The Monitor-register., 1897-05-21
Actual Potash,


assures a ferocity pecking away and
clawing away at the liver year in and
year out, and death is the only Hercules
who can break the power of its beak or
unclench its claw. So, also, others
wrote fables about vultures preying
upon the liver, but there are those here
with whom it is no fable, but u terrific
reality.
That young man smoking cigarettes
! and smoking cigars has no idea that he
is getting for himself smoked liver.
That young man has no idea that he
has by early dissipation so depleted his
energies that he will go into the battle
only half armed. Here is another young
man who, if he put all his forces
against the regiment of youthful temp
| tations in the strength of God, might
, drive them back, but he is allowing
them to be REINFORCED by the whole
army of midlife temptations, and what
but immortal defeat can await him?
Oh, my young brother, do not make
the mistake that thousands are making
in opening the battle against sin too
late, for this world too late, and for the
world to come too late! What brings
that express train from st. Louis into
| Jersey City three hours late? They lost
Is minutes early on the route, and that
affected them all the way, and they had
to be switched off here and switched off
there and detained here and detained
there, and the man who loses time and
strength in the earlier part of the jour
ney of life will suffer for it all the way
through, the first 20 years of life dam
aging the following 80 years.
Some years ago a scientific lecturer
went through the country exhibiting on
great canvas different parts of the hui
man body when healthy and the same
parts when diseased. And what the
world wants now is some eloquent sci
enlist to go through the country, show
ing to our young people on blazing cam
vas the drunkard's liver, the idler's liv-
er, the libertine's liver, the gamblers
liver. Perhaps the spectacle might stop
some young man before he comes to the
catastrophe and the dart strikes through
his liver.
Epitaphs.
My nearer, this is the first m
you have heard on the gospel health,
and it may be the last you will ever
hear on that subject, and / charge you
in the name of God and Christ and use
fulness and eternal destiny take better
care of your health. When some of you
die, if your friends put IN your tomb
stone a truthful epitaph, it will read,
"Here lies the victim of late suppers,"
or it will be, "Behold what lobster sal
ad at midnight will do for a man." or
it will be, "Ten cigars a day closed my
earthly existence or it will be,
Thought I could do at 70 what I did
at 80, and / am here" or it will be,
"Here is the consequence of sitting a
half day with wet feet" or it will be,
"This is where I have stacked my har-
vest of wild OATS" or instead of words
the stone cutter will chisel for an cpl
taph on the tombstone two figures
namely, a dart and a liver.
There is a kind of sickness that is
beautiful when it comes from overwork
for God, or ones country, or ones OWL
family. I have seen wounds that were
glorious. I have seen an empty sleeve
that W s more beautiful than the most
muscular forearm. I have seen a green
shade over the eye, shot out in battle,
that was more beautiful than any two
eyes that had passed without injury. I
have seen all old missionary, worn out
with the malaria of African 1ungles,
who looked to me more radiant than a
rubicund gymnast. l have seen a moth
Ell, after six weeks watching over a
family of children dow& with scarlet
fever, with a glory around her pale and
wan face that surpassed the angelic. 1t
all depends on how you got your sick
ness and in what battle your wounds.
1t we must get sick and worn out, let
it be in Gods service and in the effort
to make the world good. Not in the
service of sin. No, no! One of the most
pathetic scenes that l ever witness, and
| often see it, is that of men or women
converted in the fifties or sixties or sew
entities wanting to be useful, but they SO
served the world and satan in the ear
lier part of their life that they have no
physical energy left for the service of
God. They sacrificed nerves, muscles,
lungs, heart and liver on the wrong al
tar. They fought on the wrong side,
and now, when their sword is all hack
ed up and their ammunition all gone,
they enlist for Emmanuel. When the
high melted cavalry horse, which that
man spurred into many a cavalry charge
with champing bit and flaming eye and
neck clothed with thunder, is worn out
and spawned and %ringboned and spring
halt, he rides up to the great Captain
of our salvation on the white horse and
offers his services. When such persons
might have been, through the good hab-
its of a lifetime, crashing their battle
ak through the helmeted iniquities,
they are spending their days and nights
in discussing the best way of curing
their indigestion, and quieting their
jangling nerves, and rousing their lag
gard appetite, and trying to extract the
dart from their outraged liver. Better
converted late than never. Oh, yes, for
they will get to heayenl But they will
go afoot when they might have wheeled
up the steep hills of the sky in Elijah's
chariot. There is an old hymn that we
used to sing in the country meeting
house when | was a boy, and I remem-
Der how the old folks voices trembled
with emotion while they sang it. Ihave
forgotten all but two lines, but those
lines are the peroration of my sermon;
Twill save us from a thousand snares
To mind religion young.
1897 a Lucky Year.