The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1890-08-16

OF comfort; n drop OF which shall sure
the worst paroxysm. 1t is the same
grace that soothed Robert Hall when,
after 'vrithing on the carpet in physical
torturss, he cried out: 80! l suffered
terribly y, but l didn't CRY out while l was
suffering, did 1? Did I cry out?" There
is no such nurse as Jesus-his hand the
gentlest, his foot the highest, his arm
the strongest. Fol especial pang es-
pecial help.
Is it approaching sorrow? Is 1t long.
shadowing bereavement hat you know
Is coming, because the breath is short,
and the voice is faint, and the cheek is
pale? Have you been calculating your
capacity or incapacity to endure widow
hood or ~childlessness or a disbanded
home, and cried: 81 can not endure it?'
o, worried soul, you will wake up
amidst all your troubles and find around
about you the sweet consolation of the
Gospel as thickly strewed as was the
mamma around about the Israelitish on
campment! Especial solace for especial
distress.
Or Is it a trouble past, yet present? A
SllcIu ~ NhSoh SiuAl oBpooAJO
you at the table? A musing upon a
broken family circle never again to be
reunited? A choking sense of loneli-
ness? A blot Of grief 10 large that it
extingusshes the light OF the sum-, and
puts out bloom of flower, and makes
you reckless as to whether you live or
die? Especial comfort for that especial
trial. Your appetite has failed for
every thing else. o, try q little of this
wilderness mama: 81 will never leave
thee, | will never forsake thee" Like
rs a father pitieth his children, so the
Lord pitieth them that fear him." "Can
a woman forget her sucking child, that
she should not have compassion on the
son Of her womb? yea. they may forget,
yet willI not forget thee" Or is it the
grief Of a dissipated c~ompanionf There
are those here who have it so I am not
speaking in the abstract but to the
point. You may not whisper 1t, perhaps,
to your most intimate friend; but you
SEQ your home going away gradually
from you, and unless things change
soon it will be entirely destroyed.
Your grief was we'll depicted by q
woman, presiding at a woman's meeting
in Ohio, when her intoxicated husband
staggered up to the platform, to her
overwhelming modification, and the
disturbance of the audience. and she
pulled a protruding bottle from her
husbands pocket, and held it up before
tho audience and cried out: ''There Is
the cause Of my wool There are the
tears and the life blood of a
d~runkards wife!" and then, look
ing up to Heaven, she said: "How
long, o Lprdl how long?" and then look
ing down to the audience, cried: "Do
you wonder / feel strongly on this sub
jectP Sisters, will you help me?" And
hundreds of voices responded: eyes,
yes, we will help you" You stand.
some of you, in such a tragedy to-day.
You can not even ask him to stop drink
ing. 1t makes him cross, and he tells
you to mind your own business. Is
there any relief in such q case? Not
such as is found in the rigmarole Of
comfort ordinarily given in such cases.
But there is a relief that drops in mamma
from the throne Of God. o, lift up your
lacerated soul in prayer and you will
6oS OhAh lSbOAb NV Aob hAAOV
in what words the soothing influence
may come, but / know that for especial
grief there is especial d%eliverence. 1
give you two or three passages; try them
on; take that which best fits your soul:
Whom tie Lord loveth he chasten-
eth" "AY things work together for
those who love God" weeping may
endure for a night but Joy cometh in
the morning."
But after fourteen thousand six hun
dred consecutive days Of falling man
na-Sundays excepted-the mama
ceased. Some Of them were glad
Of it. You. know they had complained
to their leader, and wondered that they
had to eat mani instead Of onions.
Now the fare is changed. Those people
in that army under forty years of age
had never seen a cornfield, and now,
when they hear the leaves rustling and
the tasselsl waving and the pillows of
green flowing over the plain as the wind
touched them, it must have been a new
and lively sensation.
"Cornr' cried tho old man, rs he
opened an car. "Cornl' cried the chill
dren, as they counted the shining grains.
"Cornl" shouted the vanguard of the
host, as they burst open the granaries
of the affriahted population, the gran
aries that had been left in the possess
sion Of the victorious Israelites. Then
the fire was kindled. and the ears Of
corn were thrust into 1t, and, fresh and
crisp and tender. were devoured by tho
hungry victors; and bread was prepared,
and many things that can be made out
of flour RECALLED the appetites hat had
been sharpened by the long march.
''And the maQna ceased on the morning
after they had eaten of the old corn Of
the land"
Blessed be God, we stand in just such
a field to-day, the luxuriant grain COM
ing above the, girdle, the air full OF the
doors Of the ripe old corn of the Gospel
Canaan. "Ow you say, ''the fare is too
plain" Then I remember you will soon
get tired of a fanciful diet. While 1
was in Paris, liked for a while the rare
and exquisite cookery; but I soon
wished was home again, and had the
plain fare of my native land. So it is a
fact that we soon weary of the sirups
and the custards and the whipped foam
of fanciful religlonists. and we cry:
'Give us plain bread made out of the
old corn Of the Gospel Canaan" This
is the only food that can quell the souls
hunger.
There are men here who hardly know
what is the matter with them. They
have tried to get together q fortune and
larger account at the bank, and to get
investments yielding larger percent
ages They are trying to satisfy their
soul with a diet OF mortgages and
stocks. Ther4 are others here who
have been trying to get famous, and
have succeeded to q greater or less ex-
tent; and they have been trying to
satisfy their soul with the chopped feed
Of magazines and newspapers. All
these men are no more happy now than
before they made the first thousand dol
lars; no more happy now than when for
the first time they saw their names
favorably mentioned. They not
analyze or define their feelings; but l
will tell them what is the m~atter-they
are hungry for the old corn Of the
Gospel.
The infidel scientists of this day are
Offering US a different kind of soul food,
but they are Of all men the most miser-
able. have known many of them. but
/ never knew one Of them who came
within a thousand miles of being happy.
E