The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-07-30

ago. In eternity, when you come 60
reckon up your mercies, you viii point 70
that affection as one of your greatest
blessings. God has a strange way with
US. Joseph found his way to the prime
minister's chair by being pushed into 8
pit; and to many Christian down is up.
The wheat must be failed; the quarry
must be blasted; the diamond must be
ground; the Christian must be afflicted;
and that single event, which yea supposed
stood entirely alone, was connecting link
between two great chains, one chain
reaching through all eternity future, so
small an event fastening two eternities
together.
missionary coming from India to the
United States, stopped at st. Helena
while the vessel was taking water. He
had his little child with him. They walk
ed along by an embankment, and rock
at that moment became loosened, and,
falling, instant ly killed the child. Was it
an accident? Was it a surprise to Gods
Had he allowed his servant, after a life of
conservation, to come to such trial9 Not
such is my God. There are no accidents
in the divine mind, though they may seem
so to US. God is good, and by every single
incident of our life, whether it be adverse
or otherwise, before earth and heaven
wv " Al oC14AOlStA a 20 LIS AAAGAC
Ihear man say: "That idea belittles
God. You bring Him down to such little
things" Oh, have a more thorough APP
probation of God in little things than I
have in Great things. The mother does
not wait until the child has mashed its
foot or broken its arm before she admin.
listers sympathy. The child comes in
with the least bruise, and the mother
kisses it. God does not wait for some tre-
mendous crisis in our life, but comes down
to US in our most insignificant trials and
throws over US the arm of His mercy.
Going up the White mountains some
years ago I thought of that passage in the
Bible that speaks of God as weighing
mountains in a balance. As I looked at
those great mountains thought, can it be
possible that God can put these great
mountains in scales? It was an idea too
great for me to grasp; but when I saw a
bIue-ben down by the mules foot, on my
way up Mount Washington, then UNDER
stood the kindness and goodness of God.
1t is not so much Of God in great things I
can understand, but of God in little things.
There is man who says: 'sThat doc
rrine can not be true, because things do go
SO very wrong" reply, it is no incon-
sistency on the part of God, but lack of
understanding on our part. hear that
men are making very fine shawls in some
factory. I go in on the first floor and see
only the raw materials, and I ask: "Are
| these the shawls that I have heard
about?"
''No," says the manufacturer; ego up
to the next fioor;" and I go up, and there
I begin to see the design. But the man
says:
"Do not stop here; go up to the top floor
az tbo 70 wr-;IJ 4
fully carried out"
do SO, and having come to the top, see
the complete pattern of an exquisite
shawl. So in our life, standing down on
low level of Christian experience, we do
not understand Gods dealings. He tells
us to go up higher and higher, until we
begin to understand the divine meaning
with'respect to us, and we advance until
we are at the very gate OF Heaven, and
| there see Gods idea all wrought out-a
perfect idea of mercy, Of love, of kind
ness. And we say:
"Just and true are all Thy ways"
1t is all right at the bottom. Remember
there is no inconsistency on the part of
God, but it is only our mental and spirit
ual incapacity.
Some of you have been disappointed this
summer-vacatiOns are apt to be disap-
polntments-but whatever have been your
perplexities and worriments, know that:
Mans heart deviseth his way, but the Lord
directeth his steps.
Ask these aged men in this church if it
is not so. It has been so in my own life.
One summer I started for the Adiron-
dacks, but my plans were 50 changed that
Handed in Liverpool. I studied law and
I got into the ministry. resolved to go
missionary to China, and I staid in
the United States. I thought would like
to be in the East, and I went to the West
all the circumstances of my life, all my
work, different from that which / ex.
pected.
A mans heart deviseth his way, but the
Lord directeth his steps
So, my dear friends, this day take home
this subject. Be content with such things
as you have. From every grass blade I'M
der your feet learn the lesson of divine
care, and never let the smallest bird fit
across your path without thinking of the
truth, that
Five sparrows are sold for two farthings,
and not one of them is forgotten before God.
Blessed be his glorious name forever
Amen.