The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-04-13


But we known another thing. 1t is
this: that the trials which happen to
Christians wean them away from the
world, as nothing else does, or can do.
All of us are apt to love the world to ex-
cess. We are so enamored of the things
that are seen and temporal that we have
little heart for the things that are unseen
and eternal. We instinctively say of
this earth: This is our rest; and here
will we dwell 1t is strange spell. God
only can break it. And he breaks it
generally with affliction. You have stood
on some hilltop and looked over beau
tiful landscape bathed in the sunlight.
How bright and glistening everything
looked-the hills in the distance; the
field near by, waving with grain; the
meadow; the lake. But presently
cloud, skimming along the sky, passes
between that landscape and the sun, and
instantly every object takes subdued
and sombre hue. 1t is in that way that
God deals in afliction. He dims the
sheen of things seen" by causing the
shadow of some great sorrow to pass over
them. You were thoughtless; you were
immersed in the world and engrossed
with its cares and pleasures: God, the
soul, eternity had become to you words
without meaning. Then it was that your
great sorrow fell upon you; and in that
moment of desolation and agony what
were your views of earthly things-its
wealth, its gains, its prospects, its pleas
ures? Did they not become suddenly
shaded and obscured? Well, you needed
the lesson, and God saw that the lesson
could not be taught you at e. less expense
He dimmed the sheen of things seen by
causing the shadow of great sorrow to
pass over them. Or, to change the figure,
when God finds US gazing too intently
upon the things that are about us and
near, and refusing to look at the things
that are above us and far, he deals blow
that breaks the heart and fills the eyes
with tears; and presently the weeper
finds that those tears have washed his
eyes, and now he is able to see things be-
yond the present-things that were un-
seen before. This is the reason why the
babe is sometimes snatched from the
mother bosom-it is. because the mother
had fixed on her child the love that she
owed to the God who gave it. This is
the reason why wealth often takes wings
and flies await is because we had fixed
on that wealth the thought that we owed
to God alone. If we are indeed Gods
CT ildren and not aliens, he will not allow
US to indulge our earthly loves when he
sees that by them we are likely to lose
heaven. And it is not cruel, but kind
in God to do SO. AS many as lone, l
rebuke and chasten."
And l think there is one other thing
that we know about the uses of adversity.
1t is this: 1t will make the Christian
value heaven all the more when he gets
there. Let the troubles that afflict him
here be what they may, they will have
an end by and by. Let the sea on which
he rides be never so stormy, he will make
port after awhile. Let he journey be
never so rough, he will reach his home in
due time. Let sorrow be added to sor-
row till life comes to be like dreary
captivity, an escape will one day be eff
.fected for the captive. And when the
escape has come and he looks back over
the rough way, and remembers the many
storms and trials and disappointments
and bereavements through which he has
come to the land of rest, how sweet will
be the rest Is not the home sweet that
follows the rough journey? To whom
will the rest that remaineth for the peo-
pie of God be welcome, if not to the
weary one whose journey is now over?
You have seen your little child cry bit
terly for an hour. You tried to soothe
it, but could not. Your heart bled for
it. At last sleep came to its relief and
as you watched its slumbers so profound
and SO sweet, you felt that the pain Of
crying was amply compensatory such
a slumber. Did the sight suggest to you
no thought of the Christian and his ever-