The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1891-06-24

how little we have to endure compared
with those who have gone before us!
Now, If you have come across ill-treat-
ment, let me tell you you are in excel.
| lent company-Christ and Luther and
Calico and Columbus and John Jay
and Josiah Quincy and thousands OF
men and women, the best spirits Of
earth and heaven. Bulge not one inch,
though all hell wreak upon you its
vengeance and you be made a target for
devils to shoot at Do you not think
Christ knows all about persecution?
Was He not Kissed at? Was He not
struck on the cheek? Was he not pur-
sued all the days of His life? Did they
not expectorate upon him? Or, to put
it in Bible language, ''They spit upon
Him." And can not He understand
what persecution is? Cast thy burden
upon the Lord, and He shall sustain
thee"
Third--There are others who carry
great burdens of physical ailments.
When sudden sickness has come, and
fierce choleras and malignant fevers
take the castles of life by storm, we ap-
peal to God; but in these chronic all
ments which wear out the strength day
after day, and week after week, and
year after year, how little resorting to
God for solace! Then people depend
upon their tonics and their plasters and
their cordials rather than upon heavenly
stimulanta O, how few people there
are completely well Some of you, by
dint of perseverance and care, have
kept living to this time, but how you
have had to war against physical all
ments! Antediluvians, without medical
college and infirmary and apothecary
shops, multiplied their years by hum
dreds; but he who has gone through the
gauntlet of disease in our time, and has
come to seventy years OF age, is hero
worthy of palm. .r.uI
The world seems to be great hos
pital, and you run against rheumatisms
and consumptions and scrofulas and
neuralgias and scores of old diseases
baptized by new nomenclature. o, how
heavy burden sickness is! 1t takes
the color out of the sky and the sparkle
out of the wave and the sweetness out
of the fruit and the luster out Of the
night. When the limbs ache, when the
respiration is painful, when the mouth
is so hot, when the ear roars with un-
healthy distractions, how hard is it to
be patient and cheerful and assiduous!
"Cast thy burden upon the Lord. "
Does your head ache? His wore
the thorn. Do your feet hurt? His
were crushed of the spikes. Is you
side painful? His was struck by the
spear. Do you feel like giving way
under the burden? His weakness gave
way under cross. While you are in
every possible way to try to restore
your physical vigor, you are to remem-
Der that more soothing than any ano-
dvne, and more vitalizing than any
stimulant, and more strengthening than
any tonic is the prescription of the
text: "Cast thy burden upon the Lord,
and He shall sustain thee" We hear q
great deal of talk now about faith cure,
and some people say it can not be done
and it is failure. l do not know but
that the chief advance of the church is
to be in that direction. Marvellous
things come to me day by day which
make me think that if the age of mira.
cles is past, it is because the faith OF
miracles is past.
A prominent merchant of New York
said to a member OF my family: "My
mother wants her case mentioned to
Mr.. Talmage." This was the case. He
, said: "My mother had dread abscess,
. from which she had suffered untold
agonies, and all surgeries had been ex.
hausted upon her, and worse and worse
she grew until we called in few Chris
tan friends and commenced to pray
; about it. We commended her case to
God, and her abscess began immediate
, ly to be cured. She is entirely well
now, and without knife and without
5 any surgery" So that case has come
to me, and there are score of other
, cases coming to our ears from all parts
of the earth. O. We who are sick, 60 to
Christ! O, We who are worn out with
5 agonies of body, least thy burden upor
r the Lord and He shall sustain thee!"
( Another burden some have to carry |!
r the burden of bereavement. All! thess
I are the troubles that wear us out l,
we lose our property, by additional in
, dustry perhaps, we may bring back the
I, estranged fortune; if we lose our goot
name, perhaps by reformation of morals
we NAV achieve again reputation for in
r tegrity: but who will bring back thu
i dear departed? Alas! me for these emp
: tv cradles and these trunks OF childish
u toys that will never be used again
Alas! me for the empty chair and thu
silence in the halls that will never ech'
again to those familiar footsteps. Alas
for the cry of widowhood and orphanage
What bitter Marahs in the wilderness
: what cities of the dead what long blacl
y shadow from the wing of death, wha
f ewes sunken with grief, what hand
}. tremulous with bereavement, what in
G struments of music shut now becaus
a there are no fingers to play on them
:, Is there no relief for such souls? Aye
L let the soul ride into the harbor of IN,
% text.
y The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repost
!. | will not. will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell Shall endeavor
& shake,
), I'll never no never, no never !orsakc.
4 Now, the grave is brighter than tn
ancient tomb where the lights were pei
petually kept burning. The SCARE
IL feet of Him who was "the resurrection
n and the life" are on the broken grav
n hillock. while the voices of angels rim
Y down the sky at the coronation of an
n other soul come home to glory.
7 Then there are many who carry tn
~ burden of sin. All, we all carry it unit
- in the appointed way that burden
Is lifted. We need no Bible to prove tina
E. the whole race is ruined. What a spec
1t tacle it would be if we could tear o.
n the mask of human defilement, or bea
drum that would bring up the Who'll
st army ofthe worlds transgressions-th
" deception, the fraud, and the rapint
and the murder, and the crime of a
:, the centuries! Ay, if I could sound tn
~ trumpet of resurrection in the soul
- - al n