wages small enough to keep life, but keep at its lowest ebb. Starting in occupation or business with prosperous men trying to fight you back at every step. But after a good while fairly on your feet, and your opportunities widening, and then by some sudden turn you are tri- umphant. You are master of the situa- tion and defiant of all earth and he'll Lebanon cedar. John Milton on his way up to the throne of the worlds sa- cred poesy, must sell his copyright of Paradise Lost" for seventy-two dollars in three payments. And William Shak- speare, on his way up to be aclnowl- edged the greatest dramatist of all ages, must hold horses at the door of the London theater for a 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 a lion in butter before he could cut his stat ues in marble. And the great Stephenson must watch cows in the field for few pennies and then become stolser, and afterward mend clocks before he puts the locomotive on its track and calls forth plaudits from Parliaments and medals from Kings Abel Stevens is picked up anegleeted child of the street, and rises through his sconsecrated genius to be one of the most illustrious clergy men and historians of the century. And Bishop James, of the same church, in boyhoc1 worked his passage from Ire land to America, and up to useful ness, where, in the Bishopric. he was second to no one who ever adorned it.
 While in punishment Xenophon wrote his Anabasis and Thucydides his His tory of the Peloponnesian War" Victor Hugo must be exiled for many years to the Island of Guernsey before he can tbiit bo ltidN hSlEhb III Aiit hlltG- tions of his countrymen, that crowds Champs Elysees, and the adjoining boulevards with one million mourners, as his hearse rolls down to the Church of the Madeleine Oh, it is a tough old world and it will keep you back and keep you down, and keep you under as long as it can. Hail, sons and daugh- ters of the firel
 stand, as the anvil when the stroke of stal
 wart men falls fierce and fast.
 storms but more deeply root the oak whose
 brawny arms embrace the blast.
 stand ike an anvil; noise and heat are born
 of earth and die with time;
 The Soul, like God. It's source and seat, is
 solemn, still, serene, sublime,
 Thirty years from now the foremost men in all occupations and professions will be those who are this hour in aw-