Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-12-21

4
they often catch each others disease.
Those who never saw a sick day, and
who, like Hercules, show the giant in
the cradle, have more to answer for
than those who are the subjects of life
long infirmities. He who can lift twice
as much as you can, and walk twice as
far, and work twice as long, will have
double account to meet in the judg-
ment
| How often is it that you do not find
physical energy indicative Of spiritual
| power? If clear head is worth more
than one dizzy with perpetual vertigo
If muscles with the play of health
in them arc worth more than tho5e
drawn up in chronic ''rheumatics"-
an eye quick to catch passing objects
is better than one with vision dim and
uncertain-ther God will require of Us
efficiency just in proportion to what
he has given us. Physical energy
ought to be type of moral power.
We ought to have as good digestion or
truth as we have capacity to assimi-
late food. Our spiritual hearing ought
to be as good as our physical hearing.
Our spiritual taste ought to be as clear
as our tongue. Samsons in body, we
ought to be giants in moral power.
But while you find great many men
who realize that they ought to use
their money Alright, and use their In
telligence Alright, how few men you
find aware of the fact that they ought
to use their physical organism Alright.
With every thump of the heart there
is something saying, Work! work.
and, lest we should complain that We
have no tools to work with, God gives
us our hands and feet, with every
knuckle. and with every joint, and
with every muscle, saying to us. Lay
hold and do something"
But how often it is that men with
physical strength do not serve Christ!
They are like ship full manned and
full rugged. capable of vast tonnage,
able TO endure all stress of weather,
yet swinging idly at the docks, when
these men ought to be crossing and re-
crossing the great ocean Of human suf-
fering and sin with Gods supplies of
mercy. How often it is that physical
strength is used in doing positive dam
age. or in luxurious ease, when, with
sleeves rolled up and bronzed bosom,
fearless OF the shafts of opposition. 1t
ought to be laying hold with all its
might. and Juggling away to lift UP
this sunken wreck Of world.
1t is q most shameless fact that
much of the business of the church
and of the world must be done by those
comparatively invalid. Richard Bax-
ter, by reason of his diseases. all his
days sitting in the door of the tomb,
yet writing more than hundred vol
umes, and sending out an influence
for God that will endure as long as
the Saints Everlasting Rest" Ed
ward Payson, never knowing well
day, yet how he preached, and how he
wrote, helping thousands of dying souls
like himself to swim in a sea of
gloryr And Robert M'Cheyne, walk
ing skeleton, yet You know what he
did in Dundee, and how he shook
Scotland with zeal for God. Philip
Doddridge, advised by his friends, be-
cause of his illness. not to enter the
ministry, yet you know what he did for
the rise and progress OF religion" in
the church and in the world.
The trouble Is that when people
write or speak upon this theme they
are apt to cover it UP with the graces
Of bellies lettres, so that the crime is
made attractive instead of repulsive
Lord Byron in Don Juan" adorns this
crime until it smiles like May queen
Michelet, the great French writer, COW
ers 1t up with bewitching rhetoric, I'M
til it CLOVIS like the rising sun, when
it ought to be made loathsome as a
smallpox hospital. There are today
influences abroad. which, II unresisted
by the pulpit and the printing press,
will turn our modern cities into So
dom and Gomorrah, fit only for The
storm of fire and birthstone that
whelmed the cities OF the plain.
You who are seated in your Chris
tan homes, comprised By moral aad
religious restraints, do not realize The
gulf of iniguity that bounds you on
the north and the south and the east
and west. While | speak there are
tens OF thousands of men and women
going over the awful plunge OF an i'm
pure life; and while l cry to God for
mercy upon their souls call upon you
to marshal in the defense of your
homes, your church and your nation.
There is a banqueting hall that you
have never heard described. You
know all about the feast OF Ahasuerus,
where thousand lords sat- You know
all about BelshazZar's carousal, where
the blood of the murdered king squirt
ed into the faces of the banqueters.
You may know Of the scene Of riot and
wassail, when there was set before
Esopus one dish of food that cost $780,
600. But / speak now Of a different
banqueting hall. Its roof is fretted
with fire. It's floor is tesselated with
fire. It's chalices are chased with fire.
Is song Is song of fire. Its walls
are buttresses OF fire. Solomon refers
10 it when he says: Her guests are in
the depths of hell"
Behold also in this giant Of the text
and in the giant of our own century
that great physical power must crum-
hlQ and oyntra TIL. of the