The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1897-08-27

are lawyer. In your profession there
are mean and dishonest men. Is thai
anything against the law? You are q
doctor. There are unskilled and con-
temptible men in your profession. Is
that anything against medicine? You
are a merchant. There are thieves
and defrauders in your business. Is
that anything against merchandise?
Behold, then. the unfairness of charg-
ing upon Christianity the wickedness
of its disciples. We admit some of the
charges against those who profess
religion. Some of the most gil
have been carried on by men,
bers of the church. There are men
standing in the front rank in the
churches who would not be trusted for
S. without good collateral security.
They leave their business dishOnesties
in the vestibule of the church as they
60 in and sit at the communion. Hav-
ing concluded the sacrament, they get
up, wipe the wine from their lips, go
out and take up their sins where they
left off. To serve the devil is their
regular work; to serve God a sort of
play-spell. With a Sunday sponge
they expect to wipe off from their
business slate all the past weeks in
constituencies. You have no more
right to take such a mans life as
a specimen of religion than you
have to take the twisted irons and
| split timbers that lie on the beach
at Coney island as a specimen of
an American ship. 1t is time that we
draw line between religion and the
frailties of those who profess it Do
you not feel that the Bible, take it all
in all. is about the best book that the
world has ever seen? Do you know
| any book that has as much in it? Do
you not think, upon the whole, that
| its influence has been beDefcent? /
come to you with both hands extended
toward you. In one hand / have the
Bible, and in the other hand l have
nothing. This Bible in one hand l
will surrender forever just as soon as
in my other hand you can put book
that is better.
invite you back into the good old
fashioned religion of your fathers-to
the God whom they worshiped. to the
Bible they read, to the promises on
which they leaned, to the cross on
which they hung their eternal expecta-
tions. You have not been happy day
since you swung off; you will not be
happy minute until you swing back.
Again; there may be some who, in
the attempt after Christian life, will
have to run against powerful passions
and appetites. Perhaps it is DISPOSE
ton to anger that you may have to
contend against; and perhaps, while in
a very serious mood, you hear of some
thing that makes you feel that you
must swear or die. know Christian
man who was once so exasperated that
he said to a mean customer, Il cannot
swear at you myself, for | am a mem
Der of the church; but if you will go
downstairs my partner in business will
swear at you All your good resolu-
tioDs heretofore have been torn to tat
tiers by explosion of temper. Now there
is no harm in getting mad if you only
get mad at sin. You need to bride
and saddle those hot-breathed pas
sions, and with them ride down injus-
tice and wrong. There are a thousand
things in the world we ought to be
mad at. There is no harm in getting
hot if you only bring to the forge that
which needs hammering. A man who
has no power of righteous Indignation
is an imbecile. But be sure it is a
righteous Indignation. and not petu-
lancy that blurs and unravels, and de-
pletes the soul
There is large class of persons in
mid-life who have still in them appe-
tites that were aroused in early man.
hood, at a time when they prided them
selves on being little fast, high
ivers, free and easy" hail fellows
well met" They are now paying in
compound interest for troubles they
collected 90 years ago. Some of you
are trying to escape, and you will-yet !
very narrowly, las with the skin of |
your teeth" God and your own soul |
only know what the struggle is. Om- |
nipotent grace has pulled out many a |
soul that was deeper in the mire than |
you are.
If, with all the influences favorable |
for right life. men make so many |
mistakes, how much harder is it when. /
for instance, some appetite thrusts its !
iron grapple into the roots of the /
tongue, and pulls a man down with
hands of destruction, If, under such /
circumstances, he break away, there |
will be no sport in the undertaking, |
no holiday enjoyment, but struggle /
in which the wrestlers move from side |
to side, and bend, and twist, and watch
for an opportunity to get in heavier
stroke, until with one final effort, in
which the muscles are distended. and
the veins stand out, and the blood
starts, the swarthy habit falls under
the knee of the victor-escaped at last
as with the skin of his teeth"
There are others who, in attempting
to come TO God, must run between
great many business perplexities. If
a man go over to business at ten o'clock
in the morning and come away at
three o'clock in the afternoon, he
has some time for religion; but how
shall Won find time for raIirior1S CON