The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-07-18
ADDRESS OF REV. Mr.. HUGHES.
Delivered nt the Afternoon Meeting
of the II. Il. Y. NJ. &. A..

Rev. James Hughes, late of South
Africa. addressed a largely attended
meeting at the Railroad Young Mems
Christian association yesterday after
noon. He spoke, in part, as follows:
Gentlemen / am pleased to meet you
this afternoon and / hope we shall have
pleasant and profitable service. | shall
not take a text, neither shall I deliver n
long address. ! shall try to give you a
short, straight talk short. because | de-
sire you to take part in the service, and
because | wish to avoid giving you indi-
gestion by a too lavish use of my nos
trums; straight, because hard-headed
working men, endowed with sixteen
ounces to the pound of good common
sense hate cirCumlOcution, red tape. or
firing into the air instead of aiming at
the bulls eye.
Brother men, we are here to worship
God and to assist each other to live a
good Christian life. If this be So / have
before me men who are animated by the
loftiest and noblest purpose. Such men
have a back bone in their lives This is
a very gratifying fact. There are so many
who have not only no back bone purpose
in life, but they have no bone at all. They
belong to the moluscus species who are
| boneless, and will therefore go with any
current. Or they are like that class of
men once described by John Bright in
the British Parliament who compared
them to a Scotch terrier dog whose head
was not distinguishable from his tail
A GRATIFYING FACT.
1t is gratifying to find man who docs
not require to be labeled like drug
store bottle in order for YOU to know
what he is. SpurgGon said when he com
| menced dabbling in the fine arts he some
times drew the picture of house and
! then a horse. but they weO so much
| alike that he found it necessary to write
! the word house under the one and the
word horse under the other or people
| would be liable to take the house for
! the horse and the horse for the house
Let us so live that 1t shall not be neces-
! sary to label us that others may know
what we are.
The next thing l want to say is this
as you have such noble purpose in life
stick to II. BE constant in the pursuit
of it. Bend all your energies to attain
this great goal of your sacred purpose
| Don't allow your ardor to fluctuate and
! change with that mercurial esthetc life
| of inflated pride so very common in this
world. But let there be constant 'peg.
| ging at it" as the great and good Abra.
| ham Lincoln used to say. Fitful mer
SHINING. They climb a certain distance
and then slide back. Then they start
again and thus they are always beginning
| but they never advance. Like the sys
| tomatic wheel they are ever in motion
| but always in the same place.
| Then again If the desire to worship
God and to do good to others exist withir
us we shall manifest this by putting forth
efforts for the benefit of others and by
endeavoring to adore the Great Creator.
PLENTY OF ROOM.
Such exertons will not only please th'
| Lord and benefit man, but it will tenC
| to increase our usefulness and strengthen
our piety. There is ample room for this
kind of work. There are thousands II
| this town who never attend a place o.
worship. They seem to live outside tn.
direct influences of the Gospel of Christ
| If they do not come to the church, ther
the church must go to them.
1t would he well for us to consider III,
best way to approach such people. Th'
man who goes fishing pays considerable
attention to the bait. He duly consideH
what is likely to prove successful. w,
| should set before such people a littl,
| practical kindness. A empty handed
| charity is very cold and neffcc;iv,
| thing. the cup without the cold water i
a cheap, empty sham, There is a lot u
religion in pound of meat and a loaf @
| bread when accompanied with a kin,
look and a kind word.