The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1897-08-06

attraction is not the book. but the
Tobacco dealers advertise that on
a certa in day they will put money in
to their papers, so that the pur-
chaser of this tobacco in Cincinnati or
New York may unexpectedly come upon
a magnificent gratuity. Boys hawk
ing through the cars packages con-
tanning nobody knows what, until you
open them and find they contain moth
ing. Christian men with pictures on
their walls gotten in lottery, and the
brain of the community taxed to find
out some way of getting things with
out paying for them Oh, young men,
these are the threads that make the
cart rope, and when a young man con-
sents to these practices, he is being
bound hand and foot by habit which
has already destroyed "a great multi
tude that no man can number"
Sometimes these gift enterprises are
carried on in the name of charities;
and some of you remember at the close
of our civil war how mony gift enter
prises were on foot, the proceeds to go
to the orphans and widows OF the SOL
diers and sailors. What did the men
who had charge of those gift enter
prises care for the orphans and
widows? Why, they would have
allowed them to freeze to death
upon their steps. l have no faith in
charity which, for the sake of reliev-
ing present suffering, opens a gaping
jaw that has swallowed down so much
of the virtue and good principle of the
community. Young man, have moth
ing to do with these things. They
only sharpen your appetite for games
of chance. Do one of two things: Be
honest or die.
l have accomplished my object if
put you on the lookout 1t is a great
deal easier to fall than it is to get up
again. The trouble is that when men
begin to go astray from the path Of
duty, they are apt to say: There's no
use of my trying to get back. I've
sacrificed my responsibility, can't re-
turn" and they go on until they are
utterly destroyed. l tell you, my
friends, that God this moment, by His
Holy Spirit, can change your entire
nature, so that you will be different
man in minute. Your great want
what is it? More salary? Higher so
cial position? No; no. l will tell you
the great want of every man, if he has
not already obtained it. 1t is the
grace of God.
Are there any who have fallen vic
tins to the sin that l have been repre-
hending? You are in prison, and try
to get out, and you fail; and you turn
around and dash against the other
wall until there is blood on the CRATES,
and blood on your soul. You will
never get out in this way. There is
only one way of getting out. There is
a key that can unlock the prison house
1t is the key that Christ wears at his
girdle. If you will allow Him to put
that key to the lock, the bolt will
shoot back and the door will swing
open, and you will be a free man in
Christ Jesus.
Oh, prodigal, what business this is
for you, feeding swine, when your
Father stands in the front door, strain
ing his eyesight to catch the first
glimpse of your return; and the calf is
as fat as it will be and the harps Of
Heaven are all strung and the feet
free. There are converted gamblers
in Heaven. The light of eternity
flashed upon the green baize of their
billiard-salOon. In the laver of Gods
forgiveness they washed off all their
sin. They quit trying for earthly
stakes They tried for Heaven and
won it. There stretches a hand
from Heaven toward the head of the
worst offender. 1t is a hand. not
clinched as if to smite, but outSpread
as if to drop a benediction.
Other seas have a shore and may be
but the sea of Gods love
eternity has not plummet to strike the
bottom, and immensely no ironbound
shore to confne it. Its tides are lifted
by the heart of infinite compassion.
Its waves are the hosannahs of the re-
deemed. The argosies that sail on it
drop anchor at last amid the thunder
ing salvo of eternal victory. But alas
for that man who sits down to the
final game Of life and puts his immor-
tai soul on the ace, while the angels
Of God keep the tally-board; and after
kings, and queens, and knaves, and
spades are ''shuffied' and cut" and
the game is ended, lowering and inn
pending worlds discover that he has
lost it, the faro-bank of eternal dark
ness clutching down into its wallet all
the blood-stained wagers.