Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-06-05

gather your satisfaction. Then, come
sorrow or gladhess, success or defeat
riches or poverty, honor or disgrace,
health or sickness, life or death, time
or eternity, ali are yours, and ye are
Chfist's, and Christ is GSd's
Again: this Haman's history Shows us
that Outward possessions and circund-
stances caii not make . man happy.
While yet fully vested III authority and
the chief adviser Of the Persian fii6fiafShy
and every thing that equipage and ponp
and SplendOr of residence could do were
his, he Is an object lesson of wretched-
Hess. There are to-day more aching
sorrows under Gowns Of royalty than
under the ragged caps of the house1ess.
Much of the worlds sfffuenGe and Eaiety
Is only misery in colors. Many woman
seated in the street at her apple stand
is happier than the great bankers.
Were called to sketch misery in its
worst form, would not GO up the dark
alley of the poor, but up the highway
over %fiieh prancing Bucephah strike
the sparks with their hosts and between
statuary and parks of stalking deer.
Wretchedness is more bitter when
swallowed from gemmed goblets than
from earthen pitcher or pewter mug. II
there are young people here who are
looking for this position and that cir
cumstance, thinking that worldly sue
cess will bring peace of the soul, let
them shatter the delusion. 1t is not
what we get, it is what we are. Daniel
among the lions is happier than Nebu-
chadnezzar on his throne. And when
life is closing, brilliancy of worldly sur
roundings will be no solace. Death IL
blind and sees no difference between
King and his clown, between the
Nazarene and the Athenian, between a
bookleSs hut and national library.
From all the heights and depths of my
nature rings down and rings up and
rings out the word immortal" A good
conscience and assurance of life eternal
through the Lord Jesus Christ are the
only securities.
The souls happiness is too large a
craft to sail up the stream of worldly
pleasure. AS ship carpenters say, it
draws too much water. This earth is
a bubble and it will burst. This life is
vision and it will soon pass away.
Time! 1t is only ripple and it breaketh
against the throne of Judgment. Our
days! They fly swifter than a shuttle,
weaving for us a robe of triumph or
garment of shame. Begin your life
with rel'g ion and for it's greatest trial
you will be ready. Every day will be a
triumph and death will be only kings
servant calling you to royal banquet.
In olden time the man who was to re-
ceive the honOrs of knighthood was re-
quired to spend the previous night fully
armed, and with shield and lance to
walk up and down among the tombs of
the dead. Through all the hours of
that night his steady step was heard,
and when morning dawned, amid grand
parade and the sound of comets the
hOnors of knighthood were bestowed.
Mordecai will only have to wait for
his day of tr umph. 1t took all the pre-
ceding trials to make a proper back
ground for his after success. The
scaffold built for him makes all the
more imposing and picturesque the horse
into whose long white name he twisted
his fingers at the mounting. You want
at least two misfortunes, hard as flint to
strike fire. Heavy and long continued
SHOWS in the winter are signs of good
crops next summer. So many have
yielded wonderful harvests of benevo-
lence and energy because they were
long while showed under. We must have
a good many hard falls before we learn to
walk straight. 1t is on the black anvil of
trouble that men hammer out their for
tunes. Sorrows take up men on their
shoulders and enthrOne them. TONES
are nearly always bitter. Men, like
fruit trees, are barren, unless trimmed
with sharpknives. They are like wheat
all the better for the failing. 1t re-
quired the prison darkness and chill to
make John Bunyan dream. 1t took
Delaware ice and cold feet at Valley
Forge, and the whiz of bullets, to make
Washington. Paul, when he climbed up
on the beach of Melita, shiver.ng in his
wet clothes, was more of a Christian
than when the ship struck the breakers.
Prescott, the historian, saw better with
out his eyes than he could ever have
seen with them. MOrdecai, despised at
the gate, is only predecessor of Morde-
cal, grandly mounted.