The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1899-04-08

you roughly tell him if he wants
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 and overbear-
ing and arrogant. Your first name
ought to be Attila 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 &C.
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 min
ute. What are we doing with that
minute? Are we imbittering the do
nestle or social or political fountains,
or ere we like Moses, who, when the
Israelites 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
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-
tains that we can touch?
Dear Lord, send us all out on this
mission. All around us imbittered lives
--imbittered by persecution, imbit-
tered by hypercriticism, imbittered by
poverty. imbttered by pain, imbittered
by injustice, imbittered by sin. Why
| not go forth and sweeten them by
smiles, by inspiring words, by benefac-
tons, by hearty counsel, by prayer,
by gospelized behavior? Let us re-
member that if we are wormwood 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 sweetening power
| that is sufficient. 1t sweetens the dis
position; it sweetens the manners; it
sweetens life; it sweetens mysterious
providences; it sweetens affections;
it sweetens death; it sweetens every
thing. I have heard people asked in
social company: IF you could have
three wishes gratifed, what would your
three wishes be?" If l 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 it's 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 crown. If it be planted
by the side of another tree, it grows a
little higher than that tree and spreads
above il 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
it's crown? Are you high in talent and
position, putting over you its crown!
Oh, for more of the saccharin in our
lives and less of the wormwood!
What is true of individuals is true OF
nations. God sets them up to revolve
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 Togarmah;
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.
ton of all nations, let the barbarian.
who set their rude tents where once
her palaces glittered, answer the ques,
tons. She was star, but by her ow,
sin turned to NORWOOD, and ha!
fallen.
Hundred gated Thebes, for all time
to be the study of the antiquarian ant
hieroglyphist; her stupendous ruins
spread over 81 miles; her sculpture.
presenting in figures of warrior ant
chariot the victories with which tn,
now-forgotten kings of Egypt shool
the nations; her obelisks and columns
Karnak and Luxor, the stupendou
temples of her pride. Who can imagin
the greatness of Thebes in those days
when the hippodrome rang with he
sports and foreign royalty bowed a
her shrines and her avenues roaret
with the wheels of professions in tn
wake of returning conquerors? Wha
dashed down the vision of chariots ant
temples and thrones? What hand
pulled upon the columns of her glory
What ruthlessness defaced her sculp
tured wall and broke obelisks, and lief
her Undesirable temples great skele