Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1890-12-19

his father IS rich; start him in profession
where he begins with an Office the floor
covered with Administer and library Of
books in Russian morocco, and an arm chair
upholstered like a throne, and an embroid-
cred ottoman upon which to put his twelve
dollar CATERS, and they l'y upon his table
the best ivory cigar-holder you can import
from Brussels, aud have standing outside
his door 'prancing span that won the prize
at the horse fair, and leave him estate
enough to mako him independent Of al
struggle, ard what will become Of him
If he do not die early of hamilton or dissi-
patton, he will live useless life, and die
an unlamented death and go into FOOLS
| eternity -. q.
4 Thirty years from now tho foremost
men In all occupations and professions will
be those who are this hour in awful strug-
gle of early life, many OF them without
| five dollars TO their name. So in spiritual
life it takes course of berravemonts,
prosecutions. sicl5nesses and losses to de-
velop stalwart Christian character. / got
letter few days ago saying: II have
| hardly seen well day since was born,
and could not write my own name until 1
was fifty years of age and | am very pqog
but am, by the grace Of God. the lfnp-
| pest man in Chicago" The Bible speaks
of the SHOWS of Lebanon, and at this
season of the year the SHOWS there must be
tremendous. The deepest snow ever seen
in America would be insignificant COM
pared'with the mildcst winter of SHOWS on
those Lebanon mountains. The cedars
catch that skyfull OF crystals on their
brow and on their long arms. Piled up in
great hcfts are those SHOWS, enough to
crush other trees to the ground, splitting
+ the branches from the. trunk and leaving
them rent and torn mover to rise. But
what do the codars caro- for these SHOWS
on Lebanon? They look up to the winter
skies and say: ''SnoW on! Empty thu
white heavens upon US, and when thiI
storm is passed, let other professions of
tempcsts try TO bury us in their fury. We
have for five hundred winters been ac-
0ustomed to this, and, for the next five
hundred winters we will chcerfully take all
you have to send, for that is the way we
develop our strength and that is the way
we serve God and teach all ages bow to
endure and conquer" So L say, Good
cheerto all people who are showed under.
Put your faith in God and you will come
out gloriously. Others may be stunted
gr0wths, Or weak jumpers on the lower
levels of spirituality, but you arc going to
be Lebanon codars. At last it will be said
of such as you: ''Thcsc are they who
camo out of great trlbulation and had their
robes washed and made white in the
blood of the Lamb"
But while crossing over these mountains
Of Lebanon / bcthink myself of what an
exciting scene it must be when one of the
cedars does fall. 1t does not go down like
other trees with slight crackle that hard
ly makes the woodman look up, or a hawk
flutter from u neighboring bough. When a
cedar falls II is the great event in the calen-
dar of tho mountains. The axemen fly.
Tho wild beasts sink to their dens. The
partridges swoop to the valley for escape.
The neighboring trees go down under the
weight Of tho descending monarch. The
rocks are moved out Of their places ana
the earth tremblcs as from miles around
all rayines send back their sympathetic
echoes Crash! Crash! Crash! So when
the great ccdars of worldly or Christian in
fluence fall it is something terrific. With
in the past few years how many mighty
and overlapping men have gone down.
There seems now to be an epidemic of NOR
al disaster. The moral world, the religious
would, the political world, the commercial
world are quakng with the fall of Lebanon
cedars. 1t is awful. W 9 are compelled to
fir-trccs for the cedar is fallen" Some of
the smaller trees are glad of it. When
some great dealer in stocks goes down, the
small dealers clap their hands and say
| Good for him !" When great political
leader goes down the small politicians clap
their bands and say ",lust as expected ~
When a great minister of religion falls,
many little minister's laugh up their sleeves
and think themselves somehow advantaged.
All, beloved brethren, no one makes any
thing out of moral shpwrcck. Not u will
low by the rivers OF Damascus, not a syca-
! more on the plains of Jericho, not an olive
tree in all Palestine is helped by the fall of
a Lebanon cedar. Better weep ana pray
and tremble and listen to Paul's advice to
the Galatians when he says: Considering
thysclf lest thou also be tempted" No
man is safe until he is dead, unless he is
divinely protected. A greater thinker than
Lord Francis Bacon the world never saw,
and he changed the worlds mode OF
thinking for all time, his 'Novum Organ
um," miracle of literature. With thirty
| eight thousand dollars salary, and estates
worth millions, and from the highest
| judicial bench in the world he goes down
under the power of bribery and confessed
his crime and was sentenced to the Tower,
and the scorn Of centuries. Howl fr-trees
| for the cedar is fallen!
Yet there is one cedar Of Lebanon that
always has and always will overtop all
| others. 1t is the Christ whom Ezekiel
describes as a goodly cedar and says;
"Undcr it shall como all fowl of every
wing" Make your nest IN that great
cedar. Then let the storms beat and the
earth rock, and time end, and eternity
begin, all shall be well.
Oh! am so glad that the Holy Land of
heaven like the Holy Land of Palestine
and Syria. is Il great place for trees, an
orchard Of them, grove of them, a forest
' of them. Saint John saw them along the
streets, and on both sides the River, and
every month they yielded q great crop OF
fruit You know what an imposing
appearance trees give to a city on earth,
but how it exalts my idea of heaven when
Saint John describes the city on high as
| having its streets and its rivers lined with
them. Oh, the trees! the trees! The
| jasper walls, the fountains, the temples
were not enough. There would have been
something wanting yet. So to complete
all that pomp and splendor, l behold the
| unbranch;no trcee of life Not lil<e thoso