The Iola register., 1891-01-30

those who would like practical comfort.
IL any ever escape the struggle of life,
have not found them. They are not
certainly among the prosperous classes.
In most cases it is a struggle all the
way up till they reach the prosperity,
and since they have reached these
HEIGHTS there have been perplexities,
axieties and crises which were almost
enough to shatter the nerves and turn
the brain. 1t would be hard to tell
which have the biggest fight in this
world-the properties or the adversi-
ties, the conspicuties or the obscurities.
just as soon as you have enough sue
cess to attract the attention of others,
the envies and jealousies are let loose
| from their kennel. The greatest crime
you can commit in the estimation of
others is to get on better than they do.
They think your addition is their sub
traction. Five hundred persons start
for certain goal of success; one reaches
it and the other 499 are mad.
| 1t would take volumes to hold the
story of the wrongs, outrages and de-
falcations that have come upon you as
result of your success. The warm
sun of prosperity brings into life a
swamp full of annoying insects. On
the other hand the unfortunate classes
have their struggles for maintenance.
To achieve ivlihood by one who had
nothing to start with, and carry this on
until children are reared and educated
and fairly started in the world, and to
do this amid all the rivalries of busi-
ness and uncertainties of crops and the
tickleness of tariff legislation, with an
occasional labor strike and here and
there financial panic thrown in, is a
mighty thing to do, and there are hun
dreds and thousands such heroes and
heroines who live unsung and die I'M
honored. What we all need, whether
up or down in life or half way between,
is the infinite solace of the Christian re-
ligion. And so we employ the word
''Come" 1t will take all eternity to
find out the number of business men
who have been Strengthened by the
promises of God, and the people who
have been fed by the ravens when other
resources gave out, and the men and
women who, going into this battle
armed only with needle or saw, or AK,
or yardstick, or pen, or type, or shovel,
or shoe-last have gained a victory that
made the heavens resound. With all
the resources of God promised for every
emergency, no one need be left in the
lurch. ..-.
like the faith displayed years ago in
Drury Lane, London, in an humble
home where every particle of food had
given out, and kindly soul entered
with tea and other table supplies, and
found a fire ready for the tea. The
benevolent lady said: ''How is it that
you have the kettle ready for the tea
when you have no tea in the house?"
And the daughter of the home said:
Mother would have me put the kettle
on the fire, and when | said, what is
the use of doing so. when we have
nothing in the house? she said my
child, God will provide: thirty years he
has already provided for me through all
my pain and helplessness, and he will
not leave me to starve at last. He will
send us help. though we do not yet see
how We have been waiting all the
day for something to come, but until
we saw you we knew not how it was to
come"
Such things the world call coinci-
dences, but l call them almighty de-
liverences and, though you do not hear
of them, they are occurring every hour
of the day in all parts of Christendom.
But the word Come" applied to those
who need solace will amount to nothing
unless it be uttered by some one who
has experienced that solace. That
spreads the responsibility of giving this
gospel call among a great many. Those
who have lost property and been con-
soled by religion in that trial. are the
ones to invite those who have failed in
FbusineSS. Those who have lost their
health and been consoled by religion
are the ones to invite the ones who are
in poor health. Those who have had
bereavements and been consoled in
those bereavements are tho ones to
sympathize with those who have
lost father or mother or companion or
friend. What multitudes of us are alive
to-day and in good health and buoyant
in this journey of life, who would have
been broken down or dead long ago but
for the sustaining and cheering help of
our holy religion. So we say, Come
The well is not dry. The buckets are
not empty. The supply is not exhaust
ed. There is Just as much mercy and
coincidence and soothing power in God
as before the first grave was dug, or the
first tear was started, or the first heart
broken, or the first accident happened
or the first fortune vanished. Those of
US who have felt the consolatory power
of religion have a right to speak out of
our own experience and say, Come"
What dismal work of coincidence the
world makes when it attempts to con-
dole! The plaster they spread does not
stick. The broken bones under their
bandage do not knit. A farmer was
lost in the snow storm on a prairie of
the far West. Night coming on and
after he was almost frantic from not
knowing which way to go his sleigh
struck the rut of another sleigh and he
said: 81 will follow this rut and it will
take me out to safety" He hastened on
until he heard the bells of the preced-j
ing horses, but, coming up, he found
that that man was also lost aud, as is
the tendency of those who are thus con-
fused in the forest or on the moors,
they were both moving in a circle and
the runner of the one lost sleigh was
following the runner of the other lost
sleigh round and round. At last it oc-
CURED to them to look at the north star,
which was peering through the night,