The Iola register., 1901-06-07


Hope thou in God, for | shall yet
praise him who is the health of my
countenance and my God
Again, is your talent that of wit or
humor? Use IL for God. Much of the
worlds wit is damaging. Most of sat
ire has sting in it. Much of carica-
ture is malevolent. Much of smart re-
tort Is vitriolic In order to say smart
things how many will sacrifice the
feelings of others! The sword they
carry is keen, and IL is employed to
thrust and lacerate. But few men in
all the world and in all the churches
realize that IL wit is bestowed it is
given them for useful for improving,
for healthful purposes. If we all had
more of it and knew how 90 use it
Alright, how much il would improve
our Christian conversation and prayer
meeting talk and sermon! Robert
South and Rowland Hill and Jeremy
Taylor and Dean Swift and Lorenzo
Dow and George Whitefield used their
wit and their humor to gather great
audiences and then lead them into the
kingdom of God. Frivolity is repulsive
in religious discussion, but | like the
humor of Job when he said to his in
solent critics: "No doubt but ye are
the people, and wisdom shall die with
you," and I like the humor of the
prophet Elijah, who told the Baalites
to pray louder, as their god was out
| hunting or on an excursion or in such
loud conversation that he could not
hear them. ] like the sarcasm of
! Christ when He told the self-right-
eous Pharisees that they were so good
they needed no help: "The whole need
not a physician, but that they are
sick" or when in mirthful hype.p pole
he arraigns the hypocritical teachers
of His day who were so particular
about little things and careless about
big things, saying: aye blind guides
that strain at gnut and swallow
camel" and the Bible is all ablaze with
epigran. words surprisingly put and
phraseology that must have made the
audiences of Paul and Christ nudge
each other and exchange glances and
smile and then appropriate the tre-
mendous truths of the Gospel. There
are some evils you can laugh down
easier than you can preach down. The
question is always being asked, why
do not more people go to church,
prayer meeting and other religious
meetings? | will tell you. We of the
pulpit and the pew are so dull they
cannot stand it. But when we ask
why people do not go to church we ask
a misleading question. More people
go now to church than ever in the
worlds history, and the reason is in
all our denominations there is a new
race of ministers stepping into the
pulpits which are not the apostles of
humdrum. Sure enough, we want in
the Lords army the heavy artillery,
but we want also more men who, like
Burns, n farmer at Gettysburg, took a
musket and went out on his own ac-
count to do little shooting different
from the other soldiers. The church
of God is dying of the proprieties.
Or is your talent an opportunity to
set a good example? One person do
ing right under adverse circumstances
will accomplish more than many trea-
tises about what is right. The census
has never been taken of lovely old
folks. Most of us, If we have not such
Il one in our own house now, have in
our memory such a saint. We went
to those old people with all our trou-
bles. They were perpetual evangel
lists, by their soothing words, by their
hopefulness of spirit an ineXpressiblC
help. ] cannot see how Heaven coulc
make them any loveler than they are
or were. But there are exceptions
There is daughte~ in that family
whose father is inpatient and the
mother querulous. The passage O
many years does not always improv,
the disposition, and there are Il grea
many disagreeable old folks. Some o
them forget that they were younl
themselves, and they become untidl
in their habits and wonder how, wheI
their asthma or rheumatism is so bad
other people can laugh or sing and 60
on as they do. The daughter in tha'
family bears all ths peeyishness an,
unreasonable behavior of senilitl
without answering back or maxim,
any kind of complaint. If you shoulC
ask her what her five talents are ol
J her one talent is, she would answe
that she has no talent at all. Greatl,
| mistaken is she. Her one talent is t,
I forbear and treat the childishncss o
the old as well as she treats the child
ishness of the young. She is no mu
5 scian, and besides there may not be
$ piano in the house. She cannot skill
U fully swing croquet mallet or gol
4 stick. Indeed, she seems shut up t,
I see what she can do with ladle an,
I Il broom and a brush and other house
: hold implements. She is the personi
r fication of patience, and her rewar,
a will be as long as Heaven. Indeed
K much of her reward may be given o.
: earth. She is in a rough college, fror
e which she may after awhile gradual
n into brightest domesticity. She is
o heroine, though at present she ma
e receive nothing but scolding and dc
o probation. Her one talent of pa
u tience under trial will do more goo
o than many morocco covered sermon
IS on patience preached to-day from tn