The Penn's Grove record., 1893-10-06

- cSNh - AANS A'AJ W h"1 WV hhN
particular mode by which George G.. Cook
man, the pulpit orator OF the Methodist
Church and the chaplain of the American
Congress, left this life after embarking for
England on the steamship President. March
nth, 1871. The ship never arrived In port.
No one ever signaled her. and on both sides
OF the ocean 1t has for fifty years been ques-
toned what became of her. But this 1 know
about C~ookman-that whether ii wasiceberg
or eonfagration midsea or collision he had
more gar,ands on his ocean tomb than II, ex-
pirLDg on land, each of his million friends
had put a bouquet o. his casket. In the
midst OF the garden was his sepulcher.
But that brings me to notice the misnomer
in this Jonahitic expression of the text. The
prophet not only made a mistake by trying
to go to Tarshish when God told him to go
to Ninevah, but he made a mistake when he
MIN on the day he sank. A weed Is some
thing that Is useless. II Is something you
throw out from the garden. 1t Is something
that chokes the wheat. 1t Is something 20
be grubbed out from among the cotton. 1t
is something unsightly to the eye 1t Is an
Invader Of the vegetable or floral world.
But this growth that sprang up from the
depth of the Mediterranean or hoated on its
surface was among the most beautiful things
that God ever makes, 1t was a water plant
known as the red colored alga and no weed
at all. 1t comes from the loom Of inanit
"cHehJs - 40 pAhhNo " cotOAA v ~
is the star of a sunken armament. 1t is a
lamp which the Lord kindled. 1t Is a cord
by which to bind whole sheaves of practical
suggestion. 1t Is a poem all whose eantos
are rung by Divine goodness. Yet We all
make the mistake that Jonah made in regard
. 1t and call 1t q weed.
''The weeds were wrapped about my head
All, that Is the trouble on the land as on tns
seal We call those weeds that are lowers.
Pitched up on the beach of sosia.y are chill
dren without home, without opportunity for
anything but sin, seemingly without God.
They are washed up helpless. They are called
raganuflns. They are spoken of as the
rakings of the world. They are waits. They
are street arabs. They are fiotsam and jet
sam of the social sea. They are something
to be left alone. or something - be troll on,
or something to give up to decay. Nothing
but weeds. They are up the r1ckety stairs OF
that garnet. They are down In the cellar OF
that tenement house. They swelter In sum
liners when they see not one blade of green
grass, and SILVER in winters that allow then
not one warm coat or shawl or shoe.
Such the city missionary found In one oil
our city rookeries, and when the poor woman
was asked II she sent her children to school
she replied mo, sir, l never did send EN-
10 school,. I know 1t, they ought to learn,
but I couldn't l try to shame him some
times lit is my husband, sir), but he drinks
and then beats me-look at that bruise on
my face-and I tell him to see what is comm
to his children. There's Peggy goes seliin'
fruit every night in those cellars in Water
street, and they're bells, sir. She's learnin'
all sorts OF bad words there and dom get
back till IA o'clock at night. If it wasn't for
her earnin' a shillin' or two In them places.
1 should tarve. Oh, I wish they was out Of
the city. Yes, It is the truth. / would rather
have all my children dead than onthe street.
nut 1 can't help it,"
Another one of those poor women found
by a reformatory association recited her
story OF want and woe and looked up and
said, 'T felt so hard to lose the children
when they died, but now I'm glad they're
gone" Ask any one of a thousand such
children on the streets, ''Where do you live2"
and they will answer 81 don't live no.
where" They will sleep tonight in ash bar.
rels, or under outdoor stairs, or on the
wharf, kicked and bruised and hungry. Who
cares for them? Once In a while a city mis-
s~Ionary, or q tract distributor, or a teacher
OF ragged schools will rescue one of them
nut for most people they are only weeds.
Yet Jonah did not more completely mis-.
represent the red alga about his head in the
Mediterranean than most people misjudge
these poor and forlorn and dying children oil
immortal flowers. Down In the deep sea O.
woe, but flowers. When society and the
church Of God come to appreciate their eter-
nal value, there will be more G.. i. Braces
and more Van Meters and more angels OF
mercy spending their fortunes and their live
in the rescue.
Hear it, o We phllanthropio and Christian
and merciful souls--not weeds, but flowers.
l abjure you as the friends Of all n~ewsboys'
lodging houses, OF all industrial schools, Of
oil homes for friendless girls, and for the
many reformatories and human associa-
lions now on foot. How much they have al
ready accomplished Out Of what wretch
| afpasa ipfa what U0oH homaGt OF 81 600 of
these picked up out OF the streets and sent
into country homes only tweleye children
turned out badly.
In the last thirty years a number that no
man can number OF the Migrants have been
lifted into responsibility and usefulness and
q Christian life. Many OF them have homes
OF their own. Though ragged boys once and
street girls, now at the head of prosperous
families, honored on earth and to be glorious
in heaven. Some of them have been Govern
ors of States. Some Of them are ministers Of
the gospel. In all departments of life those
who were thought to be weeds have turned
out to be flowers. One Of those rescued lads
from the streets Of our cities wrote to- another,
saying: 81 have heard you are studying for
he ministry. So am l."
My hearers, I implesd you for the news
boys of the streets, many ofthem the bright
est children Of the city, but with no chance.
Do not step on their bare feet. Do not,
when they steal a ride, cut behind. When
\ the paper is three cents, once in a while give
them q five cent piece and tell them to Keep
the change. I like the ring OF the letter the
newsboy sent back from Indiana, where he
York newsboy's lodging house: "Boys, We
should show ourselves that We are no fools,
that we can become as respectable as any of
the countrymen, for Franklin and Webster
and Clay were DOL boys once, and even
George Law and Vanderbilt and Aston. And
now, boys, stand up and let them see you
have got the real stuff in you. Come out
here M make respectable and honorable
men, so they can say, there, that boy was
once a newsboy.'" My hearers, Join the
Christian philanthropists who are changing
organ grinders and bootblacks and news
boys and street arabs and cigar girls into
those who shall be kings and queens unto
Col forever. 1t is high time that Jonah
finds out that that which IL about him is NOT
weeds, but flowers.
AS / examine this red alga which was
about the ~recreant prophet down in the
Mediterranean depths, when, in the words
of my text, he cried out, '"The weeds were
wrapped about my heal" and l am led
thereby to further examine this submarine
world, I am compelled to exclaim, What a
wonderful God we have! l an glad that, by
diving bsll, and CROOKS deep sea sounding
apparatus" and ever improving machinery,
we are permitted to walk the floor OF the
ocean anu EopOrt thO WOuuStS WASu6Nb W
the great God
Study these gardens Of the ses. Easier and
easier shall the profounds of the ocean be-
come to US, and more and more its opulence
of color and plant unroll, especially as evil
leroy submarine boat" has been construct
ed, making 1t possible to navigate under the
sea almost as well as on the surface OF the
sea, and unless God In His mercy banishes
war from the earth whole fleets OF armed
ships far Town under the water move on to
blow up the argosies that float the surface.
May such submarine ships be used for laying
open the wonders Of Gods workings in the
great deep and never for human devastation
OBJ, the marYels Of the water world These
so-called seaweeds are the pasture fields and
the forage of the innumerable animals OF the
deep. Not one species of them can be spared
from the economy of nature, Valleys and
mountains and plants miles underneath the
waves are all covered with fora and fauna
Sunken Alps and Apennines and Himalayas
of Atlantic and Pacific oceans. A continent
that once connected Europe and America, so
that in the ages past mel came on foot
across from where England Is 10 where we
now stand, all sunken and now covered with
the growths OF the sea as ii once was covered
. With growths OF the land.