The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1901-03-27
MISSION OF TNKHORN
Power for Good OF Evil It's Contents
! ... May Weld.
Dr TalmaEe Discourses on Inhuencsl
Brought to Bear for NorloS
Inprovement-The 1nkhor1
J OF Gods Mercy.

copyright. 1901. by Louis hlopseh, n: y
Washington, March Il.
In newway and frona peculiar text
Dr.. Talmage discourses of good infu-
ences brought to bear for the worlds
Improvement. The text is Ezekiel 9:2:
.''And one man among them was
clothed with linen, with writer's ink
horn by his side"
The poem from which my text IS
taken is epic, lyric, dramatic, welro
and overpowering. It is more thap
Eoneric or Dantesque. No one ever
had such divine dreams as Ezekiel IN
q vision this prophet had seen wraVn
3uI angels, destroying angels, eacn
with g sword, but in my text he sees
q rerciful angel with an lnkhorn.
The receptacle for the ink IN oloen
zine was made out Of the horn OF
COW OF q ram or roebuck, as now IL
Is made out of metal or glass, and
therefore was called the inkhorn, as
cow we say inkstand. 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 I speak OF the power 1or
good or evil in the inkstand. 1t IS
upon your tables, holding black or
blue or red liquid. It is fortress an
armory, a gateway, ransom or a
demolition. 'You mistake" says
some one; ''it is the pen that has the
power" No my friend. What is the
influence Of dry pen? Pass it up and
down = sheet of paper, and 1t leaves
no mark. It expresses no opinion. IL
gives no warning. 1t spreads no intel
ligeoce. It is the liquid which the pen
dips out Of the inkstand that does the
work. Here and there a celebrated
pen. with which Declaration of lnde-
Oendence or 8 Magma Charta or g
treay was signed has been kept in lit
srary museum or national archives,
but for the most part the pens,
whether, as Of old, made out Of reed or
sfln later Of wing Of bird or still later
OF metallic substance, have olsap-
peared, while the liquid which the
pens took from the inkstand remains
n scrolls which, if put together,
would be large enough to enwrap the
world. For practical, for moral, for
religious, for eternal purposes, J
speak Of the mission Of "the writer's
SnkhoR"
First, 7 mention that which is pure
" domestic. The inkstand is IN every
household. It awaits the opportunity
60 express affection or coincidence or
advice. Father uses it; mother uses
st; the sons and daughters use it. 1t
tells the home news; it announces the
marriage, the birth, the departure,
The accident, the last sickness, the
death. That home inkstand, what
mission It has already executed, and
what other mission will it yet fulfill!
May il stand of from all insincerity
and all righteousness. Let it tell only
that which it would be well to read
after the hand that wrote it and the
hand shat received it can write no
more. Dip out Of that inkstand only
shat which is paternaI maternal, hlial,
sisterly, 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 it 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 your de-
mise, o commercial man, o profess
sional man, there will not be day
when you cannot dip from the ink
horn . message that will influence
temporal and eternal destiny. There
is . rash young man running into
Wild speculation, and with as much
ink IS you can put on the pen at
one time you may save him from the
Niagara rapids Of a ruined life. On
che next street there is young man
started in business who, through lack
Of patronage or mistake in purchase
oS goods OF want Of adaptation, is on
the brink Of collapse. One line of ink
from your pen will save him from
being an underlng all his life and
start him on 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-
gponsibiEties Of the authors inkhorn-
AL the people, or nearly all the
people, read, and that which they
yead decides their morals or I'M
morals, their prosperity or failure,
Gheir faith or their uobelief, their
purity Or corruption, their heaven
or he'll. Show me any mans library,
great or small, and after examining
Che books, finding those with leaves
nneut, but displayed for sake OF the
Binding, end those worn with ire-
sueot perusal, and, without ever see
Eng the man or knowing his name,
7 win tell you his likes and his dis
likes; his morals, good or bad or in
different; his qualification for busi-
ness or artistic or professional or
mechanical life. The best index to
any mans character is the book he
prefers aboveea1l others. Oh, the
power Of q book for good or evil!
Abraham Lincoln in early life read
paine's "Age Of Reason" and it so
Influenced him that he wrote an es-
say against Christianity, but after
ward some Christian books came into
his hands and gloriously changed his
sniad and made him a most ardent
Friend Of the Bible and a man Of
prayer. A letter in Mr.. Lincoln's own
handwriting is in my house, the let
&sr n response to some resolutions
passed by . Methodist conference
saying: 'In response to your ao-
dress, allow me- to attest the &C
Burned to Death.