Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-08


1t is great thing to feel that God under
stands US. One of the supreme blessings of
the incarnation, of the revelation of God
here in human flesh is that it assures US of
the understanding, of the perfect sympathy,
OF God. 1t is wonderful to have God love
us, but it is wonderfully unspeakable to
nave God down here on our human level,
putting himself in our place, making Him
self man.
Tho Story Not New One.
God knows all that sick people have to
suffer, knows just how hard it is. All the
manifold discomforts of the slckroom, all
the painful WEAKNESS and the hourly strain
upon the patience, and the slow creeping of
the minute hand on its interminable journey
around the figures of the clock, all the
anxieties of the long day and the worries of
the sleepless night, all the headaches and
the heartaches, and the feeling that every
thing is going wrong in the house or getting
twisted at the Office, and that we ought to be
up, and that we are so weak that it tires US
even to think of getting up-all that is
known to God. Every bit of it had its like
ness somewhere in the life of Jesus.
As for downright pain, God knows what
that means. The cross testifes to that He
who hung there in the darkness, thorns
upon His forehead, marks of the scourge cut
deep into His shoulders, nails through His
hands aud through His feet, suffering torture
of body and desolation of soul, is able to
have sympathy. The cross is the symbol of
the sympathy of God.
Accordingly, the last chapter of the
gospels are good reading in the sick room.
and Good Friday is q good day to think
about. We will do well in the midst of
pain to fix our attention upon that scene of
Calvary, to take Christ as our example in
the endurance of suffering, and to realize
how much closer His pain and our pain
brings US together.
The Fellowship of Suffering.
Imet good old man the other day who
told me he was a Methodist, shouting
Methodist" and yet that he would like to
see crucifx in every church. Probably
he would like to have picture of the cruci-
fi1ion hung in every sick room. 1t is not
unlikely that we have lost something in
putting away out of the sight of our
Protestant eyes that old, impressive, strik-
ing symbol of the love and sympathy of
God. Jesus suffered as we suffer. And so
he knows. We get into the fellowship of
His sufferings through the door of the sick
room. He comes day by day to be more to
us-more hopeful, more near, more neces-
sary, more beloved.
The cross, however has a message about
sin as we'll as a message about sympathy.
And that is the next thing that we will do
well to think about when we are sick.
First, the love of God, and then the sympa-
thy Of Christ, and then the fact of sin.
Sickness always means sin. Directly or in
directly, it is always the outgrowth of sin.
If there had been no sin there would have
been no sickness in the world. The sick
ness may be the consequence of somebody
else's sin. So closely are the lines of hu-
man lives intertwisted and tangled that if
one member of the great human family suf-
fers other members suffer with it, and if one
commits sin the evil effects of that sin reach
out and touch others than the sinner.
Worst Punishment of Sickness.
That is one of the fearful things about sin,
that it not only destroys the happiness of
the sinner, but it strikes sword through the
hearts of his best friends, and poisons the
lives of his innocent children. Sickness is
always the punishment of some kind of sin.
But it is one of Gods punishments; and
that means that it comes out of love, not
out of anger; and that is not the reaching
out of the hand of God to strike us, but, in
stead of that, is just the natural and newt
able consequence which is attached to sin
like shadow. It follows sin as shadow
follows him that walks in the sun.
In sickness, accordingly, is good time
for man to think about his sins. We get
away out of our common course of life; we
are set for time quite on the outside of it,
where we can see it. What sort of life is
it? What kind of days have we been spend
ing? AT what purposes have we been aim
ing? Is it good life to close up right now
and take with US, as a completed thing, for
the inspection of the Great Judge? And, if
it is not, then how would we better change it?
Sickness suggests self-examination, and
new resolutions. A severe af1iction be-
gins new era in mans existance. If he
has been living III the Dark Ages, now is q
good time for the Reformation.
The Anticipation of the End.
And. with this. comes in that fourth oc-
cupation which suggested, the meditation
of the sick person upon the shortness and
uncertainty of human life. Everybody
who is sick thinks about death. He may
not say anything about it, but there it is,
dread thought in the background of his
mind getting always more and more in the
some day, in some sickness, I
must die. Every sickness awakens the
of that inevitable destiny of
man. And re wonder if it Will be this
time or the next?
Death is probably much more dreadful in
the anticipation hsl in the reality. We
shrink from it, partly because it is the
entrance upon an unknown and solitary
journey; partly because it is separation
between us and those who are dearer to US
than the life itself; partly, with some, be-
cause it takes US out of our pleasant houses,
as johnson said to Garrick when he saw the
delightful rooms he lived in, 'HAh. David,
these are the things that make death terri
ble;" and then, beside all this, is the con-
sciousness of sin. That is true which st.
Paul said: "The sting of death is sin. -
Happy are they who can go on and finish
the sentence-"But thanks be to God who
giveth the victory, through our Lord Jesus
Christ
A Thought That Interprets Life.
We think of death in quiet moments in
the sick room, and it interprets life. The
thought gives somehow different meaning
to all the entries in our old journals and
changes our ordinary estimations of value.
Much that seems great, seems very small
looked at from the point of view of death
Money and society, gain and pleasure, our
old anxieties about our dress and our dinner
these things interest US and are OF I'M
portance to us to-day. But they who look
back, as we all must sometimes, with one
hand in the hand Of death, set, no doubt,
different value upon all these things. 1t is
no longer question with them about the
pleasures they possess down here; they are
a great deal more interested about the
credit they will find up above in the books
of Heaven. What they have, will then
what they are, will be the