The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1909-08-12

day. They came into the presence
of the patient and went through
their incantations, pronouncing the
name of Jesus as Paul did.
But to their CONSERVATION the man
cried out, Jesus | know, and Paul
know; but who are you?" and he pitch
ed into them tore their clothes off
from them, and kicked them into
the street And the whole city
laughed.
Not only so, but a serious moral eff
feet was produced also. conviction
settled upon the whole community
that Paul was right, and the wizards
and hlack-art professors were wrong.
Chagrined and ashamed at their fail
ure the dealers in forbidden arts
themselves admitted their hypocrisy,
deception and fraud, they turned from
il IN genuine repentance, brought all
their books and implements of wick
edness, started bonfire in the mar
ket place, dumped the literature into
the flames and kept stirring them up
till the last leaf of the last volume
went up in smoke. That was a re-
markably thorough disinfection of the
moral atmosphere in the streets of
Ephesus. Those people literally burnt
M property in the public street to the
amount of about ten thousand dollars.
First Thoughts Best.
Now the first lesson is this When
men are convinced that reformation is
necessary they ought to act instantly.
Many a man sits cogitating so long
over the question of duty that the
eggs of his resolution are added be-
fore he makes up his mind. We
should not only strike while the iron
is hot but make it hot by striking. If
those Ephesian wizards had slept over
the question of destroying their books,
! very much doubt if they had done
II. To say of any matter like this 81
win think it over" is usually to find a
good many excuses for not doing it.
lie who hesitates is lost. Good reso-
lurions are much like rare game; the
wise hunter does not wait for the flock
10 settle, but takes it on the wing.
First thoughts are best thoughts, and
need no reconsideration. One would
suppose to hear some people talk that
the race is so determined on doing
right, so bent and inclined heavon-
ward, so liable to storm the portals
Dt light and stampede into glory, that
u IS very essential to screw the
brakes down hard, lest we should be-
come righteous overmuch. There is
not the slightest danger in that drec-
tim Most Of
than we do q chech-rein. There are
plenty of brakemen en- the heavenly
train; what we need is a few more
tremen to shovel fuel and attend to
keeping the steam up.
Burn Your Bridges.
And the next thing Isl Make thor.
ough work of the reformation. Many
man goes back TO his old ways be-
cause he makes the way of return so
easy. When God took the children of
Israel out of Egypt he put the Red
Sea between them and their old home
as speedily as possible. He got them
away from the vicinity as quick as he
could. He knew that the leeks onions !
and garlic would have a mighty fas.
NihoblOu W llit IltDieNo dS icuS 40 |
they stayed in the neighborhood. and |
he put them on a different diet the mo- |
ment they began to get hungry, plan !
which kept their attention till they |
got so far away they couldn't go back. |
That was a wise general, who, on
country burnt his ships in the har-
oor. The soldiers realized then that |
It was victory or death and the knowl- !
edge made every man hero.
These Ephesians made it impossible |
TO return to their old ways by burn
ing their books. | have heard of a |
woman who felt that it was sinful to |
wear flowers and jewelry, and she |
took all her personal finery-and gave |
IL to her sister, No! If it is not good |
enough for you, 1t is not good enough |
for anybody.
For If the gambler only puts his
cards on the upper shelf, and takes
them down now and then to dream
over the games he used to play, he
VIII end by going back. And II the
drinking man only puts his decanter
a little farther back on the shelf, and
occasionally takes it down to hold 1t
up to the light. and to smell of it, he
VIII go back to drinking as sure as
rate. And If the slave of tobacco keeps
taking down his pipe and mourning
over 1t, he will soon be burning the
fragrant weed.
The only safe course, the only radi-
cal and thorough course. is to initiate
me example of the Ephesian converts
and mako n Olnriouc hopfira NJ thp