The Progress., 1898-08-20


wages be cut down before hers arc cut
down. Men have iron in their souls and
can stand it. Make the way free to her Of
the broken heart May God put into my
hand the cold, bitter cup Of privation, and
give me nothing but windowless hut for
shelter for many years rather than that
after am dead there should go out from
my homo into the pitiless world wom-
ans arm to fight tho Gettysburg, tho -Aus-
teriit1, the Waterloo Of life for breadl And
yet how many women there are seated be-
tween the rock of bereavement on the ono
side and the rock of restitution on the
other! Bozcz ard Seneh interlocking their
shadows and dropping them upon her mis-
cradle way There is sharp rock on the
one side end q sharp rock Oh the other
side"
What are such to do2 Somehow let them
climb up into the heights Of the glorious
promise: Leave thy fatherless children.
will preserve them alive and lot thy
widows trust III me- Or get up into the
heights Of that other glorious promise,
''The Lord preserveth the stranger and no.
lieveth tho widow and the fatherless." O
ye sewing women on starving wages! 0
ye widows turned out from tho once beau
tiful home! 0 We female teachers kept on
niggardly stipend! Dye despairing wom-
en- seeking in vain for work, wandering
! along the docks and thinking to throw
yourselves into the river last night! Dye
| women Of weak nerves. and aching sides,
| and short breath, and broken heart, you
need something more than human SYM
pathy. You need the sympathy of God.
Climb up into his arms He knows 1t all,
| and he loves you more than father or
mother Or husband ever could or ever did,
and instead of sitting down, wringing
your hands in despair, you had better BIO.
! gin to climb. There are heights Of conso-
lation for you, though now There Is q
sharp rock on one side and sharp rock
On the other side"
! The Sharpest Of All Rocks.
| Again, that man is in the crisis OF the
| text who has wasted life on the one side
| and an unilluminated eternity on the 9th
| er Though man may all his life have
| cultured deliberation and self poise, II he
| gets into that position all his self posses
I
| thoughts of his existence, all the wrong
deeds, all the wrong words-strata above
strata, granite, ponderous, overshadow.
| ing That rock call Bozez. On the 9th
er side are all the retributions of the fu-
ture, the thrones of Judgment, the eternal
ages, angry with his long defiance. That
rock I call Seneh. Between these two
rocks 1000 times 10, 900 have perished.
man immortal, man redeemed, man
blood bought, climb up out of those shad-
owsl Climb up by the way Of the croes.
Have your wasted life forgiven. Have
your eternal life secured. This hour just
take one look to the past and see what 1t
has been, and take ono look to the future
and see what 1t threatens to be. You can
afford to lose your health, you can afford
to lose your property, you can afford to
lose your reputation, but you cannot afford
to lose your soul. That bright cleaning,
glorious, precious, eternal possession you
must carry aloft In the day when tho
earth burns up and the heavens burst.
You see from my subject that when q
man gets into the safety and peace Of the
gospel he does not demean himself. There
Is nothing in religion that leads to mean
ness or unmanliness. The gospel Of Jesus
Christ only asks you to climb as Jonathan
did-climb toward God, climb toward heav-
en-, climb into the sunshine Of Gods favor.
To become Christian Is not to 60 meanly
down. It is to come gloriously up-up
into the communion Of saints, up into the
peace that passeth all understanding, up
into the companionship Of angels He
lives upward; he dies upward.
Oh, then accept the wholesale invitation
which I make this day to all the peoplel
, Come up from between your invalidism
and financial embarrassments. Come up
from between your bereavements and your
destitution. Come up from between q
| vactnd Efa and an 1nilluminpd efArnitY