Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-02
JOY IN TRIBULATION.
Gods Providence Shown in the Trials
and the Sufferings
THATITHE NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Right and Wrong Conception Of Christian
Duty Pointed Out.
GOOD DEEDS NEVER UNREWARDED
WRITTEN FOR THE p1srArcH.!


Christ promised no escape from tribula
ton. aye shall have tribulation."
Christianity will not save US from thu
physical ills which beset men. The Chris
tian, when he is sick, will be jusr as sick al
the Mohammedan. A fall over the fact
of a cliff will break just as many bones in 6
good mans body as in bad mans. Chris
tianity sets no mark on any mans dool
which will make the angel of death pass
over that house and touch no inmate of it.
Contagion and accident, the cyclone and the
fire, make no distinction of persons. Health
and disease are not measured out to men on
a basis of mems moral merits.
Neither will Christianity save us from
any of the difficulty which attends success
Winning depends absolutely upon working.
God throws no lucky chances on Monday in
the way OF him who goes to church on Sun
day. God filings no stumbling blocks before
the feet of him who cannot say the Christian
creed. God rewards the worker in proper
tion to his work. The Christian religion
does not offer itself as royal road to wealth,
to wisdom, to prosperity, to fame; it is not
a royal road to anything except to the ap-
proving benediction of God, and God does
not certify His sbenediction by any immunity
from tribulation. Let us understand this
thoroughly. He who breaks physical law
will be put to pain, no matter how good a
Christian he is. He who breaks an indus
trial law will meet with loss, no matter how
regularly he goes to church.
GOODNESS AND GAIN.
Christianity is not a utilitarian religion.
The world of Christ's day was full of util-
itarian religion. Outside the border of the
Jewish people, men and women who said
their prayers and served the gods, cared for
the gods only in proportion as they hoped to
get the gods to give them something. When
they were well and prosperous they had no
need, they thought, for any gods. But when
they wanted something-when they were
sick and wanted strength, when they were
in debt and wanted money, when they were
in danger and wanted rescue-then they
prayed vigorously. Religion was a con-
trivanee for getting good luck. Godliness
and gain meant very much the same thing.
The Jews themselves were not altogether
free from this utilitarian conception of God.
When tribulation fell upon a man, they
tion by some kind of evil doing. The old
argument of Jobs comforter still fingered
in mems minds. If man was sick, he had
sorely offended God. If a man was born
blind, somebody had transgressed, the man
or his parents. If the tower fell at Silvan
the men whom only the dust touched were
good men, but they on whom the big stones
fell and crushed them-the wise and dis
cerning tower had singled these men out,
and had fallen down just for the gratifca-
ton of being able to fall on them.
Christ contradicted all this. He set Him
self squarely against the utilitarian concep-
tion of God. He taught the providence of
God plainly. God does care, He said. Not
a sparrow falls to the ground without His
notice; not a prayer is lifted up from any
Him. God cares and God helps. But not
after such fashion as men had imagined.
Prosperity and tribulation are
IN THE HANDS OF GOD.
They come from Him. But He distrib-
utes them not as men beforehand might con-
lecture. Especially, He does not send
property to those who love Him, and adver-
sity and tribulation to those who oppose
themselves to Him. Very often He does
just the opposite.
tribulation-ye who have been My chosen
friends, who have given up all and followed
Me, who are doing your best now, and shall
presently be doing better still, to do My
will and keep My word. ye who love Me,
for whom pray and whom 1 love-shall
have tribulation. When we have tribula-
tion we come into that blessed company of
the friends of Christ. We share with them
in Christ's promise. We have no reason to
believe that we do not equally share with
them in Christ's love. Do not think, when
troubles come into your life, that God is
angry with you. Do not think when sick
ness gets you in its grip that you are feeling
the iron hand of an offended God. Do not
think when death comes into your household
and takes away the gift, leaving you in
darkness and Loneliness, that God has come
and stolen dear treasure of yours because
He wants to give you pain or even because
He thinks pain will be good for you.
People wonder sometimes at the universal
ity of tribulation. Sometimes it seems as if
God does not care, but is only impartially
Indifferent. The fact is, however, that God
has set certain great laws at work in this
world. These laws are the basis of the best
possible condition of existence. God knows
that. So He ministers to US through these
laws-or rather, these laws are our way of
stating Gods uniform way of dealing with
us. One of these laws is that whatsoever a
man soweth that shall he also reap. In the
physical world this is called the
LAW OF CAUSE AND EFFECT.
God brings this true every time. No
matter who the man is that sows seed whose
natural and necessary harvest is some kind
OF tribulat1on, he is going to reap just that
kind of harvest, and no other. A good deal
of what we call tribulation is only the
steady working of this great governing
principle of God. How does sickness come?
We call it the visitation of God. But what
does that mean? Does it mean that God
out of heaven has looked down into happy
household and has said to Himself, ST will
send pain there, and straightway one falls
sick? Is that the way it comes? would
not like to think of the father in heaven as
dealing with us after that fashion. do not
believe for a moment that that conception
o. the visitation of God is true. Sickness
comes because some kind of seed has been
sown which grows up into just that sort of
evil harvest. There has been an inbreath-
ing of malarious air, or an indulgence in un-
wholesome food, or an overtaxing OF the
strength. God does not make any ybody sick,
as one man might strike another. God does
not make anybody die. Sickness, death,
are but the garnering OF some kind of seed
which somebody has sowu.
In the working of this great and wise
law of GOD it comes to pass very often that
they who love God most meet with the
hardest tribulations. Great are the trou-
Dles of the righteous. Because to be right
sous means to render obedience to the !
higher laws of conduct. Not unfrequently
he obeying of these higher laws leads to
he disobeying of some lower law. Men
have to make a choice between the higher
md the lower. Life, indeed, is made up of |
'uch daily and hourly choices. He who
owes God chooses