The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1897-03-05


not stumble" Especial charge: Keep
thy foot when thou goest to the house
of God" Especial peril: Their feet
shall slide in due time" Connected
with the worlds dissolution: He
shall set one foot on the sea and the
other on the earth"
Give me the history of your foot, and
/ will give you the history of your life
time. Tell me up what steps it hath
gone, down what declivities, and N
what roads and in what directions. ant
will know more about you than [
want to know. None of US could en-
dure the scrutiny. Our feet not al
WAYS in paths of God. Sometimes in
paths of worldlinesS. Our feet, a di-
vine and glorious machinery for use
fitness and work. so often making mis-
steps, so often going the wrong direc-
ton. God knowing every step, the
patriarch saying: Thou settest a
print on the heels of my feet" Crimes
of the hand, crimes of the tongue,
crimes of the eye. crimes of the ear not
worse than crimes of the foot. Oh. we
want the wings of humility to cover
the feet. Ought we not to go into
self-abnegation before the all-search-
ing, all-scrutinizing all-trying eye of
God? The seraphs do. How much
more weP with twain he covered
the feet"
Another seraphic posture in the text:
with twain he covered the face.
That means reverence GOdward.
Never so much irreverence abroad in
the world as to-day. You see it in the
defaced statuary. in the cutting out of
figures from fine paintings in the fact
that military guard must stand at the
grave of Lincoln and Garfield. and that
OLD shade trees must be cut down for
flrewOod. though 80 George p. Morrises
beg the woodcutter to spare the tree.
and that calls a corpse cadaver, and
that speaks of death as going over to
the majority. and substitutes for the
reverent terms father and mother,
1.-The old man" and the old woman,
and finds nothing impressive in the
ruins of Baalbec or the columns of
Karnac. and sees no difference in the
Sabbath from other days except it al
lows more dissipa ton. and reads the
Bible in what is called higher criti-
cism, making 1t not the VOID of God.
but good book with some fine
things in it. Irreverence never 50 much
abroad. How many take the name
of God in vain. how many trivial
things said about the Almighty. Not
willing to have God in the world. they
I L
humanitarianism and impudence and
imbecility. and call it God. No wings
of reverence over the face. no taking
off of shoes on holy ground. You can
tell from the way they talk they could
have made better world than this
and that God of the Bible shocks every
sense of prOpriety. They talk of the
love of God in a way that shows you
they believe it does not make any diff
ference how bad a man is here, he will
come in at the shining gate. They talk
of the love of God in a way which
shows you they think it is general
jail delivery for all the abandoned and
the scoundrellv of the universe. No
punishment hereafter for any wrong
done here.
The Bible gives two descriptions of
God, and they are just opposite, and
they are both true. In one place the
Bible says God is love. In another
place the Bible says God is a consuming
fire. The explanation is as plain as
plain can be. God through Christ is
love God out of Christ is fire. To win
the one and to escape the other we
have only to throw ourselves body,
mind and soul into Christ's keeping.
No" says Irreverence, Il want no
atonement, want no pardon, | want
no intervention; will go up and face
God, and | will challenge Him, and |
will defy Him, and / will ask Him
what He wants to do with me-" So
the finite cOnfrOnts the infinite, so
tack hammer tries to break a thunder
bolt, so the breath of human nostrils
defies the everlasting God, while the
hierarchs of Heaven bow the head and
bend the knee as the Kings chariot
goes by, and the archangel turns away
because he cannot endure the splendOr,
and the chorus of the empires of Heav-
en- comes in with full diapason: Holy,
holy, holy"
Reverence for sham, reverence for
the old merely because it is old, rever-
ence for stupidity, however learned,
reverence for incapacity however finely
inaugurated, | have none. But we
want more reverence for God, more
reverence for the sacraments, more
reverence for the Bible, more reverence
for the good. Reverence character
istic of all great natures. You hear it
in the roll of the master oratOrios.
You see it in the Raphaels and Titans
and Ghirlandajos. You study it in the
architecture of the Aholiabs and Chris
topher Wrens. Do not be fippant
about God. Do not joke. about death.
Do not make fun of the Bible. Do not
deride the eternal. The brightest and
mightiest seraph cannot look una
Dashed upon Him. Involuntarily the
wings come up. with twain he
covered his face
Earthly power goes from hand to
hand, from Henry |. to Henry III. and
uoDr1- III from Charles 70 Charles