The northern tribune. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1847-1855, 1847-11-16
Short Patent Sermon.
BY DOW JR.

I shall draw a discourse from this text:
Though call you life gloomy W aste
II still hath sunny spots
My hearers, after looking intently awhile at
Heaven, through tn telescope manufactured
by Hope. Faith & Co., and then suddenly
casting the eye over the country that Mortali-
ty must traverse, it certainly looks like dull,
gloomy and dreary waste. 1t is like turning
directly from the dazzling sunshine into a
dusky cellar-all is darkness for the moment
dark as an African congregation in tnun-
der-storm but it soon grows lighter, and we
gradually discover that we ere not i'll such in
fernal and everlasting darkness, after all 1t
is an undeniable fact that the brightness of
heaven casts silvery sheen and golden glow
upon this Laden terrestrial mass, yet if we
{. axe long upon celestial splendors. our optics
become too dimmed to behold with distinct
ness the bright and the beautiful belonging to
earth. Life hath many sunny spots, and you
can easily see them, if you be not purblinded
with the dazzlings of a more magnificent
world to come. 1t isn't as barren as sheep
pasture in drought, all the way from Dan
to Beersheba, any how you can make 1t;
from mans ingress to his moral exit, he doesn't
have to continually face and back up to north
casters, like the March ram in the almanac
life isn't one long, cloudy day, look upon 1t
in the most unfavorable aspect you choose.
In our darkest hours OF trouble and despon-
dency, sunshine will sometimes burst upon US
as suddenly as a bottle of ginger pop. There
are many golden threads that might be woven
in the wool of human existence, it man would
only take the pains to pick them up. Alack!
it is too true, that many OF the beaut1ul
flowers that grace this margin of lfes stream,
are left to bloom unnoticed-to wither and
die, after having wasted their sweetness upon
the desert air = But, by the great mogul OF
gulls if my brother man has mind to be so
foolish as to refuse the warm sunlight, and
court the cold storms. shall consign him to
the pity of that Providence whose tender mer-
cies seem sometimes to be bestowed with
reckless extravaganza upon objects as I'M
worthy of blessing, as cockroach in q
plum pudding.
Ny friends-I tell you there are many sun
ny spots in life-as sunny as the south side OF
Methodist meeting house. To receive
kind favor from any one, in this frosty, I'M
charitable world, is finding sunny spot-a
gladdening oasis in a dreary desert. When IN
foreign land, and surrounded by strangers,
YOU come across true friend, whose sympa-
thies naturally melt and mingle with your own,
like beeswax and tallow, you find sunny spot
"a cheering glade in sunny forest. Doing
up counting getting Misunderstanding good
wife or Misunderstanding up after love
ouarrel-recovcring damages-suddcnly re-
ceivng in full from dubious debtcr-a little
unexpected good luck-or lucky escape from
threatened attack of poverty-are all sunny
spots. But some spots are as bright as tim
ned roof beneath an uncloudy MONDAY sum-
while others are more like patch of pale
moonshine upon the sable garb of Night
The sunniest spot that ever shone in my dull
existence, was the sparkling of that lovely.
| angelic creature Sarah Hawthorn. But, alas
she kicked the bucket one day about sunset.
| and left the world to darkness and to me 7
My hearers-there are striking lights and
shades in the grand picture Of life. They are