Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-01-22

controls the shadows. VIC "
ready to acknowledge His manage
90 of the sunshine. We stand in the
glow of a bright morning auo we say III
our feelings If not with so many WORDS
''This life is from God, this warmth Is Ir :.ll
God" Or, we have rush OF prosperity
ord wa saw '1These successes are from you
What a Drovidential thing it was bought
that lot lust before the rise Of real estate !!
How grateful to God ! am that L mace
that Investment! Why, they have declared
ten per cent dividend. What mercy 1t was
that l SOld out y1y shares before that COZ
lapse" On, yes; we acknowledge God =
the sunshine OF g. bright day or the sun
shine of a great prosperity. But suppose
the day is dark? You have to light the
gas at noon. The sun does not show him
self all day long. There is nothing but
shadow. How slow we are TO realize that
the storm is from God and the darkness
from Cod and the chill from God. Or we
buy the day before the market retreats or
we make an investment that never pays, or
we purchase goods that we cannot dispose
Of, or a crop Of grain we sowed is ruined
oy drought or freshet, or when we took ac-
count of stock on the first of January we
found ourselves thousands of dollars worse
off than we expected. Who under such cir
cumstances says This loss is from God. /
must have been allowed to go into that IN
fortunate enterprise for some good reason;
God controls the east wind as well as the
west wind"
My friends cannot look for one moment
on that retrograde shadow OF Ahazs dial
without learning that God controls the shad-
OwS and that lesson we need all to learn.
That He controls the sunshine is not so nee
essary a lesson, for anybody can be happy
when things go right. When you sleep
eight hours night and rise with an appetite
that cannot easily wait for breakfast and
you go over to the store and open your mail
to read more orders than you can FILL and in
npEk letter find a far
than you have been promised, and your
neighbor comes in to tell you some flatter-
ing thing he has just heard said about you,
and you find that all the styles of goods in
which you deal have advanced fifteen per
cent. in value, and on your way
home you meet your children in full
roElp and there are roses on the center of
the tea liable and roses OF hearth IN cheeks
all round the table, what more 10 you want
of consolation? I don't pity you a bit. You
feel as if you could boss the world. But for
those in just opposite circumstances my text
comes in with an omnipotence OF meaning.
The shadow! Oh, the shadow Shadow OF
bereavement Shadow OF sicknessi Shadow
OF bankruptcy! Shadow OF mental de-
pressionl Shadow OF persecution! Shadow
Of death! Speak out oh sundial Of Ahaz
and tell the people that God manages the
shadowi AS Hezekiah sat 10 his palace
wrapped in invalidism and surrounded by
anodYnes and cataplasms and looked
only clock known at that time and saw
it move back ten de grees he learned
lesson that majority of the human race
need this hour to learn-that the best friend
a man ever had controls the shadow. The
setbacks are sometimes the best things that
can happen. The great German author
Schiller could not work unless he had in his
room the scent Of rotten apples. and the de-
cay of the fruits of earthly prosperity may
become an inspiration instead OF a depres-
sion. Robert Chamberss lame feet shut him
up from other work, and he became the
world renowned publisher, and helped fash
ion the best literature OF the ages. The
painful disorder like that of Hezekiah called
carbuncle is spelled exactly the same as
the precious stone called the car
may become the jewel OF immortal value.
Your setback, like that of Ahaz's sundial,
may be recovery and triumph. 1 never had
a setback but it turned out to be a set for
ward. You never would have become a
Christian if you had not had setback. The
highest thrones in heaven are for the set
backs. In 1861 the shadow of the sundal of
this nation was set back, and all things
seemed going to ruin, and 1T was set back
further in 1862 and further in 1868, and still
further in 1866, but there is not an intel
ligent and well balanced man-north or
south, east or west-but feels it was set back
toward the sunrise.
But promise to show you how the shaw
ows might be turned 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
compass themselves by juvenility. 1t is "a
bad thing for an old man or old woman to
sit looking at the vivacity of their grand
children shouting, stop that racket
Better join in the fun. Let the eighty-year-
old grandfather join the etght-year-old
grandson or granddaughter. Ny father and
mother lived to see over eighty children and
grandchildren and great grandchildren, and
a more boisterous crew were never turned
out on this sublunary sphere, and they all
seemed to cry to the old folks, Keep
young" and they did keep young. Don't
walk with a cane unless you have to or only
as a defence in a CITY afflicted with
too many CANNES. Don't wear glasses
stronger than necessary, putting on num-
Der tens when elghteens Will do well.
Don't go into the company of those who are
always talking about rheumatism and lum-
bago and shortneSs Of breath and the brevity
of human life. 1t is too much for my gravity
to hear octogenarian talking about thu
shortress of human life. From all can find
out he has always been here and from present
prospects heis always going to stay. Remain
young. Hang up your stockings in Christmas
time. Help the boys fly the kite. Teach the
girls how to dress their dolls Better than
arnica for your stiff joints and catnip tea
for your sleepless nights will be a large dose
of youthful companionship.
Set back the clock of human life. Make
the shadow of the sundial Of AhaZ retreat
ten degrees. People make themselves old
by always talking about being old and
wishing tor the good old days, which were
never as good as these days. From all I can
hear the grandchildren are not half as bad
as the grandparents were. Matters have
been hushed up. But if you have ever been
in room adjoining a room where some very
y