The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1885-12-24

frivolity and fondness Of display as til
. cnlef characteristic of woman, you ma
Y nave to correct your mistake in some bill
|. ter pass of life, when, all other source
having failed, you are upheld by wife
nand. suddenly armed of the Lord Go
+ Almighty for that emergency. Oh, in thi
Q tremendous pass of your earthly existenc
cry unto God and ask hisdirection. Max
mistake here and you make it forever.
: Walter Scott wrote something, half o
which do not like, for it is sarcastic, bu
the other half / do like, for it is so true
Oh, woman in our hours OF ease,
i Uncertain, coy and hard to please;
When pain and anguish wiring the brow,
e a m1n1stering angel thou.
Blessed that home in which the newl
. married couple dedicate their souls t,
Christ. Blessed the family bible in whicl
!, their names have Just been written
r Blessed the hour of morning and evening
D prayer. Blessed the angels Of God VIII,
join wing-tip to wing-tip over that home
making canopy of light and love ant
3 Dlessedness. 1t may be only yesterda,
that they clasped hands forever. ThI
orange blossoms may fall and the fragrane,
may die on the air, but they who marry ii
Christ shall walk together on that da,
when the Church which is the Lamb
, wife, Shall take the hand of her Lord anC
king amid the swinging Of the golden cen
: SerS.
Il Again, l remark 1t is tremendous
! pass in life when man comes to his first
, great success. You get in the cars some
evening. Everybody that looks at yor
knows there has something glad happened
fou sit down in the car, your face illumin
ated, and lady comes in. There is nc
place for her to sit, and you get up in great
cheer and insist on her taking your place
and with great courtesy she says, "Thank
i you. and sits down. You say nothing to
anybody, but it Is evident from your man.
ner and appearance that great good for.
i tune has happened unto you. Now, that
is crises in your life. At such time
the questions will arise :ssIn what enter
prise shall invest? What shall be the
/ library? What shall be my wardrobe +?
/ What shall do with my money ?"
AT that point hundreds of men make a
final mistake. Some go into dissipation.
Some take on great arrogance, try to make
everybody feel how small they are; whole
I caravans of camels going through the
needles eye of their meanness. They
walk through the street with an air, as
much as to say :s.Get out of the way here
come $500, 000l' That is the crisis in life
where so many fail, because they have no
you 10 QIT6CG CDeIQ.
There are men who before their success
are kind and amiable, and genial and use
| full, who after their success are arrogant
and unbearable and unchristian. Here is
man who was once very useful in society,
but great success comes, and he gets in his
| equipage and he drives on; he lashes the
| fiery steedS; he goes faster and faster,
eight miles the hour, twenty miles the
hour, 100 miles the hour, faster and faster,
until in his last moments he rouses up to
find that he is drawn by the fiery hoOfs of
eternal disaster as they come racketing
down on the payements of hell. o, young
man or man in pidlife you want God in
your great success, your first great success.
Another tremendous pass in our life is
when we get our first sorrow. It would
be foolish for me to talk to the young men
of this day as though their life was going
to be smooth all the way. You might as
well start sea captain in a vessel without
a carpenter, and without any tools, and
without any cordage. That would do very
we'll while the sea was smooth, but when
the ship gets caught in the teeth of q
northeastern, and the waves dash clear over
the hurricane deck, when the captain cries
out: Where's the carpenter? Where are
the tools {? Where are the ropes ~ the
young men of this day would understand
that misrepresented the matter, if I told
them that their life was always to be
smooth. They know better. They know
from what they see of the lives of others
that life cannot always be smooth. Many
men came home from the late war without
a scratch or bruise, but in the conflict of
life it is not so. we all get wounded
wounded in the head, in the hands, in the
feet. in the heart. Life is conflict. The
Bible over and over again states. Paul
states it, and he writes himself as in a war
with the world, a war with the flesh, and
war with the DEVIL and war all the way
through. Now, how are you gong to
meet the first trouble That is the ques-
ton. Show me how you are to meet
your first trouble and | will show you how
you meet all the other troubles. 1t is the
first blow that sends man to drinking to
drown his troubles, that knocks the fire
out of him, so he spends the rest of his
life eowed down.
Who is that weigher in that large COM
mercial establishment He once owned
the store. Who is that underling in a
large manufacturing establishment, get
ting $1,000 or 1900 a year. He once
owned the factory but misfortune came.
The first blow brought him to the dust
and he never had the courage to rise. Oh,
how important is the manner in which we
receive the first sorrow!
Perhaps the first trouble is bereave-
ment. suppose you know-I suppose
you have recognized the fact, that so often
the first born is taken. I have seven
brothers and sisters. Each one lost the
first born, and suppose that in hundreds
of cases in this house it was the first born
that was taken. Some people give what
is to me a very absurd reason for that.
They say it is because the child is loved
too much. ! do uot think that is posi-
Die. do not believe any father or mother
loved a child too much. You cannot love
your child too much. God did not take
your child because you loved it too much. |
think this is the reason why God so often
takes the first born. 1t is to transfer your
affections to Heaven and make that place
the more grand and blessed; At the be-
ginning of your life make Heaven blessed,
so that you keep thinking of that place
and SO be elevated aud lifted on toward it.
| think that is the reason. Perhaps | am
wrong. ! am sure the other reason is
wrong, that so many people give when
they say it is because you love your child
too much.
Now suppose the first trial comes and
you have no God. What thenp Have you
eyer tried to see one 60 through bereaye
ment without any God ] have witnessed
that sad spectacle. But we want grace,
we want divine grace, when bereavement
comes into the house, which first was full
of sunny locks and greetings at the door,
and kisses flung by little hands from the
window as you went down the front steps,
and the doves in the nest cry because the
hawk swoops, and the heart stops. Oh, to
put away garments that never WILDE worn
again. TO gather up from the aooT toys that
never again will strew the carpet, and to
go with a sense of suffocation through the
desolated household that once rang with
childish merriment Oh, my God who
can stand that without thy grace to help,
without thy grace to smooth, without thy
grace to comfort? Oh, you will want
Christ in you first trouble, and so beg of
you this morning to take him as yours.
You say you are strong and well Scam
I. You say that life is buoyant and beau
tiful So it is to me. But sickness will
come to you ard it will come to me. We
shall he told we cannot go out, the door will
| be closed against the world. there will be
| two watches, and some will order silence
on the stairs, saying. Hush, hushl" and
in your dream you will hear the dash of
water. which you will take to be the beat
| iEg of the wave of the Jordan against your
pillow, and you will hear sound at the
] gate which you will take to be the paving
| Of the pale horse. Oh then yon and
| will want a. nhySician we will want (hriSt