Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-12-12

Is be walks After awhile = cloud comes.
The field says. "what. mere troubls.
* begins u rain After awhile the
wind changes 10 the northeast, and II be-
gins to snow. Says the fsld: lie Il not
enough that have been torn and tram
pied upon and drowned Must now be
showed Gnder." After awhile spring
comes out Of the gates Of the south, and
warmth and gladness come with IT. A
green scarf bandages the cash Of the
wheat field, and the July morning drops
. crown Of gold on the head of the grain
"Oh.~ says the field, now know the
use Of the plow. of the harrow, OF the
heavy feot, of the shower and Of the
snowstorm. II is well enough to be trod-
den aud tramplsd and drowned and
showed under If in the end can yield
such glorious harvest" .He that go
eth forth and weepeth, bearing precious
seed, shall doubtless come again with re-
joicing, bringing his sheaves with him. :"
THROUGH GREAT TRIBCLATIoS.
When | see God especially busy in
troubling and trying Christian. know
that out Of that Christians character
there is 10 come some especial good. A
quarryman goes down into the excava-
ton, and with strong handed machinery
lbores into the rock. The rock says,
"Whst do you do that for? He puts
powder in; he lights fuse. There is a
laundering crash. The rock says, why,
the whole mountain is going to pieces"
The crowbar is plunged; the rock is
dragged out. After awhile it is taken
into the artists studio. 1t says, "Well,
now have got to . good. warm, COM
Portable place at last"
But the sculptor takes the chisel and
mallet. and he digs for the eyes, and he
cuts for the mouth, and he bores for the
ear, and he rubs it with sandpaper, un-
til the rock says, "When will this tor
ture be endedg A sheet is thrown over
it, 1t stands in darkness. After awhile
it is taken ont. The covering is re-
moved. Itstands In the sunlight, in the
presence of ten thousand applauding
people, as they greet the statue Of the
poet, or the prince, or the conqueror.
"Ah," says the stone, ''now l under
stand it. / am great deal better off
now standing as q statue Of a conqueror
than / would have been down in the
quarry" So God finds man down III
the quarry of ignorance and sin. How
to get him up? He must be bored and
blasted and chiseled and secured and
stand sometimes in the darkness.
But after awhile the mantle of Attic
f.n ~H xxv,1 10
greeted by the one hundred and forty
four thousand and the thousands of
thousands as more than conqueror
Oh, my friends, God, our Mother, is just
as kind in our Affections as in our pros
perities. God never touches us but for
our good If field clean and cultured
is better off than barren field, and if a
stone that has become statue is better
off than the marble in the quarry, then
that soul that God chastens may be his
favorite.
Oh, the rocking of the soul is not the
rocking ofan earthquake, but the rock
ing Of Gods cradle. ''As one whom his
mother comforteth, so will / comfort
you" have been told that the pearl in
an oyster is merely the result of wound
or sickness inflicted upon it, and do
not know but that the brightest gems of
heaven will be found to have been the
wounds of earth kindled into the jeweled
brightness of eternal glory.
remark that God has mothers ca
pacity for attending to little hurts. The
father is shocked at the broken bone Of
the child or at the sickness that sets the
cradle on fire with fever, but it takes
the mother to sympathize with all the
little ailments and little bruises Of the
child. II the child have splinter in its
hand it wants the mother to take it out
and not the father. The father says,
"Oh, that is nothing" but the mother
knows it is something, and that little
hurt sometimes is very great. So with
God, our Mother; all our annoyances are
important enough to look at and sympa-
| thize with.
Nothing with God is something. There
are no ciphers in Gods arithmetic. And
If we were only good enough Of sight
we could see as much through micro
scope as through telescope. Those
things that may be palpable and inini-
tesimal to us may be pronounced and in
| finite to God. A mathematical point is
| defined as having no parts, no magni-
tude. 1t is 30 small You cannot imagine
it, and yet a mathematical point may be
a starting point for a great eternity.
Gods surveyors carry very long chain.
A scale must be very delicate that can
weigh grain, but Gods scale is so deli
cate that he can weigh with it that which
Is so small that grain Ia million times
heavier.
When John Kitto, q poor boy on a
back street of Plymouth, cut his foot
with piece Of glass. God bound 1t up 80
successfully that he became the great
Christian ge'ographer and commenta-
tor known among all nations. So every
wound of the soul, however insignificant,
! God is willing to bind up. AS at the
FIRST cry of the child the mother rushes
to kiss the wound, so God, our Mother.
I takes the smallest wound Of the heart
and presses it TO the lipz Of divine sym
patty. AS one whom his mother COM
forteth. so will comfort you
DIVINE AND MoIHKRLY PATIENCE.
Iremark further that God has moth
er's patience for the erring. If one does
wrong first his associates in life cast
him of: if he gbes on in the wrong way
his business partner casts him of: il he
goes on bis best friends cast him off,
his father casts him off But after all
others have cast him OIL, where does he