The Russellville Democrat., 1889-03-07

I for those gone astray? They are the men who have graduated at the Royal Acade- my of Trouble, and they have the diploma written in wrinkles on their own counte- nances. My! my! what heartaches they hadl What tears they have weptl What l injustice they have sufferedl The mightiest influence for purification and salvation is trouble. No diamond fit for a crown until it is cut. No wheat it for | bread till it is ground. There are only I three things that can break off chain-a l hammer, file or a fire; and trouble is all three of them. The greatest writers, ora- | tors and reformers get much of their l force from trouble. What gave to | Washington Irving that exquisite ten- | derness and pathos which will | make his books favorites while the En- l glish language continues to be written and spoken? An early heartbreak that he never once mentioned; and when, thir- ty years after the death of Matilda Koff- man, who was to have been his bride, her father picked. up piece of embroidery and said: That is piece of poor Ma tilda's workmanship" Washington Irv- ing sank from hilarity into silence and walked away. Out of that lifetime grief the great author dipped his pens mighti- est reinforcement. 'Calyin's Institutes of Religion" than which a more wonder 1 full book was never written by human hand, was begun by the author at twenty 1 five years of age, because of the persecu- 1 ton by Francis. King of France. Fara- 1 day toiled for all time on salary of l eighty pounds year and candles. AS every brick of the wall of Babylon was stamped with the letter N, standing for NT..1.,, ,1.. 1.,.r -f f,f hA | temple of Christian achievement is stamped with the letter T, standing for | trouble.
 When in olden time man was to be honored with knighthood, he was struck with the flat of the sword. But those who have come to the honor of knighthood in the kingdom of God were first struck not with the flat of the sword but with the keen edge of the cimeter. To build his magnifcence of character, Paul could not have spared one lash, one prison, one stoning, one anathema, one poisonous viper from the hand, one shipwreck. What is true of individuals is true of nations. The horrors of the American revolution gave this country this side of the Mississippi river to Inde- pendence, and the conflict between En- gland and France gave the most of this country west of the Mississippi to the United States. France owned it, but Napoleon, fearing that England would take it, practically made a present. to the United States-for The re- ceived only $15,00 ,000--of Louisiana, Mis- souri, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado, Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and the Indian Territory. Out of the fire of the American revolution came this country east of the Mississippi, out of the European war came that west of the Mississippi river. The British Empire rose to its present overtowering grandeur through gunpowder plot, and Guy Hawkes. conspiracy, and Northamp- ton insurrection, and Walter Raleigh's beheading, and Bacon's bribery, and Cromwell's dissolution of Parliament, | and the battles of Edge Hill. and Grantham, and Newberry, and Marston Moor, and Naseby, and Dunbar, and Sedgemoor, and execution of Charles the First, and London plague, and London fire, and London insurrec- tion, and Ryehouse plot, and the vicissi- tudes of centuries. So the earth itself, before it could become an appropriate and beautiful residence for the human family had, according to geology, to be washed by universal deluge, and scorched and made incandescent by universal fires, and pounded by sledge- hammer of ice- bergs, and wrenched by earthquakes that split continents, and shaken by volcanoes that tossed mountains, and passed through the catastrophes of thousands of years before Paradise became possible and the groves could shake out their green banners, and the first garden pour it's carnage of color between the Gihon and the Hiddekei. Trouble is a good thing for the rocks, good thing for nations, as well as good thing for individuals. So when you push against me with sharp Interrogation point. Why do the good suf- fer? open the dark saying on harp and, though l can neither play an organ, or cornet, or hautboy, or bugle, or clarionet have taken some lessons on the Gospel harp, and if you would like to hear me I will play you these: "All things work to- gether for good to those who love God" 'Now no christening for the present seem- eth to be joyous, but grievous; neverthe- less, afterward it yieldeth all possible fruits of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby" Weeping may endure for night, but joy cometh in the morning." What a sweet thing is harp, and l wonder not that in Wales,
 
 harp has become the national instru- ment, and that they have festivals where great prizes are offered in the competition between harp and harp; or that weird Sebastian Erard was much of his time bent over this chorded and vi- brating triangle, and was not satisfied un- til he had given 1t compass of six oo- taves from E to E with all the semi tones, or that when King Saul was demented the son of Jesse came before him, and putting his finger among the charmed strings of the harp,played the devil out of the crazed monarch, or that in Heaven there shall be harpers harping with their harps. So you will not blame me for opening the dark saying on the Gospel harp:
 Your harps, ye trembling saints,
 Down from the willows take,
 Load to the praise Of love Divine
 Bid every string awakel
 Interrogation the Lhird: Why did a good God let sin and trouble come into the world when he might have kept them out My reply is, he had good reason. He had reasons that he has never 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- old child in it's armed chair comprehend it. One was to demonstrate what grandeur of character may be achieved on earth by conquering evil Had there been no evil to conquer and no trouble Co console, then this universe would never have known an Abraham or Moses, or Joshua or an Ezekiel, or a Paul or a Christ, or a Washington or John Mill ton, or John Howard, and million vic- tories which have been gained by the con secrated spirits of all ages would never have been gained. Had there been no battle there would have been no victory. Nine-tenths of the anthems of Heaven would never have been sung. Heaven could never have been thousandth part of the Heaven that it is. will not say that l am glad that sin and sorrow did