Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-12-26

all gathered mp into Gods bottle, and
some day, standing before the throne,
we will lift our cup of delight and ask
that it be filed with the wine of Heaven;
and Jesus, from that bottle of tears, will
begin to pour in the cup, and We will
cry: Stop, Jesus, we do not want to
drink our own tearsl" and Jesus will
say: Know ye not that the tears of
earth are the wine of Heaven?" Sorrow
may endure, but JOY cometh in the morn
ing.
I remark fur ther, Jesus does not
shadow the joys of others with His own
griefs. He might have sat down in that
wedding and said: Il have so much
trouble, SO much poverty, so much per-
secution, and the cross is coming; I
shall not rejoice and the gloom of my
face and of my sorrows shall be cast over
all this group" So said not Jesus. He
said to himself: Here are two persons
starting out in married life. Let it be q
joyful occasion. / will hide my own
griefs. 1 will kindle their joys. There
are many not so wise as that. know q
household where there are many little
| children, where for two years the musi-
cal instrument had been kept shut be-
cause there had been trouble in the
house. Alas for the follyl Parents
saying: ~We will have no Christmas
tree this coming holiday because there
has been trouble in the house. Hush
that laughing up stairs! How can there
be any Joy whore there has beenso much
trouble?" And SO they make every
thing consistently doleful, and send
their sons and daughters to ruin with
the gloom they throw around them.
| n 10 F,,;o lie 4 ,rk l.
those children will have trouble enough
of their own after a while? Be glad
they cannot appreciate all yours. Keep
daughters lips. When your head is
down in the grass of the tomb, poverty
may come to her, betrayal to her, be-
reavement to her. Keep back the sor-
rows as long as you can. Do you not
know that son may, after while, have
his heart broken? Stand between him
and all harm. You may not fight his
battles long; fight them while you may.
| Thrownot the chillof your own despond-
ency over his soul rather be like Jesus,
| who came to the wedding hiding His own
grief and kindling the joys of others.
! So have seen the sun, on dark day,
struggling amidst clouds, black, ragged,
and portentous, but after while the
sun, with golden pry, heaved back the
blackness; and the sun laughed to the
lake, and the lake laughed to the sun,
and from horizon to horizon, under the
saffron sky, the water was all turned
into wine.
learn from this miracle that Christ
is not impatient with the luxuries of
life. 1t was not necessary that they
al houo thot HIM pdrn1c nf
people have been married without any
wine. We do not read that any of the
other provisions fell short. When
Christ made the wine it was not neces-
sity, but positive luxury. I do not be-
lieve that He wants us to eat hard bread
and sleep on hard mattresses, unless we
like them best. think, if circumstances
will allow, we have right to the lux
uries of dress, the luxur1es of diet, and
the luxuries of residence. There is no
more religion in an old coat than in q
new one. We can serve God drawn by
| golden plated :harness as certainly as
when we go a-foot. Jesus Christ will
dwell with us under a fine ceiling as
we'll as under thatched roof; and when
you get wine made out Of water, drink
as much as you can.
| What is the difference between a
| Chinese mud hovel and an American
| home?. What is the difference between
the rough bear skins of the Russian boor
| and the outfit of an American gentle
man? No difference, exceptSthat which
the Gospel of Christ, directly or indi-
rectly, has caused. When Christ shall
have vanquished all the world, sup
pose every house will be a mansion, and
every horse an arch-necked courser, and
every carriage glittering vehicle, and
every man king, and every woman q
queen, and the whole earth a paradise;
| the glories of the natural world har-
monizing with the glories of the ma
terial world, until the very bells of the
horses shall jingle the praises of the
Lord.
learn, further, from this miracle,
that Christ has no impatience with festal
| JOY, otherwise He would not have ac-
cepted the invitation to that wedding.
He certainly would not have done that
which increased the hilarity. There
may have been many in that room who
were happy, but there was not one of
them that did SO much for the JOY of the
wedding party as Christ Himself. He
was the chief of the banqueters. When
the wine gave out, He supplied it; and
SO, take it, He will not deny us the
Joys that are positively festal.
I think the children of God have more
right to laugh than any other people,
and to clap their hands as loudly. There
is not single JOY denied them that is
given to any other people. Christianity
does not clip the wings of the soul. Re-
1igion does not frost the flowers. What
is Christianity2 / take it to be simply q
proclamation from the throne of God OF
emancipation for all the enslaved; and
if man accepts the terms of that proc
lamation, and becomes free, has he not
right to be merry? Suppose father
has an elegant mansion and large
grounds. To whom will he give the
first privilege of these grounds? Viii
he say: MY children, you must mo-
walk through these paths, or sit down
under these trees, or pluck this fruit
These are for outsiders. They may wall
in them" No father would say anything
like that. He would say "The frs
privileges in all the grounds, and all O.
| my house, shall be for my own chill
dren." And yet men try to make us be
lieve that Gods children are on th
limits, and the chief refreshments ant
epjoyments of life are for outsiders, ant
not for his own children. 1t is starl
, atheism. There is no innocent beverag
too rich for Gods child to drink; ther
is no robe too costly for him to wear
there is no hilarity too great for him t.
indulge in, and no house too splendi,
, for him to live in. He has right to tn
Joys Of earth; he.shall have q right t
the joys of Heaven. Though tribula
tion, and trial, and hardship may com
unto him. let him rejoice. Rejoice i