The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1900-08-16

see in most instances there Is an in
timation that they are on an errand
which must be executed at the earliest
moment possible. so you are jostled
hither and thither by business men, up
this ladder with hod of bricks, out
OF this bank with roll of bills, dig
ging cellar, shing1ing roof, binding
book, mending a watch. Work, with
its thousand eyes and thousand feet
and thousand arms, goes on singing
it's song, Work. work, work." while
the drums of the mill beat it and the
steam whistles fife it. In the carpeted
aisles of the forest, in the woods from
which the eternal shadow Is never lift
ed on the shore of the sea over whose
iron coast losses the tangled foam,
sprinkling the cracked cliffs with a
baptism of whirlwind and tempest, is
the best place to study God, but in the
rushing, swarming, waving 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 pow
erty, of wretchedness, Of hunger, of
sin, Of bereavement, and as you go
through the streets, and come back
through the streets, gather up in the
arms of your prayer all the sorrow, all
the losses. all the sufferings, all the
bereavements 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 thousand fingers pointed at
you in heaven, saying: THAT is the
man, that is the woman who helped
me when l was hungry and sick and
wandering and lost and heart-broken.
That is the man. that is the woman"
and the blessing will come down upon
you as Christ shall say: II was hun
cry and we fed me, was naked and We
clothed me. / was sick and in prison
and We visited me; inasmuch as we
did it to these poor waits of the streets
We did it unto me-"
Wicked Exclusiveness
Again, in all cities l am impressed
with the fact that all classes and con-
ditions of society must commingle. We
sometimes cultivate a wicked eXclu
siveness. Intellect despises ignorance.
Refinement will have nothing to do
with boorishness. Gloves hate the sun
burned hand, and the high forehead
despises the fiat head, and the trim
hedgerow will have nothing to do with
the wild copsewood, and Athens hates
Nazareth. This ought not so to be.
like the democratic principle of the
gospel of Jesus Christ which recog
nizes the fact that we stand before
God on one and the same platform.
Do not take on any airs. Whatever
position you have gained in society,
you are nothing but man. born of
the same parent, regenerated by the
same spirit, cleansed in the same blood,
to lie down in the same dust, to get
up in the same resurrection. 1t is
high time that we all acknowledged
not only the fatherhood of God, but
the brotherhood of man.
Again. in all cities l am impressed
with the fact that it is very hard
thing for man to keep his heart right
and to get to heaven. Infinite temp
tations spring upon us from places of
public concourse. Amid so much afflu-
ence, how much temptation to covet-
BUSINESS and to be disconnected with
our humble lot! Amid so many op-
portunities for overreaching. what
temptation to extortion! Amid so
much display, what temptation to van
ity! Amid SO many saloons of strong
drink, what allurement to dissipation!
In the maelstroms and hell gates of the
street, how many make quick and
eternal shiDwreck! If a man-of-war
comes back from battle and is towed
into the navy yard, we go down to look
at the splintered spars and count the
bullet holes and look with patriotic
admiration on the flag that fioated in
victory from the masthead But that
man is more of a curiosity who has
gone through 80 years of the sharp
shooting of business life and yet sails
on, victor over the temptations of the
street. Oh, how many have gone down
under the pressure, leaving not so
much as patch of canvas. to tell
where they persisted! They never had
any peace. Their dishonesties kept
tolling in their ears. If 1 had an ak
and could split open the beams of that
fine house perhaps 1 would find in the
very heart of it skeleton. In his
very best wine there is smack of
poor mans sweat. Oh. is it strange
that when man has devoured widows
houses he is disturbed with indiges-
ton! All the forces of nature are
against him. The floods are ready to
drown him. and the earthquake to
swallow him, and the fires to consume
him, and the lightning to smite him.
Aye. the angels Of God are on the
street, and in the day when the crowns
of heaven are distributed some of the
brightest Of them will be given to those
men who were faithful to God and
faithful to the souls of others amid the
marts of business, proving themselves
the heroes of the street. Mighty were
their temptations, mighty was their
deliverance, and mighty shall be their
triumph.
Hollowness of Society.
Again, in all these cities am i'm