The west Tennessee star. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1888, 1888-09-14


them it is Gods justice that weighs out
grief. They want now to hear of Gods
tender mercy. In other words, do not
give them aqua fortis W hen they need
Valerian.
wAgain I remark that those pers ons are
poor comforters who have never ha d any
trouble themselves. A larks pur can not
lecture on the nature of a snowdake-it
never saw snowflake; and those people
who have always lived in the summer Of
prosperity can not talk to those who are
frozen in disaster. God keeps aged peo-
pie in the world, think. for this very
work of sympathy. They have been
through all these trials. They know all
that which irritates and all that which
soothes. IF there are men aud women
here who have old people in their house,
or near at hand so that they can easily
reach them, L congratulate them. Some
Of us have had trials in life, and although
we have had many friends around about
us, we have wishe that father and
mother were still alive that we might go
and tell them. Perhaps they could not
say much, but it would have been such a
comfort to have them around. The aged
ones who have been all through the trials
of life know how to give coincidence.
Cherish them; let them lean on your arm
these aged people. If, when you speak
10 them, they can not hear just what you
say the first time, and you have to say it
a second time, when you say it the second
time, do not say it sharply. If you do,
you will be sorry for it on the day when
you take the last look and brush back the
silvery locks from the wrinkled brow Just
before they screw the lid on. Blessed be
God for the old peoplel They may not
have so much strength to go around, but
they are Gods appointed ministers of
comfort to broken heart
People who have not lad trials them
selves can not give comfort to others.
They may talk very beautifully, and they
may give you great deal of poetic senti-
ment, but while poetry is perfume that
smells sweet, it makes very poor salve.
II you have grave in your pathway, and
some body comes and covers it all over
with flowers, it Is a grave yet. Those
who have not had grief themselves know
not the mystery of q broken heart. They
know not the meaning of childlessness,
and the having no one to put to bed at
night, or the standing in a room where
every book and picture and door is full
of memories-the door-mat where she
sat, the cup out of which she drank-the
place where she stood at the door and
clapped her hands-the odd figures that
she scrubbed, the blocks she built into
house. All, no, you must have trouble
yourself before you can comfort trouble
in others. But come all ye who have
been bereft, and ye who have been COM
forted in your sorrows, and stand around
these afflicted souls, and say to them: 81
had that very sorrow myself. God COM
forted me, and He-wi1l comfort you," and
that viii go right to the spot. In other
words, to comfort others we must have
faith in God, practical experience, and
good, sound common sense.
But there are three or four considera-
tions that I will bring this morning to
those who are sorrowful and distres sed,
and that we can always bring to them,
knowing that they will effect cure. And
the first consideration is, that God sends
our trouble in love. often hear people
in their troubles say: "Why, I wonder
what God has against meI'' They seem to
think God has some grudge against them
because trouble and misfortune have
come. Oh, no. Do you not remember
that passage of Scripture, ''Whom the
Lord loveth He chasteneth?" A child
| comes in with a very bad splinter in its
| hand, and you try to extract it. 1t is a
very painful operation. The child draws
| back from you, but you persist. YOu are
going to take that splinter out so you
| take the child with a gentle but firm
grasp; for although there may be pain in
| it, the splinter must come out. And it is
| love that dictates it and m axes you per-
sist. My friends, Ireally think that all
our sorrows in this world are only tho
hand of our Father extracting some
thorn. If all these sorrows were sent by
enemies, I would say, arm yourselves
against them; and, as in tropical chimes,
when a tiger comes down from the mount
aims and carries off a child from the viii
1age, the neighbors band together and go
into the forest and hunt the monster, so
would have you, if l thought these mis-
fortunes were sent by enemies, go out and
battle against them. But no; they come
from Father so kind, so loving so gen.
tie, that the prophet, speaking of His
tenderness and mercy, drops the idea Of
a Father, and says:
AS one whom his mother comforteth, so will
| comfort you.
Again, remark, there is comfort In
| the thought that God, by all this process,
| is going to make you useful. Do you
| know that those who accomplish the most
| for God and Heaven have all been under
the harrow? Show me a man that has
done any thing for Christ IN this day, in q
| public or private place, who has had no
! trouble and whose path has been smo oth
| All, mol
I once went through an axe factory, and
/ I saw them take the bars of iron and
thrust them into the terrible furnaces.
Then besweated workmen with long tongs
| stirred the blaze. Then they brought out
| a bar of iron and put it into q crushing
machine, and then they put 1t between
| Jaws that bit it in twain. Then they
! put it on an anvil, and there were great
/ hammers swung by machinery, each one
a half ton in weight. that went thump I
| thumpI thumpI If that iron could have
| spoken it would have said:
"Why all this beating2 Why must be
pounded any more than any other iron2"
| The workmen would have said:
| eve want to make axes out Of you,
| keen, sharp axes-ax es with which to hew
down the forest and build the ship, and
| erect houses, and carry on thousand
| enterprises Of civilization. That's the
| reason we pound YOU"
Now, God puts a soul into the furnace
| Of trial, and then it is brought out and
run through the crushing machine and
| then it comes down upon the anvil, and
upon it blow after blow, blow after blow,
and the soul cries out:
30 Lord, what does ell this meanr'
God says:
81 want to make something very use-
full out of you. You shall be something
to hew with and something to build with.
1t is a practical process through which I
am putting you"
Yes, my Christian friends, we want
| more tools in the Church of God. Not
| more wedges to split with; we have
| enough of these. Not more bores with
which to drill; we have too many bores.
What we really want is keen, sharp, well
tempered axes, and IL there be any other
way Of making them than in the hot fur
mace, and on the hard anvil. and under
the heavy hammer, do not know what II
is. Remember that if God brings any
kind of chastisement upon you, it Is only
TO make you useful Do not sit down dis
eouraged, and say:
81 have no more reason for living.
wish / were dead"
Oh, there never was so much reason fol
your living as now. By this ordeal yoT
have been oonsecrated a priest of the