Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1901-01-18

hallelujah chorus, accompanied by
harpers on their harps and trumpet
ers on their trumpets: Worthy S
the Lamb that was slain to- receive
blessing and riches and honor and
glory and power!"
The bigot ascends with just enough
grace to save him. AS he comes up
to the shining gate he sees standing
inside of it some whom he used to
meet every Sunday morning on the
street going to some other church of
some other denomination, and he
cries out: care you there?" I never
expected to see you in such glorious
place. You were all wrong in your
religious theories on earth and in
your form of church government.
How did you get in?'' 'Saved by
grace" is the Heavenly reply. "Saved
by grace!" The bigot is embarrassed
and feels for his creed and his cate
chism, and, 10, they were left on the
banks of the River Jordan as he
passed through, and he cries out:
4 think I will have to enter on the
same terms. Saved by grace! Saved
by grace!"
Again, the penurious Christian will
not have an abundant entrance. Per-
haps he was not converted until all his
habits of tight-fstedness were fixed
beyond recovery. The people who are
generous were taught to be generous
in childhood. You can tell from the
way the boy divides the appleewhat.his
characteristics for generosity or mean
ness will be for the next 80 years, if he
lives SO long. If he eat it all himself
while others look wistfully on, he will
be a Shylock; if he give half of it to
some one who has no apple, he will be
an ordinarily generous man; if he give
three-fourths of it to another he will
be Baron Hirsch or a George Pea
body.
For 80 years this man has been prac-
ticing an economy which prided itself
on never passing pin without picking
it up, and if he responded at all in
church would put on the collection
plate SO insignificant coin that he
held his hand over it so that no one
could discover the smallness of the
denomination. Somewhere in the fif-
ties or sixties of his life, during a re-
vival Of religion, he became a Chris
tan. He is very much changed in
most respects, but his all-absorbing ac-
quisitiveness still influences him. To
extract from him a gift for an orphan
age or church or a poor woman VIII o
has just been burned out is an achieve
ment. You and L know very good men,
their Christian character beyond dis
pute, and yet they are pronounced by
all as penurious, and they know it
themselves and pray against it. We
all have our bad habits, and yet expect
to get to Heaven, and this skinf1int has
his mighty temptation. The passion
of avarice we'll illustrated it's strength
when in one of the houses of exhumed
Pompeii was found the skeleton of a
man who was trying to escape with 60
coins and a silver saucepan. For those
valuables he dared the ashes and
scoria of Vesuvius which overwh elmed
him, and many good man has been
held nightly by avarice.
But that brings me to the other
thought of my text, that there are
those who will, when they leave this
life, bound into Heaven amid saluta-
tions infinite. For so an entrance
shall be administered unto you abun-
dainty" Such exultant admission will
| await those who enter Heaven after
on earth living a life for others and
without reference to conspicuity. On
the banks of the Ohio or the Tuscaloosa
or the Androscoggin is large family,
all of whom have been carefully and
! religiously reared. In the earlier
stages of that family there were many
privations. The mother of the house
hold never had any amusements. Per
haps once in year a poor theatrical
| play was enacted in the neighboring
| schoolhouse or a squawkipg concert in
| the town hall, and that was all the d.
version afforded for the winter season
I asked the manager of an insane asy-
| lum in Kentucky: From what class OF
persons do you get most of your pa
| tients?" and he said: "From farmers
| wives" I asked the same question OF
| the manager of an insane asylum in
Pennsylvania, and the same question
of the manager of an insane asylum in
Massachusetts,, and got the same reply
':We have on our rolls for treatment
more farmers wives than persons
coming from any other class" That
answer will be a surprise to some; il
was no surprise to me. The simple rea-
| son is, farmers wives as general
thing have no diversion. It is break
fast, dinner and supper, sewing, scour.
ing. scrubbing, knitting, mending
year in and year out. That mother Is
the milliner, the mantua maker, the
nurse. the doctor, the accountan. O.
the whole family. She plans the ward
robe Of spring, of summer, of autumn
Of winter, cutting. fitting. completing
| garments, out of which the children
| soon grow and must have somethino
else. The newspaper does not come or
i If COMING there IS 10