Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1901-01-17
Christian Beneyoience.

Christian Beneyoience.
For thirty years this man has been
practicing an economy which prided it.
self on never passing a pin without
picking it up. and if he responded at
all in church would put ON the collec-
ton plate so insignificant coin that
he held his hand over it so that no one
could discover the smallness of the de-
nomination. Somewhere in the fifties
or sixties Of his life, during a revival
of religion, he became Christian. He
is very much changed in most respects,
but his all absorbing acquisitiveness
still influences him. TO extract from
him gift for an orphanage or
church or a poor woman who has just
been burned out is an achievement.
You and know very good men, their
Christian character beyond dispute. and
yet they are pronounced by all as
penurious. and they know it them
selves and pray against it, We all have
our bad habits, and yet expect to get
to heaven, and this skintiint has his
mighty temptation. The passion OF
avarice we'll illustrated its strength.
when in one of the houses of exhumed
Pompeii was found the skeleton OF
man who was trying to escape with 80
coins and a silver saucepan. For those
valuables he dared the ashes and scoria
Of Fesuvius, which overwhelmed him,
and many a good man has been held
nightly by avarice. But the day is
coming for that penurious Christians
departure from the world. He has an
awful struggle in giving up his govern
ment securities. The attorney who
drew his last will and testament saw
how hard it was for him to leave his
farm or his storehouse or investments,
especially those that in the markets
are called gilt-edged. Those that yield
only 3 per cent he easily resigns to
the care of his executors. but those
that yield or or 10 per cent, how
can he give them up while the market
is still rising?
Reward of Self Sacrifice.
But that brings me to the other
those who will. when they leave this
life, bound into heaven amid saluta-
lions infinite. For so an entrance
shall be administered unto you abund-
antly." Such exultant admission will
await those who enter heaven after on
earth living life for others and with
out 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 reli-
giously reared. In the earlier stages of
that family there were many priva-
tions. The mother of the household
never had any amusements. Perhaps
once In a year a poor theatrical play
was enacted in the neighboring school
house or a squawking concert in the
town hall, and that was all the diver
sion afforded for the winter season. /
asked the manager of an insane asylum
in Kentucky, From what class Of per-
sons do you get most Of your patients?"
and he said, From farmers wives" I
asked the same question of the mana
ger of an insane asylum in Pennsylva-
mia, and the same question Of the man
ager of an insane asylum In Massachu-
sets, and got the same reply, 1--WE
have on our rolls for treatment more
farmers wives than persons coming
from any other class" That answer
will be surprise to some; it was no
surprise. to me. The simple reason is,
farmers wives as a general thing have
no diversion. 1t Is breakfast, dinner,
and supper, sewing, securing, scrub
bling, knitting, mending, year in and
year out. That mother is the milliner,
the mantua maker, the nurse, the doc
tor, the accountant of the whole fam
lily. She plans the wardrobe of spring,
of summer, Of autumn, of winter, cut
ting. fitting. completing garments, out
OF which the children soon grow aud
must have something else. The news
paper does not come. or, IL coming,
there is no time to read II. No selec-
ton of good books. The neighbors call
ing in are full of the same grinding
routine. No wonder SO many of them
go into dementia. Oh, the country Is
beautiful to look at and a recuperative
place in which to spend summer, and IL
you have the means to bring yourself
amusements or go where they are or
you can surround yourself by inspiring
social life 1t is good place to stay
all the year round. But. alas for the
thousands of good and noble women
who are dying by inches in its soli-
tudesi
Gladly Welcomed to Heaven.
Now. the mother of whom speak as
living on the banks of that great river
in Ohio or Alabama or Maine has gone
through all the drudgery mentioned,
and her children have turned out well,
good and useful men and women, orn-
aments Of society. pillars In the house
Of God, and that whole family, after
the years have passed by and their
work is done, will meet in the heavenly
country. From such family some
will certainly have preceded her, and
the time Of her expected arrival will
be announced to all the members of
that family already glorified and to
the old earthly neighbors who put
down their tolls little sooner than
she did. and she will have the warmest
kind Of home coming. and she will go
through the gate as easily as ever she
lifted the latch Of her front door COM
ing from the old country meeting
house where she used to worship. Go
in, mother! Heaven has been waiting
for you a good many years. Got rid of