Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1893-02-09

OAlo llOSO ttuu Ull0 uOSCeSS, hllu GA0n
move around, spending the whole
evening in the discussion OF the wealth
or, and in apology for treading on
long trails, and in effort to keep the
corners of the mouth up to the sign of
pleasure, and going around with an
idiotic he-he about nothing, until the
collation. is served, and then after the
collation. is served, going back again
into the parlor to resume the weather,
and then at the close going at very
late hour to the host and hostess and
assuring them that you have had a
most delightful evening, and then pass
ing down off the front steps, the slam
OF the door the only satisfaction OF the
evening.
Again: find great deal OF religi-
GUS sunshine in Christian and divine
explanation. To great many peo-
pie life is an inexplicable tangle.
Things turn out differently from what
was supposed. There is useless
woman in perfect health. THERE'S an in
dustrious and consecrated woman o.
complete invalid. Explain that.
There is a bad man with $4,000 Of
income. There is a good man with
$500 OF income. Why is that? There
is q foe OF society who lives on, doing
all the damage he can, to Is years OF
age; and here is a Christian father,
faithful in every department. OF life,
ut 35 years of age taken away by
death, his family left hopeless. Elk
plain that. Oh! there is no sentence
that OF tender drops from your lips
70 0f
I can not understand it,"
Well, now religion comes in just at
that point with it's illumination and
its explanation. There is business
man who has lost his entire fortune,
The week before he lost his fortune
there were twenty carriages that stop
ped at the door of his mansion.
The week after he lost his
fortune all the carriages you
could count on one finger. The week
before financial trouble began people
all took off their hats to him as he
passed down the street. The week his
financial prospects were under discus
sion people just touched their hats
without anywise bending the rim. The
week that he was pronounced insolv-
ent, people just jolted their heads as
they passed, not tipping their hats at
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 religion OF Christ comes
to him and says, "You are sick, and
your sickness is to be moral purifca-
ton; you are bereaved God wanted
in some way to take your family to
heaven, and hemust begin somewhere,
and so he took the one that was most
ready to CO." do not say that re-
ligion explains everything in this lie,
but do say it lays down certain prin-
ciples which are grandly consolatory.
You know business men often telegraph
in ciphers. The merchant in San
Francisco telegraphs to the mer.
chant in New York certain informa.
ton in ciphers which no other man in
that line OF business can underst and;
but the merchant in San Francisco
has the key to the cipher, and the
merchant in New York has the key to
the cipher, and on that information
transmitted there are enterprises in
volving hundreds Of thousands of dol
lars. Now the providences of life
sometimes seem to be q senseless rig
marole, a mysterious cipher; but God
has a key to that cipher, and the
Christian q key to that cipher, and
though he may hardly be able to
spell out the meaning he gets enough
OF the meaning to understand
that it is for the best. Now, is there
not sunshine in that? Is there not
pleasure in that? Far beyond laugh
ter, it is nearer, the fountain OF tears
than boisterous demonstration.
Have you never cried for joy? There
are tears which are eternal rapture in
distillation.
There are hundreds OF people in this
house who are walking day by day in
the sublime satisfaction that all is for
the best, all things working together
for good for their soul. How a man
can get along through this life with
out the explanation is to me a mys-
terry. What! is the child gone forever?
Are you never to get it back? Is
your property gone forever? Is your
soul to be bruised and to be tried
forever? Have you no explana-
ton, no Christian explanation,
and yet not d maniac? But
when you have the religion of
Jesus Christ in your soul, it explains
everything so far as it is best for YOU
to understand. You look off in life,
and your soul is full OF Thanksgiving
to God that you are so much better
off than you might be. A man passed
down the street without any shoes.
and said: 81 have no shoes; isn't it a
hardship that haveno shoes? Other
people have shoes; no shoes, no
Shoes" until he saw man who had
no feet. Then he learned lesson.
You ought to thank God for what he
does instead of grumbling for what he
does not. God arranges all the
weather in this word-the spiritual
weather, the moral weather, as we'll as
the natural weather. "What kind of
weather will it be to-day?" said some
one to farmer. The farmer replied.
1T will be such weather as I like"
What do you mean by that" asked
h. Ill