The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1878-08-08


She, storm-tossed once, is safe with Him,
Healed COmfOrted, content forgiven,
And while we count these heavy hours
Has been year year In heaven.
Look On the Bright Siae
Is there one of us who does not some
times need this bit of advice? Things
are contrary. The people around us are
not entirely congenial. Our worldly
affairs are not adjusted to our satisfac>
ton. The childrrn are retful. Our
favorite book has been borrowed, and the
borrower is notoriously careless person,
SO that we know that it will come back
desPoiled of its freshness. The plan of
lite on which we have built seems very
much like a failure. We are in some
anxiety about some loved one, whose
chamber of sickness may, perhaps, become
the chamber of death. Some other loved
one misunderstands us, or opposes US
with caprice and temper when we are in
almost childish want of sympathy and
support. Perhaps our hard!y.earned
money, the accumulations of faithful
and frugal savings for years, is gone, like
a puff OF smoke, or a breath. Look on
the bright side? How can we? We are
ready to say that the heaven is hung
with gloom, the earth obscured, the on.
ward path hidden from our view. We
are in the condition of travellers in a
mountain land, on whom, midway in
their journey, has descended cold,
binding, and impenetrable veil of fog.
A step either way may be perilous,
Tor 1t may be over a precipiCe.
1t becomes to our thought al
most an impertinence, this sweet voice
which bids us be of good courage, and
count up the mseries, instead of mourn.
ing over the disasters
Yet there is, if we but care to look fer
it, always a bright, serene aspect some
where, always an element OF cheer, and
always the hope OF better days to come
1t is very seldom indeed that things are
so utterly iorlOrn that they may not be
worse. In our reasonable moods, we
recognize this, and, however great our
trouble, we can acknowledge that it
might be greater, This is true, particu.
larl y with regard to calamities and
Affections, such as visit us and constitute
events in life. These, it is true to say,
are frequently encountered and borne
with rare heroism by those whose forti.
tude fails them when small worries and
cares annoy and distress. 1t is amid the
trjhing, fretful pin-pricks of vexstion
and daily embarrassment that we are
mortified by finding that the souls
armor is not of proof. Then we are re.
solved to see no bright side, and we are
angry at those who try to present it to
our view.
Quite apart from material burdens and
SORROWS, there is another region of life,
in which at times there seems to be no
brightness possible. 4" In the midsilence
of the voiceless night" have you ever
lain awake, questioning your own soul,
while the tick of the clock and the echo.
ing football of some belated passer on the
street alone broke the stiffness? All !!
the mystery, the vague terror, which
have blackened on you, and shut you in,
as the tide imprisons loiterer in some
cave on the ocean shore How the
thought of swift.coming eternity has
made you feed your own nothingness,
your helrlessness, and with what awe
you have contemplated the hour when
but few failing pulse beats should be
between you and that vast unknown.
Speculation, separated from faith, sets
you adrift, a mere chip upon torrent,
and you have taken up the cry of one OF
old, Lord, what is man, that Thou art
mindful of him, or the son of man that
Thou visitest him ?" with chill dismay
creeping over you, lest you should slip
away from the ever present care of God,
Some of the purest, noblest natures
suffer from this benumbing paralysis OF
doubt, now and then. 1t is humiliating
to reflect, too, that the tortures which
visit the intellectual and mental part are
often part of the penalty which an abused
physical constitution exacts, The nerves
are ever-wrought, the brain has been un
duly stimulated, or the stomach has beer
lll-treated, and then the body makes it,
reprisals on its spiritual tenant.
But come from what source soever il
may, there is mute agony Of sOul
which we sometimes endure, and il
which it i, a consolation indeed to re
member the Master, and His hard anC
bitter conflict beneath the olives o
Gethsemane. At such hours, like sheete'
ghosts, the errors and defects OF the pas
revisit you, aud life grows unutterabl,
sad.
Ia there a bright side here? Som
poet has ssid that the mark of rank il
nature is capacity tor pain, and to thes
nights OF sorrow there are correspond
ing days of joy. But the real brigh
side is found only when, out of the whir
of struggling emotions, the spirit cast
itself upon the sympathy of Jesus. s.
strong, 10 true, 30 tender is the love o
our Lord, that even as we cry, Save Oh
we PERISH" there comes, swift az otil
need, the answer, "Lo, i am with you
always"
No subtler habit Of evil is there in tht
world than that of self.pity. The victim
of this form of selfshness is always sur
yeying the dark side of things. II wt
choose we can cultivate in ourselves and
in our children the sunny nature, al
well as that which is ever bemoaniDe
itself and comparing its lot with that o.