The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-10-25

our environments we have no more re-
sponsibility than we have for the mol
lusks at the bottom of the Atlantic
ocean. Oh. | am so glad that there are
about five hundred thousand things that
we are not responsible for! Do not blame
rs for being in our manner cold as an
iceberg or nervous as a cat amid pack
of Fourth of July trecrackers. If you
are determined to blame somebody
blame our great-grandfathers or great
grandmothers who died before the RevO-
lutionary war. and who may have had
habits depressing and ruinOus. There
are wrong things about us all which
make me think that one hundred and
fifty years ago there was some terrible
crank in orr ancestral line. Realize
that and it will be relief semi-infinite.
Let US take ourselves as we are this mo-
ment, and then ask which way" Get
all the direction you can from careful
and constant study of the Bible, and
then look mp and look ont and look
around and see if you can find the finger
of God.
LINCOLN'S WISE DELAY.
1t is a remarkable thing that some
times no one can see that finger but
yourself. \ year before Abraham Lin
coin signed the proclamation of enamel
patton the White House was thronged
with committees and associations. minis
tiers and laymen, advising the president
to make that proclamation. But he wait
ed and waited. amid scott and anathema,
because he did not himself see the finger
of God. After awhile, and at just the
right time. he saw the divine pointing
and signed the proclamation. The dis
tinguished COnfederates, Mason and
Slide!l, were taken off an English vessel
by the United States government. Don
give them up" shouted all the northern
states. Let us have war with England
rather than surrender them" was the al
most unanimous cry of the north. But
William II. Seward saw the finger OF
God leading in just the opposite direc-
ton. and the Confederates We're given
up and we avoided war with Eng land,
which at that time would have been the
demolition of the United States govern
ment. In other words, the finger of God
as it directs You may be invisible to
everybody else. Follow the divine point
ing as you see it, although the world may
man or woman who amounted to any
thing that has not sometimes been called
n fool Nearly all the mistakes that You
and have made have come from our
following the pointing of some other fin
ger instead of the finger of God. But,
now, suppose all forms of disaster close
in upon man. Suppose his business
collapses. Suppose he buys goods ard
cannot sell them. Suppose by new in
ventiOn others can furnish the same
goods at less price. Suppose a cold
spring or Il late autumn or the coming
of an epidemic corners a man, and his
notes come due and he cannot meet
them. and his rent must be paid ana
there is nothing with which to pay it.
and the wages of the employees are due
and there is nothing with which TO meet
that obligation, and the bank will not
discount, and the business friends to
whom he goes for accommodation are in
the same predicament, and he bears uL
and struggles on until, after awhile,
crash goes the whole concern.
BETTER TREASURES THAN MONEY.
He stands wandering and saying: Il
do not see the meaning of all this. !
have done the best l could. God knows
| would pay NV debts if | could, but
here | am hedged in and stopped.
What should that man do in that case:
Go to the Scriptures and read the
promise about all things working to-
Cetucr for good and kindred passages:
That is well. But he needs TO do some
thing besides read the Scriptures. He
needs 10 look for the finger Of GOD that
is pointing toward better treasures: that
is pointing toward eternal release; that is
urging him to higher realms. No human
finger ever pointed to the east or Yves.
or north or south so certainly IS the
finger of God Is pointing that troubled
man to higher and better spiritual re-
sources than he has ever enjoyed. There
are men of vast wealth who are as rich
for heaven as they are for this world,
but they are exceptions. If a man
grows in grace, it is generally before he
gets 100000 or after he loses 1t. If
man has plenty of railroad securities
and has applied TO his banker for more;
if the lots he bought have gone up fifty
per cent. in value: if he had hard work
to get the door of his fireproof safe shut
because of a new roll of securities he
put in there just before locking up at
night: if he be specializing i'll falling
market or a rising market and things
take for him Il right tSrn, he does not
grow in grace very much that week. Do
you know what made the great revival
of 1857, when more people were con
verted to God. probably, than in any
year since Christ was born? 1t was the
defalcations and bankruptcy that swept
American prosperity so fiat that it could
fall no fatter. | am speaking of whole
souled men. Such men are so broken
by calamity that they are humbled and
fly to God for relief. Men who have no
spirit and never expect anything are not
much affected by financial changes,
They are as apt to go into the kingdom
under one set of circumstances as all
other. They are deadbeats wherever
they are. The only way to get rid of
them is to lend them a dollar and you
will never see them again have tried