The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1898-08-19

tears. oh, give women free access to
all the realms where she can get q
livelihood, from the telegraph Office to
the pulpit! Let mems wages be cut
down before hers are 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 a windowless
hut for shelter for many years. rather
than that after am dead there should
go out from my home into the pitt
less world woman's arm to fight
the Gettysburg, the Austerlitz
the Waterloo of life for bread! And
yet how many women there are seated
between the rock of bereavement on
the one side and the rock of destitu-
ton on the otherl Bozez and Seneh
interlocking their shadows aud drop
ping them upon her miserable way.
There is a sharp rock on the one side,
and a sharp rock on the other side"
What are such to doP Somehow, let
them climb up into the heights of the
glorious promise: Leave thy father
less children-I will preserve them
alive, and let thy widows trust in me. 4"
Or get up into the heights of that
other glorious promise: "The Lord
preserveth the stranger, ana re-
lieveth the widow and the father
less" o we sewing women, on
starving wages! o We widows,
turned from the once beautiful homel
o we female teachers, kept on mig
gardly stipend! We despa ing wom-
en-, seeking in vain for work, wander
ing along the docks, and thinking to
throw yourselves into the river last
night! o we women of weak nerves,
and aching sides, and short breath,
and broken heart, you need something
more than human sympathy; you need
the sympathy of God. Climb up into
His arms. He knows it 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 dispair, you had better
begin to climb. There are heights of
consolation for you, though now there
is a sharp rock on one side. and sharp
rock on the other side"
Again, that man is in the crisis of
the text who has a wasted life on the
one side and an unilluminated eternity
on the other. Though man NAV all
his life have cultured elaboration and
self-poise, if he gets into that position,
all his self-possession is gone. There
are all the wrong thoughts of his ex-
istence, all the wrong deeds, all the
wrong words-strata above strata,
granite, ponderous, overshadowing.
That rock call Bozez. On the other
side are all the retributions of the flu
ture, the thrones of Judgment, the
eternal ages, angry with his long def.
ance. That rock i call Seneh. Be-
tween these two rocks 10, 900 times 1O,-
600 have persisted.
o man immortal, man redeemed.
man blood-bought, climb up out of
those shadows! Climb up by the way
of the cross Have your wasted life
forgiven; have your eternal life Sc
cured. This hour just take one look
to the past and see what it has been;
and take one look to the future and
see what IL threatens to be. You can
afford to lose your health, you can
afford to lose your property, you can
afford to lose your regulations; but you
cannot afford to lose your soul. That
bright cleaning, glorious, precious,
eternal possession you must carry
aloft in the day when the earth burns
up and the heavens burst.
You see from my subject that when
a man gets into the safety and peace
of the gospel he does not demean him.
self. There is nothing in religion that
leads TO meauness or unmanliness.
The gospel of Jesus Christ only asks
you TO climb as Jonathan did-climb
toward God, climb toward Heaven,
climb into the sunshine of Gods favor.
To become a Christian is not to 90
meanly down; it is to come gloriously
up-up into the communion of saints;
up into the peace that passeth all I'M
derstanding; up into the companion
ship of angels. He lives upward; he
dies upward.
Oh, then, accept the wholesale in
vitation which make this day to all
the people! Come up from between
your invalidism and financial embar-
rassments. Come up from between
your bereavements and your destitu-
ton. Come up from between a wasted
life and and an unillumined eternity.
Like Jonathan, climb up with all your
might, instead of sitting down to
wiring your hands in the shadow and
in the darkness-"a sharp rock on the
one side, and sharp rock on the other
side"