Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1893-09-04

oh" you say, "they don't shape nv
character. Since lost my child since
nave lost my property, have been n
very different man from what was. "
My brother. it is the little annoyances
OF your life that are souring your dis
position, clipping your moral character
and making you less and less of man.
You go into an artists studio. You
see him making piece of sculpture.
You say, why don't you strike hard
er" With his mallet and his chisel he
goes click, click, clickl 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'ty you strike harder?"
"OhF he replies, "that would shatter
the statue. must make it in this way,
stroke by stroke" And he continues on
by week and month until after awhile
every man that enters the studio is fas-
| cinated.
Well, find God dealing with some
man. He is shaping him for time and
shaping him for eternity. l say, 80
Lord, why not with one tremendous blow
of calamity shape that man for the next
world?" God says, That's not the way
deal with this man; it is stroke after
stroke, annoyance after annoyance, ir-
ritation after irritation, and after awhile
he will be done and glad spectacle for
angels and men,"
THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS.
Not by one great stroke, but by ten
thousand little strokes of misfortune are
men fitted for heaven. You know that
large fortunes can soon be scattered by
being paid out in small sums of money,
and the largest estate of Christian char
acter is sometimes entirely lost by these
small depletions.
We must bring the religion of Jesus
Christ to help us in these little annoy
ances. Do not say that anything is too
insignificant to affect your character.
Rats may sink a ship. One lucifer
match may destroy temple. A queen
got her death by smelling of poisoned
rose. The scratch of sixpenny nail
may give you the lockjaw. Columbus,
by asking for piece of bread and
drink of water at Franciscan convent,
came to the discovery of new world.
And there is great connection between
trifies and immensities, between moth
ings and everythings.
Do you not suppose that God cares for
your insignificant sorrows2 Why, my
friends, there is nothing insignificant in
your life. How dare you take the re-
sponsibility of saying that there is? Do
you not know that the whole universe is
say: "What are you doing down there
in the grass, poor little violet? Nobody
knows you are here. Are you not afraid
nightsP You will die with thirst. No
body cares for you. You will suffer; you
will perish" mo" says star, ''Tll
watch over it tonight" NO" says the
cloud, "pll give it drink" mo-" says
the sun, "Ill warm it in my bosom"
And then the wind rises and comes
bending down the grain and sounding
its psalm through the forest, and say,
"Whither away, o wind, on such swift
wing?" and it answers. Il 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 / say,
"What are you doing there, o cloudsY
They say. 1--WE are drawing water for
that violet" And then look down into
the grass, and l say, "Can it be that God
takes care of poor thing like your" and
the answer comes up, Yes, yes; God
clothes the grass of the field, and he has
never forgotten me, poor violet" Oh,
my friends, if the heavens bend down to
such insignificant ministry as that, tell
you God is willing to bend down to your
case, since he is just as careful about
the construction of spiders eye as he
is in the conformation of flaming gal
aXies.
Plato had n fable which have now
nearly forgotten, but it ran something
ike this; He said spirits of the other |
world came back to this world to find
body and find a sphere of work. One
Jpirit came and took the body of king
md did his work. Another spirit came
md took the body of poet and did his
work. After awhile Ulysses came, and
le said: "Why, all the fine bodies are
aiken, and all the grand work is taken
There is nothing left for me-" And some
me replied, "Ah, the best one has been
eft for you" Ulysses said, Whats
hatT' And the reply was, "The body
# a common man, doing a common
work. and for a common reward" A
.ood fable for the world and just as
.ood fable for the church.
But, remark again, we ought TO
ring the religion of Jesus Christ into
ur ordinary blessings. Every autumn
he president of the United States and
he governors make proclamation, and
70 are called together in our churches
D give thanks TO God for his goodness.
Tut every day ought 10 be thanksgiv-
lg day. We take most of the blessings
( life as matter of course. We have
ad ten thousand blessings this morning
or which we have not thanked God.
'efore the night comes we will have a
lousand more blessings you will never
mink Of mentioning before God.
HOW TO APPREcIATE OUR BLESSINGS.
We must see blind man led along by
ia dog before we learn what a grand
hing It is to have ones eyesight. We
lust see a man with st. Vitus' dance be-
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