The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-05-24

suDposing that there was no human
being within a hundred miles, heard
the ice crackle. and lol lost man, in
sane with hunger and cold was wad-
ing in the ice water. The explorer
took the man into his canoe and made
for land. and the people gathered on
the shore. All the islanders had been
looking for the lost man. and finding
him. according to Encouragement all
the bells rang and all the guns fired.
Oh, You can make a gladder time
among the towers and hill-tOps of
Heaven if you can fetch home
wanderer.
In our time it is the habit to de-
nounce the cities, and to speak of them
as the perdition of all wickedness. Is
it not time for some one to tell the
other side of the story and to say that
the city is the heaven of practical help
fulness? Look at the uncovered
fountains and parks. where the inva-
lids may be refreshed; the Bowery mis-
sion, through which annually over
100. 900 come to get bread for this life,
and bread for the life to come, all the
blessing of Him who had not where to
lay His head; the free schools. where
the most impoverished are educated;
the hospitals for broken bones; the
homes for the restoration of intellects
astray; the orphan house, father and
mother to all who come under its bene-
diction; the midnight missions, which
pour mid noon upon the darkened: the
prison reform association; the houses
of mercy; the infirrnaries: the shelter
ing arms; the aid societies; the indus
trial schools: the sailors snug
harbor: the founding asylums: the
free dispensaries, where greatest
scientific skill feels the pulse of wan
pauper; the ambulance, the startling
stroke of its bell clearing the way to
the place of casualty; and good souls
| like the mother came to the Howard
mission. with its crowd of friendless
boys picked up from the streets, and
saying: IF you have a crippled boy,
give him to me; my dear boy died with
the spinal complaint" and such an one
she found and took home and nursed
him till he was well. 1t would take
sermon three weeks long to do justice
to the mighty things which our cities
are doing for the unfortunate and lost.
| Do not say that Christianity in our
cities is all show. and talk, and genu-
| flexion. and sacred noise. You have
been so long looking at the hand of
cruelty, and the hand of theft, and the
hand of fraud, and the hand of out
rage, that you have not sufficiently ap-
preciated the hand of help, stretched
forth from the doors and windows of
churches, and from merciful institu-
tions, the Christ-like hand, the
cherubic hand, the hand under the
wings"
There is also in my subject the sug-
gestion of a rewarded work for God
ard righteousness. When the wing
went the hand went. When the wing
assembled the hand assembled; and for
every useful and Christian hand there
will be elevation celestial and eternal
Expect no human gratitude, for it will
not come. That was wise thing Fen
elon wrote to his friend: Il am very
glad, nv dear fellow, that you are
pleased with one of my letters which
has been shown to you. You are right
in saving and believing that l ask little
of men in general. try to do much
for them and to expect nothing in re-
turn. find decided advantage in these
terms. On these terms l defy them to
disappoint me-" But,my hearers, the
day cometh when your work, which
perhaps no one has noticed, or reward
ed. or honored. will rise to heavenly
recognition. While have been telling
YOU that the hand was under the wing
of the cherubim. l want you to realize
that the wing was over the hand Per-
haps reward may not come to YOU
right away. Washington lost more
battles than he won, but he triumphed
at the last. Walter Scott, in boyhood,
was called ''the Greek blockhead;" but
what height of renown did he not
afterward tread? And l promise you
victory further on and higher up; il
not in this world, then in the next
oh, the heavenly day when your lifted
hand shall be gloved with what honors,
its fingers enringed with what jewels,
its wrist clasped with what splendOrsl
Come up and take it, you Christian
woman, who served at the washtub.
Come up and take it, you Christian shoe
maker. who pounded the shoe last Come
up and take it. you professional nurse,
whose compensation never fully paid
for broken nights aud the whims and
struggles of delirious sick rooms Come
up and take it, you firemen, besweated,
far down amid the greasy machinery
of ocean steamers, and We conductors
and engineers on railroads, that knew
no Sunday, and whose ringing bells
and loud whistles never warned OF
your own anxieties. Come up and
take it, you mothers, who rocked and
lullabied the family brood until they
took wing for other nests, and never
appreciated what you had done
and suffered for them. Your
hand was well favored when you
were Young, and it was a beautiful
hand, so well rounded, SO graceful that
many admired and enlogized it; but
hard work calloused it, and twisted it,
and self-sacrificingt toll for others paled
it, and many household griefs thinned
it. and the ring which went on only
with push at the marriage altar, now
is too large, and falls off, and again
and again you have lost it. Poor handl
Weary hand! Wornout hand. But
God will reconstruct it, reanimate it,
readorn it, and all Heaven will
know the story of that hand.
What fallen ones it lifted
up. What tears it wiped away
What wounds it bandagedl What
lighthouses it kindled, What storm
tossed ships it brought into the pearl