The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1894-02-24

is to watch the sea after the keel has
plowed it. No phosphoresence in the
wake Of hat 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
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
weakened until the flood burst.
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
/ and will never meet with anybody
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 al possibly do in N
day. Whether standing behind the
counter, or talking in h business Of
flee with a pen behind his ear, or max
ing a bargain with n 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 rausomed soul.
But i 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 1 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 n
path to shine after him"
There were in the seventeenth cen
Jury men and women whose names you
never heard of, who are to-day iniu-
encing schools, colleges, churches. ma
tions. You can no more measure the
gracious results of their lifetime than
YOU could the length, and
breadth, and depth of the phosphor-
essence last night following the ship of
the White Star line 1900 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:
II was nearly scared to death, but l saw
the old mans white mustache over
his shoulder and went On" Aye,
we are following somebody either in
right or wrong directions. Iou will,
before twenty-four hours go by, meet
some man or woman with u 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 1t ever existed at
all. II this be the opportunity of or
binary souls, what is the opportunity
OF those who have especial intellectual,
or social. OF monetary equipment
Have you any arithmetic capable OF
estimating the influence of our good
and gracious friend who a 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 a fortune
for himself and then distributed a 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 a Horace
Greeley, and a Henry J. Raymond, and
a James Gordon Bennett, and an Eras.
tus Brooks, and a George william
Curtis, and an Iren@us Prime, none Of
them will DO longer remembered thar
George W. Childa Who can tell the
post norton influence Of a S%avonarola,
q Winklereid, q Gutenberg. a Marlbor
ough, n Decatur, q S~oussaint, q Bolivar
& Clarkson, a Robert Raikes, a HarleI
Page, who had l25 Sabbath scholars
eighty-four Of whom became Christians
and six of them ministers of the gospels
With gratitude, and peuitence, and
worship, I mention the grandest life
that was over lived. That ship of light
was launched from the heavens nearly
1900 years ago, angelic hosts chanting
and from the wharves the ship sprane
into the toughest sea that eve tossed
Its pillows were made up Of the wrath
Of men and devils, Herodic and San
hedrimic prosecutions stirring the deeI
with red wrath, and all the hurricane:
of woe smote 1t, until on the rocks O
Golgotha that life struck with a re
sound of agony that appalled, the eartf
and the heavens. But In the wake o.
that life what O phosphorescence o.
smiles on the cheek of souls pardoned
and lives reformed and nations re
deemed, The millennium itself is only
n roll of that irradiated wave of glad
ness n benediction. In the sublimes
of all senses it may be said of Him: 'H'
maketh a path to shine after Him"
But, mark you, that the phosphores
cence has q glow that the night mo
nopolizes. and I ask you not only wha'
kind of influence you are going t.
leave in the world as you pas through
it, but what light are you going Il
throw across the worlds night of sir
and sorrow? People who are sailing
on smooth seas and at noon do no
need much sympathy, but what ar,
you going to do for people in the nigh
of misfortune? VIII you drop ON then
shadow, or will you kindle for then
phosphorescence? At this moment Their,
are more people crying than laughing
more people on the round worlC
this moment hungry than well fed
more households bereft than homes
~unbrOken- What are you going to d,
about IL? "Well," says yonder soul, 81
would like to do something TOWARD
il%lumining the great ocean of human
wretchedness, but / cannot do much.
Can you do as much as one of the phos
phori in the middle of the Atlantis
ocean, creatures smaller than the poin'
of a sharp pin? ''Oh, yes" you say
Then do that. Shine. Stand befor,