The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-03-08


trine of the resurrection COMPOUNDED
me-" So it is to me mystery beyond
unravelment. l understand all the
dark. l know all of them. l have
travelled with burning feet that blis-
tered way. The first word which most
children learn to utter is papa" or
mamma" but think the first word
ever uttered was ''why?" / know
what it is to have hundred midnights
pour their darkness into one hour.
Such men are not to be scoffed,
but helped. Oh, skepticism is a
dark land. There are men in
this house who would give thousand
worlds, if they possessed them, to get
back to the placid faith of their fathers
and mothers, and it is our place to help
them, and we may help them, never
through their heads, but always through
their hearts. These szeptics, when
brought to Jesus will be mighty effec-
tive, far more so than those who never
examined the evidences of Christianity.
| Thomas Chalmers was once a skeptic
Robert Hall skeptic, Robert Newton
a skeptic, Christian Evans a skeptic.
But when once with strong hand they
took hold of the chariot of the Gospel,
they rolled it on with what moment
I'm, If address such men ard women
to-day. throw out no scott. | implead
them by the memory of the good
old days, when at their mothers
knee they said: Now l lay me down
to sleep" and by those DAYS and
nights of scarlet fever in which she
watched you, giving you the medicine
at just the right time; / beg you to
come back and take the same religion.
1t was good enough for her. 1t is good
enough for you. Nav, have better
plea than that. l plead by all the
wounds, agonies, and death throes of
the Son of God, who approaches you
this moment with torn brow, and LAGER
ated hand, and whipped back, and say
ing: Come unto me, all We who are
weary and heavy laden, and will give
you rest"
Again, there is field OF usefulness
but little touched occupied by those
who are astray in their habits. All
northern nations, like those of North
America, and England. and Scotland,
that is. in the colder climates, are
devastated by alcoholism. They take
the fire to keep up the warmth. In
southern countries, like Arabia and
Spain, the blood is so warm they are
not tempted to fiery liquids. The
great Roman armies never drank any
thing stronger than water tinged with
vinegar, but under our northern climate
the temptation to heating stimulants
is most mighty, and millions succumb.
When a mans habits 60 wrong the
church drops him, the social circle
drops him, good influence drops him,
we all drop him. OF all the men who
get off the track. but few ever get on
again. Near my summer residence
there is a life-saving station on the
beach. There are all the ropes and
rockets, the boats, the machinery for
getting people off shipwrecks. One
summer / saw there fifteen or twenty
men who were breakfasting, after hav-
ing just escaped with their lives and
nothing more. Up and down our
coasts are built these useful struct-
ures, and the mariners know it,
and they feel that if they are driven
into the breakers, there will be apt
from shore to come a rescue. The
churches of God ought to be so many
life-saving stations, not so much to
help those who are in smooth waters,
but those who have been shipwrecked
Come, let us run out the lifebOats! And
who will man them? We do not preach
enough to such men; we have not faith
enough in their release Alas. if when
they come to hear us. we are labOrioUs-
ly trying to show the difference be-
tween sublapsarianism and supralap-
sarianism, while they have n thousand
vipers of remorse and despair coiling
around and biting their immortal spir-
its. The church is not chiefly for good |
ish sort of men whose proclivities are
all right, and who could get to Heaven
praying and singing in their own
homes. 1t is on the beach to help the |
drowning.
Furthermore, the destitute children |
of the streets offer field Of work COM
paratively unOccupied. The uncared- |
for children are in the majority in |
most of our cities. Their condition
was well illustrated by what boy in
this city said when he was found I'M
der cart knawing a bone, and some
one said to him: Where do you live?"
and he answered.: Don't live nowhere,
SIR Several thousand of the children
of New York city can neither read
nor write When they grow up,
if unrefor1ned. they will out-vote
your children, and they will govern
YOUR children. The whisky ring will
hatch out other whisky rings, and grog
shops will kill with their horrid stencil
public sobriety. unless the church of
God rises up with outstretched arms
and enfolds this dying population in
her BOSOM
The Prussian cavalry mount by put
ting their right foot into the stirrup,
while the American cavalry mount by
putting their left foot in the stirrup
l don't care how You mount your war
charger if you only get into this bat
tie for God, and get there soon, right
stirrup or left stirrup. or no stirrup at
at all The unoecupied fields are all
around us. and why should we build on
another mans foundation?
have heard of what was called the
Numbering legion" 1t was in 179,
part of the Roman army to which some
Christians belonged. and their prayers,
it was said. were answered by thunder
and lightning and hail and tempest,
which overthrow an invading army
and saved the empire. And would to
God that you could be so mighty in
prayer and work that you would
become laundering legion, be-