Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1893-09-09

to bend down to your case, since he n
just as careful about the construction
of spiders eye as he is in the confor-
nation of flaming galaXies.
Plato had fable which have now
nearly forgotten, but it ran something
like this: He said spirits of the other
world came back to this world to find
n body and find sphere of work. One
spirit came and took the body of q
king, and did his work. Another spirit
came and took the body of a poet and
did his work. After awhile Ulysses
came, and he said: "Why, all the fine
bodies are taken, and all the grand
work is taken. There is nothing left
for me-" And some one replied: "Ah!
the best one has been left for you"
Ulysses said: whats that?" And the
reply was: 1.-The body of common
man, doing a common work, and for q
common reward" A good fable for
the world, and just as good fable for
the Church.
But remark again: We ought to
bring the religion of Jesus Christ into
our ordinary blessings. Every autumn
the president of the United States and
the governors make proclamation, and
we are called together in our churches
to give thanks to God for his goodness.
But every day ought to be thanks
giving day. We take most of the
blessings of life as matter of course.
We have had 10000 blessings this morn
ing. Before the night comes we will
have thousand more blessings you
will never think of mentioning before
God.
We must see a blind man led along
by his dog before we learn what a
grand thing it is to have ones eye
sight. We must see man with St
Vitus' dance before we learn what a
grand thing it is to have the use of our
physical energies. We must see some
soldier crippled, limping along on his
crutch, or his empty coat sleeve pinned
up, before we learn what grand thing
it is to have the use of all our physical
faculties. In other words, we are so
stupid that nothing but the misfort-
unes of others can wake us up to an
appreciation of our common blessings.
We get on board train and start for
Boston, and come to Norwalk bridge,
and the draw is off, and crash. goes
the train, Fifty lives dashed out. We
escape. We come home in great eX-
citement, and call our friends around
us, and they congratulate us; and we
all kneel down and thank God for our
escape while SO many persisted. But
tomorrow morning you get on train
of cars for Boston. You cross that
bridge at Norwalk. You cross all the
other bridges. You get to Boston in
safety. Then you return home. Not
an accident not an alarm. No thanks.
Oh! these common mercies, these
common blessings, how little we APP
preciate them and how soon we forget
them! Like the OK grazing, with the
clover up to his eyes: like the bird pick
ing the worm out of the furrow--never
to thank God who makes the
grass grow, and who gives life to every
living thing, from the animalcule in
the sod to the seraph on the throne.
on the 27th of November.
in the autumn of the year; but bless,
ings, hour by hour and day by day, and
no thanks at all. / compared our in
difference to the brute, but perhaps
wronged the brute. do not
know but that, among its other
instincts, it may have an instinct by
which it recognizes the divine hand
that feeds it. l do not know but that
God is, through it, holding communica-
ton with what we call Irrational crea-
ton" The COW that stands under the
willow by the water-course, chewing
it's cud. looks very thankful; and who
can tell how much bird means by its
song? The aroma of the flowers smells
like incense and the mist arising from
the river looks like the smoke of n
sacrifice. Oh, that we were
Who thinks of thanking God for the
water gushing up in the well, foaming
in the cascade, laughing over the rocks,
in the shower, clapping its
hands in the sea? Who thinks to thank
God for that? Who thinks to thank
God for the air, the fountain of life,
the bridge of sunbeams, the path OF
sound, the great fan on a hot summer
day? Who thinks to thank God for
this wonderful physical organism, this
sweep of vision, this chime of harmony
struck into the ear, this crimson tide
rolling through arteries and veins, this
of the heart on the march
of Immortality?
convict myself, and convict every
one of You, while / say these things,
that we are unappreciative of the COM
mon mercies of life. And yet if they
were withdrawn the heavens would
withhold their rain, and the earth
would crack open under our feet, and
famine and desolation and sickness and
n 4 Al. 4. ,w.1