The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1892-02-11

process OF O0VcIOpmcuts 8uV - - tuc llt-
tie annoyances and vexat!ons OF life that
are chiseling out your immortal nature
1t is click, click, click! wonder why
some great providence does not come,
and with one stroke prepare you for
Heaven. All, no. God says that is not
the way. And so he keeps on by strokes
of little annoyances, little sorrows, little
vexations, until at last you shall be a
glad spectacle for angels and for men.
We must bring the religion OF Christ
into our commonest blessings. When
the autumn comes and the harvests are
in. and the Governors make prOclama-
ton, we assemble in churches and we
are very thankful. But every day
ought to be thanksgiving day. We do
not recognize the common mercies OF
life. We have to see blind man led by
his dog before we begin to tethink our
selves of what grand thing it is to have
eyesight We have to see some one
afflicted with ST. Vitus' dance before
we are ready to thank God for the con-
troll of our physical energies. We have
to see some wounded man hobbling on
his crutch or with his empty coat sleeve
pinned up before we learn to think
what a grand thing God did for US when
he gave US healthy use of our limbs.
We are so stupid that nothing but the
misfortunes of others can rouse US up to
our blessings. AS the OK grazes in the
pasture up to its eyes in clover, yet never
thinking who makes the clover, and as
the bird picks up the worm from the
furrow, not knowing that it is God who
makes everything, from the animalcula
in the sod to the seraph on the throne.
so we go on eating, drinking and enjoy
ing, but never thanking or seldom thank
ing: or, if thanking at all, with only
half heart
l compared our indifference to the
brute; but perhaps wrOnged the brute.
l do not know but that, among its other
instincts, it may have an instinct by
which it recognizes the divine hand that
feeds it. do not know but that God is,
through it, holding communication with
what we call Irrational creation" The
cow that stands under the willow by the
water course chewing its cud looks very
thankful, and who can tell how much
bird means by its song?
The aroma of the flowers smells like
incense. and the mist arising from the
river looks like the smoke of morning
sacrifice. Oh, that we were as respon-
sive Yet who thanks God for the water
that gushes up in the well, and that
foams in the cascade, and that laughs
over the rocks, and that patters in the
showers, aud that claps it's hands in the
sea? Who thanks God for the air, the
fountain of life, the bridge of sunbeams,
the path of sound, the great fan on
hot summers day? Who thanks God
fD &c fn1 MI
this sweep of the visions, this chime of
harmony struck into the ear, this soft
tread of myriad delights over the nerv-
Gus tissue, this rolling of the crimson
tide through artery and vein, this drum
ming of the heart on our march to i'm
mortality? We take all these things as
a matter of course.
But suppose God should withdraw
these common blessings! Your body
would become an inQuisltion of torture,
the cloud would refuse rain, and the
earth would crack open under your feet.
The air would cease it's healthful circu
latlon, pestilence would swoop. and every
house would become place of skulls.
Streams would first swim with vermin
and then dry up, and thirst and hunger
and anguish and despair would lift their
scepters. and compare such life as that
with the life you live this morning with
your families about you! Is it not time
that with every word of our lips and
with every action of our lives. we began
to acknowledge these everyday mercies?
whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever
ye do, do all to the glory of God" Do
address man or woman this morning
who has not rendered to God one single
offering of thanks?
l was preaching one Thanksgiving
Day and announced nv text, 'Oh. give
thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; for
His mercy endureth forever" do not
know whether there was any blessing or
the sermon or not, but the text went
straight to a young mans heart. He
said to himself, as read the text: oh,
give thanks unto the Lord, for He is
good'-Why, have never rendered Him
any thanks. Oh. what an migrate have
been!" Can it be. my brother, that you
have been fed by the good hand of God
all these days-that you have had cloth.
ing and shelter and all benefcent sur.
and vet have never offered
your heart to God?
Oh, let sense of the divine goodness
shown you in the everyday blessings
melt your heart, and if you have never
before uttered one earnest note OF
let this be the day which |
shall hear your song. What / say to one !
l say to all of this audience. Take this |
practical religion l have recommended |
into your everyday life. Make every
day Sabbath and every meal sacra- |
ment and every room you enter holy OF |
holes. We all have work to do: let us |
be willing to do it. We all have sor-
rows to bear: let us cheerfully bear |
them. We all have battles to fight; let |
us courageously fight them.
If you want to die right you must live |
right. Negligence and Incidence will |
win the hiss of everlasting scorn. while
will gather its garlands ano |
wave its scepter, and sit upon its throne
long after this earth has put on ashes
and eternal ages have begun their
march. You 60 home to-day and atteno
to your little sphere of duties I will &C
home and attend to my little sphere OF