Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1885-06-01
Seligipms 9epartment.
THE LESSONS AND USES OF
TROUBLE.

M "
Trouble is word that needs no ex-
planning; old and young, rich and poor,
know too we'll what trouble means. Some
have trouble from ill-treatment or un-
kindness in their homes. Some have it
from loss of those whom they love. Some
have it from sickness, and many have
known all these troubles together, so
that their burden seemed more than they
can bear.
speak separately of each sort of trouble.
We must take trouble as Il whole and try
with Gods help, to find out the reason
for it, and the lessons it ought to teach
us.
We will not pretend to explain why
God allowed sorrow to be in the world,
for it is great mYstery,a great difficulty,
and the wisest men have not given us
much help about it.
But the beauty of the religion of Christ
is that it teaches the highest wisdom;
and the poor woman who prays and
works, and loves Christ and tries to lead
His life, can, believe, see more meaning
in Gods dealings than the learned man
who sits puzzling over difficulties in his
study, while he has not tried to learn
about Christ, as Christ said we should
learn; that is, not SO much by book
learning Though that is II great thing,
and not to be neglected, but by doing
Christ's will, and so finding out for our
selves whether His way is the way after
all. a.n a
So it is about trouble. A learned man
may brood all day over it, and ask how
God could allow trouble to be in the
world while poor sick woman will say
"At least l understand this much.
know l have loved God better since /
have been brought low by sorrow and
sickness. l know / was forgetting God
till He called me back to Him by this
trouble. know He has been nearer to
me since was i'll than He ever was be-
FORE
That is what hundreds and thousands
of suffering men and woman have said,
and will say, as long as time lasts. There
is no doubt of it; trouble is great puri-
fer and great retner.
You have probably often heard the
likeness that is drawn between trouble
and Il furnace-a "refiners fire." as it is
IN ba l., N
who purifies gold or silver, or any other
metal, from the earth and dirt which is
mixed with it when first it is brought out
of the ground.
And how is it refined? By putting il
into hot furnace or fire. After the fire
the gold is beautifully pure and bright
and it is also quite pliable, that is, easily
bent or shaped, just as iron is when it is
being worked at the blacksmith's forge.
1t is very easy to see how we are like
the gold or silver. We need purifying
we need our sinfulness and worldliness
and pride taken away before we can
shine in Gods presence. And God has
the forge ready. The forge is trouble
and though it is hot, it is right thing fol
us, we may depend upon it. After trou.
BILE, too, like the gold or iron, we are not
stubborn as we were before; we bow to
Gods will, and ask Him to mould us into
better ways Of living, to put our crooked
wills straight, and to make them like his
will. 81
We have only to look back at the time
of trouble in our own lives to remember
how our hearts softened then. How we
cried to God who had not called upor
Him for months and years How we made
promises to live better lives, to come t.
the Lords table for help and strength
How we purposed to give up certain ole
habits that now we could see had stoo(
between US and God so long!
And the experience of clergymen ant
of all those who watch the changes il
men and women at different times O
their lives-of those who 60 much anon.
the sick and the sorrowing-the expe
rience of all these are the same. The,
will tell you, alas that there are som
sick people who seem only to have be
come peevish and hardened by trouble
but, for the most part they will say
that the most patient, holy, and eve
happy people that this world contain
are among the sick and sorrowfu l
some way that we cannot understand
trouble seems to be necessary for us, Il
long as we are sinners. And so til
great lesson of trouble is, that not in al
ger, but in love, our Father who is i
Heaven sends trouble to us, to bring u
back to him. Christian at Work.