Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1889-11-29

got through with that midnight ride
viii drop the reins on the horses neck.
and viii take his right hand and smite
on his heart and say: God be merciful
TO me sinner" and before he has
stabbed his horse he will take his feet out OF
the stirrups, and he will slide down on the
ground and he viii kneel, crying: Have
mercy on me, o God, according to Thy low
ing kindness, according unto the multitude
OF Thy tender mercies; blot out my trans
gressions, for l acknowledge my trans
gressIons, and my sins are ever before
Thee" All, my friends, you see this is not
a complimentary gospel That is what
makes people SO mad It comes to a man
OF million dollars and impenitent in his
sins and says: You're pauper" 1t
comes to a woman of fairest cheek
who has never repented and says: You're
sinner" 1t comes TO a man priding him.
self on his independence and says: You're
bound hand and foot by the devil 1t
comes to our entire race and says: You're
ruin, CHASTITY ruin, an ilimitable ruin. s"
Satan sometimes says TO Iae: Why do you
preach that truth? Why don't you preach
a gospel with no repentance in it? Why
don't you fiatter mems hearts so that you
make them feel all right? Why don It you
preach humanitarian gospel with no re-
pentance IN it, saying nothing about the ruin,
talking all the time about Isay:
Get thee behind me, Satan" l would
rather lead five souls the right way than
twenty thousand the wrong way The re-
demption OF the Gospel is perfect farce If
there is no ruin. The whole need not a
physician, but they that are sick" ''If any
one, though he be an angel from Heaven.
preach any other Gospel than this says
the apostle, ''let him be accused " There
nrRcth at ta Il ,f,rl,f III
before Jerusalem can be built There must
be the clicking of the hoofs before there
can be the ringing of the trowels
Again Ny subject gives me specimen
Of busy and triumphant sadness If there
was any man in the world who had a right
to NOPE and give up every thing as lost it
was Nehemiah You say: He was cup
bearer in the palace of Shushan and it
was a grand place " So it was The hall
of that palace was two hundred feet square.
and the roof lowered over thirty-six marble
pillars, each pillar sixty feet high; and the
intense blue of the sky, and the deep green
Of the forest foliage, and the white Of the
driven snow, all hung trembling in the up
holstery. But my friends you know very
well that Inc architecture will not put down
homesicBness. Yet Nehemiah did not give
up. Then, when you see him going among
mantled towers, and by the torn-up grave
Of his father, you would suppose that he
would have dismounted from his horse and
gone to his room and said: Woe is mel
My fathers grave is torn up. The temple is
dishonored. The walls are broken down. /
have no money with which to rebuild. I
wish had never been born. l wish were
dead" Not so says Nehemiah Although
he had a grief SO intense that it ex-
cited the commentary of his King,
yet that penniless, expatriated Nehemiah
rouses himself up to rebuild the city. He
gets his permission of absence. He gets
his passports He hastens away to Jerusa-
lem. By night on horseback he rides
through the ruins. He overcomes the moss
ferocious opposition. He arouses the piety
and patriotism of the people, and in less
than two months, namely, in fifty-two days,
Jerusalem was rebuilt That's what | call
busy and triumphant sadness.
My friends, the whole temptation is With
you when you have trouble to do Just the
opposite to the behavior of Nehemiah, and
that is to give up. You say: Il have lost
my child and can never smile again" You
say: Il have lost my property and 1 can
never repair my fortunes" You say: II
have fallen into sin, and l never can start
again for a new life" If Satan can make
you form that resolution, and make
you keep it, he has ruined you.
Trouble is not sent to crush YOU but to
arouse you, to animate you, to pro-
pei you The blacksmith does not
thrust the iron into the forge, and then
blow away with the bellows, and then bring
the hot iron out on the anvil and beat with
stroke after stroke to ruin the iron, but to
prepare it for better use. Oh, that the
' , Cd 9 NaI 1, \
broken-hearted people to rebuild Whipped,
betrayed, shipwrecked, imprisoned Paul
went right on. The Italian martyr
Algerius sits in his dungeon writing
a letter, and he dates it From the
delectable orchard of the Leonine pris-
on That is what l call triumphant
sadness. l knew mother who buried her
baby on Friday and on Sabbath appeared in
the house of God and said Give me a class;
give me Sabbath school class | have no,
child now left me, and | would like to have
class of little children. Give me real poor
children. Give rae class off the back
street" That, l say, is beautiful That is
triumphant sadness. At three O'clock this
afternoon in beautiful parlor In Philadel-
phia--a parlor pictured and statuetted-
there will be from ten to twenty
destituI children of the street 1t has
been SO every Sabbath afternoon at three
o'clock for many years These destitute
children receive religious instruction, con-
Guiding with cakes and sandwiches. How
do / know that that has been going OH for
many years? know it in this way: That
was the first home in Philadelphia where
was called to comfort great sorrow. They
had a splendid boy and he had been drowned
at Long Branch. The father and mother
almost idolized the boy, and the sob and
shrek of that father and mother as they
hung over the coffin resound in my ears to-
day There seemed to be no use Of praying,
for when l knelt down to pray the out
cry in the room drowned out all the pray.
But the Lord comforted that sorrow. They
did not forget their trouble. If YOU should
go on the snowiest winter afternoon into
Laurel Hill you would find a monument
with the word Walter" inscribed upon it,
and wreath of fresh flowers around the
name l think there has not been an hour
all these years, winter or summer, when
there was not wreath of fresh flowers
around Walters name But the Christian
mother who sends those flowers there, hav-
ing no child left, Sabbath afternoons
mothers ten or twenty of the lost ones of
the streets. That is beautiful That is
what l call busy and triumphant sadness.
Here is man who had lost his property,
He does not go to hard drinking. He does
not destroy his own life. He comes and says:
Harness me for Christian work. Ny
moneys gone. l have no treasures on
earth. | want treasures in Heaven. / have
voice and a heart to serve God" You say
that that man has failed He has not failed
he has triumphed. Oh, l wish l could per
suade all the people who have any kind
of trouble never TO give up l wish
they would look at the midnight rider of
the text, and that the four hoofs of that
beast on which Nehemiah rode might cut 10
pieces all your discouragements and hard
ships and trials Give up Who is going 70
give up, when on the bosom of God he can
have all his troubles hushed2 Give up!
Never think of giving up. Are you borne
down with poverty? A little child was
found holding her dead mothers hand
in the darkness of tenement house,
and some one coming in, the little
girl looked up, while holding her dead
mothers hand, and said: "Oh, l do wish
that God had made more light for poor
( folks" My dear, God will be Your light,
l God will be your shelter, God will be your
home. Are you borne down with the be-
/ reavements of hfeg Is the house lonely
/ now that the child is gone? Do not
/ give up. Think of what the old sexton
said when the minister asked him
why he put so much care on the little
I graves in the cemetery-so much more
care than on the larger graves-and the I'D
/ sexton said: Sir, you know that of such
] is the kingdom Of Heaven and think the