Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1896-06-20

wants better place 10 80 and set ii.
Suppose BY your manner you act al
though he were nothing and you were
everything. Suppose you are selfish and
overbearing and arrogant Your first
name ought to be Attila and your last
name Attila, because you are the star
Wormwood, and you have imbittered
oDe-third if not three thirds Of the
waters that roll past your employees and
operatives and dependents and associ-
ates. and the long line of carriages
which the undertaken orders for your
funeral, in order to make the occasion
respectable, viii be filed with twice as
many dry, fearless eyes as there are per-
sons occupying them.
There is an erroneous idea abroad
that there are only few geninses
There are millions of them-that is, men
and women who have especial adapta-
ton and quickness for some one thing.
1t may be great; it may be small. The
circle may be like the circumference of
the earth or no larger than thimble.
There are thousands of geniuses, aud in
some one thing you are a star. What
kind of a star are you? You will be in
this world but a few minutes AS COM
pared with eternity the stay of the
longest life ON earth is not more than a
minute. What are we doing with that
minute? Are we imbittering the domes-
tic or social or political fountains. or are
we like Moses, who when the Israelites
in the wilderness complained that the
waters of Lake Marah were bitter and
they could not drink them, cut off the
branch of a certain tree and threw that
branch into the water, and it became
sweet and slaked the thirst of the suffer-
ing host? Arc we with branch of the
Tree of Life sweetening all the brackish
fountains that we can touch?
Three Wishes.
Dear Lord, send us all out on that
mission. All around us imbittered lives
-imbittered by persecution, imbittered
by hypercriticism, iinbittered by pow
erty, imbittered by pain, imbittered by
injustice, imbittered by sin. Why not
go forth and sweeten them by smile, by
inspiring words, by benefactions, by
hearty counsel. by prayer, by gospel
lied behavior? Let us remember that if
we are wormwood to others we are
wormwood to ourselves, and our life
will be bitter and our eternity bitterer.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only
sweetening power that is sufficient 1t
sweetens the disposition. 1t sweetens
the manners. 1t sweetens life. It sweet
ems mysterious providences. 1t sweetens
Affections. 1t sweetens death. 1t sweet
ems everything. I have heard people
asked in social company, IF you could
have three wishes gratified, what would
your three wishes be?' If [ 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. g. More of the grace of God.
In the dooryard of my brother John,
missionary in Annoy, China, there was
a tree called the emperor tree, the two
characteristics of which are that it al
ways grows higher than its surround
ings, and its leaves take the form of a
crown. If this emperor tree be planted
by rosebush, it grows little higher
than the bush and spreads out above it
a crown. If it be planted by the side of
another tree, it grows a little higher
than that tree and spreads above it
crown. Would God that this religion
of Christ, more wonderful emperor
tree, might overshadow all your lives!
Are you lowly in ambition or circum-
stance. putting over you its crown? Are
you high in talent and position, putting
over you its crown? Oh, for more of the
saccharine in our lives and less of the
wormwoodl
What is true of individuals is true of
nations. God sets them up to revolve
as stars, but they may fall NORWOOD.
Tyre, the atmosphere of the desert,
fragrant with spices, coming in cara
vans to her fairs, all seas cleft into
foam by the keels of her laden mer-
chantmen, her markets rich with horses
and camels from Togarmah, her bazaars
filled with upholstery from Dedan, with
emerald and coral and agate from Syria,
with wines from Helbon, with embroid-
cred 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 fisher
men who dry their nets where 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
where once her palaces glittered, answer
the question. She was star, but by her
own sin turned to NORWOOD and has
fallen
Turned to NORWOOD.
Hundred gated Thebes, for all time
to be the study of the antiquarian and
hieroglyphist, her stupendous ruins
spread over 81 miles, her sculptures
presenting i'll figures of warrior and
chariot the victories with which the now
forgotten kings of Egypt shook the ma
tons, her obelisks and columns, Carnac
and Luxor, the stupendous temples of
her pridel Who can imagine the great
ness of Thebes in those days when the
hippodrome rang with her sports and
foreign royalty bowed at her shrine and
her avenues roared with the wheels of
professions in the wake of returning
conquerors? What dashed down the vi
sion of chariots and temples and thrones?
What hands pulled upon the columns
of her glory? What ruthlessness defaced
her sculptured wall and broke obelisks
and left her indescribable temples great
skeletons of granite? What spirit of de-
struction spread the lair of wild beasts
in her royal sepulchers, and taught the
miserable cottagers of today to build
huts in the courts of her temples, and
sent desolation and ruin skulking be-
hind the obelisks, and lodging among
the sarcophagi, and leaning against the
columns, and STOPPING under the arches,
and weeping in the waters which go
mournfully by as though they were car
rying the tears of all ages? Let the
mummies break their long silence and
come up to shiver in the desolation and
point to fallen gates and shattered statues
and defaced sculpture, responding;
oThebes built not one temple to God,
Thebes hated righteousness and loved
sin. Thebes was a star, but she turned
to NORWOOD and has fallen. -
Babylon, with her $50 towers and her
brazen gates and her embattled walls,
the splendor of the earth gathered with