Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-10-24

features, be they homely or beautiful
We are not responsible for the height @
smallness of our stature. We are not
responsible for the fact that we are men.
tally dull or brilliant. For the most of
{. our environments we have no more re-
/ sponsibility than we have for the mol
| ,uslss at the bottom of the Atlantic
ocean. Oh, / am so glad that there are
about FIVE hundred thousand things that
| we are not responsible for! Do not blame
us for being in our manner colo as an
| iceberg or nervous as cat amid a pack
| Of Fourth of July frecrackers. If you
are determined to blame somebody
| blame our great-grandfathers or great
| grandmothers who died before the Revo-
lutionary war, and who may have had
habits depressing and ruinous. There
are wrong things about us all which
make me think that one hundred and
! tifty years ago there was some terrible
crank in our ancestral line. Realize
| that and it will be relief semi-infnite
Let us take ourselves as we are this mo-
ment, and then ask (which way" Get
all the direction You can from careful
and constant study of the Bible, and
| then look up and look out and look
around and see If you can find the finger
of God.
LINcoLN's WISE DELAY.
II is remarkable thing that some
| times no one can see that finger but
| yourself. A year before Abraham Lin
! ,oln signed the proclamation OF emanci-
patton the White House was thronged
| with committees and associations. minis
ters and laymen, advising the president
to make that proclamation. But he wait
ed and waited, amid scoff 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 III. 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
man or a 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 man. Suppose his business
collapses. Suppose he buys goods and
cannot sell them. Suppose by Few in
vention ethers can furnish the same
goods at less price. Suppose a cold
| spring or a late autumn or the coming
| of an epideHfic corners a 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 1t,
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. l
have done the best could. God knows
| would pay my debts if l 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 to-
| gether for good and kindred passages?
| That is we'll. 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 releases; 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 of vast wealth who are as rich
for heaven as they are for this world,
| but they are exceptions. If man
grows in grace. it is generally before he
gets $1,000 or after he loses 1t. If a
man has plenty of railroad securities
and has applied to his banker for more;
IL the lots he bought have gone up fifty
per cent. in value; il he had hard work
10 get the door of his fireproof safe shut
because of new roll of securities he
put in there just before locking up at
night; If he be specializing in a 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 We're con-
verted to God, probably, than in any
year since Christ was borng IL was the
defalcations and bankruptcy that swept
American prosperity SO fiat that it could
fall no ilatter. 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 go into the kingdom
under one set of circumstances as an
other. They are deadbeats wherever
they are. The only way 10 get rid Of
them is 10 lend them dollar and you
viii never see them again. have tried
that plan and 1t works woll. But am
A. 49, - ..,taf.~t,,.na IN,