Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1871-09-06
God Knows.
Bi REV DIR. J. W. nouGH.


question asked, o how often 10 secret. Yon-
der is one Of beauty, but am so plain That
regular, fnely-moulded face gives pleasure
wherever it goes, merely by its presence, III
is a JOY to look at it. Those lips can win
hearts before they speak |, on the other
hand, must win them, if at all, by my words
and my deeds, in spite Of my looks. Why
did not God make me too a beauty
Here is man whose life seems failure.
He has capacity enough, but no faculty. His
schemes look promising but always turn out
" castles in the air. His neighbor thrives,
and everything he touches turns to money,
but thrift is not for him. His fine theories
are always dreams, and vanish into thin air
Just ar they are going to be accomplished, and
so you estimate his life as a failure. But
wait, the end is not yet come
Right across your farm there lies u belt Of
dry, fine sand which you have always called
waste land. Other fields yield their annual
abundance, but the -trip-you have plowed it,
and manured it you have tried grass and
grain upon il alike 10 vain you have long
since given it up as worthless. One day the
glass-maker comes your way, and his trained
eye falls on your bed Of sand. He picks up
a handful, tries an experiment or two with it,
and pronounces it the best of silica, for the
, manufacture of glass. And now, all the other
, fields Of the farm could not buy that worth
less bed Of disintegrated quartz So it may
be with the speculative dreamer whose life
you set down as failure. God is not done
with him yet. The cycles Of eternity are yet
to sweep, and by-and.by, in the far future,
there may be unfolded some rare use for
which God has been fitting and keeping him
just so of the life that is not failure, bu
has lowered and blossomed with activity, and
borne large haryests of manly service. Il
l. smitten down 10 the midst Of its usefulness
and we say, How strange a Providence
Such life the country, the nation, perhaps
could not spare. How sad he could not have
lived to complete his work :" An how dc
we know that ? How do we know that come
loftier work was not waiting for his trained
hand and heart? How do we know but tina
{ his death, as we term it, was but the enlarge
ment of his life How do we know but tina
God, seeing his faithfulness over few things
+ has hastened to make him ruler over mani
+ things So of the young life that fades ant
+ withers from our sight while yet there hang
i nothing on it but the large buds Of promis
! for the future. No achievement yet TO lif
e battle fought, and no victory won. We say
in our surprise aud our grief, d" How untime
ly" But how can we say that Gods tim
= is not the best time How do we know bu
:. the young spirit so early snatched from cart
is exulting that it has cleared at one boun
It the long, weary way over which it require
!, threeseore and ten for us to journey? Gu
!. murmurings and complainings against God
n providence have always, at the bottom, Il
If assumption that we know all the data Of tn
h problem, and could we but have our own wi
e and way, could solve it better than God hG
solved it,
The inyalid-the half.strong man-withel
le under his perpetual disability, and looks wit
b. longing unutterabe upon the work whle
\. beekons and taunts him. but for which he
4. denied the strength, not knowing that throug
/. that very weakness of body God is yet
d, make him strong OF soul--a very athlete
a moral yigor, when he shall have learned l
= more to chafe against the bars OF his infrm
+, ty, but to lean on Him 4" whose strength
made perfect in weakness"
J. The man whose temper is like powd,
~ magazine, forever exploding, repines becau'
God has not given him the sweet, equabl
5 uniform disposition he sees in many so
e. about him. He does not know that in tn
e very unhappy temper God has placed with
his grasp victory compared with which Il
nv conquest Of Babylon or the taking of Seva
al topol were child's play. He doth not unde
m stand yet the full meaning of the assuranc
8 He that rueth his spirit is better than
=, that taketh city"
or Endless are our rcpinings at our lot in Iii
a and the sorrows which our lot brings. WI
- could not | have been set to handle wealth
the world, instead Of being the heir of povt
T. ty9 Why must | be mere pivot in t
w. great social machine, instead of its balan
e' wheel Why should my property go swee
:" ing down as with food, while others grC
ny rich by my mistortunes Why is my M
50 empty and desolate, while | hear the chi
ey and twitter of every nest around me ? w
En- must pains, and losses, and sorrows be q
pointed for me, while the stream Of life flo
an so smoothly to my neghbor why L
tet cause God is doing some especial work
in you but what he does, you know not now.