New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-09-12

bone, do not take cast iron. Do not tel
them it is Gods justice that weighs our grief
Ihey want now to hear of Gods tender
| mercy. In other words, do not give Their
aqua FORTS when they need valerian
Again remark that those persons are
poor comforters who have never had any
trouble themselves. A larkspur cannot lee
ture on the nature of snowflake and those
people who have always lived in the summer
OF prosperity cannot talk to those who are
frozen IN disaster. God keeps aged people
IN the world, think for this very work ot
sympathy. They have been through ali
these trials. They know all that which
lrritates and all that which soothes If there
are men and women here who have old peo-
pie N the house, or near at hand so that
they can easily reach them, congratulate
them. Some of us have had hard trials in
life, and although We have many friends
around us, we have wished 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 com
tort to have them around. These aged
ones who have been all through the trials
OF LIE know how to give coincidence Cheer
1sh them; let them lean on your arm-these
aged people. If, when you speak to them,
they can not hear just what You say the
first time, and you have to say it the sec
ond 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 silyery
locks from the wrinkled brow, just before
they screw the lid on. Blessed be God for
the old people! They may not have SO
much strength to go around, but they are
Gods appointed ministers of comfort to a
broken heart
People who have not had trials themselves
can not give comfort to Others They may
talk very beautifully, and they may give you
great deal of poetic sentiment; but while
poetry is perfume that smells sweet, it makes
very poor slave. Ifyou have a grave in
your pathway, and somebody comes and
covers it all over with flowers, it is grave
yet. Those who have not had grief them
selves know not the mystery of a broken
heart. They know not the meaning of child
lessness, 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
mories-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
We who have been bereft and We who have
been comforted in your sorrows, and stand
around these afflicted souls, and say to
them, Il had that very sorrow myself. God
-Cou1loICSu lle Stuu 1t Will you,
and that will go right to +hn srot In other
words, to comfort othei: must have
faith in God, practice exp aelce, and good,
sound common sense. e1 bs@#,t Il
But there are three or fon1 ,Dsderations
that will bring this NOR < 10, those who
are sorroWful and distress !, aud that we
can always bring them, knowing that they
will effect cure. And the graft consideration
is, that God sends our troubles in love. I
,11 :
"Why, wonder what God has against me!''
They seem to think God has some grudge
against them because trouble and misfor-
tune have come. Oh no. Do you not re-
member that passage of Scripture, "Whom
the Lord loyeth He chasteneth?" A child
comes in with very bad splinter in it's hand,
and you try to extracti it. tits a very pain
full operation. The child draws back from
you, but you persist. You are GO
ing to take that splinter out, so you take
the child with a gentle but firm grasp; for al
though there may be pain in it, the splinter
must come out. And it is love that dictates
it, and makes you persist. My friends, real
ly think that nearly all our SORROWS in this
world are only the hand of our Father ex-
tracing some thorn. If all these sorrows
were sent by enemies, I would say, arm
yourself against them; and, as in tropical
climes, when tiger comes down from the
and carries off q child from the
village, the neighbors band together and go
into the forest and hunt the monster, SO I
would have you, if | thought these misfor-
tunes were sent by an enemy, go out and
battle against them. But no; they come
from Father SO kind, SO loving, SO gentle,
that the prophet, speaking of His tenderness
and mercy, drops the idea of father and
says, GAS one whom his mother comforteth
so will l comfort you"
Again, remark, there is comfort in the
thought that God, by all this process, is GO
ing to make you useful. Do you know that
those who accomplish most for God and
heaven have all been under the harrow?
Show me a man that has done anything for
Christ in this day, in a public or private
place, who has had no trouble and whose
path has been smooth. All, no.
once went through an ak factory, and 1
saw them take the bars of iron and thrust
them into the terrible furnaces. Then be-
sweated workmen with long tongs stirred
the blaze.o Then they brought out a bar of
iron and put it into a crushing machine, and
then they put it between jaws that bit it in
twain. Then they put it on an anvil, and
there were great hammers swung by ma
one and half tons in weight
that went thump, thump, thump. If that
iron could have spoken it would have said
why all this beating? Why must I be
pounded any more than any other iron?"
The workman would have said: GIVE want
to make axes of you-keen, sharp axes
axes with which to hue 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 and run through the crush
ing machine, and then it comes down on the
anvil and upon it blow after blow, blow aft
er blow, and the soul cries out: 80, Lord!
what does this mean?" God says: ri want
to make something very useful out of you.
You shall be something to hew with
and something to build with 1t is
a practical process through which am put
ting 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 if there be any other way of making
them than in the hot furnace, and on the
hard anvil, ard under the heavy hammer,
/ do not know what it is Remem Der
that if God brings any kind of chastise-
ment upon you, it is only to make you
useful. Do not sit down discouraged,
and say, 81 have no more reason for living.
/ wish were dead" Oh, there never was SO
much reason for your living as now. By this
ordeal you have been consecrated a priest of
the Most High God. 60 out and do your
whole work for the Master.