Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1893-12-23

4
lihood. They have scant wages. Per.
haps they are diseased or have physical
infirmities, SO they are hindered from
doing continuous days work. A city
missionary finds them up the dark al
ley. with no fire, with thin clothing, with
very coarse bread. They never ride in
the street car; they cannot afford the /
cents. They never see any pictures save
those in the show window on the street
from which they are 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?n
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 entrances theii
! spirit. They often divide their scani
crust with some forlorn wretch who
| knocks at their door at night. and on the
blast of the night wind, as the dool
opens to let them in, is heard the voice
of him who said. Il was hungry. and he
fed me-" No cohort of heaven will be
too bright to transport them BY Gods
help they have vanquished the Assyrian
host. They have divided among them
the spoils. Lame, lame, yet they took
the prey.
MORE CASES IN POINT.
Twas riding along the country road
one day, and saw man on crutches.
/ overlook him. He was very old. He
was going very slowly. AT that rate it
would have taken him two hours to go a
mile. said, Wouldn't you like to
rider" He said: THANK you, / would.
God bless you" When he sat beside
me, he said: you see, am very lame
and very old, but the Lord has been a
good Lord to me. have buried all my
children. The Lord gave them and the
Lord had right to take them away.
Blessed be his namel was very sick,
and had no money, and my neighbors
came in and took care of me, and wanted
nothing. suffer great deal with pain,
but then | have SO many mercies left.
The Lord has been good Lord to me-"
And before we had got far | was in
doubt whether was giving him a ride
or he was giving me a ride! He said:
Now, if you please, I'll get out here.
Just help me down on my crutches, if
you please. God bless you. Thank you,
sir. Good morning. Good morning.
You have been feet to the lame, sir, you
have. Good morning"
Swarthy men had gone the road that
day. do not know where they came
out, but every hobble of that old man
was toward the shining gate. With his
old crutch he had struck down many a
Sennacherib of temptation which has
mastered you and me. Lame, so fear
fully lame, so awfully lame, but he 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 fear you have not-how
we'll those children have turned out?
Starting under the greatest disadvan-
tage, no orphan asylum could do for
them what their father would have done
had he lived.
The skirmisher sat one night by the
light of fagots in the swamp, writing
letter home, when sharpshooter's bull
let ended the letter which was never
folded, never posted and never read.
Those children came up under great dis
advantage. 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
hospital. But they looked still farther
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 many of them
have already, in the 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 indo-
lence and vagabondase, these who start
ed 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 | had elo-
quence, or if had high social position,
how much would accomplish for God
and the church, | stand here today to
tell you that you have great opportuni
ties 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 rang
their trowels ON the wall. Who are those
that built these vast cities? The capital
lists? No; the carpenters, the masons,
the plumbers, the plasterers, the timers,
the roofers, dependent on a days wages
for a livelihood. And so in the great
work of assuaging human suffering and
snlightening human ignorance and halt
ing 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 brigaLier generals. Weare
not willing to march with the rank and
file and do duty with the private soldier.
We want to belong to the reserve corps
and read about the battle while warming
ourselves at the campfres or on fur
Tough at home, our feet upon an otto
man, we sagging back into an armchair.
As you go down the street you see an
excavation, and four or FIVE men are
working and perhaps 20 or 30 leaning on
the rail looking over at them. That is
the way it is in the church of God to-
day. Where you find one Christian hard
at work, there are so men watching the
job.
Obi my friends, why do you not go to
work and preach the gospel? You say,
II 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
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 unani-
NOUS and long continued 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 10 talents, while
many one with only two talents, or no
talent at all, is doing great work, and
so 1.-THE lame take the prey"
There are thousands Of ministers Of