The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-07-20

cal association, presided. Mr.. l.. n.
Knapp had charge of the singing. He
was ably assisted by Mr.. Paul s. APPEL
who played his cornet. Prayer was
offered by Mr.. j. R. Aud and the Rev.
w. H. Neil. The address of the after
noon was delivered by the Rev. Nc
Allister, pastor Of the First Baptist
church The address in part follows:
Looking Through Smoked Glass.
The question rose in my mind,
what is the meaning Of life?" when |
sat beside the bedside Of my mother,
who had been an invalid for years Why
did she suffer, what was the purpose
Of it all? Was there any meaning to
life other than merely serving time,
eating, sleeping, suffering, working,
and then dying? The question Of the
meaning of life is being asked all
about US. The man In the mill. the
man at the desk, the child In the
school, the child in the mines, the
mother in the kitchen, the woman in
society, are all asking from the world
and their Creator, What is the mean
ing of life?" Are we nothing but
time servers?"
l am going to try and answer this
question by taking the most trite and
commonplace illustrations, and see II
they can throw any light upon our sit
uation.
The little angle worm, that dispised
animal, burrows through the earth hour
after hour, and only coming out In
the evening long enough to rest itself
upon the cool damp grass. II we
should and could ask the angle worm
the meaning of his life he would i'm
mediately say, Merely to satisfy a
craving in my body for food" The
angle worm does not know that his
presence upon earth for thousands OF
years has made vegetation what it Is,
in fact, some have told us there would
be no vegetation If it were not for the
angle worm. But the angle worm
does not know this.
| And so with the bee. 1t spends it.
self merely serving posterity, so It
thinks, yet we see the great underly-
ling service Of the bee in the fertiliza-
ton of the millions Of plants and BIOS
SONS. But the bee may not know this.
| In some places in the mines in Pen
nsylvania they have the common rat
Gagged in wheeled cage with piece
of cheese above his nose. He runs for
this piece of cheese but only succeeds
in turning the wheel. II We would
ask the rat the purpose OF his turning
that wheel he would say, Merely to
get at that cheese He does not
realize that a presence Of fatigue IN
his limbs warns the miner that the
deadly black damp is about and he
must flee; he does not know he Is
serving humanity.
If God has placed here these ami
mails and many more, and we can see
evidences Of their service to humanity
and the world, is it fair to say that
God has placed man here, with his
powers of invention, sympathy, love,
and even worship, as mere time
saver We may not see 1t, our glass
es NAV be smoked, but can we hold
that we have no purpose in life other
than serving our temporal wants!
(Some Illustration here to show that
man has a plan fixed for him in the
great kingdom Of Godo
When a man has this vision the
world becomes beautiful and grand.
He knows now that he is in tune with
God and is working with Him. He
will not harm the body of others be-
icause that is q part in the great king
dom building. he will not harm his
own body because it is the temple OF
God. Every work is raised to great
ar level and the man has no longer the
cheese vision but sees the great un,
DERIVING meaning Of his life.
But when a man has not this vision
we see the meanness cropping out
Many of our disasters are caused by
men at the head that care more fol-
the almighty piece Of cheese than the
souls of the people that are serving
them; or intrusted to their care. The
foreigners, whom we should American
lie, we often exploit and ruin, besause
we have no vision Of our real purpose
of life. Some years ago in Rochester
there were eleven Italian murders
nine of them were committed inside
of saloons Their wines cause them te
sleep but ours put into them the very
spirit of the devil. When we serve
them this way have we the vision Of
life;
In the last day there are many thai