Weekly Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1908-1909, 1909-01-29
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- VI -
FINEST SIGHT ON EARTH.
By Rev. Charles F. Akec

By Rev. Charles +. Aked.
Ana Benaiah, the son of Jehoida,
the son Of a valiant man Of Kabzeeig,
who had done mighty deeds 3
went down and slew a lion in the
midst Of a pit in time Of snow.-II.
Samuel % 20
He was a valiant man, and the son Of
a valiant man and the grandson of
man who had done mighty deeds The
valiant man loves such a fight This
is the attraction Of the most violent
forms Of athletics 1t is the element
Of conflict which constitutes 50 much
Of the attractiveness Of mountaineer-
ing. ! never saw a mountain in my
life which / did not want to scale,
and | understand perfectly how it was
that after some laments on the limited
opportunities for climbing in England,
a sporting paper announced that there
were three or four places in the lake
country where a man could comfortably
break his neck. / was not in the least
surprised to be told that the hotels
IN those places made fortune within
the next twelve months
1t is the finest sight on earth-the
very finest sight on earth-a good
fight. Only, mind you it must be
good fight Fight the fight of faith
there is nothing like it. They wrong
man greatly who say that he is to be
seduced by ease. Difficulty, abnega-
ton, martyrdom, death, are the al
Iurements that act on the heart Of
man. Some of us find the very first
conflict Of all hard enough-the fight
with self. There is passion which
grips you, my brother, with what seems
q grip stronger than death and he'll,
the pride Of life, the desire of the
eyes, the craving Of the fiesh-yOu
know its intensity. But l bid you
fight. You are a valiant man and
the son Of a valiant man and you are
too good a man to go down to destruc-
ton before a giant vice. There is that
in you which is worth too much to
man and God for failure now. l be,
lieve in you and good men will be-
lieve in you and God believes in you;
you shall Stay your lion, too,
New York is net an easy place for
man who has lions to kill Its
temptations are many. Its cosmopoli-
tanism creates a certain atmosphere
an atmosphere always nonreligious,
often positively irreligiOus. 1t loves
pleasure only too well. And countless
hosts within this city are drunk with
H.,
here in this city for a purpose. We
have to witness the power of the spirit
of God over human hearts, over evil
passions, over sinister temptations,
over the inducements and seductions
Of material things, over all the facts
and forces of sin. We have to keep
a clear light shining in any dark place;
we have to keep the flag of righteous
ness and purity flying here; we have
to maintain the vision of the ideal
before US 1t may be an awkward
place and a bad day for the idealist,
for the visionary, for the puritan But
the place Of valor is the place where
you live and work. Now is the ac-
cepted time, the heroic time, the chival-
ric time; and l will trust you to Stay
lion in Il pit on a snowy day.
Arrest your knaves and dastards"
goes forth the old command. And to
the question How" our modern pro-
phet has his answer ready:
Make yourself an honest man; then
there will be one rascal less in the
world