The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1901-03-23
MISSION OF INKHORN
Power for Good or Evil Its Contents
May Weld.
Or TaImage Discourses On Influences
Brought 10 Bear Tor worlds
Improvement-The Inkhorn
of Gods Mercy.

Improvement. The text is Ezekiel 9:2
"And one man among them wa'
clothed with linen, with writer's ink
horn by his side"
The poem from which my text il
taken is epic, lyric, dramatic, weird
and overpowering. II is more thar
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 a sword, but in my text he sees
q merciful angel with an inkhorn'
The receptacle for the ink in olden
time was made out of the horn OF
COW or ram or roebuck, as now IT
is made out of metal or glass, and
therefore was called the inkhorn, as
now 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 ! speak of the power for
good or evil in the inkstand. 1t is
upon your tables, holding black or
blue or red liquid. 1t is fortress, an
armory, a gateway, a ransom or
demolition. "You mistake" says
some one; sit is the pen that, has the
power" No my friend. What is the
influence of dry pen Pass 1T up and
down sheet of paper, and 1T leaves
no mark. 1t expresses no opinion. 1T
gives no warning. 1t spreads no intel
ligence. 1t 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 INDIE
pendence or Magma Chartp or
treay was signed has been kept in 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, IL put together,
would be large enough to enwrap the
world. For practical, for moral, for
religious, for eternal purposes, ]
speak of the mission of "the writer's
inkhorn."
First, mention that which is pure
ly domestic. The inkstand is in every
1t awaits the opportunity
to express affection or coincidence or
advice. Father uses it; mother uses
1t; 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 a
it has already executed, and
what other mission will it yet fulfill!
May it stand off 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 that received ii can write no
more. Dip out of that inkstand only
that which Is paternal, maternal, filial,
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 profes
sional man, there will not be day
when you cannot dip from the ink
horn a message that will influenc,
temporal and eternal destiny. Their,
is a rash young man running int
wild speculation, and with as mucl
ink as you can put on the pen a
one time you may save him from tn
Niagara rapids of ruined life. o.
the next street there Is young ma
started in business who, through lac
of patronage or mistake in purchas
of goods or want of adaptation, Is o.
the brink of collapse. One line of in
from your pen will save him froI
being an underling all his life an
start him on a career that will wi
him fortune which will enable hir
to become an endower of libraries, a
opener of art galleries and builder G
churches.
Furthermore, great are the RI
sponsibilities of the authors inkhori
All the people, or nearly all tn
people, read, and that which the
read decides their morals or in
morals, their prosperity or failure
their faith or their unbelief, thei
purity or corruption, their heave
or hell. Show me any mans librar.
great or small, and after examinin
the books, finding those with leave
uncut, but displayed for sake of til
binding, and those worn with FRI
quent perusal, and, without ever se'
ing the man or knowing his nam
will tell you his likes and his di
likes; his morals, good or bad or II
different; his qualification for bus
ness or artistic or professional Q
mechanical life. The best index I
any mans character is the book h
prefers above all others. Oh, til
power of book for good or evil
Abraham Lincoln in early life rea
Paine's "Age of Reason" and 1t s
Influenced him that he wrote an e,
say against Christianity, but after
ward some Christian books came int
his hands and gloriously changed hi
mind and made him most arden
friend of the Bible and q man G
prayer. A letter in Mr.. Lincoln's ow
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