The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1889-11-14

had to, .I:!r tho glee with which she
drove. 81, after awhile we met a team,
and we had to turn out. The road was
narrow. and j; was sheer down on both
sides. She handed the reinS over to Inc,
and said: Il think You had better take
charge Of the horse" So we are all
children; and on this road of life we
like to drive. 1t gives one such an ap-
pearance of superiority and power. 1t
looks big. But after while we meet
some obstacle, and we have to turn out,
and the road is narrow, and it is sheer
down on both sides; and then we are
willing that God should tako the reinS
and drive. All. my friends, wo get upset
so often because we do not hand over the
reiuS soon enough.
Can YOU not tell when you hear man
pray, whether he has ever had any
trouble? l can. The cadence, the
phraseology indicate it, Why do women
pray better than men? Because they
have had more trouble. Before man
has had any trouble, his prayers are
poetic, and he begins away up among
the sun. moon and stars, and gives the
Lord a great deal of astronomical in
formation that must be highly gratify
ina He then comes down gradually over
beautiful tablelands to forever and ever
amen" But after 4 man has had trouble,
prayer is with him a taking hold OF the
arm of God and crying out for help. |
have heard earnest prayers on two or
three occasions that | remember.
Once, on the Cincinnati express train,
going at, forty miles the hour, and the
train jumped the track, and we were
near chaSm eighty feet deep; and the
men who, Il few minutes before, had been
swearing and 5laspheming God, begana
to pull and jerk at the bell rope, and got
up on the back of tho seats and cried
out, "O.God, save us" There was an
other time, about eight hundred miles
out at sea, on q laundering steamer,
after the last lifeboat had been split
finer than kindling wood. They prayed
then. Why is it you so often heal peo-
pie, in reciting the last experience of
some friend, say: He made tho most
beautiful prayer ever heard?" What
makes it beautiful? 1t is the earnest
ness Of it. Oh, ! tell you man is in
earnest when his stripped and naked
soul wades out in the soundlcss, shore
less, bottomless ocean Of eternity.
1t is trouble, my friends. that makes
US feel our dependence upon God. We
do not know our own weakness or Gods
strength until the last plank breaks. II
is contemplate in US when there is
nothing else to take hold of, that we
catch hold of God only. \ man is unfor
tunate in business. He has to raise
good deal of money and raise it quickly.
He borrows on word and note all he can
borrow. Aftor awhile he puts q mort
gage on his house. After awhile he puts
q second mortgage on his house. Then
he puts lien on his furniture. Then he
makes over his life insurance. Then he
assigns all his property. Then he goes
to his father-in-law and asks for help.
Well, having failod everywhere, com
pletcly failed, he gets down on his knees
and says: 30, Lord. have tried every
body and every thing, now help me out
of this financial trouble" lie makes
God the last resort instead of tho first
resort. There are men who have paid
ten cents on dollar who could have
paid hundred cents on dollar if they
had gone to God in time. Why, you dc
not know who tile Lord Is. lie is not
an autocrat seated far up in palace,
coded by heralds swinging swords TO
u
ing at our call, to stand by us in every
crisis and predicament of life.
I tell you what some of you business
men make me thiGk of. A young man
goes off from home to earn his fortune.
He goes with his mothers consent and
benediction. She has large wealth but
he wants TO make his own fortune. He
goes far away, falls sick, gets out of
money. He sends for the hotel keeper
where he is staying, asking for lenience,
and the answer he gets is: ''If you don't
pay us Saturday night you will be re-
moved to the hospital" The young man
sends to cQmrade in the same building.
No help. He writes to q banker who
was o friend of his deceased father. No
relief. He writes to an old schoolmate,
but gets no help. Saturday nightcomes,
and he is moved to the hospital.
Getting there he is frenzied with grief,
and he borrows sheet of paper and
postage stamp and he sits down and he
writes home, saying: Dear mother,
am sick unto death. Come" 1t is ten
minutes of ten o'clock when she gets
the letter. At ten o'clock the train
starts. She is five minutes from the
depot. She gets there in time to have
fyo minutes to spare. She wonders why
train that can go thirty miles an hour
can not 20 sixty miles an hour. She
rushes into the hospital: She says: "My
sun, WAL uoes ali Unis mean: Why
didn't you send for me? You sent to
everybody but me, You knew | could
and would help yon. Is this the reward
get for my Kindness to you always?"
She bundles him up, takes him home,
and gets him well very soon. 80
Now, some Of you treat God just as
that young man treated his mother.
When you get into financial perpleX-
ity, you call on the banker, you call on
the broker, you call on your creditors,
you call on your lawyer for legal coun-
sell; you call upon everybody, and wheL
you can not got any help, then you go to
God. You say:
go Lord, come to Thee. Help me
now out of my perplcXity." And the
Lord comes, though it is the eleventh
hour. lie says: "Why did you not send
for me before? As one whom his moth
er comforteth. SO will comfort you" 1t
is to throw us back upon an all comfort
ing God that we have this ministry of
tears.
Again, it is the use of trouble to
capacitate us for the Office Of sympathy.
The priests under the old dispensation,
we're setapart by having water sprinklcd
On their hands, feet aud head; and by
the sprinkling of tears people arc now
set apart to the Office of sympathy.
When we are in prosperity we like to
have great many young people around
and we laugh when they laugh, and
we romp when they romp, and we sing
when they sing; but whom we have
trouble we like plenty Of old folks
around. Why? They know how to talk.
Take an aged mother, seventy years OF
age, and she is ALMOST o:nnipotrnt in