The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1880-07-29

IuhJ way 4 Jun y hhO Y v pO N"ONl
say. Neither does the corn like the
corn thresher, but after 1t has been
threshed and winnowed it has a great
deal better opinion of winnowing' mills
and rn-threshers. "Well, if | could
choose nv " trouble l would be will
ing to be troubled" you say. On, my
brother, then it would not be trouble.
You would choose something that would
not hurt, and unless it hurts it does not
get sauctifed. Your trial, perhaps, may
be childlessness. You are fond of child
rem, and say: "Why does God send chill
dren to that other household, where they
are unwelcome, and are beaten and BAN
ged about, when l would have taken
them to my armsP" Your trial, per-
haps, may be a dis6gured Countenance,
or a face easily caricatHred, and you say:
"0h, l could endure anything if only l
was handsome" Your trial, perhaps, is
a violent temper, and you have to drive
it like six unbroken horses amid the
gunpowder explosions of a great holiday
and ever and anon it runs away with
you. Your trouble is a husband, short,
sharp, snappy and cross about the house
and raising a small riot because a button
is of! How could you know the button
is off? Your trial is a wife ever in con-
test with the servants, and she is a slo'
ven. Though she wss very careful about
her appearance in your presence once,
now she is careless, because she says her
fortune is made. Your trial is a hard
school lesson you cannot learn, and you
have bitten your finger nails until they
are a sight to behold. Everybody has
some ~vexation, annoyance or trial, and
he or she thinks it is the one least ad-
apted. Anything but this, anything but
that, they say. My nearer, are you not
ashamed to be complaining all this time
against God? Who manages the affairs
Of this world, anyhow? Is 1t an infinite
Modoc, or a Sitting Bull savage, or an
omnipotent Nena Sahib? No, it is the
most gracious and all-wise Being in all
the universe. You can not teach ON
impotence anything. You have been
fretted and worried almost enough. Do
you not think SOP Some of you are ma
| king yourselves ridiculous in the sight of
the angels. Here is a naval architeCt;he
draws out the plan CT a ship of many
thousand tons. Many workmen are en-
gagged on it for a long while; the ship is
done, and some day, with the flags up
and the air gorgeous with bunting, that
vessel is launched for Southampton. At
that time a lad six years of age comes
running down the dock with a toy boat
which he has made with his own jack
knife, and says: Here, my boat is better
than yours. Just look at this jib.boom
and these weather cross jack braCesl"
and he drops his little boat beside the
great ship, and there is a roar of laugh
ter on the docks. All, my friends, that
great ship is your life as God planned it
vast, million tonned, ocean destined,
eternity bound. That little boat is your
life as you we're trying to hew it out, Do
not try to be a rival of the Great Jeho-
yah. God is always right, and in nine
cases out of ten you are wrong, He sends
just the hardships, just the bankrupt.
cies, just the cross that is best for you to
have, He knows what kind of grain
you are, and he sends the right kind of a
thresher. 1t will be rod, or staff, or iron
wheel, according as you are ftChes, or
Cummin or corn.
Must Jesus bear the cross alone,
And all the world go free;
No, there's a CT oss for every one.
And there's a cross for me-"
Again, my subject teaches me that
God keeps trial OF us until we let 90.
The farmer shouts whoa" to his horses
as soon as the grain is dropped from the
stalk. The farmer comes with his fork
and tosses up the straw and sees that
the straw has let 60 the grain, and the
grain is thoroughly threshed. So God
shifting rod and turning wheel, but cease
as SOC as we let go. We hold on to
this world with its pleasures and riches
and ~emoluments, and our knuckles are
80 firmly set that its Gems as if we could
hold on forever. God comes along with
some threshing trouble and beats us
loose. We started under the delusion
that this was a great world. We learned
out of u geography it was 30 many
thousand miles in circumference, and
we said: "Oh, my, what a world" Trouble
came in after life, and this trouble sic.
ed off another part of the world, and, in
some destinations a very insignificant
world, d~epreciating all the time as a spir-
itual property. We thought friendship
was q grand thing. In school we would
write compositions about friendship,an
perhaps we made our graduating speech
on Commencement Day ol friendship.
Oh, it was a charmed thingl But does
it mean as much to you as it did then2
You have gone on in life, and one friend
has betrayed you, and another has mis-
Interpreted you, and another has neg
leCted you, and friendship comes now
sometimes to mean to you merely an
other AK to grind. So with money. We
thought if a mar had a competency he
was safe for all the future; but we have
learned that a mortgage may be defeated
by an unknown previous in|CumbranCe;
that signing your name On the back of a
note may be your business death-war.
rant; that a new tariff may change the
current of trade; hat a man may be rich
to-day and poor tomorrow. And God
by all these misfortunes is trying to loos-
en- our grip; but still we hold on. And
he strikes us with a rod, but we hold on;
and he sends over US the iron wheel of
misfortune, but we hold on. There are
men who keep their grip on this world
until the last moment, who suggest to me
the condition and conduct of the poor
Indian in the boat in the Niagara rapids
coming on toward the fall. Seeing that
he could not escape, a moment or two
before he got to the verge of the plunge,
be lifted a wine bottle and drank it off,
and then tossed the bottle into the air.
So there are men who clutch the world,
and they 60 down through the rapids Of
temptation and sin, and hold on to the
very last moment of life, drinking to
their eternal damnation as they 90 over
and go down. Oh, let go. Let 60. The
best fortunes are in heaven. There are
no absconding cashiers from that bank;
no failing in promises to pay. Set your
on things above, not on things
on the earth. Let go. Depend upon Il,