The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-02-23

in the potter's field. Another young
man who had heard that jolly skepti-
cism made up his mind that 1T makes
no difference what we do or say, for
we will all come out at last at the right
place." began, as consequence, TO
purloin. Some money that came into
his hands for others he applied to his
own uses, thinking perhaps he would
make it straight some other time, and
all would be well even if he did
not make it straight. He ends in the
penitentiary. That scoffer who uttered
the jokes against Christianity never
realized what bad work he was doing,
and he passed on through life, and out
of it, and into future that | am not
now going to depict. 1 do not propose
with search-light to show the break
ers of the awful coast on which that
ship is wrecked, for my business now
is to watch the sea after the keel has
plowed it. No phosphoresence in the
wake of that ship, but behind it two
souls struggling in the wave; two
young men destroyed by reckless skep-
ticism; an unillumined ocean beneath,
and on all sides of them. Better look
out what tad influence you start. for
you may not be able to stop it 1t does
not require very great force. to ruin
others. Why was it that many years
ago a great flood nearly destroyed New
Orleans? A crawfish had burrowed in
to the banks of the river until the
ground was saturated, and the banks
,,pfi1 tho Hnod hurst
But find here a man who starts out
in life with the determination that he
will never see suffering but he will try
to alleviate It; and will never see dis
enlargement but he will try to cheer
it; and will never meet with any body
but he will try to do him good. Get
ting his strength from God, he starts
from home with high purpose of doing
all the good he can possibly do in one
day. Whether standing behind the
counter, or talking in the business of
fee with pen behind his ear, or max
ing bargain with fellow trader, or
out in the fields discussing with
his next neighbor the wisest rotation
of crops, or in the shoemaker's shop
pounding sole leather, there is
something in his face, and his phrase
ology, and in his manner that demon
strates the grace of God in his heart
He can talk on religion without awk-
wardly dragging it in by the ears. He
loves God, and loves the souls of all
whom he meets, and is interested in
their present and eternal destiny. For
fifty or sixty years he lives that kind
of life and then gets through with it
and goes into Heaven a ransomed soul
But am not going to describe the port
into which that ship has entered. For
God in his words to Job calls me to
look at the path of foam in the wake
of that ship, and l tell you it is all
a-gleam with splendors of kindness
done, and rolling with illumined tears
that were wiped away, and a-dash with
congratulations, and clear out on the
horizon in all directions is the spark
ling, flashing, billowing phosphores-
cence of a Christian life. HE maketh
path to shine after him"
There were in the seventeenth CEN
fury men and women whose names you
never heard of, who are to-day influ7
encing schools. colleges, churches, ma
tons You can no more measure the
gracious results of their lifetime than
YOU could measure the length, and
breadth, and depth of the phosphor-
essence last night following the ship of
the White Star line 1,50O miles out at
sea. How the courage and consecra-
ton of others inspires us to FOLLOW, as
a general in the American army cool
amid the flying bullets, inspired a
trembling soldier, who said afterwards:
Il was nearly scared to death, but | saw
the old mans white mustache over
his shoulder and went on" Aye,
we are following somebody either in
right or wrong directions. You will,
| before twenty-four hours go by, meet
some man or woman with big pack of
care and trouble, and you may say
something to him or her that will en-
dure until the world shall have been SO
far lost in the past that nothing but
the stretch of an angelic memory will
be able to realize that it ever existed at
all If this be the opportunity of or
binary souls, what is the opportunity
of those who have especial intellectual,
or social, or monetary equipment
Have you any arithmetic capable of
estimating the influence of our good
and gracious friend who few days
ago went up to rest-George W. Childs.
of Philadelphia? From a newspaper
that was printed for thirty years with
out one word of defamation or sour
rility or scandal, and putting chief
emphasis on virtue, and charity and
clean intelligence, he reaped fortune
for himself and then distributed vast
amount of it among the poor and strug-
Cling, putting his invalid and aged re-
porters on pensions, until his name
stands everywhere for large-hearted-
ness and sympathy and help and
highest style of Christian gentle
man. In an era which had In
the chairs of its journalism Horace
Greeley, and Henry J. Raymond, and
a James Gordon Bennett. and an Eras1
tus Brooks, and a George William
Curtis, and an Iren9us Prime, none OF
them will be longer remembered than
| George w. Childs Who can tell the
post norton influence of SavCnarola.
Winklereid, Gutenberg, Marlbor-
ough, Decatur, Soussaint, Bolivar,
Clarksou, a Robert Raikes, a Harlem
Page, who had l25 Sabbath scholars,
eighty-four of whom became Christians
and six of them ministers of the gospel?
With gratitude, and penitence, and
worship, mention the grandest life
that was ever lived. That ship of light
was launched from the heavens nearly
1900 years ago, angelic hests chanting,
and from the wharves the ship sprang
into the toughest sea that ever tossed.