The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-12-09

illness, at the close OF every pdrOxySm
you ought to say: THANK God that all
is past now; thank God that / will
never have to suffer that again; thank
God l am SO much nearer the hour of
liberation" You will never suffer the
same pain twice. You may have new
pain in an old place, but never the
same pain twice. The pain does its
work and then it dies. Just so many
plunges of the crowbar to free the
quarry stone for the building. just so
many strokes of the chisel to complete
the statue. Just so many pangs to
separate the soul from the body. You
who have chronic ailments and disor-
ders, are only paying in installments
that which some of us will have to pay
in one payment when we pay the debt
of nature. Thank God, Hereford, We
who have chronic disorders that you
have so much less suffering at the last
Thank God, that you will have SO much
less to feel in the way of pain at the
hands of the Heavenly Husbandman
when "the shock of corn cometh in in
his season."
Perhaps this may be an answer to a
question which | asked one Sabbath
morning, but did not answer: Why is
it that so many really good people have
SO dreadfully to suffer? You often find
good man with enough pains and
aches and distresses, you would think,
to discipline a whole colony, while
you will find a man who is perfect
ly useless going about with easy di-
gestion and steady nerves and
shining health, and his exit
from the world is comparatively pain
less. How do you explain that? Well,
l noticed in the husking time that the
husking peg was thrust into the corn
and then there must be a stout pull be-
fore the swathing was taken off the
ear, and the full, round, healthy. lux
uriant corn was developed; while on
the other hand there was corn that
hardly seemed worth husking. We
threw that into a place all by itself,
and we called it ''nubbins" Some of
it was widowed, and some of it was
mice-nibbled, and some of it was great
promise and no fulfillment. All cobs
and no corn. Nubbins. After the good
corn had been driven up TO the barn we
came around with the corn basket and
we picked up these nubbins. They
were worth saving, but not worth
much. So all around us there are peo-
pie who amount to comparatively moth
ing. They develop into no kind of
usefulness. They are nibbled on one
side by the world, and nibbled on the
other side by the devil, and widowed
all over. Great promise and no fulfill
ment All cobs and no corn. Nubbinsl
They are worth saving. 1 suppose
many of them will get to Heaven, but
they are not worthy to be mentioned in
the same day with those who went
through great tribulation into the king
drm of our God. Who would not rather
have the pains of this life. the misfor-
tunes of this life-who would not
rather be torn and wounded and
lacerated and wrenched and husl1ed
and at last go in amid the very
best grain of the granary than to be
not worth husking at all?
Nubbins! In other words, l want to
say to you people who have distress of
body and distress in business and dis
tresS of all sorts. the Lord has not any
grudge against you. 1t is not deroga-
tory, it is complimentary. Whom the
Lord loveth he chaStencth,' and it is
proof positive that there is something
valuable in you or the Lord would not
have husked you.
You remember also that in the time
of husking it was a neighborhood re-
union. By the great fireplace in the
winter, the fires roaring around the
glorified back logs on an old-fashioned
hearth, of which the modern stoves
and registers are only the degenerate
descendants, the farmers used to gather
and spend the evening, and there would
be much sociality, but it was not any
thing like the joy of the husl1ing time,
for then all the farmers came, and they
came in the very best humor, and they
came from beyond the meadow, and
they came from beyond the brook, and
they came from regions two and three
miles around. Good spirits reigned
supreme, and there were great
handshaking, and there was
carnival, and there was the recital of
the brightest experiences in all their
lives, and there was neighborhood re-
union the memory of which makes all
the nerves of my body tremble with
emotion. The husking time was the
time of neighborhood reunion, and so
Heaven will be just that There they
come upI They slept in the old village
churchyard There they come up!
They come up from all sides-from Pot
ter's field and out of the solid masonry
of Westminster Abbey They come up!
They come up, All the hindrances to
their better nature husked off. All
their spiritual dependencies husked off
All their hindrances to usefulness
husked off. The grain, the golden
grain, the God fashioned grain, visible
and conspicuous. Some of them on
earth were such disagreeable
Christians you could hardly stand
it in their presence. Now in Heaven
they are so radiant you hardly know
them. The fact is, all their imperfec
tions have been husked off. Now. in
Heaven all their offensiveness has been
husked off Each one is as happy as he
can be. Every one he meets as happy
as he can be. Heaven one great neigh
borhood reunion. Stand at the gate of
the granary and see the grain come in;
out of the frosts into the sunshine, out
of the darkness into the light, out of
the tearing and the ripping and the
twisting and the wrenching and LAGER
ating and the husking time of earth
into the wide open door of the Kings
granary, like as shock of corn COM
eth in in his season"
Yes, Heaven is great sociable, with