Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-02-08

were EStraitened IN circumstances now
hold the bonds and the bank
the most bows on the exchange
OF all tickle people in the world Fortune
is the most tickle. Every day she changes
her mind. and woe to that man who puts
any confidence in what she promises or
proposes. She cheers when you go up and
she laughs when you come down. Oh,
trust not moment your hearts affections
to this changeable world. Anchor your
soul in God. From Christ's love gather
your Joy. Then come sorrow or gladness,
success or defeat, riches or poverty, honor
or disgrace, health or sickness. life or
death, time or eternity, all are yours and ye
are Christ's and Christ's is Gods.
Learn also from my subject the comfort
ing truth that Affections are arrested as
soon as they have accomplished their mis-
sion. For seven years did NebuchadneZzar
dwell among the beasts of the field, but, at
the expiration of that time, his reason re-
turned, and, as soon IS with proper humll-
ity he acknowledged the God of heaven, he
was brought back to his palace and rein
stated in his former affiuence and power.
Now, it does seem that when heavy trials
come upon us, tits as though they had no
limit. We exclaim: ''All thy waves and
thy pillows have gone over me-" but forget
that the depth of that sea and the power of
that billow are definitely determined God
sees how much our pride is and he sends
just enough adversely to humble 1t. he
sees just how worldly minded we are and
pulls US just hard enough to detach us from
our follies.
He sees how hard our heart is and smites
Just hard enough to break it. He sees how
our eyes have been blinded and he cutS
only just enough to remove the scales from
our spiritual vision. As soon as Abraham s
faith is sufficiently tried the lamb is pro-
vided. AS soon as Pharaoh consents to let
the chilaren of Israel depart, the plaques
pause. As soon as the lsraehteS have been
sufficiently disciplined by their wanderingS,
they find their way into Canaan. But to
some the limit is not set in this life. Their
whole pilgrimage is through the wilderness
and the world is to them a valley of tears.
But, perhaps, God has special throne in
heaven that no ordinary saint can occupy,
and by extraordinary trials he has prepared
that Christian soul for extraordinary. glory.
God will not keep YOU in the furnace one
moment too long. Just as soon rs Paul had
met with enough Imprisonment and scourg-
ings he reached up and plucked his eternal
crown. God will keep us no longer under
the hammer and on the stocks than is nee
esSary to fit US for entrance into the haven
of eternal rest. Glory be to the divine
grace that, as soon as our Affections have
accomplished their mission, they are ar
rested.
The defeats and sorrows of life have
sometimes been the greatest advantage. 1t
was because Dante failed as a statesman
that he gave up politics, and wrote his I'M
mortal Divina Ccmmedia. It was a violent
thunder storm that first set Martin Luther
seriously thinking, and the thunder of this
worlds disaster has started many q refora
nation. James Y. Simpson went from a
surgeons operating table to experiment
and see if he could not find something that
would alleviate human pain, and he kept on
until he had discovered chloroform as an
an8sthetic, and the story of distress has al
most always been followed by the story of
rescue. For many years after Shake
speare's death his work was so little ap-
preciated that in 1866 there was only one
edition of his works, and that of only 300
copies in existence, and that edition was
nearly all burned in the great London fire.
But forty-eight copies had been sold out of
the city and those forty-eight copies saved
Shakespeare for all nations, and all time.
Your suppression on smaller scale may
last good while, but for all you are worth
you will yet shine out on earth or in
heaven.
Again, learn from my subject that con-
nected with the most distressing judgments
of God there are displays of divine mercy.
God might justly have left ACKNOWLEDGMENT
in the field, but infinite compassion brought
him back to the palace. No sooner was
Eden blasted than blessing followed on
the heels of the curse promising the coming
of one who would destroy sin and make the
whole world a paradise. The deluge de-
scendS, but not until Noah had invited the
people into the ark. The destroying angel
comes upon Egypt for the shifting of the
first born, but left unmolested every house
whose door was sprinkled with the blood of
sacrifice. Fiery tempests bear down upon
sAla hut NJ arrafi hnr-
warned Lot and his family to fee from the
destruction. Jerusalem was utterly de-
stroyed, but not until jeremiah had sounded
an alarm, bidding them turn from their
On the darkest cloud of wrath there is a
rainbow of mercy. Zachariah in his pro-
phetic vision beheld four chariots, sym
bolical of Gods government. The first
chariot was drawn by red horses; they in
Dictated the wars that were coming. The
second chariot was drawn by black horses
they indicated the coming OF famine and
pestileuce The third chariot was drawn
by white horses; they indicated the spotless
purity of his couquestS. But mark well 1
that the fourth chariot was drawn by horsesf
"grisled and bay" denoting that mercy wasA
mixed with all the desolating judgments of
God. Sinai cannot thunder so loud as to
drown the invitations of Calvary. The
Lord utters the admonition, 'The wages of
sin is death" but exhaustless mercy re-
spends: Deliver him from going down
to the pit, for 1 have found ransom. "
Hide thee quick in the rock Christ jesus
Let not this insignificant snow" Absorb
thee more than the great hereafter The
path leading to this side of the grave Is only
a few furlongs, but the path which coIti-1l
neuces at the other side of it is without
end.
The powers of darkness gather about
your soul, and the temptations of an evil
heart, and the allurements of the world
know are trying to drown the voice of the
preacher. but, taking hold of the silver
trumpet of the gospel which made Felix
lremble, and at the Pentecost broughSe1
three thousand souls out of their sepulchre,
would blow one long, loud blast, crying:
whatsoever will, let him come"
Take this goodly religion which has done
80 much for me that l can commend it to
Ill Without 1 should have gone the whole
downward career. Stolid and phlegmatic
natures going aStray do not go so far. but
natures like mine, sanguine, intense, emo
lional, optimistic, social to the last degree. 4
and echoing 10 all the heights and depths of
nirth. if they get OF track, they go with
me wild leap to nell. As to the restraining
power of this religion upon a mercurial
1 testify. This is not alb
'traction or something gotten from books.
speak CT what know. Go out and ask
Ill who have tried this religion and ask
hem how it works. Three young men in
factory came out on the Lords side, but
5wo of them, overcome by the jeers of
heir comrades, went back and joined the
,coffers