The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-04-06

That pure young man sleeps An! no
When he opens his eyes in the morn
ing, will the world be as bright to him
as to that young man who retired at
night saying his prayers, invoking
Gods blessing upon his own soul and
the souls of his comrades, and father
and mother, and brothers and sisters
far away? No. no! His laugh will
ring out from the saloon SO that you
hear it as you pass by, but it is hollow
laughter; in it is the swapping of heart
strings and the rattle of prison gates
Happy! that young man happy?
Let him fill high the bowl; he cannot
drown an upbraiding conscience. There
is no peace, saith my God. to the
wicked. The way of the transgressors
is hard. Oh, my friends, there is more
Joy in one drop of Christian satisfaction
than in whole rivers of sinful delight
Other wings may be drenched of the
storm and splashed of the tempest, but
the dove that comes in through the
window of this heavenly ark has wings
like the dove covered with silver, and
her feathers with yellow gold.
Again | remark, religion is an adorn-
ment in the style of usefulness into
which it inducts man. Here are two
young men. The one has fine culture,
exquisite wardrobe, plenty of friends,
great worldly success, but he lives for
himself His chief care is for his
own comfort He lives uselessly He
dies unregretted. Here is another
young man. His apparel may not be
so good, his education may not be SO
thorough He lives for others. He is
as self-denying as that dying soldier
falling in the ranks, when he said,
Colonel, there is no need of those
boys firing themselves by carrying me
to the hospital; let me die just where
am" So this young man of whom
speak, loves God. wants all the world
to love him, is not ashamed to carry a
bundle of clothes up that dark alley to
the poor. Which of those young men
do you admire the better? The one a
sham, the other prince imperial.
Oh, do you know of anything, my
nearer, that is more beautiful to see
than a young man start out for Christ?
Here is some one falling; he lifts him
up. Here is vagabond boy; he intro
duces him to a mission school Here is
family freezing to death; he carries
them a scuttle of coal There are $780,
OOO,O 900 perishing in midnight heather
darkness, by all possible means he tries
to send them the gospel He may be
laughed at, and he may be sneered at,
and he may be caricatured, but he is
not ashamed to go everywhere saying:
81 am not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ. 1t is the power of God and the
wisdom of God unto salvation" Such
thing. There is no force on earth or in
hell that can resist him.
l show you three spectacles. Spec
tacle the first: Napoleon passes by
with the host that went down with
him to Egypt and up with him through
Russia, and crossed the continent on
the bleeding heart of which he set his
iron heel, and across the quivering flesh
of which he went grinding the wheels
of his gun-carriages-in his dying mo-
ment asking his attendants to put on
his military boots for him.
Spectacle the second: Voltaire,
bright and learned and witty and elo-
quent, with tongue and voice and
stratagem Internal, warning against
God and poisoning whole kingdoms
with his iufidelity, yet applauded by
the clapping hands of thrones and en-
pires and continents-his last words,
in delirium supposing Christ standing
by the bedside-his last words: Crush
that wretchr'
Spectacle the third: Paul-Paul, in
significant in person, thrust out from
all refined association, scourged, spat
on, bounded like wild beast from city
to city, yet trying to make the world
good and Heaven full; announcing
resurrection to those who mourned at
the barred gates of the dead, speaking
consultations which light up the eyes of
widowhood and orphanage and want
with blow of certain and eternal re-
could take his life, cheek flushed with
transport and his eye on Heaven; with
one hand shaking defiance at all the
foes of earth and all the principalities
of hell, and with the other hand beck
oning messenger angels to come and
bear him away, as he says: 81 am now
ready to be offered, and the time of my
departure is at hand; have fought the
good fight, l have finished my course.
have kept the faith; henceforth there
is laid up for me a crown of righteous
ness which the Lord, the righteous
Judge, will give me-"
Which of the three spectacles do you
most admire? When the wind of death
struck the congueror and the infidel,
they were tossed like sea gulls in
tempest, drenched of the wave and
torn of the hurricane, their dismal
voices heard through the everlasting
storm; but when the wave and the
wind of death struck Paul, like an al
batross he made a throne of the
tempest, and one day floated away into
the calm, clear summer of Heaven,
brighter than the dove, its wings COW
cred with silver, and its feathers with
yellow gold.
/ suppose you may have noticed the
contrast between the departure of
Christian and the departure of an inf
del. Diodorus. dying in chagrin be-
cause he could not compose a joke
equal to the joke uttered at the other
end of his table; Zeuxis, dying in fit
of laughter at the sketch of an aged
woman-a sketch made by his own
hand; Mazarin, dying playing cards,
his friend holding his hands because
he was unable to hold them himself
All that on one side. compared with
the departure of the Scotch minister,
who said to his friends: Il have no in
terest as to whether 1 live or die; if l
die, | shall be with the Lord: and if l