The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1893-06-28

bear The staff for the fitches. The
rod for the cummin. The iron wheel
for the corn. Sometimes people in
great trouble say: 80, can't bear It'll"
But you did bear it. God would not
have sent it upon you if He did not
know that you could bear it. You
trembled and you swooned, but you
got through. God will not take from
your eyes one tear too many, nor from
your lungs one sigh too deep, nor from
You temples one throb too sharp. The
perpleXities of your earthly business
have not in them one tangle too intri-
cate.
You sometimes feel as if our world
were full of bludgeons flying haphaz-
ard. o, no; they are threshing instru-
ments that God just suits to your case.
There is not a dollar of bad debts on
your ledger, or a disappointment about
goods that you expected to go up, but
that have gone down, or a swindle of
your business partner, or trick on the
part of those who are in the same kind
of business that you are, but God in
tended to overrule for your immortal
help. 80" you say, there is no need
talking that way to mel don't like to
be cheated and outraged" Neither
| does the corn like the corn thresher,
but after it has been threshed and win
moved it has great deal better opin-
| ion of winnowing-mills and corn thresh-
| erS.
"Well," you say, "if l could choose
my troubles would be willing to be
troubled" All, my brother, then it
would not be trouble. You would
choose something that would not hurt,
and unless it hurts it does not get sane
tilted. Your trial, perhaps, may be
childlessness. You are fond of children.
You say: "Why does God send children
to that other household where they are
unwelcome, and are beaten and banged
about, when would have taken them
in the arms of my affections?" You
say: ANY other trial but this" Your
trial, perhaps, may be disfgured
countenance, or face that is easily
caricatured, and you say: 80, could
endure anything if only I was good
looking" And your trial, perhaps, is
a violent temper, and you have to drive
| it like six unbroken horses amid the
gunpowder explosions of great holi-
with you. Your trial is the asthma.
You say, so, if it were rheumatism,
or neuralgia, or erysipelas but it is this
asthma, and it is such an exhausting
thing to breathe" Your trouble is a
husband, short, sharp, snappy and
cross about the house, and raising a
small riot because button is off? How
could you know the button is off? Your
trial is wife ever in contest with the
servants, and she is a sloven. Though
she was very careful about her personal
appearance in your presence once, now
she is careless, because she said her
fortune is made. Your trial is hard
school lesson you cannot learn, and you
have bitten your finger nails until they
are sight to behold. Everybody has
some vexation or annoyance, or trial
and he or she thinks it is the one least
adapted. Anything but this, all say
Anything but this"
o, my nearer, are you aot ashamed tc
be complaining all this time against
God? Who manages the affairs of the
world, anyhow? Is it an infant Modoc,
or a Sitting Bull savage? or an ON
nipotent Mana Sahib? No; it is the
most merciful and glorious and wise
Being in all the universe. You cannot
teach omnipotence anything. You
have fretted and worried almost
enough. Do you not think SO? Some
of you are making yourselves ridiculous
in the sight of the angels. Here is 6
naval architect, and he draws out the
plan of ship of many thousand tons
Many workmen are engaged on it for {
long while. The ship is done; ant
some day, with the flags up and all
gorgeous with bunting, that vessel il
launched for Southampton. At tina
time lad six years of age comes run
ming down the dock with toy boa
which he has made with his own jack
knife, and he says: Here, my boat il
better than yours. just look at thi
jib-boom and these weather cross jack
Braces" and he drops his little boa
beside the great ship, and there is
roar of laughter on the docks. All, m,
friends, that great ship is your life a
God planned it-vast, million-tonned
ocean-destined, eternity-bound. Tha
little boat is your life as you are try
ing to hew it out, and fashion it an,
launch it. All, do not try to be a riva
of the great Jehovah. God is Away
right, and in nine cases out of ten yo-
are wrong. He sends just the hard
ships, just the bankruptcies, just tn
crosses that it is best for you to have
He knows what kind of grain you are
and he sends the right kind of thresh
ing machine. 1t will be rod or staff
or iron wheel, just according as yor
are fitches. or cummin or corn.
Again: My subject teaches us tina
God keeps trial on us until we let &C
E The farmer shouts ''whoar' to hi
horses as soon as the grain drops fror
: the stalk. The farmer comes with hi
fork and losses up the straw, and h
S sees that the straw has let go tn
f grain, and the grain is thorough
4 threshed So God. Shifting rod an
D turning wheel. both cease as soon a
a we let go. We hold on to this worl
e with its pleasures, and riches, an
emoluments, and our knuckles are S
S firmly set that it seems as if we coul
: hold ON forever. God comes along wit
t some threshing trouble and beats u
: loose. We started under the delusio