The Portland daily press., 1892-11-12

and rulnOuS There are wrong tnlngS
about US all, which makes me think
that $50 years ago there was some ter
rible crank in our ancestral line. Real
ize that, and it will be relief seml-in-
finite Let us take ourselves as we are
this morning, 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.
It is remarkable thing that some
times no one can see the finger but
yourself. A year before Abraham Lin
coin signed the proclamation of eman-
cipation, the White House was thronged
with committees and associations, min
listers and laymen, advising the presi-
dent to make that proclamation. But
he waited and waited, amid scott and
anathema, because he did not himself
see the finger of God. After awhile and
at just the right time, he saw the divine
The distinguished Confederates Mason
and Slidell, were taken off an English
vessel by the United States govern
ment. Don't give them up" shouted
all the northern states. "Let us have
war with England rather than sur
render Them" was the almost unani-
nous cry of the north. But William
Seward saw the finger of God leading
in just the opposite direction, and the
Confederates were given up, and we
avoided war with England, which at
II. 1o dor,noli.
ton of the United States government.
In other words, the finger of God as it
directs you may be invisible to every
body else. Follow the divine pointing,
as you see it, although the world may
call you fool. There has never been
man or a 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 man. Suppose
his business collapses. Suppose he
buys goods and cannot sell them Sup
pose by new invention others can fur
nish the same goods at less price. Sup
pose a cold spring or 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 nothing with which
to meet that obligation, and the bank
will not discount, and the business
friends to whom he goes for accommo-
dation are in the same predicament and
he bears up and struggles on, until,
after while, crash goes the whole con-
Germ. He stands wondering and saying:
SCI do not see the meaning of all this. l
have done the best could. God knows
i would pay my debts it l could,
but here am hedged in and
stopped" What should that man
do in that case? Go to the Scrip;
lures and read the promise about
all things working together for good
and kindred passages? Tha is we'll
But he needs to do something besides
reading the Scriptures He needs to
look for the finger of God that is point
ing toward better treasures, that is
pointing 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 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 a man
grows in grace it is generally before he
gets 500, 900 or after he loses it If a.
man have plenty of railroad securities
and has applied to his banker for more;
if the lots he bought have gone up so
per cent. in value; if he had hard work
to get the door of his freproof safe shut
because of a new roll Of securities he put
In there just before locking up at night;
if he be specializing in 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 were converted
to God, probably, than in any year
since Christ was born? 1t was the de-
falcations and bankruptcy that swept
American prosperity SO fat that it could
fall no fatter. am speaking of-whole-
souled men. Such men are so broken
by calamity that they are humbled to
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 dead-beats wherever
they are. The only way to get rid of
them is to lend them dollar and you
will never see them again. I have tried
that plan and it works well. But am
speaking of the effect of misfortune on
high spirited men. Nothing but trial
will turn such men from earth to
Heaven. 1t is only through clouds and
darkness and whirlwind of disaster such
a man can see the finger of God.
A most interesting, as well as most
useful, study is to watch the pointing
of the finger of God In the seven
tenth century South Carolina was
yielding resin and turpentine and tar
as her chief productions. But Thomas
Smith noticed that the ground near his
house in Charleston was very much