The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-12-29

which they arc often jostled. and
looked at by some one who seems to
say in the look: "Move on! what are
you doing here looking at pictures?"
Yet many of them live on mountains
of TRANSPORTATION. At their rough
table He who fed the 5000 breaks the
bread They talk often of the good
times that are coming This world has
no charm for them, but Heaven en-
frances their spirit. They often divide
| their scant crust with some forlorn
wretch who knocks at the door at night,
and on the blast of the night wind, as
the door opens to let them in, is heard
the voice of Him who said: 81 was hun.
cry and he fed Me-" No cohort of
Heaven will be too bright to transport
them By Gods help they have van
pushed the Assyrian host. They have
divided among themselves the spoils
Lame. lame, yet they took the prey.
A step farther: There are in all COM
munities many orphans During our
last war and in the years Immediately
following, how many children at the
north and south we heard say, 'Oh!
my father was killed in the war. "
Have you ever noticed-I fear you have
not-how well those children have
turned out? Starting under the greatest
disadvantage, no orphan asylum could
do for them what their father would
have done had he lived. The skirmish-
er sat one night by the light of fagots,
in the swamp, writing letter home,
when a sharpshooter's bullet ended the
letter which was never folded,
never posted and never read.
Those children came up under
great disadvantage. No father
to fight their way for them. Perhaps
there was in the old family Bible an
old yellow letter pasted fast, which
told the story. of that fathers long
march. and how he suffered in the hos
pital; but they looked still further on
in the Bible, and they came to the story
of how God is the Father of the father
less, and the widows portion, and they
soon took their fathers place in that
household. They battled the way for
their mother. They came on up, and
years since the war, taken positions in
church and state, north and south.
While many of those who suffered
nothing during those times have had
sons go out into lives of Incidence and
vagabondage, these who started under
so many disadvantages because they
were SO early bereft, these are the lame
who took the prey.
A step farther: There are those who
would like to do good They say: "Oh!
If only had wealth, or if 1 had elo-
quence, or if had high social position,
how much would accomplish for God
and the church, 1 stand here to-day
to tell you that you have great oppor-
tunities for usefulness.
Who built the pyramids? The king
who ordered them built? No; the plain
workmen who added stone after stone
and stone after stone. Who built the
bikes of Holland? The government that
ordered the enterprise? No; the plain
workmen who carried the earth
and rung their trowels on the
wall. Who are those who have
built these vast cities? The capital
lists? No; the carpenters, the masons,
the plumbers, the plasterers, the tin
ners, the roofers, dependent on days
wages for livelihood. And SO in the
great work of assuaging human suffer
ing and enlightening human ignor-
ance and hating human iniquity. In
that great work the chief part is to be
done by ordinary men, with ordinary
speech, in an ordinary manner, and by
ordinary means.
The trouble is that in the army of
Christ we all want to be captains and
colonies and brigadier-generals. We
are not willing to march with the rank
and file and do duty with the private
soldier. We want to belong to the re-
serve corps, and read about the battle
while warming ourselves at the camp
fires, or on furlough at home, our feet
upon an ottoman, we sagging back
into an armchair.
Oh! my friends, why do you not go to
work and preach the gospel? You say:
~ have no pulpit" You have. 1t
may be the carpenters bench, it may
be the mason's wall The robe in
which you are to proclaim this gospel
may be a shoemaker's apron. But woe
unto you if you preach not this gospel
somewhere, somehow! If this world is
ever brought to Christ it will be
through the unanimous and 1ong-con-
tinued efforts of men who, waiting for
no special endowment, consecrate to
God what they have. Among the most
useless people in the world are men
with ten talents, while many a one
with only two talents, or no talent at
all, is doing great work, and SO ''the
lame take the prey"
/ have noticed that the chief charac-
teristic of the most of those who are
successful in the work is that they
know their Bibles, are earnest in
prayer, are anxious for the salvation
of the young, and Sabbath by Sabbath
are willing to sit down unobserved and
tell of Christ and the resurrection.
These are the humble workers who are
recruiting the great army of Christian
youth-not by might, not by power,
not by profound argument, not by bril-
liant antithesis, but by the blessing of
God on plain talk, and humble story,
and silent tear, and anxious look. THE
lame take the prey"
Oh! this work of saving the youth of
our country-how few appreciate what
it is! This generation tramping on to
the grave-we will soon all be gone.
What of the next?
An engineer on a locomotive going