The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-10-24

OiA an AllkAlsu vessel uy Lue Onlted states
government. Don't give them up,n
shouted all the northern states. LET US
have war with England rather than sur
render them" was the almost unanimous
cry OF the north. But William II. Seward
saw the finger Of God leading Ia Just the
opposite direction, aud the confederates
we're given up, and we avoided a war with
England, which at that time would have
been the demolition Of the United States
government. In other words, the fluger Of
God as 1t 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 on
woman who amounted TO anything 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 finger, instead
OF the finger OF God. But, now, suppose
all forms Of disaster close in upon q man.
Suppose his business collapses. Suppose he
buys goods and cannot sell them. Suppose
by new invention others can furnish the
same goods at less price. Suppose a cold
spring or a late autumn or the coming Of
an epidemic corners man, and his 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 moth
and the bank will not discount, and the
business friends to whom he goes for ao-
oommodatiou are in the same predicament,
and be bears up and struggles on until,
after a while, ornsh goes the whole concern.
He stands wondering aud saying 81 do
not see the meaning OF all this. have done
the best could. God knows 1 would pay
my debts II 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
together for good and kindred passages.
That is well. But he needs to do something
besides reading the scriptures. He needs 10
look for the finger OF God that Is pointing
toward better treasures, that is point
ing 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
aud better spiritual resources 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
IL man grows in grace, 1t Is generally be-
fore he gets one hundred thousand
dollars or after he loses IL. If a
man have 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; II he had hard work to ges
the door OF his fireproof safe shut because
OF a new roll of securities he put in there
just before locking up at night; IL he be
specializing in falling market or rising
market and things take for him a right
turn, he does net grow In grace very much
that week. Do you know what made the
great revival OF 1857, when more people
were converted to God. probably, than In
any year since Christ was bornf 10
was the defalcations and bankruptcy
that swept American prosperity so fiat that
it could fall no fatter. am speaking Of
whols-souled men. Such men are 30 broken
by calamity that they are humbled and fly
to God for relief. Men who have no spiriu
and never expect anything are not much
affected by financial changes. They are as
apt TO go into the kingdom under one set OK
circumstances az another. They are
dead-beats wherever they are. The only
way TO get rid OF them is to lend them O
dollar and you will never sse them again. /
have tried that plan and 1t works well. But
| am speaking Of the effect OF misfortuneo on
men. Nothing but trial will
turn such men from earth TO heaven. It Ia
only through clouds and darkness and
whirlwiud OF disaster such man can see
the finger OF God.
A most interesting as we'll as a most useful
study is to watch the pointing OF the finger
of God. In the seventeenth century South
Carolina was yielding reRin aud turpentins
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 30 rapidly
that South Carolina was led to make rice
her chief production. Can you not see the
finger Of God ia that incidentl Rev. John
Fletcher of England, many will know.
was one Of the most useful ministers
of the gospel who ever preached.
Before conversion he Joined the
army and had bought his ticket
on the ship for South America. The morn
ing he was to sail some one spilled on him
a kettle Of water, and he was SO soalded he
could not 60 de was very much disap-
pointed, 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 Fletcher2 Was IL merely
accidental that Richard Rodda, Cornish
MINER who was on his knees praying, res
maued unhurt, though heavy stones fell
before him and behind him, and on either
side Of him, and another fell Oh the top Of
these 50 as to maze a roof over himi
A missionary In jamaica lost his way,
aud in the night was wandering about,
when q fire fly flashed and revealed preci4
pice over which in moment more he would
have been dashed. f. w. Robertson, the
great preacher Of Brighton, England, had
bis lifs-work decided by the barking of his
dog. A neighbor, whose daughter was III,
was disturbed by the barking OF that dog
one night. This brought the neighbor into
with Robertson. That ac-
quaintanceship kept him from joining the
Dragons and going to India and spending
bis life in military service, and reserved him
for q pulpit. the influence of which for gos-
pelization viii resound for all time and all
eternity.
Why did not Columbus sink when in early
manhood he was ahoat SIX miles from the
beach with nothing to sustain him till he
could swim to land but boats oar. I
wonder IL his reservation had anything to
do with America. Had the storm that di-
verted the MAYhowsr from the mouth of
the Hudson, for which it was sailing. and
sent il ashore at Cape Cod, no divine super
visali Does anarchy rule this world or
Code
st. Felix escaped martyrdom by crawling
through q hole In the wall, across which ths
spiders Immediately afterward wove web.
His prosecutors saw the hole in the wall,
but the spiders web put them off the track.
A boy was lost by his drunken father, and
could not for years find his way home.
Nearly grown he went into a Fulton streer
and asked for prayers than
he might find his parents His mother was
in the room, and rose, and recognized her
long.lost son. DO you say that these things
"only happened So" Tell that to those
who do not beliaya in a God and