The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1899-1900, 1899-03-22
ON THE CITY STREETS
The Contrasts Of splendOr and Woe
Seen Upon Them.
Or. TnImage Says They Are Unlike
the Democratic Gospel of Christ
Their shams, PretensiOns and
Temptations.

has lived the most of his life in cities,
draws practical lessons from his own
observation; text, Proverbs 1:2O:
"Wisdom crieth without. She uttereth
her voice in the streets"
We are all ready to listen to the
voices Of nature--the voices of the
mountain, the voices of the sea, the
voices of the storm, the voices Of the
star. AS in some of the cathedrals in
Europe there is an organ at either end
of the building, and the one instrument
responds musieally to the other, SO in
the great cathedral of nature day re-
spends to day, and night to night, and
flower to flower, and star to star in
the great harmonies of the universe.
The springtime is an evangelist in bios
SONS preaching of Gods love, and the
winter is prophet-white- bearded
denouncing woe against our sinst We
are all ready to listen to the voices Of
nature. But how few Of us learn any
thing from the voices of the noisy and
dusty street. You go to your mech
anism, and TO your work, and to your
merchandise, and you come back again
land often with how different heart
you pass through the streets. Are
there no things for us to learn from
these pavements over which we pass?
Are therein tufts of truth growing up
between these cobblestones, beaten
with the feet of toll and pain and pleas
nre, the slow tread of old age and the
quick step of childhood2 Aye, there
are great harvests to he reaped, and
now | thrust in the sickle because the
harvest is ripe. wisdom crieth with
out. She uttereth her voice in the
streets"
In the first place, the street impresses
me with the fact that this life is a
scene of toll and struggle. BY ten
o'clock every day the city is jarring
with wheels and shutting with feet and
humming with voices and covered with
the breath of smokestacks and a-rush
with traffickers. Once in awhile you
find a man going along with folded
arms and with leisurely step, as though
he had nothing to do, but, for the most
part, as you find men going down these
streets on the way to business, there
is anxiety on their faces, as though
they had some errand which must be
executed at the first possible moment
You are jostled by those who have bar.
gains to make and notes to sell. UI
this ladder with a hod of bricks, out
of this bank with a roll of bills, on this
dray with load of goods, digging Q
cellar. or shingling roof, or shoeinl
horse, or building wall, or mendine
watch, or binding book. Industry
with her thousand arms and thousand
eyes and thousand feet, goes on singing
her song Of work, work, work, while
the mills drum it and the steam
whistles fife it. All this is not because
men love to toll. Some one remarked
~Eyery man is as lazy as he can affort
to be-" But it is because necessity
with stern brow and with uplifted whiI
stands over you, ready whenever yot
relax your toll to make your shoulder
sting with the lash.
Can it be that passing up and dowr
these streets on your way to work ant
business you do not learn anything O
the worlds toll and anxiety and strug
gle? oh, how many dropping hearts
how many eyes on the watch, how
many miles Travelled, how many bur
dens carried, how many losses SUE
fered, how many battles fought, hov
many victories gained, how many ex
asperations endured-what losses,wha
hunger, what wretchedness, what pal
lor, what disease, what agony, what de
spairi Sometimes l have stopped a
the corner of the street as the multi
fudes went hither and yon, and it ha
seemed to be a great pantomime, land a
looked upon it my heart broke. Thi
great tide of human life that goeI
down the street is rapid tossed ant
turned aside and dashed ahead am
driven ack-beautiful in it's confusion
and confused in its beauty. In the car
peted aisles of the forest, in the wood
from which the eternal shadow isneve
lifted, on the shore of the sea owe
whose iron coast tosses the tangled
foam sprinkling the cracked cliffs will
n baptism of whirlwind and tempest
is the best place to study God, but II
the rushing, swarming, raving stree
is the best place to study man.
Going down to your place of busines
and coming home again charge yol
to look about-See these signs of power
fy, of wretchedness, of hunger, of sin
of bereavement - and as you &,
through the streets and come bacl
through the streets, gather up in tn
arms of your prayer all the sorrow, al
the losses, all the sufferings, all the be
reavements of those whom you pas
and present them in prayer before a.
all sympathetic God. In the great da,
of eternity there will be thousands 0
persons with whom you in this worl
never exchanged one word who viii
rise up and call you blessed, and ther
will be thousand fingers pointed a
you in Heaven, saying; That is tn
man, that is the woman, who helpel
me when was hungry and sick an
wandering and lost and heartbrokeI
That is the man, that is the woman.
And the blessing will come down upol
you as Christ shall say: II was hur
CRY, and We fed me; was naked, an
ye clothed me; was sick and in pris
ON. and ye visited me. Inasmuch as y
did 1t to these poor waits of the stree
ye did it to me-"
Again, the street impresses me wit
the fact that all classes and condition
Of society must commingle. We some
times culture wicked exclusivenesi
Intellect despises ignorance. Rein,
ment will have nothing to do wit
boorishness. Gloveshate the sunburne
hand, and the high forehead 'despise
the fat head, and the trim hedgero'
rvfll have nnfhino ~ adn xvifh 4ha x.,f1