The Brookhaven leader., 1889-03-07


who have graduated ct the Royal Acade-
my Of Trouble, and they have the diploma
written In wrinkles on their own counte-
uances. Myi myl what heartaches they
hadl What tears they have ,wepti What
injustice they have sufferedl The
mightiest influence for publication and
salvation is trouble. No diamond At for a
crown until II is cut. No wheat At for
bread till it is ground. There are only
three things that can break of chain-a
hammer, file or a Are; and trouble Is all
three Of them. The greatest writers, ora
tors and reformers get much Of their
force from trouble, What gave to
Washington Irving that exquisite ten
derness and pathos which will
make his books favorites while the En-
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 Kof-
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 lrv-
ing sank from hilarity into silence and
walked away. Out of that lifetime GRIEF
the great author dipped his pens mighti-
est reinforcement. 'Calvin'S Institutes
of Religion" than which a more wonder
full book was never written by human
hand, was begun by the author at twenty
Eve years of age, because of the persecu-
ton by Francis, King of France. Fara-
day toiled for all time on a salary or
eighty pounds q year and candles. AS
every brick of the wall of Babylon was
stamped with the letter N, standing for
Nebuchadnezzar, so every part Of the
temple of Christian achievement is
stamped with the letter T, sanding for
trouble.
When in olden time o man was to be
honored with knighthoOd, he was struck
with the fiat Of the sword. But those who
have come to the honor of knighthood in
the kingdom of God were first struck
not with the fat of the sword but with the
keen edge of the cimeter. To build his
magnihcence of character, Paul could not
have spared one lash, ono 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 O
present to the United States-for fhe re-
ceived only SIS, 900, 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 Fawkes' conspiracy, and Northamp-
ton instruction, 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-
ton, 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 catastTophes of thousands OF
years before Paradise became possible
and the groves could shake out their
green banners, and the first garden pour
its carnage of color between the Gihon
and the Hiddekel. Trouble is 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-
ferl l 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 IL you would like to hear me /
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 a night, but joy cometh in the
morning." What sweet thing is harp,
and l wonder not that in Wales,
harp has become the natiorc'~ Z, rru-
ment, and that tb>s nave festivals
where great p1lzes are offered in the
competition between harp and harp; OF
that weird Sebastian Erard was much of
his time bent over this ehorded and vi
brating triangle, and was not satisfied I'M
til he had given it a compass of six oc-
tayes from E to Z 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 we trembling saints,
Down from the willows take;
Load to the praise of love Divine
Bid every string awake!
Interrogation the third: Why did good
God let sin and trouble come into the
world when he might have kept them out
My reply is, he had a 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 its 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 to console, then this
universe would never have known
an Abraham or Moses, or a
Joshua or an Ezekiel, or a Paul or
a Christ mr. a Washin Cfnn nr n Inbn MAJ