Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1901-03-20
OF INKHORN
Power for Good or Evil Its Contents
May Weld.
Or Tnlmagc Discourscs on Influences
brought To Bear for worlds
Improvement-The Inkborn
of Gods Mercy.

| Improvement. The text is Ezekiel 9:2:
"And one man among them was
| clothed with linen, with Il writer's ink
horn by his side"
The poem from which my text is
taken is epic, lyric, dramatic, weird
and overpowering. II is more than
| Homeric or Dantesque. No one ever
| had such divine dreams as Ezekiel. In
a vision this prophet had seen wrath
| full angels, destroying angels, each
with n sword, but in my text he sees
a merciful angel with an inkhorn.
| The receptacle for the ink in olden
| time was made out of the horn of n
cow or ram or a roebuck, as now it
| is made out of metal or glass, and
| therefore was called the inkhorn, as
now we say inkstaud. We have all
| spoken of the power of the sword, of
the power of wealth, of the power of
| Office, of the power of social influence,
| but to-day L speak of the power for
good or evil in the inkstand. II is
upon your tables, holding n black or
| blue or red liquid. 1t is fortress, an
ermory, gateway, n ransom or
| demolition. You mistake" says
some one; ''it is the pen that has the
| power" No my friend. What is the
influence Of a dry pen? Pass it up and
down sheet of paper, and it leaves
90 mark. 1t expresses no opinion. 1t
| gives no warning. 1t spreads no intel
| Hgence. 1t is the liquid which the pen
| dips out of the inkstand that does the
| work Here and there celebrated
pen. with which Declaration of indie
| pendence or a Magma Charta or n
treay was signed has been kept III lit
erary museum or national archives,
but for the most part the pens,
whether, as OF old, made out of reed or
still later OF wing of bird or still later
of metallic substance, have disap-
peared, while the liquid which the
pens took from the inkstand remains
in scrolls which, if put together,
would be large enough TO enwrap the
world. For practical. for moral, for
religious, for eternal purposes, ]
| speak of the mission of 1.-The writer's
| inkhorn."
Firsts / mention that which is pure
| ~ domestic. The inkstand is in every
household il awaits the opportunity
TO express affection or coincidence or
advice. Father uses it; mother uses
1t; the sons and daughters use It, II
tells the home news; it announces the
marriage. the birth, the departure.
the accident, the last sickness, the
death. That home inkstand, what a
mission 1T has already executed. and
what other mission will it yet fulfill.
May it stand off from all insincerity
and all righteousness. Let il tell only
that which it would be well to read
after the hand that wrote it and the
| hand that received it can write no
more. Dip out of that inkStand only
that which Is paternal, maternal, filial,
slsterly, brotherly. Sacred let it be
not to what are sometimes called the
household gods" but to the one and
the only God who "setteth the solitary
In families Dip out of il solace for
parents on the descending grade of
years and encouragement for those
who are climbing the sleeps
Furthermore, the inkstand of the
business man has its mission. Be
tween now and the hour of vour de-
mise . commercial man, o profess
sIonal man, there will not be n day
when You cannot dip from the ink
horn a message that will influence
temporal and eternal destiny. There
is rash young man running into
wild speculation, and with as much
| INK as you can put on the pen Mt
one time you may save him from the
| Niagara rapids of ruined life. On
the next street there is a young man
| started in business who, through lack
OF patronage or mistake in purchase
OF goods or want of adaptation. is on
The brink of collapse. One line of inl,
from your pen will save him from
being an underling all his life and
start him on y career that will win
him fortune which will enable him
TO become an endower of libraries. an
opener OF art galleries and builder Of
churches
Furthermore, great are the re-
| possibilities Of the author iukhorn
All the people, or nearly all tho
! people. read, and that which they
read decides their morals or i'm
morals, their prosperity or failure.
their faith or their unbclicf their
purity or corruption. their heaven
| or hell. show me any mans library.
great or small. and after examining,
| the books. finding those with leaves
] '''-''' ''' rPldy 'u lot sake OF the
binding. and those worn with fire.
/ quent pcrusal, and. without ever see
! ing the man or knowing his name,
! VIII tell you his likes and his dis
! likes; his morals. good or bad or ir-
! different; his qualification for bust
ness or artistic or professional Or
mechanical life. The best index 10
any mans character Is the book hc
! prefers above all others. Oh. the
| power of q book for good or evil,
Abraham Lincoln in early life read
| Paine age Of Reason" and ~ so
] influenced him that he wrote an es-
say against Christianity but after
ward some Christian books cnme into
mis- hands and Rloriously changed his
mind and made him "a most ardent
] lrIend Of thc Bible and q MN ~