Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1896-06-26

| divine mission, and so have their SUCCESSORS
In these times. They stir into the acid bev-
erage Of life the saccharine. They make the
cup of earthly existence, which Is sometimes
stale, effervesce and bubble. They placate
animosltips. They foster longevity. They
Stay folIlDs and absurdities which all the SER
mons of all the pulpits cannot reach.
They have for examples Elijah, who made
| fun of the Badlites when they called down
fire, and 1t did not come, suggesting that
| their heather god had gone hunting, or was
| off on Journey, or was asleep, and nothing
but vociferation could wake him, saying,
"Cry aloud for he Is god. Either he is
talking or pursuing or peradventure he
sleepsth and must be awakel." They have
an example in Christ. who with heathfu!
sarcasm showed up the lying, hypocritical
| Pharsefs by suggesting that such perfect
| people like themselves needed no improve
ments, saying, '"Fne whole need not a ply
siclan but they that are sick.
But what Use are you making Of your WITT
Is 1t besmirched with profanity and unclean-
ness? Do you employ 1t in amusement at
physical defects for which the victims are
not responsib.e2 Are your powers Of MINI
icry used to put religion in contempt? Is it
bunch Of nettlesome invective? Jsit bolt
OF unjust scorn2 Is 1t fun at others misfor-
tuner Is 1t glee at their disappointment and
defeat? Is it bitterness put drop by drop
into cupY Is 1t like the squeezing Of Ar
temisia absnthium into draught al
ready pungant? Then you are the star
Norwood Yours is the fun of a rattle
snake trying how well it can sting. tits the
fun of a hawk trying how quickly 1t can
strike out the eye Of dove.
But will change this and suppose you are
star of Worldly Prosperity. Then you
have large opportunity. You can encourage
that artist by buying his picture. You can
improve the fields, the stables, the highway,
| by introducing higher style OF fowl and
| horse and COW and sheep. You can bless the
world with pomo'oglcal achievement In the
orchards. You can advance arboriculture
and arrest this beautiful iconoclasn Of the
American forests. You can put piece Of
sculpture into the niche of that public
academy. You can endow college. You
can stocking a thousand bare feet from the
winter frost. You can build church. You
can put missionary of Christ on that
foreign shore. You can help ransom world.
A rich man with his heart right-can you
toll me how much good James Lenox or a
George Peabody or a Peter Cooper or
William e. Dodge did while living, or Is
doing now that he Is dead? There is not
city, town or neighborhOod that has not
glorious specimens OF consecrated wealth.
But suppose you grind the face OF the
poor. Suppose when mans wages are due
you make him wait for them because he can
not help himself. Suppose that, because his
family is sick and he has had extra expenses,
he should politely ask you to raise his wages
for this year aud you roughly tell him II he
wants better place to go and get it. Sup
pose by your manner you act as though he
were nothing and you were everything. Sup
pose you are selfish and overbearing and ar
rogant, Your first name ought TO be Attila
aud your last name Attila, because you are
the star Norwood, and you have imblttered
one-third if not three-thirds of the waters
that roll past your employees and operatives
and dependents and associates, and the long
line of carriages which the undertaken orders
for your funeral, In order to make the occa-
sion respectable, will be filled with twice as
many dry, fearless eyes as there are persons
occupying them.
There Is an erroneous Idea abroad that
there are only few geniuses There are
millions of them-that is, men aud women
who have especial adaptation and 4uickness
for some one thing. 1t may be great: it may
be small. The circle may be like the circum-
ference OF the earth or no larger than a thin
BILE. There a:e thousands of 9eniuses and
in some one thing you are star. what
kind of star are you? You will be in this
world but few minutes. AS compared with
eternity tho stay of the longest life on earth
is not more than minut, What are we
doing with that minute? Are we imbittering
the domestic or social or political fountains,
Or are we like Moses, who, when the Israeites
in the wilderness complained that the waters
of Lake Marah were bitter and they could
not drink them, cut of the branch OF GER
tain tree and threw that branch into the
water, and 1t becam,. sweet and slaket the
thirst Of the suffering bost2 Are we with
branch of the Tree Of Life sweetenin0 all the
brackish fountains that we can touch?
Dear Lord, send us all out on that mission.
All around us imbittered lives-imbit-
tered by prosecution, imbttered by hyper
criticism, imbttered by poverty, i'm
Filtered by pain, imbittered by Injustice,
imbitterel by sin. Why not go forth and
sweeten them by smile, by inspiring words.
by benefactious, by hearty counsel, by prayer,
by gospeiized BEHAVIOR Let US remember
that If we are NORWOOD to others we are
NORWOOD to ourselves, and our life will be
bitter and our eternity bitterer. he gospel
of Jesus Christ is the only sweetening power
that is sufficient. 1t sweetens the dispos-
ton, IL sWeetens the manners. L. sweeens
life. 1t sweeteEs mysterious proyldences.
IL sweetpDs Affections. 1t sweetens death.
1t sWeetens everything. have heard peo-
pie asked in social company, III you could
have three wishes gratifled what would your
thres wishes be?" If l could have three
wishes met this morning. tell you what
they would be; /. More Of the grace Of God.
2. More of the grace of God. 8. More Of the
grace Of God. In the dooryard OF my
brother John. missionary in Annoy, China,
there was tree called the emperor tree, the
two characteristics Of which are that it al
ways grows higher than its surround
ings, AMI its leaves take the form of a
crown. If this emperor tree 10 planted
by q rosebush, il grows little higher
thaa the bush and spreads out above 1t
crown. IT it be planted by the side OF an-
other tree. ii grows little higher than that
tree and spreads above it crown. Would
| God that this relig on of Christ, more Won
der.ul emperor tree, might oversha low all
| YOUR lives! Are you lowly in ambition or
circumstance, putting over you its CROWN
! Are you high in talent and position, putting
| over you its crown? Oh, for moro OF the
| saccharine in our lives and less of the worm
wood
What is true OF individuals is true OF ma
| tions God sets them upto reyolve as stars,
but they may fall NORWOOD.
Tyre. the atmosphere OF the desert, fra
grant with spices, coming in caravans to her
fairs, all seas cleft into foam by the keels OF
| her laden merchantmen, her markets rlcn
with horses and camels from Togarmah, her
bazaars filed with upholstery from Dedan,
with emerald and coral and agate from
Syria, with wines from Helbon, with em-
broidered work from Ashur and Chilmad.
Where now the CLEAN Of her towers, where
the roar of her chariots, where the masts OF
her ships? Let the fishermen who dry their
nets VIII re once she stood, let the sea that
rushes upon the barrenness where once she
challenged the admiration OF all nations, let
the barbarians who set their rude tents