Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-02-25
Won viii not blame me for opening the
dark saying on the gospel harp.
Your harps, We trembling saints,
Down from the willows take;

Down from the willows take;
Loud TO the praise OF love divine
Bid every string awake!
Interrogation third: Why did good
| God let sin and trouble come into the
world when ne might have kept them
out? Nv reply is, He had a good reason.
He had reasons that He has given us. He
had reasons which He could no more
make us understand IN our finite state
than the father starting out on some
great and elaborate enterprise could
| make the two-year- child in its armed
| chair comprehend it. One was TO dem
| oustrate what grandeur of character may
be achieved on earth by conquering evil.
Had there been no evil TO conquer and no
| trouble to console, then this universe
would never have known an Abraham OF
a Moses or Joshua or an Ezekiel or
Paul or 8 Christ or a Washington or Il
John Milton or John Howard, and a
million victories which have been gained
by the consecrated spirits of all ages
would never have been gained. Had
there been no battle there would have
been no victory. Nine-tenths Of the an
thems of Heaven would never have been
sung Heaven could never have been
thousandth part Of the heaven that it Is.
l will not say that I am glad that sin and
glad that after God has given all His rea-
sous to an assembled universe He will
BE MORE HoNoRED
than if sin and sorrow had never entered
and that the unfallen celestials will be
outdone and will put down their trumpets
to listen and it VIII be III heaven when
those who have conquered sin
and sorrow shall eater las it would be in a
small singing school on earth if Thalberg
and Gottschalk and Wagner and Beetho-
ven and Rheinberger and Schunann
should all at once enter. The immOrtals
that have been chanting 10 900 years be-
fore the throne will say as they close
their librettOs: s'Oh, if we could only
sing like that!'' But God will say TO
those who have never fallen and conse-
quently have not been redeemed: ''You
must be silent now; you have not the
qualification for this anthem, - so they
sit with closed lips and folded hands and
sinners saved by grace take up the har-
mony for the Bible says ''no man could
learn that song but the hundred and
forty and four thousand which were re-
deemed from the earth.
A great prima dona, who can now do
anything with her voice, told me that
when she first started in music her teacher
singer, but a certain note she could never
reach. land then, - she said, 81 went
went to work and studied and practiced
for years until did reach it. - But the
song of
THE SINNER REDEEMED,
the Bible says, the exalted harmonists
who have never slnned could not reach
and never will reach. Would you like to
hear me in very poor way play snatch
of that tune? / can give you only one
bar of the music on this gospel harp:
"Unto Him that hath loved US and
washed us from our sins in His own blood
and hath made US kings and priests unto
God and the Lamb, to Him be glory and
dominion forever and ever, Amen. -
But before leaving this interrogatory,
Why God let sin come into the world, let
me say that great battles seem to be
nothing but suffering and outrage at the
time of their occurrence, yet after they
have been long while past we can see
that it was better for them to have been
fought, namely, Salamis, Inkerman,
Toulouse, Arbella, Agincourt, Trafalgar,
BIenheim, Lexington, Sedan. So now
that the great battles against sin and suf-
fering are going on, we can see mostly
that which is deplorable. But 20 900
years from now, standing in glory, we
shall appreciate that heaven is better off
than if the battle Of this world g sin and
suffering had
NEVER BEEN PROJECTED.
But now l come nearer home and put
dark saying on the gospel harp,a style OF
question that is asked million times
every year. Interrogation the fourth:
Why do 1 have it so hard while others
have it so easy? or, why do l have so
much difficulty in getting a livelihood
while others go around with a full porte
monnaie? or, why must wear these plain
clothes while others have to push hard to
get their wardrobes closed, so crowded
are they with brilliant attire? or, why
should L have to work so hard while
others have 365 holidays every year? They
are all practically one question answer
them by saying, it is because the Lord
has His favorites and he puts extra disci-
pline upon you, and extra trial, because
He has for you extra glory, extra en-
thronement and felicities That is no
guess of mine, but a divine say-so:
" Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. -
Gwen - saws someone, 81 would rather
have little less in heaven and little
more here. Discount my heavenly robe
10 per cent. and let me now put il on, q
furlined overcoat; put me in a
less gorgeous room of the house
of many mansions and let me
have a house here in a better nelghbor-
hood. - No, no; God is not going to rob
heaven, which is to be your residence for
nine hundred quadrillion of years, to fix
up your earthly abode, which you will
occupy at most for less than century,
and where you may perhaps stay only ten
years longer, or only one year, or per-
haps month more. Now you had better
cheerfullV let God have His way, for you
see, He has been taking care of folks for
near seven thousand years, and knows
how to do it, and can see what is best for
you better than you can yourself. Don't
think you are too Insignificant to be di-
vinely cared for. 1t was said that
Diana, the goddess, could not be present
to keep her temple at Ephesus from
burning because she was attending upon
the birth of him who was to be Alexander
the Great. But tell you that your God
and my God is so great ia small things as
well as large things that He could attend
the cradle of a babe and at the same time
THE BURNING OF A WORLD.
And God win make it all right with
you, and there is one song that you will