Owingsville outlook. [volume] (Owingsville, Ky.) 1879-192?, 1898-12-15

l
enemy that fastened YOU IN that one
room or sent YOU on crutchr~ the lou"-
st journey You have made for many
weeks bciu" from bed t" sofa aud from
.ofn to looking glass. where YOU are
shocked at the paIlor of your own
check and the piuchcdrcss Of Your lca-
lures; then back again from mirror to
sofa and sofa To bed. with a long sigh
Saying: How good it feels to get back
again tn my old place ON the pillow
Ecmcmbcr who il is TINT appointed the
DAY when for the first time In many
years YOU could not go to business and
who has kept II record al all tn" weary
days and all the slrcplc,S nights of
Your exile from the world. q weary
uan, q feeble woman. it was the Lord
who shut you in! Do You remember
that some Of the nohleSt and best of
men have been prisoners? Ezekiel Il
prisoner. Jeremiah II prisoner, Paul
prisoner. -. John II prisoner. John
I;uuyan prisoner. Though human
hate seemed To have all to do with them,
really the Lord shut them in.
No doubt, while on that voyage. Noah
and his three sons aud all the four la
Dies OF the nntcdiluyian world often
thought of the bright hillsides and the
green fields where they had walked
and of the homes where they had lived.
They had had many years of expert
,nces Noah was 600 years old at the
time of this CONFUSION of nature. lie
had seen 600 springlimcs, 600 sum
IrCrS, GOO autumns, GOO winters. We
| gre not told how old his wife was Mt
| .his wreck Of earth and sky. The Bible
tells the aye of ErcHt many men, but
cnlv once gives Il womans age. At
one time II gives Adams uge ms 100
years. and Iarcd's age at 1862 years, and
| Enoch's age as 365 years, and all up
| and down the Bible il gives the age of
men. hut does not give the age of wom-
en-. Why? Because. ! suppose, wom-
| ans age is none of our business. But
| all the men and women that tossed in
that oriental craft had lived long
| enough To remember n great many of
| the mcrcieS and kindnesses of God. and
| they could not blot out. and ] think
| they had no disposition to blot out the
memory of those brfghtnessses, though
| now they were shut in. Neither should
| The shut in of our time forget the bless
/ inCs of the past. Have you been blind
| for ten Years? Thank God for the time
when YOU saw as clearly as any of us
can see. and let the pageant of all the
radiant landscapes and illumincd skies
which YOU ever looked upon kindle
your rapturous gratitude. | do not see
| Raphael's Madonna iii San Sisto" in
the picture gallery of Dresden, nor
| Rubens' descent from the Cross" Mt
Antwerp, nor Michael Angeles Last
Judgment" on the ceiling of the vati-
can, nor Saint Sophia at Constantine
pie. nor the Parthenon on the Acrop-
oils. nor the Tai Mahal of India. But
shall not thank God that ! have seen
them? Is il possible that such mid
night darkness shall ever blast my vi
sion that | cannot call them up again?
Perhaps you are so deaf that you can
not hear the chirp of bird or solo of
cantatrice. or even organ in full diapa-
! son, though you feel the foundations
tremble under its majestic roll, or even
| the thunderstorm that makes Mount
| Washington echo. But are you not
J grateful that once you could hear triil
tand chant and carol doxology? ] can
not this hour hear Jenny Lind sing:
Comm Through the Rye" or Ole
/ Bulls enchanted viol. or Parepa Rosa's
| triumphant voice over many thousands
Of voices and many thousands of in
struments in the national peace jubilee
of 80 years ago, all these sounds accom-
parted by the ringing of bells and the
guns on Boston common. But can j
ever have my ears so silenced that |
will not remember that | did hear
them? Are you chained to your room
now, your powers of locomotion all
gone. or, if coming to the house of
God, every step is torture?
Do YOU forget when in childhood you
danced and skipped because you were
50 full of life you had not patience to
walk, and in after years you climbed
the mountains of Switzerland, putting
your alpenstock high up on glaciers
| which few others ever dared and
jumped long reaches in competition,
and after walk of ten miles You came
| in iocund as the morning? Oh. You
shut-ins, Thank God for Il vivid mem
ory of the times when you were free
as the chamois on the rocks. as the
eagle going ST raight for the sun. When
the rain pounded the roof of the ark.
| the eight voyagers on that craft did
not forget the time when il gayly pat
tered in Il summer shower, and when
the door of the ark shut to keep out the
tempest they did not forget the time
when the door of their home in Ar
menia was closed to keep out the spring
rains which came to fill the cups of lily
and honeysuckle and make all the trees
Of the wood clap their hands.
Again. notice that during that 40
days of storm which rocked that ship
on that universal ocean of Noah's time
the door which shut the captain of the
ship inside the craft kept him from
many outside perils. How those wrath
full seas would like to have got their wet
bands on Noah and pulled him out and
sunk him! And do oil of you of tie
great army of the shut-in realize,
though you have special temptations
where you are now, how much of the
outside style of temptation you escape
No YOU. the merchant incarcerated in
the sickroom, realize that every hour Of
the day you spend looking out of the
window or gazing at the particular fig
ure on the wall paper or listening to the
clocks ticks men are being wrecked ny
the aIlurements and uncertainties of
business life? How many forgeries are
committed. how many trust funds are
swamped. how many public moneys are
being misappropriated. how many
bankruptcies suffered? 1t may be, it
is, very uncomfortable for Noah inside
the ark. for the apartment is crowded
and the air Is vitiated with the breath
ing of so much human and animal life,
but il is not half as bad for him as
though he were outside the ark. There
is not an OK or n camel. or an antelope.
or a sheep inside the ark as badly off as
the proudest king outside. While You
are on the pillow or lounge you viii
make no bad bargains. You will rush