Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1888-06-16
CHEER FROM TALmAGE.

and organ; but they were the in
PRODUCTION of all the worlds min
strelsy and as you hear the vibra.
ton of shrugged instrument, given
after the fingers have been taken
away from it, SO all music now of
lutte and drum and cornet is only
the long continued strains of Jnbal's
harp and Jnbai's organ. 1t seemed
to be matter of very little ilnpor-
lance that Jubal Cain learned the
uses Of copper and iron; but that
rude foundry of ancient days has
its echo in the rattle OF Birmingham
machinery, and the roar and bang of
factories on the Merrimac.
| once asked an aged man III re.
gard to his pastor, who was a very
brilliant man: Why is it that your
pastor, very brilliant, seems to have
so little heat and tenderness in his
sermons 7" "Well," he replied,
"the reason is our pastor has never
had any trouble. When misfortune
comes upon him his style will be
different" After a while the Lord
took a child out Of that PASTORS
house; and though the preacher
was just as brillian: as he was be-
fore, oh the warmth, the tenderness
Of his discourses. The fact is that
trouble is "a great educator. You
see sometimes IA musician sit down
at all instrument, and his execution
Is cold and formal and unfeeling.
The reason is that all his life he has
been prospered. But let misfortune
or bereavement come to that man,
and he sits down at an instrument,
and you discover the pathos in the
first sweep Of the keys.
| Misfortune and trials are great
educators. A young do, tor comes
into sick room where there is dy-
ing child. Perhaps he Is very rough
in his prescription, and rough in his
manner, and rough in the feeling Of
the pulse, and rough in the answer to
anxious questions /; but years roll on,
and there has been one death in his
own house and now he comes into
the sick room, and with fearful eye
he looks at the dying child, and he
says: "Oh how this reminds me of
my Charlie !" Trouble, the great
educator. Sorrow, l see IFS touch
in the greatest painting; | hear its
tremor in the sweetest song; l feel
its power in the greatest argument.
| Oh these beautiful snnf1owers that
spread out their colors in the morn.
ing hour! but are always asleep
when the morning sun is going
down! job had plenty of friends
when he was the richest man in Uz;
but when his property went and the
trials came, then there we're none so
much that pestered as Eliphaz the
Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and
ZOphar the Maamathite.
Life often seems to be a mere
game, where the successful player
pulls down all the other men into
his own lap. Let suspicious arise
about mans character and he be.
comes like IA bank in panic, and
all the imputations rush on him and
break down in day that character
which in due time would have had
strength to defend itself. There are
regulations that have been half a
century in building, which 60 down
under some moral exposure, as IL
vast temple is consumed by the
touch of a sulphurous match. A hog
can uproot century plant.
In this world, so full of heartless
ness and hypocrisy, how thrilling it
is to find some friend faithful in
days of adversely. David had such
friend in Hushai; the Jews had
such d friend in Mordecai. who new.
er forgot their cause Paul had such
a friend in OnesiphoruS, who visited
him in Jail; Christ had such in the
Marys, who adhered to him OH the
cross; Naomi had such a one in
Ruth, who cried out: s. Entreat me
not to leave thee, or to return from
following after thee; for whittier
thou goest, / will go; and where
thou lodgest, | will lodge; thy peo-
pie shall be my people, and thy God
my God; where thou diest will |
die, and there, will be buried; the
Lord do so TO me, and more also. if
augbt but death part thee and me.n
know there is a sickly senti.
mentality on this subject. In some
families there are persons of no prac-
tical service to the household or
community; and though there are
so many woes all around about them
in the world, they spend their time
languishing over new pattern, or
bursting into tears at midnight over
the story of some lover who shot
himself! They would not design to
look at Ruth carrying back the bar