Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1902-04-26

sales of the merchant They bolt their
store doors against it and fight it back
with trowels and with yardsticks and
cry, Away with your religion from
our store, our office, our factory"
They do not understand that religion
in this workday world will help you to
| do anything you ought to do. 1t can
lay a keel; it can sail a ship; it can
| buy cargo; it can work pulley; it
can pave a street; it can fit a wrist
| band; it can write a constitution; it
can marshal a host. 1t is as appro-
pirate to the astronomer as his tele-
scope, to the chemist as his labora-
tory, to the mason as his plumb line.
to the carpenter as his plane, to the
| child as his marbles.
No time to be religious here! You
have no time not to be religious. You
might as well have no clerks in your
store, no books in your library, no
| compass on your ship, no rifle in the
battle. no hat for your head, no coat
TOR your back, no shoes for your feet.
Better travel on toward eternity bare
| headed and barefooted and houseless
and homeless and friendless than to go
| through life without religion.
Why, my friends, religion is the best
| security in every bargain; it is the
sweetest note in every song; it is the
| brightest gem in every cOronet. No
time to be religious? Why, you will
have to take time to be sick, to be
| troubled, to die. Our world is only the
| wharf from which we are to embark
| for heaven No time to secure the
| friendship of Christ? No time to buy a
lamp and trim it for that walk through
the darkness which otherwise will be
linn ,a6
tombstones? No time to educate the
| eye for heavenly splendors or the hand
for choral harps or the ear for ever
lasting songs or the soul for honor,
| glory and immortality? One would
think we had time for nothing else.
Other persons apologize for not en-
tering the Christian life because it is
| time enough yet That is very like
| those persons who send regrets and
say, Il will come in perhaps at IL or II
| O'Clock; will not be there at the open
| ing of the banquet, but L will be there
at the close Not yeti Not yeti.
Now, l do not give any doleful view
| of this life There is nothing in my
nature, nothing in the grace of God.
| that tends toward a dolefu1 view of
human life. l have not much sympa-
thy with Addison's description of the
| Vision of Mirza,' where he represents
human life as being bridge of hum
dred arches and both ends of the
| bridge covered with clouds, and the
race coming on, the most of them fall
ing down through the first span and
ali of them falling down through the
last span. 1t is a very dismal picture.
I have not much sympathy with the
Spanish proverb which says, 1.-The sky
i- h. to- h Z
which is bad is between the earth and
the sky But while we as Christian
men are bound to take cheerful view
of life. we must also confess that life
is a great uncertainty, and that man
| who says Il can't become Christian
yet" is running a risk infinite You do
not perhaps realize the fact that this
descending grade of sin gets sleeper
and sleeper and that you are gathering
up a rush and velocity which after
while may not answer to the brakes
Be not among those who give their
whole life to the world and then give
their corpse to God. 1t does not seem
fair that while our pulses are in full
play of health we serve ourselves and
serve the world and then make God al
last the present of coffin. 1t does not
seem right that We run our ship from
coast to coast carrying cargOeS for
ourselves and then, when the ship is
crushed in the rocks, give to God the
shivered timbers. 1t is a great thing
for a man on his dying pillow to re-
pent-better that than never at all
but how much better, how much more
generous it would have been if he had
repented fifty years before, My friends
you will never get over these procras-
tinations.
We have started on a march from
which there is no retreat The shad-
ows of eternity gather on our path
way. How insignificant is time com
pared with the vast eternity, AS
was thinking of this one day while
coming down over the Allegheny
mountains at noon, by that wonderful
pass which you all have heard de-
scribed as the Horseshoe-a depression
in the side of the mountain where the
train almost turns back again upon
ITSELF and you see how appropriate is
the name of the Horseshoe-and think
ing on this very theme and preparing
this very sermon, it seemed to me as il
the great courser of eternity speeding
along had just struck the mountain
with one hoof and gone on into illimit-
able space. So short is time, so insig
| nificant is earth. compared with the
vast eternity, This moment voices
roll down the sky and all the worlds O.
,ra ready fn r-airioo vo,,, die