The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1897-06-04

competent. They owe nothing to Eng
lish grammar, or geography, or bellies
letters. They would not know par
ticiple from pronoun if they met it
many times a day. Many OF the most
successful merchants of America and
men in high political places can not
write an accurate letter on any
theme They are completely depend
ent upon clerks, and deputies, and
stenographers, to make things right.
l knew a literary man who in other
years in this city made his fortune by
writing speeches for congressman or
fixing them up for the Congressional
Record after they were delivered. The
millionaire illiteracy of this country is
beyone measurement
Now, suppose man finds himself in
midlife without education, what is he
to do? Do the best he can. The most
effective layman in former pastoral
charge that ever heard speak on reh-
gious themes could within five min
utes of exhortation break all the laws
of English grammar, and if he left any
law unfractured he would complete
the work of lingual devastation in the
prayer with which he followed it
But would rather have him pray for
me if | was sick or in trouble than any
Christian man / know OF, and in that
church all the people preferred him in
exhortation and prayers to all others.
Why? Because he was so thoroughly
pious aud had such power with God he
was irres istible. and as he went on in
his prayer sinners repented and saints
shouted for JOY, and the bereaved
seemed to get back their dead in celes-
tial companionship. And when he had
stopped praying and as soon as L could
wipe out of my eyes enough tears to
see the closing hymn / ended the
meeting, fearful that some long wind
ed prayer meeting bore would pull us
down from the seventh heaven.
Not a word have | to say against ac-
curacy OF speech or fine elocution or
high mental culture. Get all these you
can. But do say to those who were
brought up in the day of poor school
houses and ignorant schOolmasters and
no opportunity: You may have so much
of good in your soul and so much of
Heaven in your everyday life that you
will be mightier for good than any
who went through the curriculum of
Harvard or Yale or Oxford, yet never
graduated in the school of Christ.
When you get up to the gate of Heav-
en-, no one will ask you whether you
can parse the first chapter of Genesis,
but whether you have learned the fear
of the Lord, which is the beginning of
,eIo hot har Lrnnvv how
to square the circle, but whether you
have lived square life in round
world. Mount Zion is higher than
Mount Parnassus.
But what other multitudes there are
under other disadvantages. Here is
Christian woman whose husband
thinks religion a sham. and while the
wife prays the children one way the
husband swears them another. Or
| here is a Christian man who IS trying
| to do his best for God and the church,
and his wife holds him back and says
on the way home from prayer meet
ing. where he gave testimony for
Christ What a fool you make of
yourself! 1 hope hereafter you will
keep still" And when he would
be benevolent and give $50 she criti-
cises him for not giving 80 cents. I
must do justice and publicly thank
God flat l never proposed at home to
give anything for any cause of human
ity or religion but the other partner
in the domestic firm approved it, and
when it seemed beyond my ability and
faith in God was necessary she had
three-fourths the faith But l know
men who, when they contribute to
charitable objects, are afraid that the
wife shall find it out. What wither-
ing curse such woman must be TO a
good man!
Then there are others under the
great disadvantage of poverty. Who.
ought to get things cheapest? You
say those who have little means. But
they pay more. You buy coal by the
ton; they buy it by the bucket You
buy -four by the barrel; they buy it by
the pound. You get apparel cheap be-
cause you pay cash; they pay dear be-
cause they have to get trusted. And
the Bible was right when it said, 1.-THE
destruction of the poor is their pow
erty."
1Acus IHcTS are LuOoS WIZ uduc q
mistake in early life, and that over
shadows all their days. ''Do you not
know that that man was once in pris-
on?" is whispered. Or, ''Do you know
that that man once attempted sui
cide?" Or, do you known that that
man once absconded?'' Or, DO you
know that that man was once dis
charged for dishonesty" Perhaps
there was only one wrong deed in the
mans life, and that one act haunts the
subsequent half century of his ex-
istence.
Others have unfortunate predomi-
nance of some mental faculty, and
their rashness throws them into wild
enterprises, or their trepidation makes
them decline great opportunity, or
there is a vein of melancholy in their
disposition that defeats them, or they
have an endowment or overmirth that
causes the impression of insineerity.
Others have a mighty obstacle in
their personal appearance, for which
they are not responsible They forget