The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1896-04-17

to lazaretto with healing for the
body and soul; Elizabeth Fry
going to the prof1igacy of
Newgate prison to shake its obduracy
as the angel came to the prison at
Philippi, driving open the door and
swapping loose the chain, as well as the
lives of thousands of followers of Jesus,
who have devoted themselves to the
temporal and spiritual welfare of the
race, are monuments of the Christian
religion that shall not crumble while
the world lasts A man said to me on
the cars: what is religion? Judging
from the character of many professors
of religion 1 do not admire religion"
/ said: Now, suppose we went to an
artist in the city of Rome and while
in his gallery asked him, What
is the art of painting% would
he take US out in a low alley
and show us a mere daub of a pre-.
tender at painting? or would he take
us down into the corridors and show
us the Rubens and Raphaels and the
Michael AngelosY When we asked:
What is the art of painting?' he would
point to the works of these great mas
tiers and say: That is painting Now,
you propose to find the mere caricature
of religion, to SEEK after that which is
the mere pretension of holy life, and
you call that religion. point you to
the splendid men and women whom
this gospel has blessed and lifted and
crowned Look at the masterpieces of
Divine grace if you want to know
what religion is?"
We learn also from this story of Jo-
seph that the result Of persecution Is
elevation. Had it not been for his be-
ing sold into Egyptian bondage by his
malicious brothers, and his false i'm
prisonment, Joseph never would have
become governor. Everybody accepts
the promise, BLESSED are they that are
prosecuted for righteousness sake, for
theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven" but
they do not realize the fact that this
principle applies to worldly as we'll as
spiritual success. 1t is true in all de-
partments. Men rise to high of
fetal positions through misrepre-
sentation. Public abuse is all
that some of our public men
have had to rely upon for their eleva-
ton. 1t has brought to them what
talent and executive force could not
have achieved. Many of those who are
making great effort for place and
power will never succeed, just because
they are not of enough Importance TO
be abused. 1t is the nature of men
that is of all generous and reasonable
men-to gather about those who are
prosecuted and defend them, and they
are apt 30 forget the fault of those who
are the subjects of attack while at
tempting to drive back the slanderers.
Persecution is elevation. Helen Stark,
the Scotch martyr, standing with her
husband at the place of execution,
said: Husband, let us rejoice
to-day; we have lived together
many happy years; this is the happiest
time of all our life; you see we are to
be happy together forever. Be brave
now, be brave. l will not say Good
night to you for we shall soon be in
the kingdom of our Father together"
Persecution shows the heroes and
beroines. I go into another depart
ment and find that those great denom-
nations of Christians which have been
most abused have spread the most rap
idly. No good man was ever more vi
olently maltreated than John Wesley
-belied and caricatured and slandered
until one day he stood in a pulpit in
London and a man arose in the audi
ence and said: You were drunk
last night" and John Wesley
said: Thank God, the whole cat
alogue is now complete. l have been
charged with everything but thatr'
His followers were hooted at and
maligned and called by every detest-
able name that Internal ingenuity
could invent, but the hotter the perse-
cution the more rapidly they spread.
until you know what great host they
have become and what a tremendous
force for God and the truth they are
welding all the world over. 1t was
persecution that gave Scotland to Pres
byterianism. 1t was persecution that
gave our land first to civil liberty and
afterward to religious freedom. Yea,
might go further back and say it was
persecution that gave the world the
great salvation of the gospel The
ribald mockery, the hungering and
thirsting, the unjust charge, the igno-
death, when all the force of
helrs fury was hurled against the
cross, was the introduction of that re-
ligion which is yet to be the earth's
deliverance and our eternal salvation.
The state sometimes said to the
church: Come take my hand and
will help you" What was the result?
The church went back and it lost its
estate of holiness, and it became inef-
fective. At other times the state said
to the church: ~ will crush you?'
What was the result? After the
storms have spent their fury the
church, SO far from having lost any of
it's force, has increased and is worth
infinitely more after the assault than
before Read all history and you will
find that true. The church is far more
to the opposition of civil gov
than to its approval The
fires of the stake have only been the
torches which Christ held in His hand,
hv the 1ioht of vhioh the oburch hos