Daily Yellowstone journal., 1889-03-03

LMlioiiIs 10 Ntih 49, 49, "
individuals. SO when you push
against me with a sharp interrogation
point, Why do the good sufferf l open
the dark Saying ON a harpand, though
/ can neither play an organ, or cornet
or hautboy, or bugle, or c%larionet, l
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 afterward 1t
yieldeth all possible fruits Of right.
e~ousness unto them which are exer-
cised thereby" Weeping may en-
dure for u night, but Joy cometh in
the morning" What a sweet thing is
a harp, and ! wonder not that in
Wales, the country of my ancestors,
the harp has become the national in
strument, 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 histime bent tower this chorded
and vibrating triangle, and was not
satisfied until he had given it a COM
pass of six octaves from L to K with
all the semi-tones, or that when King
Saul was demented 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, ye trembling saints,
Down from the willows take;
Loud TO the praise OF love divine
Bid every string awakei
THERE Is A REASON IN THIS OFT RE
PEATED PROBLEM.
Interrogation third: Why did a
good God let sin and trouble come into
the world when he might have kept
them out3 My reply is, he had a good
reason. He had reasons that he has
never given u.s.. He had reasons
which he could no more make us un-
derstand in our finite state than the
father starting out on some great and
elaborate enterprise could make the
.2-year-old child in its armed chair
comprehend il. One was to demon
strate what grandeur of character
may be achieved on earth by conquer
ing evil. Had there been no evil to
conquer and no trouble to console,
then this universe would never have
known an Abraham or O Moses Oh a
Joshua or an Ezekiel or q Paul or a
Christ or q Washington or a John
Milton or a John Howard, and a mill
ion victories which have been gained
| by the consecrated spirits of all ages
would v 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 a thousandth part of the heaven
hat it is. i will not say that
/ am glad that sin and sorrow did en-
ter, but / do say that / am glad that
after God has given all his reasons to an
assembled universe he will be more
honored than If sin and sorrow had
never entered, and that the unfallen
celestials will be outdone and will put
down their trumpets to listen and it
will be in heaven when those who
| have conquered sin and sorrow shall
| enter, as it would be in O small sing
ing school on earth if Thalberg and
Gottschalk and Wagner and Beetho.
ven and Rheinberger and Schumann
should all at once enter. The immor-
tails that have been chanting ten thou
sand years before the throne will say,
as they close their hbrettos: 'Oh, if we
could only sing like thatl" But God
will say to those who have never fallen
and consequently have not been re-
deemed: you must be silent now;
you have not the qualification for this
anthem" so they sit with closed lips
and folded hands and sinners saved
by grace take up the harmony, for
the Bible says mo man could learn
hat song but the hundred and forty
and four thousand which were re-
deemed from the earth"
A great prima donna, who a now
do anything with her voice, told me
that when she first started in music
her teacher in Berlin told her she
could be a good singer, but a certain
note she could never reach. "And
then" she said, II went to work and
studied and practiced for years until !
did reach it." But the song of the
sinner redeemed, the Bible says,
the exalted harmonists who have
never sinned could not reach and
never will reach. Would you like to
hear me in a very poor way play a
snatch Of that tunei i can give you
only one bar of the music on this Cos
pei harp: unto him that hath loved
us and washed us from our sins in his
own blood and hath made us kings and
priests unto God and the Lamb, 10 him
be glory and dominion forever and
ever, Amen" But before leaving this
interrogatory, Why God let sin come
into the world1 let me say that great
battles seem TO be nothing but suffer
ing and outrage at the time Of their
occurrence, yet after they have beena
long while past we can see that ii was
better for them to have been fought,
namely, Salamis, Inkerman, Toulouse,
Arbella, Agincourt, Trafalgar, Blen-
helm, Lexington, Sedan. So now
that the great battles against sin and
suffering are going on we can see
mostly that which IS deplorable. But
twenty thousand years from now,
standing in glory, we shall appreciate