The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-11-26

ward, to the right
or the left, or
| stand erect and
straight as an arrow. When the
right needs a champion they can be as
rigid as Bunker Hill monument. When
they discover that they have swung a
little out of plumb they can easily
'brace up" into a perpendicular atti-
tude. They are moral heroes. They
can face storms of opposition without
swerving a hair. They can stand
alone, if necessary, without leaning
on any one else.
Rigid Backbone.
Enoch was that sort. He stood
alone, in the midst of a crooked and
perverse generation, and he walked
with God, when all the rest Of man.
kind we're going the other way. He
received a perpendicular redemption,
he went up to glory, as Christ did
from the Mount Of Olives, drawn out
of the world by the power of heavens
gravitation.
Daniel, in Babylon was a striking
| example Of youth with backbone.
He purposed in his heart that he
would not defile himself. He acted
like a gentleman about 1t, however.
He had a level head on the top Of his
backbone. To have a spinal column is
great thing, but If man has skull
full of brains to go with 1t, he Is more
likely to be a blessing than an i'm
position.
Paul belonged to the vertebrates
also. He could be as immovable as
Gibraltar, and he could surrender his
rights for the good of others. He
said that there were many things law
full for him to do that were not expedi-
ent.
A Crooked Spine.
The second class of people are the
unfortunates whose backbones are
crooked. Sometimes they are born
so, but more often they have met with
some moral injury early in life, so
that their backbone is twisted out of
shape. They have moral curvature of
the spine. They cannot well change
their position. Have you never known
people who were so built that they
would suffer all sorts of inconven-
fences rather than retract statement
or give up a position when once they
have put their foot down. The world
calls them peculiar" queer" "set,"
cranky" If they happen to get a
wrong notion into their heads, the
more you try to beat 1t out, the more
they stick to 1t.
Convince a man against his WILL
He's of the same opinion still"
The Scribes and Pharisees in
Christ's day were affected with this
disease universally. They simply
would not be convinced. The fact
that Christ's teaching was new, was
enough to condemn it. If He had
taught them as their fathers and
their grandfathers, and their great
grandfathers had taught them they
would have accepted Him, but He
taught differently from any other
teacher-therefore He must be wrong.
They were so twisted about that they
were actually looking backward, and
a religious teaching that was later
than Moses and the prophets did not
appeal to them. They had the tele-
scope to their eyes, to be sure, but
they were stubbornly searching the
books Of Leviticus and Deuteronomy
for directions concerning life in the
year of our Lord 30. The police
laws of Moses for the tribes of Israel
on their way through the wilderness
were all right for that time and oc-
casion, but they are not in the same
class with the sermon on the Mount.
Yet the Mount of Beatitudes to those
people was as nothing to Sinai, and
the tender messages of the Divine
Saviour had no attractions to those
who thought of God as a hurler OF
thunderbolts upon covering sinners.
Twisted, all out of blumb, sticking to
their ideas not because they were
right, but because they had been
brought up that way. by teachers who
were crooked before them.
Invertebrates.
There Is one other class of people
We sometimes meet. They are jelly
fish charActers-without any moral
backbone at all. Their spinal column
is only 30 much gristle. They have
not so much vertebra as an eel. They
are as well suited in one place as an.
other. They noat like cork on the
tide. They never stem any storms
They never row up stream. They &C
with the crowd. II the crowd is right
they are right X the crowd is wrong
they are wrong. They are morally soft
easily impressed and Influenced. When
they are with good people, they are
good. When they are with bad peo
pie, they are bad. Their motto 10
when you are with the Romans do al
the Romans do. And they think thai
70 q text IN the Bible.
To Whiah alaaa do vou haionR4