The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-07-13

satisfaction. Napoleon l. said: Il turn
with disgust from the cOwaTdice and
selfishness of man. hold life LOr-
rOr; death is repOse, What l have suf
man comprehension" While, on the
other hand, to show how one may
be happy amid the most disadvantageOns
circumstances, Just after the Ocean
Monarch had been wrecked in the Eng
lish Channel, steamer was cruising
along in the darkness, when the Cap
tain heard song, sweet song, coming
over the water, and he bore down to-
ward that voice and found that it was
Christian woman on a plank of the
wrecked steamer, singing to the tune Of
st. Martins:
"Jesus lover Of my SOUL
Let me to Thy bosom fly.
While the billOws near me roll
While the tempest still is high"
The heart, right toward God and man,
we are happy. The heart wrong toward
God and man, we are unhappy.
Another reason why we should come
to this spirit inculcated in the text, is
the fact that all the differences of earth
ly condition are transitOry. The houses
you build, the land you culture, the
places in which you barter are soon to
go into other hands. However hard you
may have it now, if you are a Christian,
the scene will soon end. Pain, trial,
persecution never knock at the door of
the grave. A coffin made out of pine
boards is just as good resting place as
one made out of silver-mOunted mahOg-
Ony or rosewood. Go down among the
resting places of the dead, and you will
find that though people there had a
great difference of worldly circumstance,
now they are all alike unconscious. The
hand that greeted the Senator and the
President and the King, is as still as the
hand that hardened on the mechanics
hammer or the manufacturers wheel.
1t does not make any difference now
whether there was a plain stone above
them, from which the traveller pulls
aside the weeds to read the name, or a
tall shaft springing into the heavens as
though to tell their virtues to the skies.
In that silent land there is no titles for
great men, and there are no rumbling
of chariot wheels, and there is never
heard the foot of the dance. The Egyp-
tian guanO which is thrown on the
fields in the east for the enrichment of
the soil is the dust raked out from the
sepulchers of kings and lords and mighty
men. Oh, the chagrin of those mighty
men if they had ever known that in
after ages of the world they would have
been called Egyptian guanO!
spirit of cheerfulness is the fact that
God knows what is best for His crea-
lures. You know what is best for your
child. He thinks you are not as liberal
with him as you ought to be. He cr1ti-
cises your discipline, but you look over
the whole field, and you, loving that
child, do what in your deliberate Judg-
ment is best for him. Now God Is the
best of fathers. Sometimes His children
think that He is hard on them, and that
He is not as liberal with them as He
might be. But children do not know as
much as father. ] can tell you why
you are not largely afluent, and why
you have not been grandly successful
1t is because you cannot stand the temp
tatiOn. If your path had been smooth
you would have depended upon your
own surefOOtedness; but God roughened
that path so you would have to take hold
of His hand. IL the weather had been
mild you would have lOitered along the
water-courses, but at the first howl of
the storm you quickened your pace
the warm robe of a SaViOr's righteous
ness. "What have 1 dOneP" says the
wheat sheaf to the farmer. "What have
1 done that you beat me so hard with
your flail?" The farmer makes no an
swer, but the rake takes off the straw
and the mill blows the chaff to the wind
and the golden grain falls down at the
foot of the windmill. After awhile the
straw looking down from the NOW upon
the golden grain banked up on either
side of the floor understands why the
farmer beat the wheat sheaf with the
fail.
Who are these before the throne9 The
answer came: "These are they who, out
of great tribulatiOn, had their robes
washed and made white in the blood of
the Lamb" Would to God that we could
understand that our trials are the very
best thing for usI If we had an appre-
citation Of that truth, then we should
know why John NOyra, the martyr, in tn
very midst of the flame, reached down
and picked up one of the fagOts that
was consuming him, and said: blessed
be God for the time when | was born to
this preferment." They who suffer with
Him on earth shall be glOrified with
Him in heaven. Be content then with
such things as you have.
Another consideration leading us to
the spirit of the text is the assurance
that the Lord will provide somehow,
Will He who holds the water in the hOl-
low of his hand allow His children to
die of thirst? Will He who owns the
cattle on a thousand hills and all the
earth's luXuriance of grain and fruit,
allow His children to starveP Go out
tomorrow morning at five o'clock into
the woods and hear the birds chant.
They have had no breakfast. They know
not where they will dine. They have no
idea where they will sup. But hear the
birds cHant at five o'clock in the morn
ing. "BehOld the fowls of the air, for
they SOW not, neither do they reap, nor
gather into barns; yet your Heavenly
Father feedeth them. Are you not much
better than they?" Seven thousand peo-
Die in Christ's time went into the desert.
| They were the most imprOvident people
1 ever heard of. They deserved to starye.
They might have taken food enough to
last them until they got back. Nothing
did they take. A lad, who had more
sense than all of them put together,
asked his mother that morning for some
loaYes of bread and some fishes. They
were put into his satchel. He went out
into the desert. From this provision
the seven thousand were fed, and the
more they ate the larger the lOaves
grew, until the provision the boy brought
/ in one satchel was multiplied so he could
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