The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-08-03

VI ehc SOSpci. NOulu YOU hos iinC w
live the same quiet life, and die the
same peaceful death? All, skepticism
is dark and doleful land. Let me say
that this Bible is either true or false.
If it be false, we are as well off as you;
if it be true, then which of us is
safer?
Let me also ask whether your trouble
has not been that you have COMPOUNDED
Christianity with the inconsistent char
acter of some who profess it. You are
lawyer. In your profession there are
mean and dishonest men. Is that any
thing against the law? You are doc
tor. There are unskilled and con-
temptible men in your profession. Is
that anything against medicine? You
are merchant. There are thieves and
defrauders in your business. Is that
anything against merchandise? Be
hold, then, the unfairness of charging
upon Christianity the wickedness of its
disciples. We admit some of the
charges against those who profess re-
ligion. Some of the most gigantic
swindles of the present day have been
carried on by members of the church.
There are men in the churches who
would not be trusted for S. without
good collateral security. They leave
their business dishonesties in the YES
thule of the church as they go in and
sit at the communion. Having con-
cluded the sacrament. they get up,
wipe the wine from their lips, go out,
and take up their sins where they left
off. To serve the devil is their regular
work; to serve God sort of play-spel.
With Sunday sponge they expect to
wipe off from their business slate all
the past weeks inconsistencies. 1t is
time that we drew line between re-
ligion and the frailties of those who
profess it.
Do you not feel that the Bible, take
it all in all, is about the best book that
the world has ever seen? Do you
know any book that has as much in it?
Do you not think, upon the whole, that
| its influence has been beneficent? l
come to YOU with both hands extended
| toward you. In one hand have the
| Bible. and in the other / have nothing.
| This Bible in one hand will surrender
| IOTtNtI JuSb SOoh as III Oeh1A
hand you can put book that is better.
Again: There may be some of you
| who, in the attempt after Christian
| life, will have to run against powerful
passions and appetites. Perhaps it is
disposition to anger that you have to
| contend against; and perhaps, while
in very serious mood, you hear OF
something that makes you feel that
| YOU must swear or die. | know of a
Christian man who was once SO exas-
perated that he said to a mean GUS
| toner. 81 cannot swear at you myself,
| for am a member of the church; but,
| if Won will go down stairs my partner
in business will swear at you" All
your good resolutions heretofore have
been torn to tatters by explosions of
| temper Now, there is no harm in get
ting mad if you only get mad at sin.
You need to bride and saddle these
hot breathed passions, and with them
ride down injustice and wrong. There
are thousand things in the world that
we ought to get mad at. There
is no harm in getting red hot if you
only bring to the forge that which
needs hammering. A man who has no
power of righteous indignation is an
| imbecile. But be sure it is righteous
| Indignation, and not a petulancy that
blurs, and unravels, and depletes the
soul.
There is large class of persons in
mid-life who have still in them appe-
tites that were aroused in early man
hood, at time when they prided
themselves on being little fast,
high livers," free and easy" hail
fellows well met" They are now pay
ing in compound interest for troubles
they collected twenty years ago. Some
of you are trying to escape, and you
will-yet very narrowly, ''as with the
skin of your teeth" God and your own
soul only know what the struggle is.
Omnipotent grace has pulled out
many a soul that was deeper in the
mire than you are. They line the
beach of Heaven-the multitude
whom God has rescued from the
thrall of suicidal habits. If you this
day turn your back on the wrong, and
start anew. God will help you. Oh, the
weakness of human help! Men will
svmpathize for while, and then turn
YOU off. If you will ask for their par
don, they will give it, and say they
will try you again; but, falling away
again under the power OF temptation
they cast you off forever. But God for
gives seventy times seven; yea, seven
hundred times; yea, though this be the
ten thousandth time he is more ear
nest. more sympathetic, more helpful
this last time than when you took your
first misstep.
If. with all the influence favorable
for a right life, men make so many
mistakes. how much harder it is when,
for instance. some appetite thrusts its
iron grapple into the roots of the tongue
and pulls a man down with hands
of destruction If, under such circum-
stances, he breaks away, there will be
no sport in the undertaking, no holt
day enjoyment, but n struggle In
which the wrestlers move from side to
side. and bend, and twist, and watch
for an opportunity to get in heavier
stroke, until with one final effort. in
which the muscles are distended, and
the veins stand out, and the blood
starts. the swarthy habit falls under
the knee of the victor-escaped at last
as with the skin of his teeth.
The ship Emma, bound from Gotten
burg to Harwich, was sailing on, when
the man on the lookout saw something
that he pronounced vessel bottom
up. There was something on it that
looked like sea gull, but was after
ward found to be waving handker-
chief. In the small boat the crew
pushed out to the wreck and found
that it was a capsized vessel. and that