The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1900-08-17

III hOillt SUfNAN nav w 'N'' 80
that all cities impress upon me and
ought to impress upon you three
or four very important lessons, all OF
them agreeing in the same thing. 1t
does not make any difference in what
part of the country we walk the
streets of a great city there is one
lesson think which ought to strike
every intelligent Christian man, and
that is the world is a scene of toll and
struggle. Here and there you find
man in the street who has his arms |
folded and who seems to have no par
ticular errand, but IL you will stand at
the corner of the street and watch the
eountenances of those who go by you
will see in most instances there is an
intimation that they are on an errand
which must be executed at the earh-
est moment possible, so you are
tostled hither and thither by business
men, up this ladder with hod OF
bricks. out of this bank with roll
Of bills, digging a cellar, shinghng
roof, binding a book, mending
watch. Work, with its thousand eyes
and thousand feet and thousand arms,
goes on singing its song. Work. work,
work." while the drums of the mill
beat il and the steam whistles fife 1t.
In the carpeted isles of the forest IN
/ the woods from which the eternal
shadow is never lifted, on the shore
of the sea over whose iron coast losses
the tangled foam, sprinkling the
cracked cliffs with a baptism of whirl-
wind and tempest, is the best place to
study God, but in the rushing, swarm
ing. raving street is the best place TO
study man.
Going down to your place of bust
ness and coming home again charge
you look about; see these signs of
poverty, of wretchedness, of hunger,
of sin. of bereavement, and as you go
through the streets and come back
through the streets gasher up in the
arms O e your prayer all the sorrow, all
the losses, all the sutferings, all the
bereaytmcnts of those whom you pass
and present them in prayer before an
all Sympathetic God. In the great day
Of eternity there will be thousands of
persons with whom you in this world
never exchanged one word will rise up
and call you blessed; and there will
be a thousand fingers pointed at you
in Heaven, saying: That is the man,
that is the woman who helped me
when | was hungry and sick and wan
deringan lost and heartbroken. That
is the man, that is the woman;" and
the blessing will come down upon you
as Christ shall say: II was hungry
and we fed me, | was naked and We
clothed me, l was sick and in prison
and We visited me; inasmuch as We did
il to these poor waits of the streets
, We did it unto me-"
Again, in all these cities / am inn
pressed with the fact that life H full
, of pretension and sham. What subter
I fuge, what double dealing, what two
facednessl Do all people who wish
! you good morning really hope for 20,
| a happy day? Do all the people who
, shake hands love each other? Are al
' those anxious about your health WHIT
, inquire concerning it? DO all want Il
1 see you who ask you TO call? Does al
!. the world know half as much as II pre-
/ tends TO know? Is there not many
I wretched stock Of goods with bril-
I down the streets to your business ant
/ your work, are you not impressed will
n the fact that society is hollow ant
n that there are subterfuges and preten
e sions? Oh. how many there are wit
a swngger and strut and how few PEG
= pie who are natural and walk! Will
o tops shipper and fools smoker and sim
n pletons giggie, how few people ar
n natural and laugh! | say these thing
= not to create in you incredibly O
p msanthropy. nor do | forget there ar
thousands of people Il great deal bet
ter than they seem, but | do not thin
:. any man is prepared for the conflic
: of this life until he knows this par
= ticuiar peril. Ehud comes pretendin
. to pay his tax to King Eglon, anC
- while he stands in front of the kine
stAbs him through with a dagger III
til the haft went in after the blad,
e Judas lscariot kissed Christ
II One of the mightiest temptations i
e commercial life in all cities to-day
q in the fact that many professed Chri!
- tian men are not square in their bal
gains. Such men are in Bapti.
=,
u churches. and our own denominatio
is as largely represented as any {
- them. Our good merchants are for,
III most in Christian enterprises; the
70 are patrouzers of art, philanthropy
IS and patriotic. God will attend
* them in the day OF His coronation
d. l am not speaking of them, but ,
~ those in commercial life who are Sc
j. ting ruinous example to our your
ID merchants. Go through all the stur,
lie and offices in our cities and tell me
re how many of those stores and oihc,
al are the principles of Christ's religic
a. dominant? In three-fourths of then
No. In half of them? No. In on
ID tenth of them? No. Decide for you
W self. The impression is abroad som
er how that charity can consecrate i
is iuuitous gains and that if a man gi