Newport weekly independent., 1901-04-25

vatlon of our American cities until recent developments showed that the police were in complicity with crime. and now these Christian work CTS are despairful, as though all were lost. Of what worth is such a mans faith? When weighed, will they have what the chemists call atomic weight -the weight of an atom? No. Such faith is no faith at all.
 But there is another man who by repentance and prayer has put him. self into alliance with the Almighty God. Made all right by the Sayiour's grace, this man goes to work to make the world right. He says to himself: God launched this world, and He never launched failure. The Gar den of Eden was a useless morass compared with what the whole world will be when it blossoms and leaves and flashes and resounds with it's coming glory God will save it any how, with me or without me, but I want to do my share. I have some equipment-no as much as some others, but what I have I will use. l have power to frown, and I will frown upon iniquity. I have power to smile, and I will smile encourage ment upon all the struggling. I have vocabulary not so opulent as the vocabulary of some others, but I have a storehouse of good words, and l mean to scatter them in heIp- fitness. I will ascribe right motives to others when it is possible. If I can say anything good about others, will say it. If can say nothing but vile of them, I will keep my lips shut as tight as the lips of the sphinx, which for 5000 years has looked off upon the sands of the desert and uttered not one word about the deso- lation. The scheme of reconstruct ing this world is too great for me to manage, but I am not expected to boss this job. I have faith to believe that the plan is we'll laid out and will be well executed. Give me brick and trowel and I will begin now to help build the wall I am not soloist, but I can sing Rock of Ages to sick pauper. I cannot write a great book, but I can pick cinder out of child's eye or a splinter from under his thumb nail. I now enlist in this army that is going to take the world for God, and I defy all the evil powers, human and satan ic, to discourage me. Count me into the service. I cannot play upon a musical instrument, but I can polish cornet or string a harp or applaud the orchestra"
 All through that mans experience there runs faith that will keep him cheerful and busy and triumphant. l like the watchword of CromwelPs Ironsides, the men who feared noth- ing and dared everything, going into battle with the shout: ''The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is ou refuge! Selah!" No balance that human brain ever planned or human hand ever constructed is worthy of weighing such spirit Gold and precious stones are measured by the carat, which is four grains. The dealer puts the diamond or the pearl on one side of the scales and the
 
 the weight. But we need something more delicately constructed to weigh that wonderful quality of faith which I am glad to know will be recognized and rewarded for all time and all eternity. The earthly weighman counterpoises on metallic balances the iron, the coal, the articles of hu- man food tha solids of earthly mar- chandise, but he cannot test or an nounce the amount of things spirit ual. Here is something which the Attic and Babylonian weighing sys- tems of the past and the metric weighing system of the present can not manage. 'sThe Lord weigheth the spirits
 Put also into those royal scales the ambitious spirit. Every healthy man and woman has ambition. The lack of it is a sure sign of idiocy or inn morality. The only question is, what shall be the style of our ambition? . To stack up a stupendous fortune, to acquire a resounding name, to sweep everything we can reach into the whirlpool of our own selfishness-that is debasing, ruinous and deathful. If in such a spirit we get what we start for, we only secure gigantic discon- tent. No man was ever made happy by what he got. It all depends upon the spirit with which we get it, and the spirit with which we keep it, and the spirit with which we distribute it.