Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-07-01
fore forgiveness. You must give up your re-
beliious sword before you can get grasp OF
THE DIvINE HANn

THE DIVINE HAND.
o. what a glorious state of things to have the
friendship of God! Why, we could afford tc
have all the world against us and all the Other
worlds against us IL we had God for us. He
could in a minute blot out this universe, and in
another minute make better universe.
have no idea that God tried hard when BE
made all things. The most brilliant thing
known to us is light. and for the creation of
that He only used a word Of command. As out
of a flint a frontiersman strikes a spark, SO out
OF one word God struck the MONDAY sun. For
the making Of the present universe l do not
read that God lifted SO much as finger. The
Bible frequently speaks OF Gods hand and
Gods arm and Gods shoulder and Gods
foot; then suppose He should put band and arm
and shoulder and foot to utmost tension. what
could He not make? That God. of such demon
strated and undemonstrated strength, you may
have Tor your present and everlasting friend;
but stately and reticent friend, hard TO get
at, but as approachable as country mansion
on summer day when all the doors and win
dows are wide open. Chris. sand: 81 am the
door" And he is a wide door, high door, a
palace door, an always open door.
My 4-year-old child got hurt and did not cry
until hours after, when her mother came home,
and then she burst into wee ping, and some OF
the domestics, not understanding human
nature, said to her: "Why did you not cry be-
foreT' She answered: There was no one to
cry to-" Now have to tell you that while hu-
man sympathy may be absent, divine sympathy
is always accessible.
GIVE GOD YOUR LOVE
and get His love; your service and secure His
help; your repentance and have His pardon.
God friend? Why, that means all your
wounds medicated, all your sorrows soothed;
and if some sudden catastrophe should hurl
you out of earth it would only hurl you into
heaven. If God is your friend. you cannot go
out of the world too quickly or suddenly, SO
far as your own happiness is concerned.
There were two Christians last Tuesday who
entered heaven; the one was standing at win
dow in perfect health watching shower, and
the lightning instantly slew him; but the light
ming did not flash down the sky as swiftly as
his spirit flashed upward. The Christian man
who died on the same day next door had been
for year or two falling in health, and for the
last three months had suffered from disease
that made the nights sleepless and the days an
anguish. Do you not really think that the case
of the one who went instantly was more desir.
able than the one who entered the shining gate
through long lane of insomnia and conges-
tion? In the one case it was like your standing
weariy at a door. knocking and waiting and
wondering if it will ever open, and knocking
and waiting again; while in the other case it
was a swinging open of the door at the first
touch of your knuckle. Give your friendship
to God, and have Gods friendship for you, and
even the worst accident will be a victory.
A PRICELESS TREASURE.
How refreshing is human friendship. and
true friends, what priceless treasures! When
slCkneSS comes, ana LrOuDle Comes. ana
death comes we send for our friends
first of all, and their appearance in
our doorway in any crisis is reinforcement,
and when they have entered, we say: "Now it
is all rightr' Oh, what would we do without
friends, personal friends. business friends, fam
lily friends? But we want something mightier
than human friendship in the great exigencies.
When Jonathan Edwards in his final hour had
given the last goodby to all his earthly friends,
he turned on his pillow and closed his eyes
lu uin Nnxu uxxhn iG Iocn of
Yes, I admire human friendship as seen in the
case of David and Jonathan, Of Paul and
Onesiphorus, of Herder and Goethe of Gold
smith and Reynolds, of Beaumont and Fletcher,
of Cowley and Harvey of Erasmus and Thomas
More, of Lessing and Mendelssohn, of
Orestes and Pylades each requesting that him
self might take the point of the dagger so the
other might be spared, of EpamInondas ard
Pelopidas, who locked their shields in battle
determined to die together; but the grandest.
the mightiest the tenderest friendship in all
the universe is the friendship between Jesus
Christ and believing soul.
Yet after all have said feel / have only
done what James Marshall, the miner, did in
1S4S in California, before its gold mines were
known. He reached in and puS upon the table
of his employer, Captain Sutton, a thimbleful
his employer. The reply was: Il got it this
morning from a millrace from which the water
had been drawn off," But that golddust which
could have been taken Up between the finger
and the thumb was the prophecy and specimen
that revealed California's wealth to all nations.
men of the value of divine friendship, only a
thimbleful of mines inexhaustible and infinite,
though all time and all eternity 60 on with the
exploration.