Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-02-01


club, calling themselves "Society of the
Druids.'' They met regularly to deride
and damage Christianity. One night in
their awful meeting they burned Il Bible
and admins tered the sacrament to u dog.
Two OF them died that night. Within three
days three were drowned. In Ave years all
the thirty-six came to bad end. Before
justices OF the peace it was sworn that two
we're starved to death. seven were drowned,
eight were shot, five committed suicide,
to death and three died accidentally. Incl
dents like that, sworn to, would balk any
proposed irrcverent and blasphemous be-
havior.
In what way could the fact that infidel.
ity will not help any one die we'll be so
powerfully presented as by the incident
concerning a man falling i'll in Paris lust
after the death OF Votaire, when profess
sional nurse was called in, and she asked,
SIS the gentleman Christian?'' t'Why do
you ask that2' said the messenger The
nurse replied, 'I am the nurse who attend
ed yoltaire in his last illness, and for all
the wealth Of Europe Iwould never see an
other lnfidel die." What discourse in its
moral and spiritual effect could equal q
tale like that?
You might argue upon the fact that those
fallen are our brothers and sisters, but
could we impress any one with such q truth
so well as by the Sceno near Victoria Park,
London, where men were digging deep
drain, and the snoring gave way and q
great pile of earth fell upon the workmen.
A man, stood there with his hands in his
pockets, looking at those who were trying
to shovel away the earth from those who
were buried, but when some one said to the
spectator, "Bill, your brother is down
there then the spectator threw off his
coat and went to work with an agony of
earnestness to fetch up his brother. What
course of argument could SO well as that
r.. l. l.. L. 4.
salvation Of a soul it is brother whom we
are trying to save?
second renling of my teAt reminds me
that life Is not only story told, hut that
it is brief story. long narrative
stretched out Indefinitely loses its interest.
1t is generally the story that takes only a
minute or half minute to rehearse that
arrests the attention. And that gives ad-
ditional interest to the story of our life. 1t
is a short story. Subtract from our life all
the hours Of necessary sleep, all the hours
Of incapacity through fatigue or illness, all
the hours OF childhood and youth before
we get fairly to work, and you have abbre-
waited the story of life so much that you
can appreciate the psalmist's remark when
he says, "Thou hast made my days as a
hands BREADTH" and can appr eciate the
apostle James expression when he COM
pares life to "a vapor that appeareth for u
little season and then vanishes away
cssitudes OF liie-the gladness and the
griefs, the arrivals and the departures,
the successes and the failures, the victor
les and the defeats, the ups and the downs.
The longer we live the shorter the years.
We hardly get over the bewildering fatigue
OF selecting gifts for children and friends
and SEQ that the presents get of in
time to arrive on the appropriate day
than we see another advancing group
OF holidays. Autumnal fruit so sharp
ly chases the summer harvest. and the
snow of the white blossoms of spring
time come too soon after the SHOWS of
winter. 1t is remark so often made
that it fails to mako any impression and
the platitude that calls forth no reply,
'How rapidly time goes
Every century is big wheel OF years,
W hich makes Il hundred revolutions and
breaks down. Every year is a big wheel Of
months and makes twelve revolutions and
then ceases. biologists and theoloeians
go into elaborations OF guesses as to how
long the world will probably last; how
| long before the volcanic forces will explode
| it, or meteoric stroke demolish it, or the
| cold of long winter freeze out its popula-
| tion, or the fires of last conflagration
burn it. That is all very well, but so far
as the present population Of the earth is
| concerned the world will last but little
| longer. We begin life with cry and end
1t with groaD, and the cry and the groan
are not far apart. Life job says, is like
! the flight of weaver's shuttle, or, as
| David intimates in my text story quick
| ly told and laughed at and gone and dis
| placed by another story as tale that is
| tcld."
| We talk about public life and private
| life, but there is no private life. The story
| of our life. however Insignificant it may
seem to be, will win the applause or hiss
| of 4 great multitude that no man can mum.
lar A la thof ic fnll 4
mrers or antagonists, celestials or pande-
moniacs, the universe is full of listening
ears as well as of cleaning eyes. If
| we say or do the right thing, that is known.
| If we say or do the wrong thing. that Is
known. suppose the population Of the
! intelligences in the air is more numerous
than the population of intelligences on the
earth. Oh, that the story of our life might
| be fit for such an audience in such an au.
ditorium! God grant that wisdom and
| fidelity and earnestness and truth may
| characterize the "tale that is told.''
Through medical science the worlds
longevity may be greatly improved in the
future, rs 1t has been in the past, but it
| would not be well for the people to live too
long. Some OF them would, through their
skill at acquisitiveness, gather too much.
and some multimillionairos would become
billionaires and trill!onaires, and some
would after awhile pocket a hemisphere.
| No. Death is useful in its financial limita-
| tions, aud then all have enough sorrows
and annoyances and sufferings by the time
they become nonagenarians or centenar-
ians to make 1t desirable to quit. Besides
that, it would not be fair so long to keep so
many good old people out of heaven. So
| it is well arranged that those who stand by
the deathbed OF the nineteenth century
will not be called to stand by the deathbed
of the twentieth century.
Oh, crowd this last year with prayers.
with hosannas, with kind words, with help
fulness. Make the peroration of the GEN.
tury the climax OF Christlike deeds. Close
up the ranks of God, and during this re-
naming twelve months charge nightly
against the host of Abaddon. Have no
reserve corps. Let swiftest gost ell cavalry
gallop, and heaviest moral artillery roll,
and mightiest evaDgelistic batteries thun-
der on the scene. Let ministers OF the
gospel quit all controversy with each
other and in solid phalanx march out
for the worlds disenthrallment. Let
printing presses, secular and religious
| make combined movement to instruct and
emancipate the world. On all the hills let
there be Elijahs praying for"a great rain, "
IL