The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-06-15

when one Of them is dead. Then you
would give your right hand to hear one
/ shout from their silent voices, or one step
from the still foot. You will not any of
you have to wall very long before your
house is stiller than you want IL. Alas,
/ that there are so many homes not known
TO the Society for the Prevention of Cruel
~ TO Children, where children are put on
the limits, and whacked and cuffed and
ear-pulled, and senseiessly called to order,
and answered sharp and suppressed, until
IL is a wonder that under such processes
they do not all turn out Modocs and Mana
What is your influence upon the neigh
borhoOd the town or the city of your res
idence? ] viii suppose that you are a star
! of wit What kind of rays do you shoot
/ forth2 Do you use that splendid faculty
to irradate the world or 10 rankle It? 1
bless all the apostolic college of humorists
The man that makes me laugh Is my BEN
efactor. / do not thank anybody to make
me cry? ] can do that without any as
enough to cry about. God bless all skill
full punsters, all reparteeiSts, all pro-
Founders Of ingenious conumdrums, all
those who mirthfully surprise us with
unusual JuXtapOsitiOn of words. Thomas
Hood and Charles Lamb and Sidney
Smith had a divine mission, and so have
their successors in these times They stir
into the acid beverage Of life the saccha-
rine. They make the cup of earthly ex-
istence which is sometimes stale, effer-
vesce and bubble They placate animos-
fOllies and absurdities which all the ser
mons Of all the pulpits cannot reach.
They have for examples Elijah, who
made fun of the Baalites when they called
down fire and il did not come suggesting
that their heather god had gone hunting
or was off on a journey, or was asleep and
nothing but vociferaton could wake him,
saying: cry aloud, for he is a god either
he is talking or pursuing or peradventure
he sleepeth and must be awaked." They
have an example in Christ, who with
hnulfhffgl a al q a
hypOcritical Pharisees by suggesting that
such perfect people like themselves needed
no improvements, saying: THE whole
need not physician, but they that are
sick"
But what use are you making of your
wit? Is 1t besmirched with profanity and
uncleanness? Do you employ 1t in amuse-
ment at physical defects for which the
victims are not responsible? Are your
powers of mimicry used to put religion in
contempt? Is IL a bunch of nettlesome
lnVective2 Is it a bolt Of unjust scorn? Is
Ii fun at others misfortune2 Is ii glee
at their disappointment and defeat2 Is 1t
bitterness put drop by drop into a cup?
Is II like the squeezing of Artemisia Alb
sinthium into a draughL already distaSte-
fully pungent? Then you are the star
NORWOOD. Yours Is the fun OF rattle
snake trying how we'll it can sting. 1t is
the fun of a hawk trying how quickly It
can strike out the eye of a dove.
But / will change this and suppose you
are a star of worldly prosperity. Then
you have large opportunity. You can
encourage ludL artist DE buying MS pic
ture: You can improve the fields, the
stables, the highway by introducing high
er style of fowl, and horse, and COW, and
sheep. You can bless the world with
genealogical achievement in the orchards
You can advance arboriculture and arrest
this deathful iconoclasm of the American
forests. You can put a piece Of sculpture
into the niche of that public academy.
You can endow a college. You can stock
ing a thousand bare feet from the winter
frost You can build a church. You can
put missionary of Christ on that foreign
shore. You can help ransom a world A
rich man with his heart right-can you
tell me how much good James LenoX or
a George Peabody or a Peter Cooper, or a
William b. 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 cannot help himself Suppose that, be-
cause his family is sick and he has had
extra expenses, he should politely ask you
10 raise his wages for this year, and you
roughly tell him If he wants better place
to so and get it. Suppose by your manner
you act as though he were nothing and
you were everything. Suppose you are
selfish, and overbearing, and arrogant.
Your first name ought to be Atilla and
your last name Aulla, because you are the
star NORWOOD, and you have embittered
one-third, If not two-thirds, of the waters
| that roll past your employees, and opera
! tives, and dependents, and associates; and
! the long line of carriages which the I'M
/ dertaker orders for your funeral, in order
! to make the occasion 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 and
women who have especial adaptation and
! quickness for some one thing. It may be
| great, it may be small. The circle may be
| like the circumference of the earth or
/ no larger than a thimble. There are
/ thousands or geniuses, and in some one
/ thing you are star. what KIND OF a
star are you? You will be in this world
but a few minutes. As compared with
eternity the stay of the longest life on
earth is not more than minute. What
are we doing with that minute2 Are we
| embittering the domestic or social or po-
| litcal 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 of the branch OF GER
| tain tree and threw that branch into the
| water, and it became sweet and slaked
| the thirst of the suffering host? Are we
| with a branch of the Tree of Life sweet
| ening all the brackish fountains that we
| can touch?
Dear Lord. send us all out on that mis-
| sion. All around US embittered lives-em-
Uttered by persecution, embittered by
| hypercriticism embittered by poverty,
| embittered by pain, embittered by inJus-
| tice, embittered by sin. Why not go forth
| and sweeten them by smile, by Inspiring
| words, by benefactionS, by hearty cOun-
| sci, by prayer, by gOSpelized behavior! Let
| us remember that II we are NORWOOD to
others we are NORWOOD to ourselves,
and our life viii be bitter and our eter-
| nifty bitterer. The gospel Of Jesus Christ
| is the only sWeetening power that IS suf-
! fcient 1t sweetens the disposition. Il
! sWeetens the manners. It sweeteus life
| 1t sWeetenS mysterious ProVidences. 1t
| sweetens Affections. 1t sweetens death
1t sweetens everything. I have heard peo-
| pie asked in social company; If you
! could have three wishes gratified, what
would your three wishes be-" If l could
have three wishes met this morning l tell
you what they would be. First: more OF
the grace of God. Second: More Of the
| grace Of God. Third: More of the grace OF
God. In the dooryard of my brother John,
missionary in Annoy, China, there was a
acteristics of which are that it ALWAYS
grows higher than its surroundings, and
its leaves take the form of a crown. II
bush, IL grows a little higher than the
bush, and spreads out above 1t a crown
| If il be planted by the side Of another
L L. L l. L