Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-08-05

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the devil have secured the mastery
and the spiritual life is subordinate.
While in others, the life of the flesh is
subdued, and the spirit is in the as
cendancy. In every city the good and
the evil commingle, but evil is so at
tractive, SO insinuating, so subtle, and
good people are so slow, so imbecile,
so morally backboneless, that satan
appears to have his own sweet way,
and the city,s reputation far and wide
is most unsavory.
King SoIomon's Warning.
Every city holds in it much that is
good, many have their citizenship in
the commonwealth of God, and have
not bowed the knee to the Gods of this
world. But the city has it's perils, es-
pecially for the young. The book of
Ecclesiastes contains wisdom and
warning which the modern youth may
well heed if he lives in the city. An
ancient tradition has it that King Sol
ONION on one occasion left the ban
quoting hall of his own palace and
took his stand at the gates of the
CITY, urging the passing multitude to
heed wisdom's cry, and take example
from one who had tasted the sweets
of life and found them as the apple
of Sodom. The words of wisdom
which came from the king came from
out of heart full of bitterness and
remorse, made so by his youthful fol-
lies. AS Solomon looked over his life
it seemed to him like the ruins of
some st. Pierre, after the flood of
molter lava had poured over it.
While the king stood at the gate he
saw the youth pass into the city.
Here was one who lacked self-control,
and soon he burned out his spiritual
forces with passion. Here was anoth-
er who gave free rein in the pursuit of
every worldly pleasure. Soon the
spring days passed and the summer
ended, but there was no harvest for
the sickle. Solomon, advice to every
youth who entered the city was even
better than that which Polanius gave
the Laertes. The wise man said
make friendship with the good, and
the great, as the making of books is
without end, and life is short, read
only the best books, govern your life
by a few great principles and pre-
cepts, live for the highest ideals in
| life" To the passing multitudes he
said: Doth not wisdom cry and I'M
derstanding put forth her voice? In
the top of high places, in the way
where the paths meet she standeth,
beside the gate, at the entry of the
city, at tho coming in at the doors, she
crieth aloud. Unto YOU o. men, call,
and my voice Is to tae sons of men,"
The Waru;r, uf History
The warning of history to great cit
les is as unmistakealle as it is terri,
BILE. For cities when have sown to
the flesh, have of the flesh reaped cor.
ruption. This is a universal law. We
sing ooh where are kings and empires
now, of old that went and came?'
And we ask where is Sodcm and Ba
] bylon and Nineveh, that great city"
and Tyre with her splendid commerce
and Rome which sat upon her seven
hills, and Jerusalem, the city of Da.
/ vid The answer which history has
| clearly written in reference to all
these cities is simply they have
reaped as they had sown. The law OF
the harvest holds for cities as well
as for nature.
| ne TWO SlnS,
There are two kinds of sins in oul
cities-the sin of weakness and the
sin of strength, and if we must grade
sins, the latter are more deadly thar
| the former. All men we are assured
have sinned and come short of the
glory of God, but some sins. because
of their long association with respec
table people, have come to be known
as respectable sins. There are fami
lies that have long and honorable his
tories. Perhaps they take great prid,
in tracing their ancestry back to thu
pilgrim fathers, or to William thu
Conqueror. In like manner Mr.. Bush
nell assures us, certain sins have lonl
and honorable pedigree. All odiun
and vileness have been removed ant
these sins have come to be looked up
on with considerable respect. Scarce
ly ever are they thought of as violat
ers of Gods moral law. Other sin
again are bad. thoroughly bad, an,
therefore always to be despised. LIE
me illustrate. A drunkard emerge
from the saloon of some city, set OF
a hill His eyes are bleared, his coun
tenance bloated. He reels to and fr
along the street. He is clad in filtl
and rags, and the air around him i
poisoned with the fumes of alcoho
He is a loathsome sight. But tina
man is not going to tempt anyone. N
boy will be fascinated by the sigh
Indeed tina man carries in his face tn
; red flag of warning. The man has los
his self-respect. He has lost contrc
of himself. He has lost his will pow
er. This is the sin of weakness. Blu
her is another man. He is strong. H
is respected. He lives in palatia
home. Servants do his bidding. Hi
family moves in the best of societ,
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