The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1900-10-18

you all have the glorious satisfaction |
OF seeing your children walk in paths
OF righteousness and peace! One with
them on earth, may you be one with
them in heaven!
But learn also from this subject
the beauty of Christian sobriety. The
meat and the wine that were to come
TO Daniels table were to come from
the kings table. Well. Daniel had
no right to take that food The king
was heathen,an like all the heather
was accustomed to ask a blessing be-
fore he partook of food, and in that
blessing they always dedicated the
food to the gods So that If Daniel
had taken this food he would have
broken the law which forbade the
taking of food dedicated to idols. He
chose pulse. 1t was miracle that he
d1d not dwindle away. There is
nothing in pulse, such a poor herb, to
make a man ruddy and healthful.
Some people talk as though that were
kind of diet which would make
man swarthy and competent to do the
duties of this life. That is not the
lesson at all. But for positive mir
acle Daniel would have dwindled
away, and when God for his self de-
NAL puts upon him this benediction he
puts a benediction upon all Christian
sobriety.
Temptation to Dissipation.
But, oh, how many temptations to
dissipation! With so many things to
tempt the appetite, how many tempta-
lions to gluttony! With so many
sparkling beverages, how much temp
tation to drunkenness! Could bring
before you this morning the mothers
and the wives and the sisters who have
wept at the graves of the inebriate,
your soul would be overpowered with
the spectacle. Could l show you the
manly forms robbed of their beauty,
the eyefashings quenched in the wine
cup, the ruddy cheek from which rum
has wormed the rose, your souls would
recoll with horror, and you would rise
up and cry, "Begone, thou dream of
belly"
Charles Lamb, who made all the
world laugh at his humor, and then
afterward made all the world weep at
his tate. who outwitted everybody and
was at last outwirted of his own APP
petites wrote thus: "The ,6ters have
gone over me; but out of the depths
coulo be heard, l would cry out to all
those who have set foot in the peril
GUS flood. Could the youth to whom the
flavor of the first wine is delicious as
the opening scenes of his life, or the
entering upon some newly discovered
paradise-could he look into my desc
latlon and be made to understand what
a dreary thing it is when man shall
feel himself going down a precipice
with open eyes and passive will; to
see his destruction and have no power
tc stop it, yet feel it all the way en-
anating from himself; to see all god
illness empty out of him, and yet not
able to forget the time when it was
otherwise; to bear about the piteous
spectacle of his own ruin-could he see
my feverish eye, feverish with last
nights drinking and feverishly looking
for toMght's repetition of that folly
could he but feel the body of the death
out of which l cry hourly with feeble
cutlery to be delivered, it were enough
to make him dash the sparkling bev-
erage to the earth in all the pride of
its mantling temptation"
A Touching Reproof.
was told at Des Moines of train
OF cars going through very stormy
night over one of the western prairies.
The young man who was present told
us the story. In the night there was
little child in the sleeping car, fret
full and worrying and crying hour after
hour. A man on the opposite side of
the car lost his patience and sa.u.
Either make that child shut u2 on
take it to its mother!" Then another
man on the opposite side of the Sleep
ing cara man with broken heart
| pushed back the curtain and looked cut
and said, Young man, that child's
mother is dead in the baggage car, and
the little thing is wailing for her."
Then the man who had committed the
affront rose and offered his services for
the night and took care of the child
until the morning, and all the pas
sengers in the car were broken down
with emotion. Oh, if the cry of one
child could arouse so many sympathies,
what ought to be the effect of the ten
thousand voiced Shrek of orphanage
and widowhood from the inebriates
grave? God save this country from
the perils of strong drink
Leaving Home.
I think the most thrilling passage
of a young mans life is when he leaves
home to make his fortune. He is set
down amid excitements and amid as
sociates who are not ove:careful about
their words and thoughts and actions.
Morning comes. No family altar. Sab
bath comes. No rural quiet. The sane
tuary comes, but all the faces are
strange, and no one cares whether he
comes to church or does not come. On
his way home rom the store he sees
a placard announcing rare and viva
cious amusement. He has no greeting
at the door of the boarding house. He
has no appetite for the food. No one
cares whether he eats or does not eat
rather he would not ear--it is cheaper!