Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1886-08-04

end of 1885 you will have just so many dollars
and cents, just so much wardrobe, just Sc
| much furniture, just so many bonds and
mortgages, and nothing more, ! will give
you 500 for every penny beyond that. God
has looked over your life, He knows what
is best for you, and He is going to bless you
in time and bless you for eternity; and liz
will do it in tho best way.
would lot me have that knife ~ "No,' you
say, lit is sharp knife, and you will cut
YOURSELF He says; 81 must have itn "But
you can not have it," you reply. He gets
angry and red in the face, and says h, wal
have it; but you say he shall not have it.
Are you not kind in keeping it from HIM So
Heavenly Father, to get that" God says:
"No, my chilli" / say: 81 must have it..
God says: "You can not have it." l get
angry and say: 81 will have it," God says:
, lyon shall not have it, And | do not get
it. Is He not kind and loving and the best of
fathers Do you tell me there is no rule and
regulation in these things Tell that to the
men who believe in no God and no Bible.
Tell it not to me.
A man of large business concludes to go
out of his store, leaving much Of his invest
ments in the business, and he says to his
sons: snow, am going to leave this bust
ness in your hands Perhaps / may come
ba k in little while, and perhaps not.
While | am gone you will please to look
after affairs" After awhile the father comes
back and finds everything at loose ends, and
the whole business seems to be going wrong.
he says: II am gong to take possession or
this business-you know | never fully sur
rendered it; and henceforh consider your
selves subordinates. Is he not right in doing
it, He saves the business. The Lord
seems to let us 80 on in life guided by
our own skill, and we mako miserable
work of it, God comes down to our
shop or our store and says: "Things are 60
ing wrong | come to take charge am mas
ter, and | know what is best and proclaim
my authority We are merely subordi-
mates 1t is like boy at school with a
long sum that he cannot do He has been
working at it for hours, making figures here
and rubbing out figures there, and it Is all
mixed up; and the teacher, looking over the
boys shoulder, knows that he cannot get out
of it, and cleaning the slate, says begin
again. Just so God does to us. Our affairs
get into an inextricable ENHANCEMENT, and
He rubs everything out and says: Begin
againN Is He not wise and loving in so
doingl
think the trouble is that tY4ere is so large
q difference between the Divine and the human
estimate as to what is enough. ] have heard
| of people striving for that which is enough,
| but never heard of any one who ha enough.
What God calls enough for man, man calls
too little What man calls enough, God says
| is too much. The difference between poor
man and n rich m M is only the difference in
banks. The rich man puts his money in tho
Nassau Bank, or the Park Bank, or Fulton
| Bank, or some other bank of that character,
while the poor man comes up and makes his
investments in the bank of Him who runs a
the quarries, all the mines, all the gold, all
| the earth, all heaven. D YOU think a man
can fail when he is backe up like that:
want to bring this truth close up to the
heart of those people in this audience who
have TO calculate rigid economy, who are
perplexed how they will make tue old gar
mcnt hold out little longer, with whom the
| great question is not which is the best invest
ment o. the most lucrative security, but how
shall maze the two ends meet' TO such
! people | bring the con lolcnce Of this Chris
tian truth.
You may have seen a map on which is de-
scribed, with red ink, the travels of the chill
dren of Israel through the desert to the
Promised Land. You see how they took this
and that direction, crossed the river and
went through the sea. DO you know God
has made map of your life, with paths lead
| inr up to this bitterness and that success
through this river and across that sea! But
b eSsed be Go |! the path always comes out
at the Promised Land. Mark that! Mark
that
REMARK, again, that all those things that
seem to be but accidents in our life are under
the Divine supervision. We sometimes seem
to be going helmlesS and anChorless. You
say: "If | hal some other trade; if | had
not gone there this summer; if had lived in
some other house." You have no right to
say that. Every tear you wept, every step
you have taken, every burden you have car
riel, is under Divine inspection, and that
event which startled your whole household
with horror, God met with perfect pla idity
because he knew it was for your good. 1t
was part Of great plan projected long
ago. In eternity, when you come to
reckon up your mercies, you will point to
thai attliction as one OF your greatest bless
- ca -L---~-- ,stl, T----L
found his way to the Prime Minister'S chair
by being pushed into pit; and to many
Christian down is up. The wheat must be
failed; the quarry must be blasted; the dia-
mond must be ground; the Christian must be
tlicted and that single event, which you
slppo, ell stood entirely alone, was connect.
ing link between two great chains, one chain
reiching through all eternity past and the
other other chain reaching through all eter-
nifty future so small an event fastening two
etcrntieS together
A 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 walked along by an
embankm mt, and a rock at that moment be.
came looscned, AMI falling instantly killed
the child Was it an accident! Was it
surprise to God} Had Heallowed His servant,
after life of conservation, to come to sucha
trial! Not such is my God. TIL are no
accidents in the divine mind, though they
may seem so to uS. God is good, and by
every single incident of oar life, whe' her it
be adverse or otherwise, before earth and
Heaven God will demon,trate His mercy,
II hear man say: THAT idea BEETLES
Cod You bring Him down to such little
things Oh! have more thorough APP
pre- iation Of God in little things than have
in great things The mother docs not wa t
until the child has mashed its foot or broken
its arm before she administers sympathy.
The child comes in with the least bruise and
the mother kisses it. God does net wait for
some tremon lous crisis in our life, but comes
down to us in our most insignificant trials,
an throws over us the arms of His mercy.
Gong up the White Mountains some years
ago | thought of that passage in the Bible
that speaks of God as weighing mountains
in n balance AS | looked at tn Sc great
mountains | thought, can it be possible that
Col can put tn Sc great mountains in scales!
1t was an idea too great for me to grasp: but
when | saw a blue bell down by the mules
foot, on my way up Mount Washington, then
/ under stood the kindness and goodness of
Col 1t is not so much of God in great
things can understand, but of God in little
things.
There is man who says: "That doctrine
cannot be true, because things do 60 so very
wrong reply it is no in consistency on
the part of God, but lack of understanding
on our part. | hear that men are making
very fine shawls in some factory. go i'll on
the first floor and see only the raw materials,
AMI | ask: Are these the shawls | have
heard about" mo, says the manufacturer;
''go up to the next floor" and 20 up, and
then begin to see the design. But tho man
says: "Do not stop here; go up to the top
floor of the factory, and you will see the idei
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, until we begin to
understand the divine meaning with respect
to u.s. AMI wo advance until we stand at the
idea all wrought out-a perfect idea Of mercy,
true are all Thy ways" 1t is all right Mt the
bottom. Remember there is no inconsistency
on the part of God, but it is only our mental
AMI spiritual incapacity.
Some of you have been disappointed this
summer-varations are apt to b, disappolnt-
ments but whatever have been your perplex-
ties and worriments, know that MANS
heart deviseth his way, but the Lord di-
l.