Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1891-07-17

can see him through the microscope; no
more when you look up than when you look
down. Are not the hairs OF your head all
numberedi And II Himalaya has a God,
Hath not the rain a fatherY' / take this
doctrine OF particular Providence, and |
thrust 1t into the very midst Of your every
day life. IL God fathers a raindrop, is there
anything so Insignificant in your affairs that
God will not father thaty
When Druyse tAe gunsmith invented the
needle gun, which decided the battle Of
Sadowa, was il q mere accident, When a
farmers boy showed Butcher a short cut by
which he could bring his army up soon
enough to decide Waterloo for England was
1t mere ACCIDENT When Lord Byron took
piece of money and tossed it up to decide
whether or not he should be affiauced to Miss
Millbank was 1t a mere accident which side
OF the money was up and which was down?
When the Christian army was besged at
Baziers and a drunken drummer came in at
midnight and rang the alarm bell, not know
ing what he was doing, but waking up the
host in time to fight their enemies that mo-
ment arriving, was it was ACCIDENT
When in one OF the Irish wars a starving
mother, flying with her starving child, sank
down and tainted on the rocks in the night
and her hand fell on warm bottle of milk,
did that just happen so' God is either in the
affairs OF men or our religion is worth moth
ing at all and you had better take it away
from us, and instead Of this Bible, which
teaches the doctrine, give us a secular book,
aud let US as the famous Mr. Fox, the mem
Der Of parliament in his last hour. cry out;
Read me the eighth book OF Virgil"
Oh my friends, let us rouse up to an up
probation OF the fact that all the affairs of
our life are under a kings command and un-
der a fathers watch. Alexauder's war
horse, Bucephalus, would allow anybody TO
mount him when he was Embarrassed but as
soon as they put on that war horse, Bucepha-
lus, the saddle and trappings of the con-
queror he would allow no one but Alexander
TO touch him. And If a soulless horse could
have SO much pride in his owner. shall not
we irnmortals exult in the fact that we are
owned by king, Hath the rain father"
Again my subject teaches me that Gods
dealings with US are inexplicable. That was
the original force Of my text. The rain was
great mystery to the ancients. They could
not understand how the water should get
into the cloud, and getting there. how it
should be suspended, or falling, why should
come down in drops. Modern science comes
along and says there are two portions OF air
Of different temperature, and they are
charged with moisture, aud the one portion
OF air decreases in temperature 50 the water
may no longer be held in vapor, and It falls.
And they tells us that some Of the clouds
that look to be only as large as a mans hand,
and to be almost quiet in thu helvenS are
great mountains OF mist four thousand feet
from base to top, and that they rush miles q
minute.
But after all the brilliant experiments OF
DR.. James Hutton, and Saussure, AMI other
scientists there is au infinite mystery about
the rain. There is an OCEAN OF the unfath-
omable in every raindrop, aud God says to-
day He said in the time Of job "lt you
cannot understand one drop Of rain, do not
be surprised If My dealings with you are in
e1plicable.' Why does that aged man, de-
crepit, beggnred, vicious, sick of the world,
and the world sick OF him, live on, while
here is a man in mid life consecrated to
God, hard working, useful in every respect,
who diesi Why does that old gossip, CAD
ding along the street about every oOdy's bus-
ness but her own, have sTch good health,
while the Christian mother, with a flock OF
little ones about her whom she IL preparing
for usefulness and for heaven-the mother
who you think could not be spared an hour
from that household-why does she lie down
and die with cancerf
Why does that man, selfish to the core go
on adding fortune to fortune. consuming
every thing on himself, continue TO prosper,
while that man, who has been giving ten per
sent of all his income to God and the church,
goes into bankruptcy Before we make
stark fools of ourselves, let us stop pressing
{ LllS eVBTIAsIlu. NuO. l)oI TN WI SUPP
where we cannot understand. Let a man
take that one question: Why and follow
1t far enough, aud push it. and he will land
In wretchedness and perditlon. We want IN
our theology fewer interrogation marks and
more exclamation points. Heaven is the
place for explanation. Earth Is the place for
trust. II you cannot understand so minute
a thing as raindrop, how can you expect
to understand Gods dealings' Hath the
rain father
Again. my text makes me think that tho
rain OF tears is of divipe origin. Great
! clouds of trouble sometimes hover over us
! They are black and they are gorged, AMI
they are thunderous. They are moro por-
tentious than Salvador or Claude ever
painted-clouds Of poverty, or persecution,
or bereavement. They hover over US, and
they get darker and blacker, ana atter
awhile tear starts and we think by su
extra pressure OF the eyelid to stop it. 9th
ers follow, aud after awhile there II n show
or OF fearful emotion. Yea, there is rain
Of tears. Hath that rain father"
''Oh." you say, "a tear is nothing but a
drop OF limpid fluid secreted by the lach.
rymal gland-it is only a sign Of weak eyes.
Great mistake. 1t is one OF the Lords rich
est benedictions to the world. There are
people in Blackwelrs Island insane asylum,
and at Utica, and at all the asylums OF this
land, who were demented by the fact that
they could not cry at the right time Said
maniac in one of our public institutions,
under a gospel sermon that started the tears
DO YOU see that teare that is the first
have wept for twelve years. think 1T VIII
help my brain.
There are a great many in the grave wac
could not stand any longer under the glacier
of trouble. IL that glacier had only melted
into weeping they could have endured 1t
There have been times in your life when yoC
would have given the world, il you had pos
sessed 1t, for one tear. You could shrek,
you could blsspheme, but you could not cry
Have you never seen man holding the hanC
OF dead wife, who had been all the worlc
to himf The temples livid with excitement
the eve dry and frantic, no moisture on thu
upper or lower lid. You saw there wer'
bolts of anger in the cloud, but no rain: Tc
your Christian comfort he said, Don,
.alk to me about God; there is no God, or
there is hate Hin; don't talk to me abou
God w 1uld He have left me and these mother
'ess children"
But q few hours or days after, coming
across some lead pencil that she owned II
life, or some letters which she wrote wheI
no was away from home, With an outcry tina
appals, there bursts the fountain OF tears
and as the sunlight of Gods consolation
strikes that fountain of tears you find ou
that 1t is q tender r-hearted, mercttul, pltltu
} and all compassionate God who was til
Father Of that rain. "Oh," you say, "lt
absurd to think that God is going to watc
over tears" No, my friends. There Al
three or four kinds of them that God count
! bottles and eternizes. First there arc q
, parental tears and there are more OF the:
! than any other kind, because the most {
F.. the race die in infancy and that keeps p'
b. rents mourning all around the world. The
7 never get over it They may live TO sho,
{ and sing afterward, but there is always
| corridor in the soul that is silent, though
. once resounded.
: Ny parents never mentioned the death OF
j child who died fifty years before without
tremor in the voice and sigh, oh, how de'
! fetched 1t was better she should die. 1t W
:. a mercy she should die. She would ha
II been lifelong invalid. But you cannot ars
% awav n narentS grief. How often YOU ne