Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-01-15

/ rot show himself all oay long There is nothing
but shadow. How slow we are to realize that
he storm is from God and the darkness from
! 9od and tho chill from God Or,
We buy the day before the mar
1 kot's retreat. or we make an invest
nent that never rays; or We purchase goods
| that we cannot dispose OF; or crop OF grain
we sowed is ruined by drought or freshet; or
when we took account OF stock on the LIST of
! January we found ourselves thousands OF dol
lars worse n than we expected. WAo under
Such circumstances says, This loss Is from
| Cod must have been allowed 70 60 into that
unfortunate enterprise for some good reason;
| God controls tho east wind as well as the west
uindH
MY friends cannot look for one moment or
that retrograde shadow on Ahaz's dial without
! learning that God controls tho shadows and
! that lesson we need all to learn. That he con-
! trolls the sunshine Is not so necessary lesson,
Tor anybody can be happy when things go right
When you sleep eight hours night and rise
with an appetite that cannot easily walt Iss
! ereakfast and you 10 over To- the store and open
your mail TO read more orders than you can
/ ILL., and in tho next letter you hnd
dividend far larger than you have
been promised, and your neghboT
comes in 10 tell you some hattering thing he
has heard said about you, and you find that all
the styles of goods in which you deal have adj
vanced fifteen per cent in value and on your
way home you meet your children in full romp
and there are roses on the center OF the tea
table and roses OF heaith In checks all round
! the table, what moro DO you want OF consola-
( tion2 don't pity you a bit You feel rs II you
could boss the world But for those In just OPP
posite circumstance my text comes IN with an
omnipotence OF meaning. The shadow Ohl
the shadow Shadow OF bereavement Shadow
OF sicllness Shadow OF bankruptcy! Shadow
OF mental depression! Shadow OF persecution
! Shadow OF DEATH SToak out, Oh, sun-dlaI OF
Ahaz, and tell all people that God manages the
shadowl AS Hezelsiah sat in his palace win
dow wrapped in invalidism and surrounded by
anodynes and cataplasms and looked out upon
| the black hand Of the only clock known a. that
time and saw IL move back ten degrees, he
learned a lesson that a majority OF the human
race need this hour TO learn,-that the best
| friend man ever had controls the
/ shadow. Tho set-bacRs are sometimes
the best things that can happen. The great
German author, Schiller, could not work I'M
less he had in his room the scent OF rotten APP
pies and the decay of the fruits Of earthly pros
pority may become an inspiration Instead OF
depression. Robert Chambers lame feet shut
him up from other work. and he became the
word-renowned publisher, and helped fashion
the best literature Of the ages. The painful
disorder like that OF HeZekiah, called earbun-
Gle, is spelled exactly the same as the precious
stone called the carbunclc, and the pang OF suf-
| fering may become the jewel OF immortal value.
| Your sc .-back like that OF Ahaz's sun-dial may
be recovery and triumph never
had a setback but IL turned out % he set-for-
ward. You never would have become Chris
tian IL you had not had a setback Tho highest
thrones in heaven arc for the setbacks. In
1851 the shadow OF the sun-dlal Of this nation
was set back, and all things seemed going to
ruin and 1t was set back further in 1862, and
further in 1853 and still further in 1865, but
there is not an intelligent and wellbalanoed
man, North or South, East or West, but ieels
81 was Il .cly toward the s,-n-rige.
But 1 promised 10 show you how the
shadows might be turnCd back. First, by
going much among the young people. In most
family circles there are grandchildren. by
this divine arrangement most OF the people
who have passed the meridian OF life can COM
pass themselves with iuyonility. 1t is a bad
thing for an OLD man or old woman 70 sit look
ing at the Viyacity Of their grandchildren shout
ing, stop that racket" Better Join in the
fun. Let the S0-years-old grandfather join
the syoays.old grandson or granddaughter.
My father and mother lived TO see over eighty
children and grandchildren and grestgrandchiL
den and more bCisterous crew were never
turue out on this sublunary sphere and they
ell seemed TO cry to the Old folks keep young"
and they did keep young. Don't walk with
cane unless you have 10, or only as a defense in
q city afuIcted with too many cannes. Don't
wear glasses stronger than necessary, putting
on number tens when eighteens will 90 rs we'll
Don I 20 into the company Of those who are al
ways talking about rheumatism and lumbago
and shortness Of breath and the brevity Of
human life II 10 too much for my gravity 10
hear an octogenNrian talking about tho short
ness Of human life. From all 1 can find
out he has always been hero and from
present prospects he 10 always going TO stay.
Remain young Hang up your stockings in
Christmas time. Help the boys ny their kites
Teach the girls how to dress their dolls. Bet
ter than arrica for your stiff joints and catuip
tea for your slespless nights, will be large
dose Of youthful eOmpanionship.
SunriEol But not like enc OF those mornings
after you had gone 10 bed late, or did not sleep
well, and you get up chilled and yawning, and
the morning bath is q repulson, and you feel
like saying to the morning sun shining into
your window: Il do net see what you find 70
smile about; your brightness Is to me mock.
cry" But the thrush Of the next world will be
q mernng after . sound sleep, O sleep thai
nothing can disturb, and you will rise, the sun
shine in your faces, and in your hrst morning in
heaven you will wade down into the sea Of glasa
mingled with FIRE, the foam on hre with splen-
dor you never saw earth and the rolling
waves are doxolosies, and the rocks Of that
shore are golden and the pebbles Of that beach
are pearl and the skies that arch the scene are
o commingling OF all the colors that St. JohR
saw on the wall OF heaven. the crimson and the
blue and tho saffron and the orange aud the
purple and the gold and the green wrought on
those skies in shape OF garlands, OF banners, Of
ladders, Of charlots, OF crowns, OF thrones
What sunrisel Do you not feel its warmth
on your facesi Seville McCollum, the dying
boy OF our Sunday-school, uttered what shall
be the peroraton of this Sermon Throw back
the shutters and let the sun inl" And so ths
shadow Of Ahaz's sun-dial turns from sunset
20 sunrise