Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-12-12

darkness,
But after awhile the mantle of affection
will fall Off and his soul will be 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 properties. God never touches us
but for our good. If n field clean and cul-
tured is better off than barren field, and
If stone that has become a statue is bet
ter 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 of an earthquake, but the rocking
of Gods cradle. LAS one whom his mother
comforteth, so will l comfort you" / have
been told that the pearl in an oyster is
merely the result of wound or a sickness
inflicted upon il, and I 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 eter-
nal glory.
THE INFANTS NEEDS.
remark that God has mothers capac-
ity 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 rather says, "Uh, that IS notn1ng,"
but the mother knows 1t is something, and
that a little hurt sometimes is very great.
So with God our Mother; all our annoy
ances are important enough to look at and
sympathize 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 a microscope
as through a telescope. Those things that
may be impalpable and infinitesimal to us
may be pronounced and infinite to God. A
mathematical point is defined as having no
parts, no magnitude. 1t is so small you
cannot imagine it, and yet a mathematical
point may be a starting point for great
eternity. Gods surveyors carry a very
long chain A scale must be very delicate
that can weigh a grain but Gods scale is
so delicate that he can weigh with it that
which is SO small that a grain is a million
times heavier.
When John Kitto, poor boy on a back
street of Plymouth, cut his foot with a
piece of glass, God bound it up so success
fully that he became the great Christian
geographer and "a commentator 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. takes the smallest wound
of the heart and presses it to the lips of
divine sympathy. 'As one whom his moth
er comfOrteth, 80 will comfort you"
/ remark further that God has moth
er's patience for the erring. II one does
wrong, first his associates in life cast him
off; if he goes on in the wrong way, his
business partner casts him off; il he goes
on his best friends cast him of-his father
casts him off. But after all others have
cast him off, where does he gof Who holds
no grudge and forgives the last time as
well as the first? Who sits by the muir
derer's counsel all through the long trial'
Who tarries the longest at the windows Of
culprit's cell' Who, when all others
think i'll of a man, keeps on thinking well
of himp 1t is his mother. God bless her
gray hairs if she be still alive, and bless
her grave if she be gonel And bless the
rocking chair in which she used to sit, and
bless the cradle that she used TO rock, and
So God, our Mother, has patience for all
the erring After everybody else has cast
a man off God, our Mother, comes to the
rescue. God leaps to take charge of bad
case. After all the other doctors have got
through the heavenly Physician comes in.
Human sympathy at such time does not
amount to much. Even the sympathy of
the church, l am sorry to say, often does
not amount to much.
THE CHURCH LACKS SYMPATHY.
have seen the most harsh and bitter
treatment on the part of those who pro-
fessed faith in Christ toward those who
were wavering and erring They tried on
the wanderer sarcasm and billingsgate
and caricature, and they tried little tattle.
There was one thing they did not try, and
that was forgiveness, A soldier in Eng
land was brought by sergeant to the
colonel. "What," says the colonel, bring
ing the man here againl We have tried
everything with him." ooh, no" says the
sergeant; there is one thing you have not
tried. l would like you to try that"
"What is that?" said the colonel. Said
the man, Forgiveness"
The case had not gone so far but that 1t
might take that turn, and so the colonel
said: well, young man, you have done so
and SO. What is your excused" II have
no excuse, but am very sorry" said the
man. 1--WE have made up our minds to
forgive you" said the colonel. The tears
started. He had never been accosted in
that way before His life was reformed,
and that was the starting point for posi-
lively Christian life. o church of God,
quit your sarcasm when man fallsi Quit
your irony, quit your little tattle and try
forgiveness. God, your Mother, tries it all
the time a mans sin may be like II con-
tinent, but Gods forgiveness Is like the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans, bounding it
on both sides
The Bible often talks about Gods hand.
| wonder how it looks. You remember
distinctly how your mothers hand looked,
though thirty years ago it withered away.
1t was different from your fathers hand.
When you were to be chastised you had
rather have mother punish you than ia
Their. 1t did not hurt so much. And IA
theirs hand was different from mothers,
partly because it had outdoor toll, and part
ly because God intended it to be different
The knuckles were more firmly set, and
the palm was calloused.
But mothers hand was more delicate
There were blue veins running through the
back of it. Though the fingers, some of
them, were picked with a needle, the palm
of it was soft. Oh, it was very softl Was
there ever any poultice like that to take |
pain out of wound? So Gods hand is a
mothers hand. What it touches it heals |
If 1t smite you it does not hurt as if it were
another hand. Oh, you poor wandering |
soul in sin, il is not a bailiff's hand that |
seizes you today! 1t is not hard hand. |
1t is not an unsympathetic hand 1t is not |