Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-05-04

Rang to the anthems of the free.
Life often seems to be mere game
where the successful player pulls down
all the other men into his own lap.
Let suspicion arise about a mans
Character, and he becomes like bank
in panic, and all the imputations rush
on him and break down in day that
character which in due time would
have had strength to defend itself.
There are regulations that have been
half a century in building, which go
down under one push, as vast temple
is consumed by the touch of sulphur
Gus match. A hog can uproot CEN
fury plant.
In this world, so full of heartless-
| ness and hypocrisy, how thrilling it is
to find some friend as faithful in days
Oh adversely as in days of prosperity?
David had such friend in Hushai;
the Jews had such friend in Morde-
cal, who never forgot their cause; Paul
mad such friend in Onesiphorus. who
visited him in Jail; Christ had such in
the Marys, who adhered to Him on the
Cross; Naomi had such n one in Ruth,
who cried out, "Entreat me not to leave
thee, or to return from following after
thee, for whittier thou goest, / will go;
and whittier thou lodgest l will lodge;
thy people shall be my people, and thy
God my God; where thou diest will
die, and there will l be buried; the
Lord do so to me, and more also. Ii
aught but death part thee and me-"
Again, learn from this subject that
paths which open in hardship and dark
ness often come out in places of joy.
When Ruth started from Moab toward
Jerusalem, to go along with her moth
cr-in-law, l suppose the people said:
oh. what foolish creature to go away
from her fathers house, to go off with
a poor old woman toward the land of
! Judah! They won't live to get across
the desert. They will be drowned in
the sea. or the jackals of the wilder
| ness will destroy them" 1t was very
dark rornirg when Ruth started off
with Naomi: but behold her in my
text in the harvest field OF Boaz, to
be affianced 10 one of the lords OF the
land. and become one OF the grand
mothers Of Jesus Christ, the Lord of
glory. And so it often is that a path
which often starts very darkly ends
very brightly.
When you started out for heaven, oh.
how dark was the hour of conviction
how Sinai Numbered, and devils tor
menteG, and the darkness thickened!
All the sins OF your life pounced upon
you. and it was the darkest hour you
ever saw when you first found out your
sins. After awhile you went into the
harvest field of Gods mercy: you be-
gan to CLEAN in the fields of divine
promise, and you had more sheaves
than you could carry, as the voice of
God addressed you, saying: BLESSED
is the man whose transgressions are
forgiven and whose sins are covered"
a very dark starting in conviction,
very bright ending in the pardon and
the hope and the triumph of the Cos
pei.
Sc, very often in our worldly busi-
ness or in our spiritual career, we start
off on very dark path. We must go.
The flesh may shrink back, but there
is voice within, or voice from above,
saying, You must co." and we have
to drink the gall. and we have to carry
the cross, and we have to traverse the
desert and we are pounded and failed
OF Misrepresentation and abuse, and
we have to urge our way through ten
thousand obstacles that have been slain
by our own right arm. We have to
ford the river, we have to climb the
mountain, we have to storm the castle;
but, blessed be God, the day of rest and
reward will come. On the tip-top of
the captured battlements we will shout
the victory: if not in this world, then
in that world where there is no gall
to drink, no burdens to carry, no bat
ties to fight. How do know it? Know
il! l know it because God says so:
They shall hunger no more, neither
thirst any more, neither shall the sun
light on them, nor any heat, for the
Lamb which is in the midst OF the
throne shall lead them to living foun-
tains OF water, and God shall wipe all
tears from their eyes"
1t was very hard for Noah to endure
the SOOTHING of the people in his day,
while he was trying to build the ark,
and was every morning quizzed about
his old boat that would never be of any
practical use; but when the deluge
came, and the tops of the mountains
disappeared like the backs of sea mon
sters, and the elements, dashed up in
fury, clapped their hands over a
drowned world, then Noah in the ark
rejoiced in his own safety and in the
safety Of his family, and looked out
on the wreck of ruined earth.
Christ, bounded of prosecutors, de-
MED a pillow, worse maltreated than
the thieves on either side of the cross,
human hate smacking its lips in sat-
iufaction after it had been draining his
last drop of blood, the sheeted dead
bursting from the sepulchres at his
crucifixion. Tell me, o Gethsemane
and Golgotha, were there ever darker
times than those? Like the booming
of tho rp,idnjobt caa aOaipct tho rock