Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-09-29

Norka, Lord Tod AlmightyF
NONE ARE TOO WEAK.
Again, my text teaches me that insig-
nificance is no excuse for inaction. This
spider that Solomon saw on the wall
might have said: II can't weave a web
worthy OF this great palace; what can do
amid all this gold embroidery | am not
able to make anything fit for so grand q
place, and so will not work my spinning
jenny" Not so said the spider "The
spider taketh hold with her hands" Oh.
what lesson that is for you and mel You
say If you had some great sermon to
preach, II you only had a great audience
to talk to, IL you had a great army to mar
shal, II you only had a constitution to
write, If there was some tremendous thing
in the world for you to do-then you would
show rs. Yes, you would show usl
What il the Levite in the ancient temple
had refused to snuff the candle because he
could not be high priest2 What If the
humming bird should refuse to sing its
song into the ear OF the honeysuckle be-
cause 1t cannot, like the eagle, dash its
wing into the sum- What if the raindrop
should refuse to descend because it is not
a Niagara2 What if the spider of the text
should refuse to move its shuttle because
it cannot weave a Solomon's robe2 Away
with such follyl II you are lazy with the
one talent you would be lazy with the ten
talents. II Milo cannot lift the calf he
never will have strength to lift the OK. In
the Lords army there is order for promo
tion, but you cannot be a general until you
have been captain, lieutenant and a
colonel 1t is step by step, it is inch by
inch, it is stroke by stroke that our Chris
tian character is builded. Therefore be
content to DO what God commands you
TO do.
God is not ashamed to do small things.
He is not ashamed to be found chiseling a
grain Of sand. or helping a honeybee to
construct its cell with mathematical ae-
curacy, or tingeing a shell in the surf, or
shaping the bill of chaffinch. What God
does he does well. What you do, do well,
be it great work or small work. If ten
talents, employ all the ten. If five talents,
employ all the five. If one talent, employ
the one. If only the thousandtb part of
talent, employ that. BE thou faithful
unto death, and will give thee the crown
of life" tell you if you are not faithful
to God In a small sphere you would be in
dolent and insignificant in large sphere.
Again, my text teaches me that repul-
siveness and loathsomeness will sometimes
climb up into very elevated places. You
would have tried to have killed the spider
that Solomon saw. You would have said:
"This is no place for it. If that spider is
determined to weave a web, let it do so
down in the cellar of this palace or in some
dark dungeon" Ali the spider of the text
could not be discouraged. It clambered
ON, and climbed up, higher and higher
and higher, until after awhile it reached
the kings vision, and he said "The spider
taketh hold with her hands and is in
kings palaces" And SO it often is now
that things that are loathsome and repul-
sive get up into very elevated places.
The church Of Christ, for instance, is
palace. The King of heaven and earth
lives in it. According to the Bible her
beams are of cedar, and her rafters Of fir,
and her windows of agate, and the foun.
tains of salvation dash rain of light. It
is a glorious palace-the church of God is;
and yet sometimes unseemly and loath-
some things creep up into it-evil speak
ing and rancor and SANDER and backbit-
ing and abuse, crawling up on the walls
of the church, spinning a web from arch
to arch, and from the top of one commu-
MON tankard to the top of another COM
munion tankard. Glorious palace in which
there ought only to be light and love and
pardon and grace; yet spider in the pal
acel
THE CHRISTIAN HOME.
Home ought to be a castle. 1t ought to
be the residence of everything royal Kind.
ness, love, peace. patience and forbearance
ought to be the princes residing there; and
yet sometimes dissipation crawls up into
that home and the jealous eye comes up,
and the scene of peace and plenty becomes
the scene of domestic jargon and disso
nance. You say, What is the matter
with the homer" I will tell you what is
the matter with it. Aspider in the palace.
A well developed Christian character is
grand thing to look at. You see some
man with great intellectual and spiritual
proportions. You say: How useful that
man must be" But you find, amid all his
splendor of faculties, there is some preju.
dice, some whim, some evil habit that a
great many people do not notice, but that
you have happened to notice, and it is grad
ually spelling that mans characterize is
gradually going to injure his entire infu-
ence. Others may not see it, but you are
anxious in regard to his welfare, and now
you discover it. A dead fly in the oint-
ment. A spider in the palace.
Again, my text teaches me that perse-
verance will mount into the kings palace,
1t must have seemed long distance for
that spider to climb in Solomon's splendid
residence, but it started at the very foot OF
the wall and went up over the panels of
Lebanon cedar, higher and higher, until it
stood higher than the highest throne in all
the nations-Jhe throne of Solomon. And
so God has decreed it that many of those
who'are down in the dust of sin and dis
honor shall gradually attain to the Kings
palace. We see it in worldly things.
Who is that banker in Philadelphia
Why, he used to be the boy that held the
horses of Stephen Girard while the mil
Gonaire wen in to collect his dividends.
Arkwright tolls on up from a barber's
shop until he gets into the palace of inven-
tion. Sextus V tolls on up from the office
of swineherd until he gets into the pal
ace Of Rome. Fletcher tolls on up from
the most insignificant family position un-
til he gets into the palace of Christian elo-
quence. Hogarth, engraving pewter pots
for a living, tolls on up until he reaches
the palace of world renowned art.
And God hath decided that though you
may be weak of arm and slow of tongue,
and be struck through with great many
mental and moral deficits, by his almighty
grace you shall yet arrive in the Kings
palace-not such one as is spoken Of in
the text, not one of marble, not one adorned
with pillars of alabaster and thrones of
ivory and fagons Of FURNISHED gold, but
palace in which God is the King and the
angels of heaven are the cupbearers.
The spider crawling up the wall of Solo
mons palace was not worth looking after
or considering as compared with the fact