The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-03-20

was never sanctiAed. WHO are those men
who listen with moist eye as you tell them
Of suffering and who have pathos i'll their
voice, and kindness in their manner and an
excuse or an alleviation for those gone as
tray? They are the men who have graduated
at the Royal Academy of Trouble, and they
have the diploma written in wrinkles on
their own countenanoe. Ny! my! What
heartaches they had! What tears they
have wept What injustice they have
suffered! The mightiest influence for puri-
fcation and salvation is trouble. No dia-
moud fit for crown until it is cut. No
wheat fit for bread till it is ground. There
are only three things that can break Of,
q chain-a hammer, file, or q fire; and
trouble is all three of them. The greatest
writers, orators, and reformers get much OF
their force from trouble. What gave to
Washington Irving that exquisite tender
ness and pathos which will make hts books
favorites while the English language con-
tinues to be written and spoken! An early
heartbreak that he never once mentioned ;
and when, thirty years after the death OF
Matilda Hoffman, who was to have been his
bride, her father picked up q piece Of en-
embroidery and said: THAT is piece OF
Door Matilda's workmanship" Washington
Irving sank from hilarity into silence and
walked away Out Of that lifetime Of grief
the great author dipped his penis mightiess
reinforcement "Calvin's Institutes Of Re-
ligion," than which o more wonderful book
was never written by human hand, was be-
gun by the author at twenty-five years OF
age, because Of the persecution BY Francis,
King Of France. Faraday toiled for all time
on salary OF eighty pounds year and can
dies. AS every brick Of the wall Of Babylon
was stamped with the letter n, standing for
Nebuchadnezzar, SO every part OF the TEN
pie Of Christian achievement Is stamped
with the letter T, standing for trouble.
When in olden time q man was to be hon.
ored with knighthood he was struck with
the fat Of the sword. But those who have
come to the honor OF knighthood in the king
dom of God were first struck, not with the
fat of the sword, but with the keen edge Of the
cimeter. To build his megrificence Of char
acter Paul could not have spared one lash,
Que prison, one stonlng, one anathema,
one poisonous viper from the hand, one
shipwreck What is true OF individuals IS
true of nations. The horrors OF the Ameri-
can Revolution gave this country this side
of the Mississippi river to independence. and
the conflict between England and France
gave the most Of this country west OF the
Mississippi to the United States. France
owned it, but Napoleon, fearing that En-
gland would take it, practically made q
present to the United States-for he re-
ceived only SIS, 900, 0O0-of Louisiana, Mis-
souri,, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa,
Hola Doly
oning and the Indian Terr tory. 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 overtowerine
grandeur through gunpo WIDER plot, anc
Guy Fawkes conspiracy, and Northampton
insurrection, and Walter Raleigh's behead-
ing, and Bacon's bribery, and Cromwel's
dissolution Of Parliament, and the battles Of
Edge Hill. and Graathanl, and Newoerry,
and Marston Moor, and Naseby, and Dunbar,
and Sedgemoor, and execution Of Charles
the First, and London plague, and London
fire, and London insurrection, and Ryehouse
plot, and the vicissitudes 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 de luge. and
scorched and made iucandescent by uni
versal fires, and pounded by sledge-hammer
Of icebergs, 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
la tbo cN,,19 al q
out their green banners and the first garden
pour its carnage of color between the Gihon
and HiddekeL Trouble good thing for the
rocks, good thing for nations, as well as a
good thing for individuals. So when you
push against me with sharp interrogation
point why do the good sufferl open the
dark saying on harp, and, though can
neither play an organ, or coronet, or haut-
boy, or bugle, or clarionet, I have taken
some lessons on the gospel harp, and if you
would like to hear me will play you these /:
s.All things work together for the good Of
those who love God" ''Now no Christening
for the present seemeth to be joyous, but
grievous; nevertheless afterw ard it yield
eth all possible fruits Of Righteousness
unto them which are exercised there
by" "Weeping may endure for night,
but Joy cometh in the morning"
What sweet thing is harp, and l Won
der not that in " ales, the country of my an
cestors, the harp has become the national
instrument, and that they have festivals
where great prizes are offered in the compe-
tition between harp and harp: or that weird
Sebastian Erard was much Of his time bent
over this chorded aud vibrating triangle,
and was not satisfied until he had given it a
compass Of six octaves from E to E with all
the sethitones, or that when King Saul was
demented the son Of Jesse came before him
aud 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 the harps. So
you will not blame me for opening the dark
saying on the gospel harp.
Your harps, ye trembling saints,
Down from n" willows take;
Loud to the pra:s. OF love divine
Bid every string awake.
Interrogation third: Why did good God
let sin and trouble come into the world
when he might have kept them out7 Ny
reply is, He had good reason. He had
reasons which He could no more make US
understand in our finite state than the father
StarClpR OUT on some SledG duo ehdooh''ee
enterprise could make the -year-old child
in its armchair comprehend It. One was
to demonstrate what grandeur Of character
may be achieved on earth by conquerlus
evil. Had there been no evil to conquer aud
no trouble to console, then this universe
would never have known an Abraham OF
a Moses or Joshua or an Ezekiel or a
Paul or a Christ o. Washington or q
John Milton or John Howard, and q
million victories which have been gained
by the consecrated spirits of all ages
would never have been gained. Had there