Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1899-04-21


| by your manner, you act as though he
were nothing and you were everything.
! Suppose you are selfish and oyerbear-
ing and arrogant. Your first name
ought to he Attia 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 op-
eratves 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 a 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 imbitterng the do
mestic or social or political fountains.
or ore 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 a
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 sweetenng all the brakish foun'
tains that we can touchP
Dear Lord, send us all out on this
mission. All around us imbittered lives
--imbittered by persecution, imbit-
tired by hypercriticism, imbittered by
ptyerty, imbittered 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 NORWOOD to
others we are wormwood to ourselves,
and our life will be bitter and our eter-
uity bitterer. The Gospel of Jesus
Christ is the only sweetening power
that is sufficient. 1t sweetens the dis
position; it sweetens the manners; il
sweetens life; it sweetens mysterious
providences; it sweetens affections;
i sweetens death; it sweetens every
thing. | have heard people asked in
social company: "If you could have
three wishes gratifed, 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 a missionary 10 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 rosebush, it grows
little higher than the bush and spreads
out above it crown. If ii be planted
by the side of another tree, it grows
little higher than that tree and spreads
above it a crown. Would God that this
religion of Christ. 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 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, bu, they may fall wormwood.
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 filed with upholstery from
Dedan, with emerald and coral and
agate from Syria, with mines from
IIelbon, 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 PUSHES upon the barrenness
where once she challenged the admira-
ton of all nations, let the barbarians
who set their rude tents where once
her palaces glittered, answer the ques-
tons. She was star, but by her own
sin turned TO NORWOOD, and han
fallen.
Hundred gated Thebes, for all time
to be the study of the antiquarian and
hieroglyphist; her stupendous ruins
spread over - 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 and foreign royalty bowed at
| her shrines and her avenues roared
with the wheels Of professions in the
wake of returning conquerors? What
! dashed down the vision Of chariots and
temples and thrones? What hands
pulled upon the columns of her glory ?
What ruthlessness defaced her sculp-
tured wall and broke obelisks, and left
her Undesirable temples great skele.
TOYS of granite? What spirit of de
struction spread the lair of wild beasts
in 1er royal sepulchers and taught the
miserable cottagers of to-day to build
hut' in the courts Of her temples and
sent desoIation and ruin skulking be.
hind the obelisks and lodging among
the sarcopbagi, and leaning against
the columns, and STOPPING under the
arches, and weeping in The waters
which go mournfully by, as though
they were carrying the tears of 4.
ages? Let the mummics break their
long silence and come up to SILVER in
the desoIation and point r. fallen
gates and shattered statues ard de-
| faced gpnlpft1rp roepouJ,,-,