The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-04-01

their own grasp. This is what they call
nursing" the job.
How much wrong to his soul and insult
TO God a mechanic would save if he
promised only so much as he expected to
| be able TO do. Society has no right to ask
| OF you impossibiities. You can not al
ways calculate correctly, and you may fail
! because you can not get the help that you
anticipate. But now / am speaking of the
willful making of promises that you know
| you can not keep. Did you say that that
shoe should be mended, that coat repaired,
those bricks laid, that harness wed. that
/ door grained, that spout fixed, or that
| window glazed by Saturday, knowing that
/ you would neither be able to do it your
self nor get any one else TO do il? Then.
| before God and man you are liar. You
| may say that it makes no particular differ
ence, and that if YOU had told the truth
| you would have lost the Job, aud that
people expect TO be disappointed. But
| that excuse will not answer. There is
voice OF thunder rolling among the drills,
and planes, and shoe-lasts, and shears,
which SAYS: "All liars shall have their
part in the lake that burneth with fire and
I birthstone"
l next notice ecclesiastical lies: that is,
falsehoods told for the purpose OF advanc-
ing churches ard sects, or for the purpose
OF depicting them. There is no use in
| asking many a Calvinist what an Armini-
an believes, for he will he apt to tell YOU
that the Arminian believes that a man
con convert himself; or to ask the Armini-
an what the Calvinst believes, for he will
tell you that the CalvinisJ believes that
God made some men just TO damn them.
There is no need of asking a pedo-baptist
what a baptist believes. for he will be apt
tn say that the baptist believes miners
ion to be positively necessary to salvation.
1t is almost impossible for one denomina-
ton of Christians, without prejudice or
misrepresentation, to state the sentiment
OF an opposing sect. Ii man hates pres
byterians, and you ask him what presby-
terians believe, he will tell you that they
believe that there are infants in hell a
span long.
1t is strange, also, how individual
churches will sometimes make misstate-
ments about other individual churches.
1t IS especially so in regard to falsehoods
told with reference TO prosperous enter
prises. AS long as a church is feeble and
the singing is discOrdant and the minister
through the poverty of the church must
q with threadbare coat, and here and
there worshiper sits in the end of q
pew, having all the seat to himself. re-
VIII say: What pity" But, let great
day OF prosperity come, and even ministers
OF the gospel, who ought to be rejoiced at
19e largeness and extent of the work, de-
Nounce and misrepresent, and tasty.
starting the suspicion in regard to them
selves that the reason they do not like the
corn is because it is not ground in their
own mill. How long before we shall learn
TO be fair In our religious criticisms? The
keenest lealousies on earth are church
jealousies. The field of Christian work is
so large that there is no need that our hoe
handles hit.
Next | speak of social lies. This evil
makes much of society insincere. You
know not what to believe. When people
ask you to come you do not know whether
or not they want you to come. When
they send their regards you do not know
whether it is an expression of their heart
or an external civility. We have learned
to take almost everything at discount.
Word is sent, mot at home" when they
are only too lazy to dress themselves.
They say, THE furnace mas Just gone
out" when in truth they have had no
fire in it all winter. They apologize for
the unusual bsrrenness of their table,
when they never live any better. They
decry their most luxurious en-
tertainments to win a shower
of approval. They apologize for their
appearance, as though it were unusual,
when always at home they look Just so.
They would make you believe that some
nice sketch on the wall was the work OF
master painter. at was an heirloom,
and once hung on the walls of castle,
and duke gave it to their grandfather"
when the fact is that painting was made
| by map down East" and baked so as
to make 1t look old, and gold with others
for 50 a dozen. People who will lie about
nothing else will lie about q picture. On
a small income we must make the world
| believe that we are affluent, and our life
becomes a cheat, a counterfeit and
| sham.
Few persons are really natural. When
l say this | do not mean to slur cultured
manners. 1t is right that We should have
more admiration for the sculptured mar
| bic than for the unknown block of the
| quarry. From many circles in life insin-
certify has driven out vivacity and enthu
siasm. A frozen dignity. instead. floats
| about the room and iceberg grinds against
| iceberg. You must not laugh outright
II is vulgar. You must smile. You must
not dash rapidly across the room; you
must glide. There is a round of bows
| anu RIiuS anu udlJeIleS anu OIL s ana
abs and simpering and nambypambv-
ism-a world of which is not worth one
good, round, honest peal of laughter.
From such a hollow round the tortured
| guest retires AT the close of the evening,
and assures his host that he has enioyed
| himself
What a round of insIncerities many peo-
pie run in order TO win the favor OF the
| world. Their life is a sham and their
| death an unspeakable sadness. Alas for
the poor butterflies when the frost strikes
| them.
Compare the life and death of such q
one with that OF some Christian aunt who
was once blessing to your household. l
| do not know that she was ever offered the
hand in marriage. She lived single. that
untrammeled she might be everybody's
| blessing. Whenever the sick were to be
visited, or the poor to be provided with
bread, she went with blessing. She could
| pray, or sing "ROck of Ages for any sick
| pauper who asked her. As she got older,
there were days when she was a
| little sharp, but Tor the most part auntie
| was a sunbeam-just the one for Christ
mas Eve. She knew better than anyone
else how to fix things How every prayer
| as God heard it, was full of everybody who
had trouble. The brightest things in all
the house dropped from her fingers. She
had peculiar notions, but the yrandest no.
/ b, l. 4