Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-09-20

nor Sylph-
Ihe groves where the gods used TO dxaI
nave been cut up for firewood, and the man
s.aS,d< = to tiooklng tor great spheres and great
scenes for action will not find them. And
yer there are Alps to scale and there are
heHeSponts to swim, and they are IA com.
mon me- 1t IS absurd for you to say that Won
T. Moulu serve God II you had a great sphere.
HyOu do not serve Him on small scale. Won
would not on large scale. II Won cannot
stand the bite of a midge, how could Won an.
dure the breath OF a basilisk?
Our national government does not tbint I,
ppalltStLlng paSIig TO put tax on pins ani a tax on
| pucKles ana a tax on shoes. The individual
taxes do not amount to much, but in the
aggregate to millions and millions of dollars
And would have you, oh Christian man. nut
| nigh tariff on every ANNOYANCE and yex1-
| tionthat comes through your soul This might
not amount to much In single cases, but in
the aggregate it would be a great revenue of
spiritual strength and satisfaction.
A bee can suck honey even out of n nettle
and II you have the grace of Col in your
heart you can get sweetness out of thar
whlch would otherwise irritate and annoy
returned missionary told me that a com
| pany OF adventurers, rowing up the Ganges
were stung to death by flies that infest thai
region at certain seasons. have seen the
| earth strewn with the carcasses of men slain
by insect annoyances. The only way to get
| prepared for the great troubles of life Ia 10
| conquer these small troubles
suppose soldier should say, ''This Ia only
skirmtsh. and there are only few enemies
| Il won't load my gun wait until get into
| some great general engagement That
man Is coward and would be a coward in
| any sphere. II man does not serve his
| country in a skirmish, he will not in a
| Waterloo. And If you are not faithful going
| out against the single-handed misfortunes of
this life you would not be faithful when
/ great disasters with their laundering
artillery came rolling down over the soul.
| Inls brings me to another point We
| ought to bring the religion of Jesus Christ
| into our trials. II we have a bereavement IL
we lose our fortune, If some great trouble
blast like the tempest, then we go to God for
comfort, but yesterday In the little annoy
ances OF your store or office, or shop or fac
! tory, or banking house, did you go to God
| for comfort? You did not.
| My friends, you need to take the religion
| OF the Lord Jesus Christ into the most ordI-
nary trials OF your life. You have your mis-
| fortunes, you have your anxieties YOU have
your vexations. "oh," you say, ''they don't
shape my character. Since lost my child.
| since have lost my property, have been a
very different man from what was" NV
| brother, it Is the little annoyances OF your
| life that are souring your disposition, clip
| ping your moral character and making you
| less and less of a man.
You go into an artists studio. You see
him making piece OF sculpture. You say,
why don't you strike harier?" With his
mallet and his chiSel he goes click click
click and you can hardly see from stroke to
stroke that there is any impression made upon
the stone, and yet the work is going on. You
say, "Why don't you strike harder?" .'OhI
he replies, "that would shatter the statue. /
must make 1t in this way, stroke by stroke"
And he continues on by week and month
/ until after awhile every man that enters the
studio Is fascinated
Well. find God dealing with some man
he IS shaping him for time and shaping hin.
Tor eternity. 1 say, so Lord, why not with
one tremendous blow OF calamity shape that
lnan for the next world?" God says, 'That's
lfot the way deal with this mar 1t Is stroke
after stroke, annoyance after annoyance, ir-
Fitatton after irritation, and after awhile he
Fwilf be done and a glad spectacle for angels
and men"
Not by one great stroke, but by ten thou
sand little strokes of misfortune are men
lifted for heaven. You know that large for
tunes can soon be scattered by being paid out
in small sums ofmoney, and the largest estate
OF Christian character is sometimes entirely
lost by these small depletions.
We must bring the religion of Jesus
Christ to help US in these little annoy
Rnces. Do not say that anything is too
Insignificant to affect your character.
match may destroy a temple. A queen
got her death by smelling of poisoned
rose. The scratch of a sixpenny nail
may give you the lockjaw. Columbus, by
"a -
water at a Franciscan convent. came to the
discovery of a new world. And there is a
great connection between tribes and i'm
mensities, between nothing5 and every
things.
Do you not suppose that God cares for
your insignificant sorrows? Why. my friends,
there is nothing insignificant in your life |
How dare you take the responsibility of say
ing that there is? Do you not know that !
the whole universe is not ashamed to take |
i
doing down there IN the grass, poor little |
violet7 Nobody knows you are here. Are |
you not afraid nights? You will die with |
thirst. Nobody cares for you. You will |
suffer; you will perish" mo, says star, |
'I'n watch over it tonight" NO" says |
the cloud, "Ill give 1t drink" "No," says |
the sun, ''I'll warm 1t in my bosom" And |
then the wind rises and comes bending |
down the grain and sounding its !
psalm through the forest, and 1 say, |
wing?" and 1t answers, 81 am going to cool |
the cheek of that violet" And then [ see |
pulleys at work in the sky, and the clouds |
are drawing water, and 1 say, ''What are you
doing there, . cloudsE They say, I'VE are
drawing water for that violet" And then 1
look down into the grass, and say, Can it
be that God takes care of poor thing like |
yOu?' and the answer comes up, ''Ies, yes.
God clothes The grass OF the field, and He has
never forgotten me, poor violet. Oh, my |
significant ministry as that, tell you God Is
willing to bend down to your care. since He
is Just as careful about the construction OF
spiders eye as He is in the conformation OF
flaming galaxies.
Plato had a fable which have now nearly
forgotten, but it ran something like this He
said spirits of the other world came back to
this world to find body and find a sphere of
work. One spirit came and took the body OF
a king and did his work. Another spirit came
- Il N hfE
After awhile Ulysses cane, and he said;
.'Why. all the fine bodies are taken, and all
the grand work is taken. There IS nothing
left for me-" And some one replied. "Ah, |
the best one has been left for you" Ulysses
said, "What's that2" And the reply was,
"The body of common man, doing com |
mon work and for common reward"
good fable for the world and just as good
fable for the church.
But. 1 remark again. we ought to bring the
religion of Jesus Christ into our ordinary
blessings. Every autumn the President of
the United States and the governors make |
proclamation, and we are called together In
our churches to give thanks to God for His
goodness But every day ought to bethanks-
giving day. We take most OF the blessings
of life as a matter of course. We have had |
ten thousand blessings this morning for
which we have not thanked God. Before the
night comes we will have Il thousand more
blessings YOU will never think OF mentioning
before God.
We must see n blind man led along by his
dog before we learn what grand thing 1t Is
TO have ones eyesght. We must see man
with ST. Vitus's dance before we learn what 4
grand thing it is to have the use OF our physi-
cal energies. We must SEQ some soldier
crippled, limping along on his crutch or his
empty coatsleeve pinned up. before we learn
what grand thing it is to have the use OF
NIL our physical faculties. In other words.
we are so stupid that nothing but the misfor- |
tunes of others can wake US up to an appre-
ciation of our common blessings.
We get on board train and start for Bos-