The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1899-03-17

poor Suppose, when a mans wages are
due, you make him wait for them be-
cause he cannot help himself. Suppose
that, because his family is sick and he
has had extra expenses, he should po-
litely ask you to raise his wages, and
you roughly tell him If he wants o.
better place to SO and getit Suppose,
by your manner, you act as though he
were nothing and you were everything.
Suppose you are selfish aud overbear-
ing and arrogant. Your first name
ought to he Attla and your last name
Attila. because you are the star Worm
wood, and you have imbittered one
third if not three-thirds of the waters
that roll past your employees and OPP
eratives and dependents and associates,
and the long line of carriages which the
undertaken orders for your funeral, in
order to make the occasion respectable.
will be filled with twice as many dry.
fearless eyes as there are persons oc-
cupying them. You will be in this
world but few minutes. AS compared
with eternity. the stay of the longest
life on earth is not more than a min
ute. What are we doing with that
minute? Are we imbittering the do
nestle or social or political fountains,
or ore we like Moses, who. when the
1sraeltes in the Wilderness complained
that the waters of Lake Marah were
bitter and they could not drink them.
their leader cut off the branch of q
certain tree and threw that branch
into the water, and it became sweet and
slaked the thirst of the suffering host?
Are we with a branch of the tree of
life sweetening all the brakish foun-
taiHs that we can touch?
Dear Lord. send us all out on this
mission. All around us imbittered lives
-imbittered by persecution, imbit-
tered by hypercrticism. imbittered by
poverty. imbittered by pain, imbittered.
by injustice, imbittered by sin Why
not go forth and sweeten them by
smiles, by inspiring words, by benefac-
tions. by hearty counsel, by prayer,
by gospelzed behavior? Let us re-
member that if we are NORWOOD to
others we are wormwood to ourselves,
and our life will be bitter and our eter-
nifty bitterer. The Gospel of Jesus
Christ is the only sweeten,ng power
that is sufficient. 1t sweetens the dis
position; it sweetens the manners; it
sweetens life; it sweetens mysterious
proyidences; it sweetens affections;
it sweetens death; it sweetens every
thing. | have heard people asked in
social company: "If you could have
three wishes gratified, what would your
three wishes be?" If | could have
three wishes met, tell you what they
would be. First, more of the grace
of God; second, more of the grace of
God; third. more of the grace of God.
In the doorway of my brother John,
once missionary to Annoy, China, there
was tree called the emperor tree, the
two characteristics of which are that it
always grows higher than its sur
roundingS. and its leaves take the form
of crown. If this emperor tree be
planted beside a rosebush, it grows a
little higher than the bush and spreads
out above it IA crown. If it be planted
by the side of another tree, it grows a
little higher than that tree and spreads
above it "A crown. Would God that this
religion of Christ, a more wonderful
emperor tree, might overshadow all
your lives! Are you lowly in ambi-
ton or circumstance, putting over you
its crown? Are you high in talent and
position, putting over you its CROWN
Oh, for more of the sacchariu in our
lives and less of the NORWOOD!
What is true of individuals is true of
nations. God sets them up to reyolve
as stars but they may fall norwood
Tyre-the atmosphere of the desert,
fragrant with spices coming in cara
vans to her fairs; all seas cleft into
foam by the keels of her laden mer-
chantmen; her markets rich with
horses and camels from Togarmahs
the bazaar filled with upholstery from
Dedan. with emerald and coral and
agate from Syria, with mines from
Helbon, with embroidered work from
Ashur and Chilmad. Where now the
CLEAN of her towers? Where the roar
of her chariots? Where the masts of
her ships? Let the fishermen WHO dry
their nets where once she stood, let the
sea that rushes upon the barrenness
where once she challenged the admira-
tion of all nations, let the barbarians
who set their rude tents where once
her palaces glittered. answer the ques-
tons. She was n star, but by her own
sin turned to NORWOOD, and has
fallen,
Hundred gated Thebes, for all time
to be the study of the antiquarian and
hieroglyphist; her stupendous ruins
spread over p miles; her sculptures
presenting in figures of warrior and
chariot the victories with which the
now-forgotten kings of Egypt shook
the nations; her obelisks and columns;
Karnak and Luxor, the stupendous
temples of her pride. Who can imagine
the greatness of Thebes in those days.
when the hippodrome rang with her
sports anu foreign royalty bowed Mt
her shrnes and her avenues roared
with the wheels of professions in the
wake of returning conquerors? What