The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-05-11

want to see what Christianity has 40.
complished. l want to see how the
missionaries have been lied about as
living in luxury and idleness. l want
to know whether the heather religions
are really as tolerable and as COM
mendable as they were represented by
their adherents in the parliament OF
religions at Chicago l want to see
whether Mohammedanism or buddhism
would be good things for transplanta-
ton in America, as it has again and
again been argued. l want to hear the
Brahmins pray. And so L hope to come
back refreshed. REINFORCED and better
equipped, and to do in ten years more
effectual work than l have done in the
last twenty-five.
And now in this twenty-h ami
versary sermon l propose to do two
things: First, to put garland on the
grave of the generation that has just
passed off, and then to put palm
branch in the hand of the generation
Just now coming on the field of action.
For nv text is true: Zone generation
passeth away, and another generation
cometh." Oh. how many we revered,
and honored. and loved in the last gen.
Grafton that quit the earth. Tears fell
at the time of their going. and dirges
were sounded, and signals of mourn
ing were put on; but neither tears,
nor dirge, nor somber veil
told the half we felt. Their going left
a vacancy in our souls that has never
been filed up. We never get used to
their absence. There are time when
the sight of something with which
they were associated-a picture, or a
book, or a garment, or a staff, breaks
us down with emotion, but we bear it
simply because we have to bear it.
Oh, how snowy white their hair got
and how the wrinkles multiplied, and
the sight grew more dim, and the hear
ing less alert, and the step more frail,
and one day they were gone out of the
chair by the fireside, and from the
plate at the meal, and from the end of
the church pew, where they worshiped
with us Oh, my soul, how we miss
theml But let us console each other
with the thought that we shall meet
them again in the land of salutation
and reunion.
And now l twist garland for that
departed generation. 1t need not be
costly, perhaps just handful of clover
blossoms from the field through which
they used to walk, or as many violets
as you could hold between the thumb
and the forefinger, plucked out of the
garden where they used to walk in the
cool of the day. Put these old-fash-
toned flowers right down over the heart
that never again will ache, and the
arm that has forever ceased to toll.
Peace, father, Peace, motherl Ever
lasting peace! All that for the genera
ton gone.
But what shall we do with the palm
branch? That we will put in the hand
of the generation coming on Yours is
to be the generation for victories. The
last and the present have been perfect
ing the steam power, and the electric
light and the electric forces To these
will be added transportation. 1t will
be your mission to use all these forces.
Everything is ready now for you to
march right up and take this world for
God and Heaven. Get your heart right
by repentance and the pardoning grace
of the Lord Jesus, and your mind right
by elevating books and pictures, and
your body right by gymnasium and
field exercise and plenty of ozone, and
by looking as often as you can upon
the face of mountain and of sea. Then
l., 81, nd
is the palm branch. From conquest to
conquest, move right on and right up.
You will soon have the whole field for
yourself. Before another twenty five
years have gone we will be out of the
pulpits, and the offices, and the fact
cries. and the benevolent institutions,
and you will be at the front Forward
into the battlel If God be for you,
who can be against you? HE that
spared not His own Son, but delivered
Him up for us all, how shall He not
with Him also freely give us all things?'
And as for us who are now at the
front, having put the garland on the
grave of the last generation, and hav-
ing put the palm branch in the hand
of the coming generation, we will
cheer each other in the remaining on
sets and go into the shining gate
somewhere about the same time,
and greeted by the generation that
has preceded us we will have to
wait only little while to greet
the generation that will come after
us And will not that be glorious?
Three generations in Heaven together
the grandfather, the son and the
grandson; the grandmother, the daugn-
ter and the granddaughter. And so
with wider range and keener faculty
we shall realize the full significance OF
of the text: Zone generation passeth
away and another generation cometh. p"