The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1891-07-10

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pride In his owner, shall not we immor
tails exult In the fact that we are owned
by Kingi Hath the rain father9'
Again, my subject teaches me tina,
Gods dealings with us are inexplicable
That was the original force of my text
The rain was a great mystery to the
ancients. They could not understand
how the water should get into the cloud
and getting there, how It should bt
suspended, or falling, why 1t 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,
and the one portion of air decreases in
temperature so the water may no longe,
be held in vapor and it falls. And thew
tell us that some of the clouds that look
to be only as large as mans hand.
and to be almost quiet in the heavens.
are great mountains of mist four thou.
sand feet from base to top. and that
they rush miles minute.
But after all the brilliant experiments
of DIR. James Hutton and Saussure and
other scientists, there is an infinite mys-
terry about the rain. There is an ocean
of the unfathonable in every raindrop,
and God says today as he said in the
time of Job, IF you cannot under
stand one drop of rain, do not be sur
prised if my dealings with you are in
applicable. Why does that aged man,
decrepit. beggared, vicious, sick of the
world, and the world sick of him, live
on, while here is man in midlife, con-
secrated to God, hard working, useful
in every respect, who dies?
Why does that old gossip, gadding
along the street. about everybody's
business but her own, have such good
health, while the Christian mother,
with flock of little ones about her
whom she is 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 a cancer9 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 cent. of all his income to God and
the church goes into bankruptcy
Before we make stark fools of our
selves let us stop pressing this everlast-
ing "why." Let us worship where we
cannot understand. Let a man take
that one question, ''Whya" and follow
it far enough, and push it. and he will
land in wretchedness and perdition.
We want in our theology fewer inter
rogation marks and more exclamation
points. Heaven is the place for expla
nation. Earth is the place for trust.
If you cannot understand so minute
hing as raindrop, how can you ex-
,ect to understand Gods dealings?
Hath the rain father?"
JUDGE NOT BY FEEBLE SENSE.
Again, my text makes me think that
he rain of tears is of diyirA stic;n.
Treat clouds Of trouble sometimes |
lover over us. They are black, and
hey are gorged, and they are thunder
'us. They are more portentous than
or Claude ever painted
LIQUIDS of poverty or persecution or be-
They hover over u.s. and
.et darker and blacker, and after a
While a tear starts, and we think by an
xtra pressure of the eyelid to stop it.
others follow, and after while there is
shower of fearful emotion. Yea,
here is rain of tears. Hath that
ain father?'
"Oh." you say, "a tear is nothing but
drop of limpid fluid secreted by the
achrymal glands only sign of weak
yes" Great mistake. 1t is one of the
ord s richest benedictions to the world.
here are people in Blackwell's Island
lsane asylum, and at Utica, and at all
lie asylums of this land, who were de-
rented by the fact that they could not
y at the right time. Said maniac in
ne of our public institutions, under a
ospel sermon that started the tears:
Do you see that tear9 That is the first
have wept for twelve years. Think it
i'll help my brain"
There are great many in the grave
no could not stand any longer under
le glacier of trouble. If that glacier
I'd only melted into weeping they
'uld have endured it. There have
zen times in your life when you would
I've given the world, if you had pos I
ssed it, for one tear. You could ,
rick, you could blaspheme, but you
uld not cry. Have you never seen a
an holding the hand of dead wife,
no had been all the world to him9 ,
ne temples livid with excitement, the
g dry and frantic, no moisture on the
,per or lower lid. You saw there were
Its of anger in the cloud but no rain.
To your Christian comfort he said, ;
Don't talk me about God; there is no
ID; or If there is l hate him; don't {
Tx to me about God; would he have I
It me and these motherless childreng"
1T a few hours or days after, coming
ross some lead pencil that she owned 6