Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1896-03-19
Kindle that ers

Bibles and creeds. Kindle that fire
where IL has gone out. Wrap some
thing around those shivering limbs.
Shoe those bare feet. Hat that bare
head. Coat that bare back. Sleeve
that bare arm. Nearly all the pictures
of Martha Washington represent her in
courtly dress as bowed to by foreign
ambassadors: but Mrs. kirkland. in her
interesting book, gives more inspir-
ing portrait of Martha Washington.
She comes forth from her husbands hut
in the encampment, the hut sixteen feet
long by fourteen feet wide-she comes
forth from that hut to nurse the sick,
to sew the patched garments. to console
the soldiers dying Of the cold. That is
a better picture of Martha Washington.
Hundreds of garments. hundreds OF
tons OF coal, hundreds OF glaciers at
broken window-sashes, hundreds or
whole souled men and women, are nee
essary to warm the wintry weather.
What are we doing to alleviate the con-
dition OF those not so fortunate as we?
Know ye not, my friends, there are
hundreds OF thousands OF people who
cannot stand before his cold? 1t is
useless to preach to bare feet, and to
empty stomachs, and to gaunt visages.
Christ gave the world lesson in COM
mon sense when, before preaching the
Gospel to the multitude In the wilder
ness, he gave them good dinner.
When I was a lad | remember seeing
two rough woodcuts, but they made
more impression upon me than any pic
lures that have ever seen. They were
on opposite pages. The one woodcut
represented the coming OF the snow In
winter, and a lad looking out at the
door of a great mansion, and he was all
wrapped in furs and his cheeks were
ruddy, and with glowing countenance
he shouted: at SHOWS! II SHOWS" On
! the next page was a miserable tene-
ment, and the door was open, and a
| child, wan and sick. and ragged and
wretched was looking out, and he said:
ooh! My God, il snows! The winter
of gladness or of grief; according to our
circumstances. But, my friends, there
| is more than one way OF warming up
this cold world, for 1t is a cold world
in more respects than one, and l am
here to consult with you as to the best
way of warming up the world. / want
to have a great heater introduced into
all your churches and all your homes
| throughout the world. 1t is a heater OF
divine patent 1t has many pipes with
which to conduct heat; and 1t has a
door in which to throw the fuel. Once
get this heater introduced, and 1t will
turn the arctic zone into the temper
ate, and the temperate into the tropics.
It is the powerful heater, it is the glo-
rious furnace of Christian sympathy.
The question ought to be, instead or
how much heat can we absorb? how
much heat can we throw out? There
are men who go through the world float
ing icebergs. They freeze everybody
with their forbidding look. The hand
with which they shake yours is as cold
as the paw of polar bear. II they
float into a religious meeting, the tenn
perature drops from eighty asoye TO
ten degrees below zero. There are
icicles hanging from their eyebrows.
They float into a religious meeting and
they chill everything with their jere-
miads. Cold prayers, cold songs. cold
greetings, cold sermons. Christianity
on ice! The church great refrigera-
tor. Christians gone into winter quar-
ters. Information! On the other hand,
there are people who go through the
world like the breath Of spring morn
ing. Warm greetings, warm prayers,
warm smiles, warm Christian influence.
There are such persons. We bless God
for them. We rejoice in their compan-
ionship.
Recently an engineer in the south
west, on a locomotive, saw a train com
ing with which he must collide. he
resolved to stand at his post and slow
M the train until the last minute, for
there were passengers behind. The en-
gineer said to the fireman, Jump! one
man Is enough on this engine! jump
The fireman jumped and was saved
The crash came. The engineer died
at his post. How many men like thai
engineer would it take to warm this
cold world up? vessel struck on
rocky island. The passengers and the
crew were without food. and a sailor
had a shell-fish under his coat. HI
was saving it for his last morsel. He
heard a little child cry to her mother
"Oh. mother. I'm so hungry, give me
something to eat-I am so hungry!
The sailor took the shell-fsh from un
der his coat and said, Here, take that
How many men like that sailor would
Il take to warm the cold world up
Xerxes fleeing from his enemy got or
board a boat. A great many Persian:
leaped into the same boat and the boa
was sinking. Some one said: ARE
YOU not willing TO make sacrifice fol
YOUR king?" and a majority of thos'
who were in the boat leaped verboar,
and drowned to save their king. How
many men like that would 1t take Il
warm up this cold world? Elizabeth
FRY went into the horrors OF Newgat'
prison. and she turned the imprecatioi
and the obscenity and the filth int
prayer and repentance and reformed
ufa The Sisters of Charity, in 1863