Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1894-04-05


disasters shall pluck advantage fol-
my soul All the promises are mine
Christ is mine, Christian companion
ship is mine, heaven is mine. What
though my apparel be worn outP Christ
gives me robe of righteousness.
What though my money be gone?
have title deed to the whole uni.
verse in the promise, AN are yours
What though my worldly friends fall
away? Ministering angels are my
bodyguard. What though my fare be
poor and my bread be scant? l sit at
the kings banquet
Oh, what a poor, shallow stream is
worldly enjoyment compared with the
deep, broad, overlooking river of God S
peace, rolling midway in the Christian
heart! Sometimes you have gone out
on the ironbound beach of the sea
when there has been II storm ON the
ocean, and you have seen the waves
dash into white foam at your feet.
They did not do you any harm. While
there you thought of the chapter
written by the Psalmist, and perhaps
you recited it to yourself while the
storm was making commentary upon
the passage: God is our refuge and
strength, very present help in time
of trouble. Therefore will not fear,
though the earth be removed, and
though the mountains be carried into
the midst of the sea, though the
waters thereof roar and be troubled,
though the mountains shake with the
swelling thereof" Oh, how indie pend
ent the religion of Christ makes man
of worldly success and worldly cir
cumstances Nelson, the night before
his last battle, said: Tomorrow
shall win either peerage or a grave
in Westminster Abbey" And it does
not make much difference to the
Christian whether he rises or falls in
worldly matters; he has everlasting
renown anyway. Other plumage may
be torn in the blast. but that soul
adorned with Christian grace is fairer
than the dove, it's wings covered with
silver and its feathers with gold.
You and have found out that peo-
pie who pretend to be happy are not
always happy. Look at that young
man caricaturing the Christian re-
ligion, soothing at everything good,
going into registering drunkenness,
dashing the champagne bottle to the
floor, rolling the glasses from the bar
room counter, laughing, shouting,
stamping the floor. Is he happy? |
will go to his midnight pillow. | will
see him turn the gas off. | will ask
myself if the pillow on which he sleeps
is as soft as the pillow on which that
pure young man sleeps. All! no. When
he opens his eyes in the morning, 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 can
not drown an upbraiding conscience.
Let the balls roll through the bowling
alley; the deep rumble and the sharp
crack can not overpower the voices of
condemnation. Let him whirl in the
dance of sin and temptation and
death. All the brilliancy of the scene
can not make him forget the last look
of his mother when he left home,
when she said to him: Now, my SON.
you will do right: ! am sure you will
do right; you will, won't you?" That
Young man happy? Why, across every
night there fit shadows of eternal
darkness; there are adders coiled up
in every cup; there are vultures of
despair striking their iron beak into
his heart: there are skeleton fingers of
grief pinchingat the throat.
come in amid the clicking of the
glasses and under the flashing of the
chandeliers, and | cry: Woe. woe!
The way of the ungodly shall perish.
There is no peace, saith my God, to
the wicked. The way of 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 splasked of
the tempest, but the dove that comes
in through the window of this heav.
emily ark has wings like the dove
| covered with silver, and her feathers
with yellow gold.
Again | remark, religion is an adorn-
Inent in the style of usefuInes 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 uselcssly. lie dies
unregrctted. Here is another young
man. His apparel may not be so good,
his education may not be SO thorough
He lives for others. His happiness
is to make others happy. 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 l 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 than to
see young man start out for Christ?
Here is some one falling; he lifts him
up. Here is vagabond boy; he in
PRODUCES him TO a mission school Here
is family freezing to death; he car
ries them a scuttle of coal There are
500, 900, 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: II am not
ashamed of the Gospel of Christ 1t is