The Iola register., 1899-12-22

plOyeS. ASK tnat Wlle whose nus Dand
makes her fondness for the house of
God and even her kneeling prayer by the
bedside derision and is no more fl
for her holy companionship than a
filthy crow would be fiji companion for
a robin or a golden oriole. Compromise
with the world and surrender to its con-
ventionalities, and it may let you alone,
but all who will live godly in Christ
Jesus must suffer. BE theater-going,
theater-goingc gcard-playing, wine-drink-
ing, round-dancing Christian, and you
may escape criticism and social pres
sure. BE an up-and-down, out-and-out
follower of Christ, and wording will
wink to wording as he speaks your
name, and you will be put in many a
doggerel and snubbed by those not
worthy to blacken your oldest shoes.
When the bridge at Ashtabula broke
and let down the most of the carload OF
passengers to instant death, Mr.. l.. Z.
Bliss was seated on one side OF the aisle
of the car writing down Christian song
which he was composing, and on the
other side n group of men were playing
cards. Whose landing place in eternity
would you prefer-that of p. =. Bliss,
the Gospel singer, or of the card play
eCs?
A great complaint comes from the
| theaters about the ladies' high hats, be-
cause they obstruct the view of the
stage, and lady reporter asked me
what thought about it, and l told her
| that If the indecent pictures Of actress
es in the show windows were accurate
pictures of what goes on in many of the
theaters night by night then it would
be well if the ladies' hats we're a mile
| high, so as to completely obstruct the
vision. If professed Christians go to
such places during the week, no one will
ever persecute them for their religion.
for they have none, and they are the
| joke of hell. But let them live conse-
Grated and Christian life, and they will
soon run against sneering opposition.
Meet me at any depot the world over,
and with my eyes closed take me by
the hand and lead me so that my feet
will not stumble, and without my once
looking down or looking on the level
take me to some high roof or tower and
! let me see the tops of the churches, anu
| will tell you the proportion of SUI
cides, of arsons, of murders, of thefts.
According as the churches are numer-
Gus are the crimes few. According as
the churches are few the crimes are nu-
merous. The most beautiful organiza-
! tion the world ever saw or ever will see
is the much-maligned church, the friend
of all good, the foe of all evil, fair as
the moon and clear as the SUM-" Beau
tiful in her Author, beautiful in her
mission, the heroine of the centuries,
the bride of Christ, the queen Of the
nations!
Men may desecrate it, as Cromwell
when he stabbed his cavalry horses in
ST. Paul's cathedral; or break off the
image of Christ, as did the iconoclas )
in York minister; or hurl against it au-
gust literary antipathies, as did Glib
bon; or plot its overthrow, as do some
in every community whose pride and
hate and debauchery are reproved by
the Ten Commandments which it thun-
ders and the sermon on the mount
which il breathes. But il viii stand as
long as the earth stands, the same
unique and wonder-working and
beatific and miraculous thing for which
God decreed it. Small wits tax their
brain to say things that will put her at
disadvantage, but many of them Will
send for its coincidence when dying, and
their children will be gathered up un-
der its benedictions after the parental
curse has been removed. Through her
gates will march all the influences for
good that shall ever reach our world.
Take her membership as a mass, not
speaking of the acknowledged eNcep-
tions, they are the noblest, grandest,
kindest, best men and women of the
ages. But for them the earth would
long ago have been a burned out vol
cano. They have been the salt that has
kept the human race from putrefaction
insutferable either to human or angelic
olfactories.
The church of God will yet become the
arbiter of nations. If the world would
allow it, it could to-day step in between
Germany and France and settle the
trouble about Alsace and Lorraine, and
between England and her antagonists,
and between all the other nations that
are flying at each others throats and
command peace and disband armies and
harness for the plow the war horses
now being hitched to ammunition wag-
ons or saddled for cavalry charge, That
time must come, or through the in
creased facility for shooting men and
blowing up cities and whelming hosts
to instant death, so that we can kill a
regiment easier than we could once
kill company, and kill u brigade easier
than we could once kill regiment, the
patent offices of the world more busy
than ever in recognizing new enginery
of destruction, the human race will aft.
er awhile go fighting with one arm, and
hobbling with one foot, and stumbling
along with one eye, and some ingenious
inventor, inspired of the archangel of
all mischief, will coutrive a machine
q i