Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-05-07

Anybody can bear real trouble" said a
friend to us once, in the days when trouble
Of any sort seemed far-away and visionary
thing indeed. alt is imaginary trouble
which breaks the heart and taxes the
strength, till soul and body are crushed TO-
gether."
We thought at the time that the remark
was foolish and sentimental one, not to be
entertained for moment. 1t fingered in
memory because it awakened a long train of
thought, and because it was decidedly and
emphatically set aside at last, as the utter
anoe of an impossiblity. We have learned
she who said it was a wise woman, that she
spoke out of the depths of a profound expe-
rience, ard that she evinced very clear in
sight into human nature by her words. It
is true that anybody can bear real trouble.
The old pagans, with nothing in their mys-
tic PHILOSOPHERS to sustain or comfort, bore
themselves with dignifed stoicism in storms
of grief They, like ourselves, lost wives,
husbands, children and fortunes. They suf-
fered from unfaithful friends, and from
false tongues and evil suspicious. They
met the hard winds of fate and breasted
floods of calamity. Shall they who have
God to look to for a refuge, and who feel be-
meath them the Everlasting arms, be less he
roic? 1t would be shame were it so. But
it is rot. Our faith is a great help. We
daily see how it supports people in the
shocks and surprises, in the defeats and dis
appointments of life. We daily see mothers
giving up their little ones to the Good Shep-
herd without murmur of partings between
those whose lives are knit together AS one,
and yet hearts do not break. The Lord
comes closer in the gloom, and those who
are ready to perish feel the clasp of his
hand and are strengthened.
But imaginary trouble is harder to exor-
else. II has happened to us lately to meet
with several instances of that sorrowful
dependency which paralyzes effort and
shuts the sufferer in upon himself. 1t is
case for the physician" say friends and
neighbors, and straightway the good physi-
clan is sent for, and comes, and finds NAL
ady which battles his skill. He prescribes
tonics, fresh air, lively conversation, nour-
ishing food, change of scene-all such rem
edies as have, in fact, been in vogue since
the youthful David with his harp was sent
for to charm away the moodiness of the un-
happy Saul. The remedies have more or
less success. Meanwhile, the friends Of the
patient suffer as much as he does himself.
1t seems to them that disease so intangi-
BILE, so indefinite, might very easily be thrown
off, if only reason and common sense had
their day.
If only-there is the root of the matter.
Imagination is in the ascendant, and reason
has lost her hold upon the rens. Some
where a mistake has been made. Overwork,
too close attention to business, lack of sleep,
lack of good digestion, inordinate grief, or
some other canse, hao produced morbidness,
and morbidness brings untold misery and
horrors in its train. Alas it is true that
real troubles can be adjusted to ones strength,
but wounded spirit who can bear
When everything else fails-and why not
before everything else fails ?-the friends
of one so afflicted should carry him by prayer
to the only Physician in the universe who
can cure his trouble. Though he be in
no state of mind to pray for himself
though he tell you that his prayers are
merely an empty form, never mind. Go and
tell Jesus. Ask the prayers of those who
love YOU, and of those who love your patient
and of those who love the Lord. There is
| alwayshealing in the Makers touch, and
virtue still goes forth to these who cling tc
his garments hem. We are too ready to
forget that in all time of need we can 60 tS
the mercy-seat. We ask strength and com
fort for our sick, for the dying and for the
bereayed, but we sometimes fail to seek Il
for those who are shadowed over by th'
wing of desolate and brooding melancholy