The Iola register., 1901-08-09


you give them let there be an ac-
compartment of smiles and brisk en-
couragement. Do not stand and talk
to them about the wretchedness OF
their abode, and the hunger of their
looks, and the hardness of their lot.
All, they know it better than you eau
tell them. Show them the bright side
of the thing, if there be any bright
side. Tell them good times will come.
Tell them that for the children of
God there is immortal rescue. Wake
them up out of their stolidity by an
inspiring laugh, and while you send
in help, like the queen of Sheba, also
send in the spices.
We need more spice and enlivenment
in our church music. Churches sit
discussing whether they shall have
choirs or precentors or organs or bass
viols or cornets. say take that which
will bring out the most inspiring mu-
sic. If we had half as much zeal and
spirit in our churches as we have in
the songs of our Sunday schools, 1t
would not be long before the whole
earth would quake with the coming
God. Why, nine-tenths of the people
in church do not sing, or they sing so
feebly that the people at their elbows
do not know they are singing. People
mouth and humble the praises OF
God, but there is not more than one
out of a hundred who makes joyful
noise unto the Rock of Our Salvation.
Sometimes, when the congregation
g.. nAe In
the goodness of God or the glories OF
Heaven, 1 get an intimstion of what
church music will be a hundred years
from now, when the coming genera
tion shall wake up to its duty.
Now, 1 want to impress you with
the fact that religion is sweetness
and perfume and spikenard and SAT-
from and cinnamon and cassia and
franRincense and all sweet spices to-
gether. "Oh," you say, II have not
looked at il as such. / thought ii
! was a nuisance. IL had for me re-
pulsion. I held my breath as though
il were malodor. | have been ap-
J palled at its advance. / have said
if | have any religion at all / want
to have just as little of it as posi-
BILE to get through with" Oh, what
mistake you make, my brother!
The religion of Christ is a present
and everlasting rcdolescence. 1t coun'
teracts all trouble. Just put it on the
stand beside the pillow of sickness
II catches in the curtains and per
fumes the sitting air 1t sweetens
the cup of bitter medicine and throws
a glow on the gloom of the turned
lattice. 1t is a balm for the aching
side and a soft bandage for the TEN
pie stung with pain. 1t lifted Samue
Rutherford into revelry of spiritua
delight while he was in physical ag
onies. 1t helped Richard Baxter un
til, in the midst of such complica
tion of diseases as perhaps no othel
man ever suffered, he wrote "Th'
Saints Everlasting Rest" and II
poured nght upon John Bunyan''
dungeon-the light of the shining
gate of the shining city.
Have YOU read of the Tai Mahal, il
India, in some respects the most ma
iestic building on earth? Twent,
thousand men were 20 years in build
ing IT, 1t cost about $l6,0OO.0OO. Th'
walls are of marble inlaid with car
nelan from Bagdad and turquois
from Thibet and jasper from the Pun
lab and amethyst from Persia ant
all manner of precious stones. A tray
eler said that it seemed to him lil<
the shining of the enchanted castl
of FURNISHED silver. The walls ar
PAS feet high, and from the top o
these springs dome 30 more fee
high. that dome containing the mos
wonderful echo the world has eve
known, so that ever and anon tray
elers standing below with flutes AM
drums and harps are testing tina
echo, and the sounds from beloN
strike up, and then come down, as
were, the voices of angels all aroun
about the building There is aroun
. il a garden of tamarind and banya'
and palm and all the floral glories o
: the ransacked earth. But that is onl
a tomb of dead empress, and it
tame compared with the grandeur
which God has buided for your livin
and immortal spirit
Oh, home of the blessed! Founda
) tions of gold! Arches of victory
Capstones of praise! And dome i
which there are echoing and re
echoing the halleluahs of the ages
. And around about that mansion is
garden, the garden of God and a
the springing fountains are the bot
tied tears of the church in the wilder
ness and all the crimson of tn
flowers is the deep hue that wa
caught up from the carnage of eartl
ly martyrdoms and the fragrance
the prayer of all the saints and tn
aroma puts into utter forgetfulnes
the cassi9 and the spillenard and tn
frankncense and the worldrenowne
spices which Queen Balkis of Aby'
sinia flung at the feet of King Sole
mon.
I When shall these eyes thy heaven bui
4 walls
, And pearly gates behold
Thy bulwarks, with salvation strong,
And streets of shining gold?
0 Through obduracy on our part an
h through the rejection of that Chris