Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1875-01-07
Poverty.


Poverty is a great curse, despite of all
the fine sentiment we hear about it from
people in warm homes, who are well fed,
and have good clothes on their backs. Ii
embitters manhood; it saturates woman's
heart with gall. Ii begets envy and fret
fulness with ones lot; it makes men roll
fiery eyes and utter hard speeches on the
good of others, only because it is not
their own. 1t burrows the face of beauty
with crow's-feet or unsoftened lines OF
care. 1t makes its victims hare. hearted,
hard-faced and quarrelsome in speech
and conduct, 1t robs the heart OF all re-
timing influences by taking away all means
OF culture. 1t puts intellect and taste on
the treadmill in quest for bread. 1t makes
the soul go on all.iours to furnish food
for the body. 1t chains mans nobility
to his stomach, which goads him to des-
peration by its unappeased cravings.
And through all this man sinks at best
to the leveI of rational brute.
We believe that it was bitter trial to
Jesus who had to endure it but Temporal
rily, not because His soul did not shudder
at 1t, but because it was one among the
many wretched conditions surrounding
His mortal existence; and He bore it
merely to show that if IL could not be
enjoyed, it could be borne with patience,
and it behooved Him, the Captain of our
salvation, to be perfect through suffer.
ings. No sadder exclamation ever fell
from His lips, drawn by His necessities,
as if from an almost intolerable sense of
detection and debasement-"T birds
of the air have nests [perchesb and the
foxes have holes, but the Son of Man
hath not where to lay His head" 1t was
bitter necessity that drew such con
fession, and it needed all His divine
meekness and patience to bear it. There
is heartless affectation in the hippant
way many people talk about this thing
IL is neither honest, intelligent, nor
heartful. Poverty is of itself a curse. 1t
is true that divine grace can extract
some good out of even curses, but the
curses are not the blessings, but the
grace. Poverty is often more the mother
of temptation than wealth. Ii is often a
teacher of lies and of the cunning and
abandonment of theft. 1t sends men
often to the bottle in the vain hope of
finding in its fiery contents that uncon-
seriousness which is a wretched substitute
for the gripping want.
Adversely will tougher the fibers OF
endurance and bring kind of grim
patience. 1t will make our wills more
determined and imperious, but il takes
great grace to get out of il anything
amtdbLe, tender, loUtng and happy The
soul is not tortured into goodness. The
frozen, ungenial earth, soon to be the
sepulcher of earth's life and beauties, is
not melted into drops or its frozen hands
SO relaxed as to let go summers bless
ings by the raging March winds, or the
descent of singing sleet. or the hoary
breath of midnight frosts. No, no. II
is the smiling face of the returning sun
that does this. 1t is the kindly kisses of
the south wind and the sunny teardrops
of April clouds which make the earth
repent of its GOODNESS, and send its heart
less ice away, leaping down the rivulets,
to hide In the ocean, or to obey the suns
commands to the slumberiDg forms of
beauty and fragrance. Loose them and
let them go.
Then, brethren, give up romancing
about the blessings of poverty. This is
as vain as to put life in corpse by put
ting wreath of flowers on its frozen
head. Set yourselves TO work with a
will to relieve it. This is the way to let
Christ live in you, by letting His love
shine through you. Every church ought
to begin Dorcas work. Every family
ought to begin economy for the needy
during the coming months Of this awful
winter. Economy to the rich, for Christ's
sake, is Ms great virtue as poverty un-
relieved is curse TO the poor. What a
grand opportunity distress affords for the
growth Of love in your souls, and what a
school for pity in the hearts OF your chill.
dren!-Presbyteridn.