St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-02-02

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Almighty stayed with him, and would
have stayed with him all his days. He
got afraid and went and laid under a
juniper tree and wished to die. God
could not use him then, he was out of
position. God could not use him then.
Why? Because he was full of fears
and doubts and the moment a man
gets full of fears and doubts he is out
of position; when man cannot serve
him he is of no earthly account. But
God came to him under that juniper
tree and asked him what he was doing
there in the cave, and there it was that
he told the pitiful story that he was no
better than his fathers, he had kept his
eye off from the King and from the God
before whom he stood, and then he was,
like Sampson, shOrn of his strength,
weak like other men but as long as he
kept his eye upon God, looking right
off and leaning on God, how God stood
by him and used him!
Look again at Peter, that bold man
on the day of Pentecost, you would
have thought as you heard him as he
charged the murder of Christ upon
those Jews, upon the leading men of
his country, that that man had never
been filed with fear, and yet only fifty
days before one little maid scared him
out of his life. And so when a man is
out of communion with God he is all
the time full of fears and doubts, pre-
dieting defeat all the time, but when a
man is filled with faith and with the
truth of God and rests upon God he
has courage and God can use him.
Look at Peter and John when God
brought them out of prison, they were
found in the Temple and the Council
brought them before it. Look at them
as they stood up there and that Council
forbid them to speak any more in the
name of the Lord Jesus, and away they
went preaching the Gospel; they could
not keep still !; this same man that was
afraid of this little maid, how full of
courage he was because the power of
God came upon him. And when once
the power of God rests upon men and
women they have courage and bold
ness.
One day took down my Bible and
began to read about Noah, and the
thought came stealing over me, that
here was a man to begin with, who
had toiled hundred and twenty years,
and hadn't got convert outside of his
family, and yet hadn't got discouraged.
If he did it is not put down by the Ho-
ly Ghost, and here am l got discourag-
ed. | put down my Bible and went
into the noon prayer meeting; they had
there man who had come from the
interior of Illinois, who said the Sab
bath before he had taken a hundred
new members into his church, | said
to myself what would old Noah have
said if he had heard of hundred peo-
pie converted in that town of those old
antedeluvians! And there was a man
behind ME who put his hand on my
shoulder and said, 81 wish you would
pray for me, am lost" | said to my
self, what would Noah have given if he
heard it :? No one ever said to him he
was lost; no one ever came to him and
asked him to pray for him !; he worked
twenty years and never got a convert
outside of his own family. And l said
to myself, | wonder what Noah would
have given to have attended that pray
er meeting of those antedeluvians, and
yet that man toiled for hundred and
twenty years, and never got a convert
outside of his own family, and was not
discouraged. l think have never got
cast down since. If things didn't go on
as | wanted them didn't get cast down.
Keep up your courage. If God is going
to use you you must have good cour-
age. How he instilled the service of
his friend Joshua. Be of good courage
and then you shall have success, and
no man shall be able to stand before
you all the days of your life.