The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-04-22

shining?" "No," saith the star, II will
not sleep. guide the sailoron the sea.
1 cheer the traveller among the mount
aims help up the dew with light.
Through the window OF The poor mans
cabin l cast a beam of hope, and the
child on her mothers lap asks in glee
whittier L come and what L do and
whence go. To CLEAN and glitter God
sent me here. Away! 1 nave no time
! to sleep"
The snowflake comes struggling down.
'Frail, tickle wanderer, why comest
thou here?" 81 am no idle wanderer,
responds the snowflake. High up in
the air L was born, the child of the rain
and the cold, and at the Divine behest
l come, and am no straggler, for God
tells me where to put my crystal heel
To help cover the roots of the grain and
grass, to cleanse the air, to make sports
men more happy and the ingle fire more
bright come. Though so light l am
that you toss me from your muller and
crush me under your foot, l am doing
my best to fulfill what was made for.
| Clothed in white l come on a heavenly
mission, and, when my work is done
and God shall call, in morning yapor l
shall go back, drawn by the fiery course
of the SUM-" ''What doest thou, insig-
nificant grass blade under my feet?" Il
am doing a work." says the grass blade,
''as best can. help to make up the
soft beauty of field and lawn. l am
satisfied, if, with millions of others no
bigger than !, we can give pleasure to
/ the fiOcks and herds. am wonderfully
made. He who feeds the ravens gives
me sustenance from the soil and breath
from the air, and He who clothes the
| lilies of the field rewards me with this
coat of green.'' For what, lonely
cloud, goest thou across the heavens|'
| Through the bright air voice drops
from afar, saying: "Up and down this
| sapphire floor pace to teach men that,
like me, they are passing away. l
gather up the waters from lake and sea,
and, then, when the thunders toll, re-
fresh the earth, making the dry ground
to laugh with harvests of wheat and
fields of corn. i catch the frown of the
storm and the hues of the rainbow. AT
evening tide on the western slopes /
will pitch my tent, and over me shall
dash the saffron and the purple and the
fire of sunset. a pillar of cloud like me
led the chosen across the desert, and
surrounded by such as | the Judge of
Heaven and earth will at last descend,
for behold He cometh with clouds!' o,
my friends, if everything in the mani
mate world be useful, let us immortal
men and women be useful, and, in that
respect, be like the palm tree.
Notice that it was a beautiful and
lawful robbery of the palm tree that
helped make up Christ's triumph on the,
road to Jerusalem that Palm Sunday.
The long, broad, green leaves that were
streSn under the feet of the colt and in
the way of Christ were torn off from
the trees. What pity, some one might
say, that these stately and graceful
trees should be despoiled. The glory
of the palm tree was appropriately sac
rificed for the Saviours triumphal pro-
cession. So it always was, so it always
will be in this world-no worthy tri-
umph of any sort without the tearing
down of something else. The greatest
pictures OF the world had in their rich
est coloriHg the blood of the artists who
made them American independence
was triumphant. but it moved on over
the lifeless forms of tens of thousands
of forms of men who fell at Bunker
Hill and Yorktown and the battles
between, which were the hemorrhages
of the nation. The kingdom of
God advances in all the earth, but it
must be over the lives of missionaries
who die of malaria in the junglcs, of
Christian workers who preach and pray
and toll and die in the service. The
Saviour triumphs in all directions-but
beauty and strength must be torn down
| from the palm trees of Christian hero
ism and conservation and thrown in his
pathway. To what better use COULD
those palm trees on the southern shoul-
der of Mount Olivet and clear down into
the valley of GethsenEine put their
branches than surrender them for the
making of Christ's journey toward Je-
rllsalem the more picturesque, the more
memorable and the more triumphant?
| And to what better use could we put
our lives than into the sacrifice for
Christ and his cause and the happiness
of our fellow creatures Shall we not
be willing to be torn down that right
eousness shall have triumphant way?
Christ was torn down for us. Can we
not afford to be torn down for Him? If
Christ could suffer so much for US, can
we not suffer little for Christ?
The process is going on every moment
| in all directions. What makes that
father have such hard work to find the
hymn to-day? He puts on his spectacles
and holds the book close up, and then
holds it far off. and is not quite sure
whether the number of the hymn is $50
or $50, and the fingers with which he
turns the leaves are very clumsy. He
J Stoops a good deal, although once
straight as an arrow and his eyes Were
keen as hawks, and the hand he of
! fered to his bride on the marriage day
was of goodly shape and as God made it.
l will tell You what is the matter.
Forty years ago he resolved his family
should have no need, and his children
| should be we'll educated and suffer none
OF the disadvantages of lack of schooling
from which he had suffered for a life
time and that the wolf of hunger should
never put its paw on his door sill, and
for forty or fifty years he has been
tearing off from the palm tree of
his physical strength and manly
form branches to throw in the pathway
of his household. 1t has cost him
muscle and brain and health and eye
sight. and there have been twisted off
more years from his life than any man
in the crowd on the famous Palm Sun
dav twisted off branches from the palm