The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1888-07-12

Is now only with great effort tnat you
keep away from irritability and sharp
retort. Difficulties OF respiration, OF di-
gestion, OF locomotion, make up the great
obstacle in your life, and you tug and
sweat along the pathway, and wonder
when the exhaustion will end. My
friends, the brightest crowns in heaven
will not be given to those who, in stir
rups, dashed to the cavalry charge, while
the general applauded, and the sound OF
clashing sabers rang through the land
but the brightest crowns in heaven, l
believe, will be given to those who
trudged on amid chronic ailments which
unnerved their strength, yet all the time
maintaining their faith in Col. 1t is
comparatively easy to fight in regiment
apets to the sound of martial music; but
it is not so easy to endure when no one
but the nurse and the doctor are the wit
nesses of the Christian fortitude. Besides
that you never had any pains worse than
Christs. The sharpnesses that stung
through his brain. through his hands,
through lis feet, through ms heart were
as great as yours certainly. He was as
sick and as weary. Not nerve, or
muscle, or ligament escaped. All the
pangs of all the nations OF all the ages
compressed into one sour cup. He took
the vinegar
There is also the sourness of poverty.
Your income does not meet your out
goings, and that always gives an honest
man anxiety. There is no sign of desti-
tuton about you-pleasant appearance,
and cheerful home for you; but God
only knows what time you have had to
manage your private finances. Just as
the bills run up the wages seem to run
down. But you are not the only one
who has not been paid for har1 work.
The great Wilkie sold his celebrated
piece, "The Blind Fiddler" for fifty
guineas, although afterwards it brought
its thousands. The world hangs in ad-
miration over the sketch of Gainsborough,
vet that very sketch hung for years in
the shopwindow because there was not
anv purchaser Oliver Goldsmith sold
his @Vicar OF Wa eield' for a lew
pounds, in order to keep the bailiR out
of the door; and the vast majority OF
men in all occupations and professions
are not fully paid for their WORK. You
NAV say nothing but life to you Isl hard
push and when you 81 down with your
wife and talk over the expenses, YOU
both ris4 up discouraged. You abridge
here, and you abridge there and you get
things snug for smooth sailings, and 10
=, suddenly there is large doctors bill to
pay, or you have lost your pocket book,
or some creditor has iailed and you are
thrown a. beam end. Well, brother, you
are in glorious company. Christ owned
not the, house in which he stopped, or
the colt on which he rode, or the boat in
which he sailed. He Lived in borrowed
house; he was buried IN a borrowed
grave. Exposed to all kinds Of weather,
vet he had only one suit OF clothes He
breakfasted in the morning and no one
could possibly tell where he could get
anything to eat before night. He would
have been pronounced a financial fail
ure. He had to perform miracle
to get money to pay q tax bill.
Not a dollar did he own. Privation OF
domesticity privatioR of nutritious
food; privation OF comfortable couch
on which to sleep privation OF all
worldly resources. The kings of the earth
had chased chalices out of which to
drink but Christ had nothing but a
plain cup set before him, and it was very
sharp, and it was very sour. He took the
vinegar.
There also is the sourness of bereave-
ment. There we're years that passed
along before your family circle was in
vaded by death but the moment the
charmed circle was broken everything
seemed to dissolve. Hardly have you
put the black apparel in the wardrobe
| before you have again to take it out.
Great and rapid chang in your family
record. You got the house and rejolced
in it, but the charm was gone as soon as
the Grape hung on the door-bell. The
one upon whom you most depended was
taken away from you. A cod marble
slab lies on your heart to-day, Once, as
the child en- romped through the house,
you put your hand over your aching
head, and said ooh, ii l could only
have it STILL" Oh, it is too still now.
You lost your patience when the tops,
and the strings and the shells were lett
amid floor; but, oh, you would be willing
to have the trinkets scattered all over the
floor again, if they were scattered by the
same hands. With what a ruthless
/ plowshare bereavement rips up the
heart. But Jesus knows all about that.
You cannot tell him anything new in re-
gard to bereavement. He had only a few
friends, and when he lost one it brought
tears to his eyes. Lazarus had often en-
tertained him at his house. Now Lazarus
is dead and buried, and Christ breaks
down with emotion-the convulsion oi
grief shuddering through all the ages oi
bereavement. Christ knows what it is to
go through the house missing familiar
inmate. Christ knows what it is to see
an unocCupied place at the table. Were
there not four OF them-Mary, AM
Martha, and Christ, and Lazarus? Foul
| e D,,A . 7 / Apnlx
and afflicted Christ, his great loving eye:
filled with tears, which drop from eye tc
cheek, and from cheek to beard, ano
from beard to robe, and from robe tc
floor. Oh, yes, yes, he knows all about
the loneliness and the heartbreak. lie
took the vinegar
Then there is the sourness OF the death
hour. Whatever else we may escape
that acid sponge will be pressed to oul
lips. | sometimes have q curiosity t
know how l will behave when come tC
die. Whether l will be calm or exciteC
whether l will be filed with rem
iniscence or with anticipation. canno
say. But come to the point, l must an.
you must. In the six thousand year
that have passed, only two persons hay,
got into the eternal world without death
and do not suppose that God is goinl
to send carriage for us with horses o
flame, to draw us up the steps OF heaven
but suppose we will have to go like tn,
preceding generations. An officer from
the future world will knock at the doc
of our heart and serve on us the writ o
ejectment, and we win have to surrender
And we will wake up after these autumn
AL and wintry and vernal, and summer.
glories have vanished from our vision
we will wake up into realm which ha
only one season, and that the seasol
of everlasting love, But you say