Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1901-11-23

lifted world of beauty and joy on his
soul? He has resumed tobacco.
The fact is, we all know in our own
experience that habit is taskmaster.
AS long as we obey it it does not chas-
tise us; but let us resist, and We find
that we are lashed with scorpion
whips and bound with ship cable and
thrown into the track of bone break
ing Juggernauts.
The Prodigars Return.
The prodigal, wishing to get into
good society, enters a prayer meeting.
Some good man without much sense
greets him by saying: why, are you
here? You are about the last person
that 1 expected to see in a prayer
meeting. Well, the dying thief was
saved, and there is hope for you.'' You
do not know anything about this un
less you have learned that when
man tries to return from evil courses
of conduct he runs against repulsions
innumerable.
We say of some man, HE lives a
block or two from the church, or half
mile from the church. In all our
great cities there are men who are
5000 miles from church-vast deserts
of Indifference between them and the
house of God. The fact is we must
keep our respectability though thou
sands perish. Christ sat with publi
cans and sinners, but If there come to
the house of God a man with marks
of dissipation upon him people are al
most sure to put up their hands in
horror, as much as to say, rs it not
| shocking?"
How these dainty, fastidious Christ
ians in all our churches are going to
get into heaven I do not know, unless
| they have an especial train of cars
cushioned and upholstered, each one a
car to himself. They cannot go with
| the great herd of publicans and sin
ners. Oh, ye who curl your lip of
| scorn on the fallen, I tell you plainly
| that if you had been surrounded by
| the same influences instead of sitting
| today among the cultured, and the re-
| fined, and the Christian, you might
have been a crouching wretch in a
stable or ditch covered with filth and
abomination- 1t is not because we are
naturally any better, but because the
mercy of God has protected US. Those
that are brought up in Christian cir
cles and watched by Christian parent
age should not be so hard on the
| fallen.
First Get Ashore.
Why it reminds me of a man
drowning in the sea, and a lifeboat
| puts out for him, and the man in the
| boat says to the man in the water,
Nov, if 1 get you ashore, are you
going to live in my street," First get
him ashore and then talk to him about
cares what church he joins if he only
| joins Christ and starts for heaven
Oh, you, my brother of illumined face
| and hearty grip for every one that
tries to turn from his evil way, take
hold of the same hymnbook with him,
though his dissipation shake the book
remembering that he that "'converteth
| a sinner from the error of his ways
| shall save soul from death and hide
| a multitude of SINS
Now, / have shown you these OBJ
stacleS because I want you to under
| stand I know all the difficulties in the
way. But / am now going to tell you
how Hannibal may scale the Alps and
| how the shackles may be unriveted
and how the paths of virtue forsaken
may be regained. First of all, throw
| yourself on God. Go to him frankly
and earnestly and tell him these habits
you have and ask him, if there is any
help in all the resources of omnipo-
| tent love, to give it to you. Do not &C
on with a long rigmarole. which some
people call prayer, made up of obs and
abs and forever and forever amens! &C
to God and c.y for help.
Healing Balm for Wounds.
remember that while living in Phil
| adelphia, at the time 1 spoke of
| minute ago. the Master Street hospita
| was opened, and a telegram was re
ceived, saying: There will be 3Ot
wounded men tonight. Please tax,
| care of them" From my church ther,
went out twenty or thirty men anl
women. As the poor wounded mel
were brought in no one asked of then
from what state they came or wha
was their parentage. There was
wounded soldier, and the only question
was how to take off the rags mos
gently and put on the cool bandag,
soul comes to God he does not asl
where You came from or what you
ancestry was. Healing balm for al
your wounds; pardon for all you
guilt; comfort for all your troublesl
Then, also, counsel you, if you wan
to get back, quit all your bad asso
ciates. One unholy intimacy will fill
your soul with moral distemper. Ii
all the ages of the church there has no