The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1892-01-28


self all day long. There is nothing bu
shadow. How slow we are to realize tina
the storm is from God and the darkness
from God and the chill from God. Or WI
buy the day before the market retreats, OF
we make au investment that never pays, OF
we purchase goods that we cannot dispose
OF. or a crop of grain we sowed IS ruined
by drought or freshet, or WAea we took ac'
count of stock on the first of January we
fou,nd ourselves thousands of dollars worse
off than we expected. Who under such cir
cumstances says 'Tbis loss IS from God.
must have been allowed to go into that I'M
fortunate enterprise for some good reason;
C;nd controls the east wind as well as the
west wind"
NV friends, | cannot look for one moment
on that retrograds shadow OF Ahazs dial
| without learning that God controls the shad-
ows and that lesson we need ell to learn
| That He controls the sunshine Is not SO nee
essary lesson, for anybody can he happy
when things go right. When you sleep
EIGHT hours night and rise with an appetite
| that cannot easily wait for breakfast and
YOU go over to the store and open your man
to read more orders than you can ill, and in
the next letter you find dividend far larger
than you have been promised, and your
| neirhhor comes in to tell you some Hitter
| inc thine he has lust heard said about you,
| and YOU find that all the styles of goods In
which YOU deal have advanced fifteen per
| cent in value, and on your way
home you meet your children In run
romp and there are roses on the center OF
the tea table and roses of health IN cheeks
all round the table, what more DO you want
of consolation? l don't pity you bit You
feel as if YOU could boss the world But-for
those in lust opposite circumstances my text
comes in with an omnipotence OF meaning.
The shadow Oh, the shadow Shadow of
bereavement Shadow OF sicknessl Shadow
of bankruptcy Shadow of mental de-
pressioni Shadow OF persecution Shadow
and tell the people that God manages the
shadowl As Hezekiah sat In his palace
wrapped in invalidism and surrounded by
anodYnes and cataplasmS and looked
out upon the black hand of the
only clock known at that time and saw
it move back ten degrees, he learned a
lesson that a majority of the human race
need this hour to learn-that the best friend
a man ever had controls the shadow. The
setbacks are sometimes the best things that
can happen The great German author,
Schiller, could not work unless he had IN his
room the scent of rotten apples, and the de-
cay of the fruits Of earthly prosperity may
become an inspiration instead oil depres-
sion Robert Chambers's lame feet shut MIN
UP from other work, and he became the
world renowned publisher, and helped fash
ron the best literature of the ages. The
painful disorder like that of Hezekiah called
n carbuncle is spelled exactly the same as
the precious stone called the car
buncle, and the pang OF suffering
may become the jewel OF immortal value
Your setback, like that of Ahaz's sundial,
may be recovery and triumph. never had
a setback but it turned out to be set for
ward, You never would have become
Christian if YOU had not had a setback. The
highest thrones in heaven are for the set
backs. In 1861 The shadow of the sundlal OF
this nation vas seU bach and all things
seemed goir., to ruin, and 1t vas set back
Further +, 1862, and further in 1862, and still
rnrther in 1865, but there is not al intel
ligenG and well balanced man-north ~
sonth. east or west-but feels it was set back
toward the sunrise.
But promise to show you how the shaw
ows might be turned back. First, by going
much among the young people. In most
family circles there are grandchildren. by
this divine arrangement most Of the people
who have passed the meridian of life can
themselves by juvenility. 1t is
bad thing for an old man or old woman to
sit looking at the vivacity of their grand
children shouting, ''Stop that racketw
Better ioin in the fun. Let the eighty-year-
old grandfather join the eight-year-old
grandson or granddaughter. My father ana
mother lived to see over eighty children aud
a more boisterous crew were never turned
out on this sublunary sphere, and they all
seemed to cry to the old folks keep
and they did keep young. Don't
walk with a cane unless you have to or only
as a defence in city afflicted WIN
too many CANNES. DON'T wear glasses
stronger than necessary, putting on num-
Der tens when eighteens Will 40 as Wei
Don't 90 into the company OF those who are
ALWAYS talking about rheumatism and lum-
bago and shortness of breath and the brevity
of human life. 1t is too much for my gravity
to hear an octogenarlan taking ABOUT Uhe
of human life. From all | can find
out he has always been here and from present
prospects he is always going to stay KEENAN,
young. Hang up your stockings IN CHRISTMAS
time. Help the boys fly the kite. Teach the
Girls how to dress their dolls. Better than
arnica for your stiff joints and catnlp tea
for your sleepless nights will be large dose
of youthful companlonshlp.
Set back the clock of human life. Make
the shadow of the sundial OF Ahaz retreat
ten degrees. People make themselves oid
by always talking about being Old ana
wishing for the good old days, which were
never as good as these days. From all can
hear the grandchildren are not half as bad
as the grandparents were. Matters nave
been hushed up. But if you have ever been
in a room adjoining room where some very
old people, a little deaf, were talking over
old times, you will find that this age does not
monopolze all the young rascas. 1t may
now be hard to get young people up early
enough in the morning, but their grandpa
rents always had to be pulled out OF bed.
1t is wrong now to play mischevious tricks on
the unsuspecting but eighty years ago at
school that now venerable man sat down on
a crooked pin not accidently placed there,
and purposely drove the sleigh riding party
too near the edge OF the embankment that
he might see how they would look when
tumbled into the snow. And that man VINO.
has SO little patience with childish exuoer-
ance was in olden times up to pranks, one
half of which if practiced by the eight-year-
old of to-day would set grandfather and
grandmother crazy. Revive your renem.
brance of what you were between five and
ten years OF age, and with patience capable
OF everything join with the young. Put back
the shadow of the dial not ten degrees, but
fifty and sixty and seventy degrees.
Set back your clocks also by entering on
new and absorbing Christian work In our
desire to inspire the young we have III our
essays had much to say about what has
been accomplished by the young; OF Ro-
muus, who founded Rome when he was
twenty years of age; of Cortes who had con-
,,,.rad MaxioO at thirty wears. of Pitt