Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-07-09
PROSPERITY AND ADVERSELY.

tested in tho Various Changes of Each
Human Life.
Prominent among numerous occa-
sions for thankfulness is the considera-
ton that no earthly state is either per-
fectly good or totally evil, variations of
good and evil existing everywhere.
There is no occasion for lamenting that
it is sometimes lighter and sometimes
darker in human experience; sometimes
more joyful and sometimes more sor-
rowful in the ways of life. That it is
never all light or all dark-all gladness
nor all sadness-is truly a matter for
congratulation. 1t is we'll that while
there is adversely there is prosperity
also, and that no condition is so unhap-
py that it could not have more of bitter
ness mingled in its cup. Not to be dep
recated is the fact that prosperity
has it's checks and that each heart
knows its own bitterness. No murmur-
ing thoughts should be allowed to con-
denim the arrangement whereby none
are wholly exempt from the ills of life,
and according to which every path of
earth has its thorns which can not all
be plucked out before the path is trod.
Submissively, at Least, should it be con-
sidered that eXaltation and depression
enter into all the allotments to human
ity, so that there is no human being who
can not say with David in his alternat-
ing experience: ''Thou has lifted ME
up and cast me down." ;.
This state of things is we'll adapted to
be a wholesome restraint upon evil
tendencies. Prosperity and adversely
counterbalance each other. The evils
of either are counteracted by the in
fuence of the other. 1t could not be
well for any one always to have pros
perity as an earthly portion. Like
Hezekiah, the habitually prospered
might thereby be involved in great
peril, their hearts being so lifted up in
a sense of self-sufficiency as to invite
some terrible doom. Pride and selfish
ness might accomplish their ruin. Nor
would it be better for any always to
have adversely allotted to them. They
might suffer more harm from uninter-
rupted grief than from perpetual Joy.
In severe trials there is often expert
enced great prostration of both the
bodily and the mental powers. Anguish
is enervating and incapacitating.
Moreover, seltishness is engendered,
dependency induced, fretfulness ex-
cited and distrust awakened, by severe
and prolonged suffering. Advantage
ously, therefore, are joys and sorrows
intermingled. When God might be for
gotten in prosperity, adversely is inter-
posed, that He might be duly kept in
remembrance by those thus made to
feel their need of Him.
These alterations of day and night
in ordinary experience also serve to de-
velop the better possibilities of those
with whom it is not all light nor all
darkness. Some excellences of heart
and ornaments of life appear to best
advantage in the light of prosperity
while other admirable traits of charac-
ter are rarely if ever seen, except in the
darkness of adversely. The real worth
of some persons would not be known
were it not for what they are called
upon to suffer nor of others but for
their enjoyments. Self-denial and sub
mission, patience and contentment,
could not come to view so we'll in the
brighter as in the darker scenes of life
while benevolence and kindness could
not be exercised in unfavorable as in
favorable circumstances.
From these considerations, and others
which might be adduced, while the wis
dom of God may be seen in the various
changes of every human life, there may
also be found enough to encourage pa
tient and cheerful submission to what
ever is painfully allotted to any in the
dispensations of Divine Providence.
Surely it becomes all to bow uncom-
plainingly to the will of "the only wise
God. who doeth all things we'll. The
changing scenes of each and every life
could not be in better hands. The ut
most confidence may be felt in their ar
rangement, without doubt that they
will be shifted at the right time and in
the right manner.
Thoughtful are the words of Robert
Southwell:
Not always fall of leaf nor ever spring;
NO endless night. yet no eternal day;
The saddest birds a season find to sing;
The toughest storm calm may soon
allay:
Thus with succeeding turns God tempereth
all,
That man may hope to rise, yet fear to fall"