The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-01-22

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| you may make the shadow of your dial
like the shadow on the dial of Ahaz tc
stop going forward and make it &c
backward.
While looking at the sun dial OF
Hezekiah and we find the shadow re-
treating, we ought to learn that God
controls the shadows We are all
ready to acknowledge His management
of the sunshine. We stand in the glow
of bright morning and we say in our
feelings if not with so many words:
''This life is from God, this warmth is
from God" Or, we have a rush of pros
perity and we say: "These successes
are from God. What a providential
thing it was l bought that lot just be-
fore the rise of real estate. How CRATE
full to God l am that l made that in
vestmentl Why. they have declared
ten per cent. dividend! What mercy
it was that l sold out my shares before
that COLLAPSED"
o, yes; we acknowledge God in the
sunshine of bright day or the sun
shine of a great prosperity. But sup
pose the day is dark? You have to
light the gas at noon. The sun does
not show himself all day long. There
is nothing but shadow. How slow we
are to realize that the storm is from
God and the chill from God. Or, we
buy the day before the markets re-
treat, or we make an investment that
never pays, or we purchase goods that
we cannot dispose of, or a crop of grain
we sowed is ruined by drought or
freshet or when we took account of
stock on the first of January we found
ourselves thousands of dollars worse
off than we expected.
Who under such circumstances says:
This loss is from God. / must have
been allowed to go into that unfor-
tunate enterprise for some good reason;
God controls the east wind as we'll as
the west wind?" My friends 1 cannot
look for one moment on that retrograde
shadow on Ahaz's dial without learn
ing that God controls the shadows and
the lesson we need all to learn, that he
controls the sunshine, is not so neces-
sary lesson, for anybody can be happy
when things go right.
When you sleep eight hours a night
and rise with an appetite that cannot
easily wait for breakfast and you go
over to the store and open your mail to
read more orders than You can fill, and
in the next letter you find dividend
far larger than you have been promised,
and your neighbor comes in to tell you
some tlartering thing he has just heard
said about you and you find that all
the styles Of goods in which you deal
have advanced Is per cent. in value, and
on your way home you meet your chill
dren in full romp and there are roses
in the center of the tea ia BILE and roses
Of health in cheeks all around the
table, what more do you want of conso-
lation? l don't pity you bit You
feel as if you could boss the world.
But for those in Just opposite circum-
stances my text comes in with omnipo-
tence of meaning. The shadow! o.
the shadow! Shadow of bereavement!
Shadow of sickness! Shadow of bank
ruptcy! Shadow of mental depression!
Shadow of persecution! Shadow of
death! Speak out, o, sun dial of Ahaz,
and tell all the people that God man
ages the shadow! AS Hezekiah sat in
his palace window wrapped in invalid
ism and surrounded by anodynes and |
ca aplasms and looked out upon the |
black hand of the only clock known at |
that time and saw it move back ten de- |
grees, he learned lesson that a ma
iority of the human race need to lea n |
that the best friend nan ever had |
controls the shadow. The set-backs |
are sometimes the best things that can |
happen.
The painful disorder like that of |
called the carbuncle. is |
spelled exactly the same as the precious |
stone called the .carbuncle, and the |
pang of suffering may become the Jewel |
Of immortal value. Your setback, like |
that of Ahaz's sun dial, may be recov-
cry and triumph. never had a set
back but it turned out to be a set-for-
ward. You never would have become |
a Christian if You had not had a set
back. The highest thrones in Heaven |
are for the set-baclzs. In 1851 the shad-
DIV of the sun dial of this nation was |
set back and all things seemed going
10 ruin, and it was set back further in
1862, and further in 1868, and still further
n 1865, but there is not an intelligent
md we'll balanced man, north or south, |
east or west, but feels it was set back
coward the sunrise.
But promised to show you how the
shadows might be turned back First,
Oy going much among the young peo-
pie. In most family circles there are
By this divine arrange
nent most of the people who have
passed the meridian of life can compass
by juvenility. 1t is bad
hing for an old man or an old woman
o sit looking at the vivacity of their
grandchildren shouting. stop that
'acket"' Better join in the fun. Let
he eeighty-year-old grandfather join the
,ight-year-young grandson or grand
laughter. Don't go into the company
If those who are always talking about
rheumatism AMI lumbago and short
less of breath and the brevity of human
ife
Remain young. Hang up your stock
ngs in Christmas time. Help the boys
ly the kite. Teach the girls how to
lress their dolls. Better than arnica
or your stiff joints and catnip tea for
Tour sleepless nights, will be dose of
youthful companionship. Set back the
lock of human life. Make the shadow
# the sun dial of Ahaz retreat ten de-
-rees. People make themselves old by
always talking about being old and
Wishing for the good old days, which
we're never as good as these days.
From all can hear the grandchildren
re not half as bad as the grandparents