Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1884-06-06
ABOUT PATIENCE.
BY JOHN pLowMAN.

ABOUT PATIENCE.
BY JOHN PLOwMAN.
Patience Is better than wisdom; an
ounce of patience is worth pound of
brains. All men praise patience, but
few enough can practice it; it is med
iciue which is good for all diseases, and
therefore every old woman recommends
it; but it is not every garden that grows
the herbs to make it with. When ones
flesh and bones are full of aches and
pains, it is as natural for us to murmur
as for horse to shake his head when
the flies tease him, or a wheel to rattle
when a spoke is loose; but nature
should not be the rule with Christians,
or what is their religion wortha If a
soldier fights no better than plow-boy,
off with his red coat. We expect more
fruit from an apple-tree than from
thorn, and we have right to do so.
The disciples of a patient Saviour should
be patient themselves. Grin and bear
it, is the old-fashioned advice, but: Sing
and bear 1T, is great deal better. After
all, we get very few cuts of the whiI,
considering what bad cattle we are; and
when we do smart little, it is soon
over. Pain past is pleasure, and ex-
perience comes by it. We ought not to
be afraid of going down into Egypt,
when we know we shall come out of it
with jewels of silver and gold.
Impatient people water their discom-
forts; sorrows are visitors that come
without invitation. but complaining
minds send wagon to bring their
troubles home in. Many people are
born crying, live complaining, and die
disappointed; they chew the bitter pill
which they would not even know to be
bitter if they had the sense to swallow
it whole in cup of pat ence and water.
They think every otter mans burden TO
be light, aud their own feathers to be
heavy as lead; they are hardly done by
in their own opinion; no ones toes are
SO often trodden on by the black OK as
theirs; the snow falls thickest round
their door, and the hail rattles hardest
on their windows; and yet, if the truth
were known, it is their fancy rather
than their fate which makes things go
so hard with them. Many would be
well off if they could but think so. A
little sprig of the herb called content
put into the poorest soup will make il
taste as rich as the Lord Mayors turtle.
John Ploughman grows the plant in his
garden, but the late hard winter nipped
it terribly, so that he can not afford to
give his neighbors sip of it; they had
better follow Matthew 25: 9, and 60 to
those who sell and buy for themselves.
Grace is good soil TO grow it in, but
it wants watering from the fountain of
mercy.
To be poor is not always pleasant,
but worse things than that happen at
sea. Small shoes are apt to pinch, but
not if you have a small foot; if we
have little means it will be well to have
little desires. Poverty is no shame,
but being discontinued with II is. In
some things the poor are better. of
than the rich; for, if a poor man has to
seek meat for his stomach, he is more
likely to get what he is after. than the
rich man who seeks stomach for his
meat. A poor mans table is soon
spread, and his labor spares his buying
sauce. The best doctors are DR.. Diet,
DIR. Quiet and DR.. Merryman, and
many godly plowman has all these
gentlemen to wait upon him. Plenty
makes dainty, but hunger finds no fault
with the cook. Hard work brings
health, and an ounce of health is worth
q sack of diamonds. 1t is not how
much we have, but how much we en-
Joy, that makes happiness. There is
moro sweet in a spoonful Of sugar than
in cask of vinegar. 1t is not the
quantity of our goods, but the blessing
| of God on what we have, that makes
us truly rich. The parings of a pip
pin are better than whole crab; a
dinner of herbs with peace is better
than stalled OK and contention there
with. " Better is little with the fear
of the Lord. than great treasure and
trouble herewith" A little wood
will heat my little oven; why, then,
should l murmur because all the woods
are not mine?
| When trouble comes it is of no use tc
fly in the face of God by hard thoughts
of His providence; that is kicking
against the pricks and hurting youl
feet. The trees bow in the wind, and
so must we. Every time the sheep
bleatS it loses a mouthful, and every
time we complain we miss a blessing.
Grumbling is bad trade and yields nc
| profit, but patience has a golden hand
! Our evils will soon be over. After rair
1 COiuCS ClCdI CtOWS UdNt
wings; every winter turns to- spring
every night turns into morning.
! BLOW the wind never so fast,
| IL will lower at last"
If one door should be shut God will
open another; if the peas do not yield
well, the beans may; if one hen leaves
her eggs, another will bring out all heI
brood; there's a bright side to al
things, and good God everywhere
! Somewhere or other in the worst flood
of trouble there always is dry spot fol
contentment to get its foot on, ami ii
there were not it would learn to swim.
Friends, let us take to patience and
water-grnel, as the old folks used to tell
us, rather than catch the miserables.
and give others the disease by wickedly
finding fault with God. The best
remedy for affection is submitting 10
Providence. What can't be cured must
be endured. If we can not get bread,
let us bless God that there are still
some cabbages in the garden. Must is
hard nut to crack, but il has a sweet
kernel. "All things work together for
good to them that love God" What
ever falls from the skies is, sooner OIL
later, good for the land: whatever
comes to us from God is worth having,
even though it be a rod. We can not
by nature like trouble any more than q
mouse can fall in love with a cat, and
yet Paul by grace came to glory in
fribulatlon also. Losses and crosses