The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1892-10-28
ofGod
LINooLN's WISE DELAY.


yourself A year before Abraham Lin
coin signed the proclamation Of enamel
patton the White House was thronget
with committees and associations, minis
ters and laymen, advising the president
to make that proclamation. But he wait
sd 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
Slidell, were taken off an English vessel
by the United States government. Don't
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 H. Seward saw the finger of
God leading in just the opposite direc-
ton, and the Confederates were given
up and we avoided war with England,
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
call you fool. There has never been a
man or woman who amounted to any
thing that has not sometimes been called
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 a man. Suppose his business
collapses. Suppose he buys goods and
cannot sell them. Suppose by new in
vention others can furnish the same
goods at less price. Suppose COLI
spring or late autumn or the comm,
Of an epidemic corners man, and HI
notes come due and he cannot meet
them, and his rent must be paid and
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 Up
and struggles on until, after awhile,
crash goes the whole concern.
BETTER TREASURES THAN MONEY.
He stands wandering and saying: 81
do not see the meaning of all this. !
have done the best could. God knows
| would pay my debts if l could, but
here l 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-
gether for good and kindred passages?
That is well. But he needs to do some
thing besides read the Scriptures. He
needs to 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 west
or north or south so certainly as the
finger Of God is pointing that troubled
man to higher and better spiritual re-
sources than he has ever enjoyed. There
are men If 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 it. 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 freproof safe shut
because of a new roll Of securities he
put in there just before locking up at
night; if he be specializing in falling
market or rising market and things
take for him right turn, 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-
verified to God, probably, than in any
year since Christ was born? It was the
defalcations and bankruptcy that swept /
American prosperity SO fiat that it could
fall no fatter. l 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 60 into the kingdom !
under one set Of circumstances as an
other. They are deadbeats wherever
they are, The only way to get rid of /
them is to lend them dollar and you |
will never see them again. l have tried |
that plan and it works well. But am
speaking of the effect of misfortune on
high spirited men. Nothing but trial
will turn such men from earth to heaven.
1t is only through clouds and darkness
. VI whirlwind of disaster such man
can see The finger of God.
NERCIES NOT ACCIDENTS
A most interesting as well as most
useful study is to watch the pointing of
the finger of God. In the Seventeenth
century South Carolina was yielding
rosin and turpentine and tar as her chief
productions. But Thomas Smith noticed
that the ground near his house in
Charleston was very much like the places
in Madagascar where he had raised rice,
and some of the Madagascar rice was
sown there and grew 80 rapidly that
South Carolina was led to make rice her
chief production. Can you not see the
finger of God in that incident? Rev.
John Fletcher, of England, many will
know, was one of the useful ministers
of the Gospel who ever preached. Be-
fore conversion he Joined the army and
had bought his ticket on the ship for
South America. The morning he was
to sail some one spilled on him kettle
of water, and he was so scalded he could
not go. He was very much disappoint-
ed, but the ship he was going to sail on
went out and was never heard of again
Who can doubt that God was arranging
the life Of John Fletcher? Was it
merely accidental that Richard Rodda,
a Cornish miner, who was on his knees
praying, remained unhurt, though heavy
stones fell before him and behind him,
and on either side of him, and another
fell on top of these SO as to make a roof
over him?
A missionary in Jamaica lost his way,
and in the night was wandering about,
when a FREELY flashed and revealed a
precipice over which in moment more
he would have been dashed F. w.
robertson, the great preacher of Brigh-
ton, England, had his life work decided
by the barking of his dog. A neighbor