Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1893-02-10
life OF the world. 'Hsr ways are ways of

To great many people life is an inexplica-
| BILE tangle. Things turn out differently from
what was supposed. There is a useless wo-
man In perfect health. There is an indus
trious and consecrated woman a complete
invalid. Explain that. There is bad m an
with $50. 900 OF income. There is good man
with $500 of income. Why is that? There is
a foe Of society who lives on, doing all the
the damage he can, TO ssventy-fve years Of
age, and here is Christian father, faithful
, in every department Of life, at thirty-fve
years taken away by death, his family left
helpless. Explain that. Oh, there is no
sentence that oftener drops from your lips
than this: 81 cannot understand it. cam
not understand it."
Well, now, religion comes in just at that
point with its illumination and its explana-
ton. There Is a business man who has lost
his ent re fortune. The week before he lost
bis fortune there were twenty carriages that
stopped at the door OF his mansion. The
week after he lost his fortune all the car
riages you count on one finger. The week
before financial trouble began people all took
oh their hats to him as he passed down toe
street. The week his financial prospects
were under discussion people just touched
their hats without anywise benting the rim.
The week that he was pronounced insovlent
people just jolted their heads as they passed,
not tipping their hate It all, and the week
the sheriff sold him out all his friends were
looking in the store windows as they went
down past him.
Now, while the world goes away from a
man when he is in financial distress, the re-
ligion of Christ comes to him and saws:
You are sick and your sickness is TO be
moral publication; You are bereaved; God
wanted in some way to take your family to
heaven, and He must begin somewhere, ami
80 He took the one that was most beautiful
and was most ready to GO" do not say
that religion explains everything in this life,
but | do say it lays down certain principles
which are grandly consoatory. You know
business men often telegraph in ciphers.
The merchant in San Francisco telegraphs
10 the merchant in New York certain infor-
nation in ciphers which no other man in
that line of business can understand, but
the merchant in San Francisco has the key
10 the cipher, and the merchant in New YORK
nas the kew to the cipher, AMI on that in-
formation Transmitted there are enterprises
involving hundreds Of thousands Of dollars.
Now the providences Of life sometimes
,esm to be senseless rIgnarole a mysteri
ous cipher, but God has key t. that cipher,
and the Christian a key to that clpler, AMI,
though he may hardly be able to spell out tle
meaning, he gets enough OF the meaning TO
understand that IL is for the best. Now IS
there not sunshine in that! Is there not
pleasure in thati Far beyond lau shter, 1t
Is nearer the fountain OF tears than bolster
ous demonstration. Have you never cried
for joy1 There are tears hch are eternal
rapture in distillatioD.
There are hundreds OF people in this house
who are walking day by day in the sublime
satisfaction that ell Is for the best all things
working together for good for their soul.
How a man can get along through this lie
without the explanation is to me "A mystery.
Whati is that child gone forever Are YOU
never to get it backi Is your property gone
foreverf Is your SOIL to be bruisel and to
be tried fore 5ery Have you no explanation,
no Christian explanation, AMI yet not
maniac2 But when you have the religion OF
Jesus Christ in your soul, it explains every
thing so far as 1t is best for you TO un ier-
stand. You look off in life, and your soul
is full of thanksgiving TO Col lat you are
so much better off than you might be.
A man passed down the street without
any shoes and said: If have no shoes. Isn't
it shardship that have no shoess Other peo-
pie have shoes; no shoes, no shoes, until he
saw u man who had no feet. Then he
learned lesson. You ought to thank God
for what He does, instead OF grumblins for
what He does not. God arranges all the
weather in this world-the spiritual
weather, the moral weather as we'll a the
natural weather "What kind of weather
will it be to-dsyT said some ons to farmer.
The farmer replied, at will be such weather
rs like What do you mean by that,"
asked the other. WELL" said the farmer,
.it will he such weather as pleases the Lord,
and what pleases the Lord pleaseS ma"
Oh, the sunshinel the sunshine OF Chris
tian explanationl Here Is some one bel mug
over the grave OF the dead. What is goiuS
to be the consolatioul The howers you
strew upon the tome? On, mol Tne SER
vices read at the grayel On, no. Inc
chief consolation on that grave is what falls
from the throne of Go1. Sunshine, glori-
Gus sunshine. Resurrection sunshine.
Again, [ find great deal Of the sunshine
OF this Bible and OF our religion IN tue
climacteric joys that are TO come. A man
who gets up and goes out from con-
cert right alter ths opening voluntary
has been Played, and before the priml
donna sings or before the orchestra
bezins, has a better iIea of that concert
than that man has who SupposeS that the
chief Joys OF religion are In this world. We
here have only the first note of the eternal
orchestra. We snail in that worl nave the
joy of discovery. We will in five minutes
catch up with the astronomers, tho geolo-
rists, the scientists the philosophers OF all
sges. who SO far surpassed Us III this worl II.
reology and many Of the sciences TO the next
world, because we shall there have better APP
oaratus and better opportunity.
must stuly these sciences 80 far as to
help me in my work, but beyond that /
must give myself to saving my own soul
and saving the souls Of Others, knowing that
in one flash OF eternity we viii eaten 1t all.
Oh. what an observatory III whlcn 10 stu iy
astronomy heaven will be, not by power OF
telescope, but by supernatural vision: aud
IL there be something doubtful IL, OOO, O0J
miles away, by one stroke OF the wing you
ara there. by another stroI 10 OF tine wing
you are back again, and all in less time than
tell YOU, catching it all in oae d lsh OF
eternity.
Aud geology What place that will be
10 study geology, when the world is being
picked TO pieces as easily as a schoo,gr in
botanical lessons pulls the leaf from the
corollal What place to stu ly architecture,
amid the thrones and the palaces and the
cathedrals-St. Marks and st. PauPs rook-
cries In comparison.
Sometimes you wish you could make the
tour of the whole earth, going around as
others have gone, but you have not the time;
you have not the means. You will make
that tour yet during one musical pause in
the eternal anthem. l say these things for
the comfort of those people VINO are abridged
in their opportunities-those people to
whom life Is humdrum, who toll aud work,
and toll and work, aud aspire after knowl-
edge, but have no time to get it, and say
"If | had the opportunities which other peo-
pie have, how would I'LL my mind and soul
with grand thoughts" Be not discouraged,
my friends. You are going to the university
yet. Death will only matriculate you into
the royal collie 20 of the universe.
What cuIlitna THING IL that Dr
Thornwell, OF South Carolina, uttered in his
last dying momentsl AS he looked up he
said, ait opens; 1t expands; it expands.
Or rs Mr.. Topiady, the auLnor Of Rock o.
Ages,' in his last momentor during his last
hours looked up and said, as though he saw
something supernatural. "LightP AMI then
as he came on nearer the dying moment,
his couutenance more luminous, he cried
"Lghtj" and at the very mo .nent of his de-
psrtur0 lifted both han is, something su)sr-
natural in his countenance as he criet,
.Lightp Only another name for suush ne.