Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-03-15


of Christian achievement is stamped with
the letter T. standing for trouble.
When in olden time man was TO he hon
ored with knighthco1, he was struck with
the fat Of the sword. But those who have
come TO the honor of kniGhthood in the
kingdom of God were first struck not with
the nat OF the sword but with the Keen
edge OF the crimeter. To build his magnl-
ficence 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 tude-
pendence. and the conflict between Eng
land and France gave the most OF this
country west OF the Mississippi tn the United
States France owned it, but Napoleon,
fearing that England would take it, prac-
tically made present 10 the United States
for he received only s15.OOn,0 OO-of Louis
lana, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas. Ne
brasSa, Iowa, Minnesota. Colorado, Dakota,
Montana, wyoming and the Indian Terri
tory. Out o. the fire of the American revolu-
ton came this country east of the Mississippi,
out of the European var came that west
Of the Mississippi River. The British EN-
pire rose to its present OvertOwering gran
deur throurh gunpowder plot. and GUY
Fawkess conspiracy, and NORTHAMPTON in
surrection, and Walter Raiegh's heheading
and Bacons bribery, and Cromwells dsso-
luton of parliament, and the battles of Edge
Hill. and Grantham, and Newherry, and
Marston Moor, and Naseby, and Dunbar
and Sedgemoor, and execution of Charles
the First, and London plague, and
London fire, and London insur-
rection and Ryehouse plot, and the vicissi-
tudes of centuries So the earth ITSELF be-
fore it could become appropriate and heauti-
full residence for the human family had
according to geology, to be washed by uni
versal deluge, and scorched and made in
candescent by universal fires, and pounded
by sledge-hammer of iCeborgs, 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
its carnage of color between the Gihon
and the Hiddekel. Trouble q good
thing for the rocks. a good thing for
nations, as well as a good thing for in
dividuals So when You push against me
with a sharp Interrogation point, Why do
the good suffer- open the dark saying on
= harp and. though l can neither play an
organ, or cornet, or hautboy, or busie. or
clarionet, have taken some lessons on the
gospel harp and If you would like to hear
me | will play you these: "All things work
! together for good to those who love God"
Now no Christening for the present seemeth to
be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless after
ward it yieldeth all possible fruits of
| Righteousness unto them which are eXer-
cised thereby" "Weepng may en-
dure for a night but JOY cometh in
the morning. What sweet thing is a
harp, and l wonder not that in Wales, the
country of my ancestors, the harp has be-
come the national instrument, and that they
have festivals where great prizes are offered
| I,I, lnry
or that weird Sebastian Erard was
most of his time bent over this chorded
and vibrating triangle, and was not
satisfied until he had given it a COM
pass of six octaves from + to E with all the
semi-tones, or that when King Saul was de.
mented the son of Jesse came before him
and putting his fingers 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;
Loud TO the praise Of love divine
Bid every string awake!.
Interrogation third: 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 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 faith r
| starting out on some great and
elaborate enterprise could make the two.
year-old child in its armed chair compre.
bend 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 a Moses or a Joshua
! n on inl orr PO hTi CT III q
Washington or John Milton or John
| Howard, and million victories which have
| been gained by the consecrated spirits Of all
ages would never have been gained. Had
there been no bate there would have
been no victory. Nine-tenths OF the anthems
of heaven would never have been sung.
Heaven could never have been thousandtt
part of the heaven that it is. | will not say
that l am glad that sin and sorrow did
enter, but | do say that | am glad that
after God has given all His reasons to ar
assembled universe He will be more
honored than if sin and sorrow had never
entered and that the unfalen celestials will
be outdone and will put down their trumpet
to listen and it will be in heaven when thos'
who have conquered sin and sorrow shall
enter, as it would be in a small sing
ing school on earth if Thalberg anC
Gottschalk and Wagner and Beethoven anC
Rheinberger and Schumann should all a.
| OItS enter lu0 llnLlOTJdlS JIldU nave DeeI
| chanting ten thousand years before the
throne will say, as they close their lbrettos
"Oh, if we could only sing like that
But God will say to those who have neve
fallen and consequently have not been re
deemed: "YOu must he silent now; yol
have not the qualification for this anthem,
50 they sit with closed lips and folded hand
and sinners saved by grace take up tn
harmony, for the Bible says mo man coul'
lnorT1 fbatc bI,t fba bnp 6r rod and forty
four thousand which were redeemed from
the EARTH
A great prima donna, who can now d.
anything with her voice, told me that whel
she first started in music her teacher il
Berlin told her she could be a good singer
but certain note she could never reach
"And then" she said, 81 went to work AM
studied and practiced for years until dlo
reach it." But the song Of the
sinner redeemed, the Bible says
the exalted harmonists who hav
never sinned could not reach and never will
reach. Would you like to hear me in a yer.
poor way play snatch of that tune! | cal
give you only one bar of the music on thi
gospel harp: unto Him that hath loved u
and washed us from cur sins in His owl
blood and hath made us kings an
priests unto God and the. Lamb, t
Him be glory and dominion foreve
and ever, Amen But before leaving thi
lnterrogatory, why God let SIN come int
the worldl let me say that great battles seen
to be nothing but suffering and outrage a
the time of their occurrence, yet after the,
have been long while past we can see tina
it was better for them to have been fought
namely, Salamis, Inkerman, Toulouse, Ar
bella, Aginconrt, Trafalgar, Blen
helm, Lexington, Sedan. So nov
that the great battles against sin and suf
ering are going on we can see mostly tina
which is deplOrable But twenty thOuSant
years from now, standing in glory, we shall
appreciate that heaven is better off than 1
the battle of this worlds sin and suffering
had never been projected.
But now / come nearer home and put
dark saying on the gospel harp, a style o
question that is asked a million times year
Interrogation the fourth: Why do hav