The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-09-06
FALMAGE'S SERMON.
Ibe Weekly Disoourses of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher.
Subject: "TrOuble on Both
Sfdes.''

SuDJect: Trouble ON Both
Sides.''
TEXT. Where ,cas sharp rock on the
oas ssds and a sharp rock on the other
ss0e.~~l. Samuel, xiv, 4.
vho cruel army of the Philistines must be
taken and scattered. There is lust one man.
accompanied by his bodyguard, to do that
,hihg' Jonathan is the hero of the scene.
know that David cracked the skull of the
giant with few pebbles well sung, and that
tnree hundred Gideonites scattered ten thou
SAND Amalekites by the crash of broken crock
cry; but here is a more wonderful contlict
nonuer are the Philistines on the rocks.
mere Is Jonathan with his bodyguard in the
vaiiey. On the one side is rock called
bozez; on the other side is a rock called
Seneh. These two were as famous in olden
Times as in modern times are Plymouth Rock
scaieable and sharp. Between these two
rocks Jonathan must make his ascent. The
gay comes for the scaling of the height.
Jonathan, ON his hands and feet, begins the
ascent. With strain, and slip, and bruise,
l suppose, but still on and up, first goes
Sponathan, and then goes his bodyguard.
bozez on one side, Seneh on the other. After
sharp tug, and push, and clinging, see the
mead OF Jonathan above the hole in the
mountain; and there is a challenge and a
mmght, and supernatural CONSERVATION.
lhese two men, Jonathan and his body
guard, drive back and drive down the Phiis-
tlnes over the rocks, and open cam
paign which demolishes the enemies
OF israel | suppose that the over
hanging and overshadowing rocks on either
SIDE did not balk or dishearten Jonathan or
nus bodyguard, but only reused and filled
Mem tin with enthusiasm as they went up.
There was sharp rock on the one side and
sharp rock on the other side"
MY friends, you have been, or are now,
some OF you, in this crisis of the text. IL a
man meets one trouble he can 90 through
with it. He gathers all his energies, CON
centrates them upon one point, and in the
strength of God, or by his own natural
determination, goes through it. But the
man who has trouble to the right of him. and
trouble to the left of him is to be pitied.
DID either trouble come alone, he might
endure it, but two troubles, two disasters,
TWO oyershadowing msfortunes, are Bozez
ana Seneh. God pity him. There is
sharp rock on the one side and sharp rock
on the other side"
In this crisis of the text is that man whose
fortune and health fail him at the same time
Nlne-tenthS of all our merchants capsze in
business before they come to forty-five years
OF age. There is some collision in CONNER
cla! circles, and they stop payment. Itseems
as II every man must put his name on the
man is who risks all his own property on the
prospect that some man will tell the truth. 1t
seems as II man must have large amount
OF unstable goods on his own shelf before
ne learns how much easier it is to buy than
to sell. 1t seems as if every man must be
completely burned out before he learns the
Importance of always keeping fully insured.
1t seems as if every man must be wrecked in
financial tempest before he learns to keep
tnlngs snug In case OF sudden curoclydon.
w hen the calamity does come it is awful.
The man goes home in despair, and he tells
house." He takes dolorous view of every
thing. 1t seems as if he never could rise.
But little time passes, and he says: "Why,
am not SO badly off after all; have my
family left"
Before the Lord turned Adam out of Para
disc he gave him Eve so that when he lost
PARADISE he could stand it. Permit one who
has never read but few novels in all his life,
and who has not great deal of romance in
his composition, to say, that if, when mans
fortunes fail he has good wife--a good
Christian wife-he ought not to be despond-
ent. "Oh," you say, ''that only increases the
embarrassment, since you have her also to
take care Of" You are an migrate, for the
woman as often supports the man as the man
supports the woman The man may bring
all the dollars, but the woman generally
brings the courage and the faith in God
Well, this man OF whom | am speaking
looks around. and he finds his family is left,
and he rallies, and the light comes to his
eyes, and the smile to his face, and the
courage to his heart In two years he is
quite over it, He makes his financial
calamity the first chapter in a new era of
prosperity. He met that one trouble-con-
quered it. He sat down for little while
under the grim shadow Of the rock Bozez;
yet he soon rose, and began, like Jonathan,
to climb But how often is it that physical
ailment comes with financial embarrassment,
When the fortune failed it broke the mans
spirit His nerves were shattered. His brain
was stunned l can show you hundreds of
uien in New York whose fortune and health
failed at the same time. They came pre-
maturely to the staff. Their hand trembled
with incipient paralysis. They never saw
well day since the hour when they called
their creditors together for compromise
Ii such men are impatient, and
peculiar, and irritable, excuse them
They had two troubles; either one of which
they could have met successfully. If, when
the health went, the fortune had been re-
tained, it would not have been SO bad. The
man could have bought the very best medical
advice, and he could have had the very best
attendance, and long lines of carriages would
have stopped at the front door to inquire as
to his welfare. But poverty on the one side,
and sickness on the other, are Bozez and
Seneh, and they interlock their shadows and
drop them upon the poor mans way. God
help himl "There is sharp rock on the one
side and sharp rock on the other side"
Now, what is such man to dol In the
name of Almighty God, will tell him what
to do. Doas Jonathan did-climb: climb up
into the sunlight of Gods favor and consola
tion. I can go through the churches, and
show you men who lost fortune and health
at the same time, and yet who sing all day
and dream of heaven all night. If you have
any idea that sound digestion, and steady
nerves, and clear eyesight, and good hear
ing, and plenty Of friends, are necessary to
make man happy, you have miscalculated
i suppose that these overhanging rocks only
made Jonathan scramble harder and the
faster to get up and out into the sunlight;
and this combined shadow of invalidism and
financial embarrassment has often sent a man
up the quicker into the sunlight of Gods
favor and the monday of His glorious
promises 1t is difficult thing for a man to
feel his dependence upon God when he has
ten thousand dollars in the bank, and fifty
thousand dollars in Government securities,
and block of stores and three ships "Well,"
the man says to himself, 1T is silly for me
to pray: Give me this day my daily
bread when my pantry is full and
the canals from the West are
crowded with breadstuffs destined for my
storehouses." Oh, my friends, if the COM
bined msfortunes and disasters of life have
pathetic and compassionate God, through all
eternity you will bless Him that in this
world 'th ere was sharp rock on the one
side, and a sharp rock ON the other side"
Again, that man is in the crisis of the text
who has home troubles and outside persecu-
ton at the same time. The world treats a
man well just as long as it pays best to treat
him well AS long as 1t can manufacture
success out of his bone and brain, and
muscle. it favors him. The world fattens
the horse it wants to drive. But let man
see it his duty to cross the track of the
world, then every bush is full of horns and
tusks thrust at him. They will belittle him;
they will caricature him, they will call his
generosity self aggrand1ement and his piety
sanctimoniousness. The very worst persecu-
ton Will some time come upon him from
those who profess to lie CHRISTIANS.
John Milton-great and good John Milton
so forgot himself as to pray, in so many
words, that his enemies mlc hit be eternally