The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1893-06-21

-FOUR triai is vile ever In contest with Oh
servants and she is q sloven. Though ah
was very careful about her appearance 4
your presence once, now she is careless. be
cause she said her fortune Is made! You
trial fs hard school lesson you canno
learn, and you have bitten your finger nail
until they are sight TO behold. Everybod
has some vexation or annoyance or trial
and he or she thinks II Is the one leas
adapted. Anything but this" all say
Anything but this.
Oh my hearer, are you not ashamed to b.
complaining oil this time against God2 VIII
manages the affairs OF this world anyhow
Is 1t an infinite Modoc, or Sitting Bull saw
age. or an omnipotent Mana Sahib No, 4
is the most mercifnl and glorious and wis
Being In oil the universe. You cannot teacl
Omnipotence anything. You have frette,
and worried almost enough. Do you no
| think sop Some OF you are making your.
selves ridiculous in the sight OF the angels.
Here Is naval architect. and he draws ou,
the plan OF n ship of many thousand tons
| Many workmen are engaged on II for n lonl
while. The ship Is done, and some day, will
the flags up and the air gorgeous with hunt
ing. that vessel Is launched for Southampton
| At that time lad six years OF age come.
running down the dock with atoy boat which
he has made with his own jackknife. and h,
says Here. my boat Ia better than yours
just look at this jibboom and these weathe,
|
boat beside the great ship, and there is a roar
Of laughter on the docks.
Alb, my friends, that great ship IL your life
rs God planned it-vast, million tonned
ocean destined, eternity bound. That little
boat is your life as you are trying to hew II
out and fashion it and launch Il. All, do not
try to be rival OF the great Jehovah. God
is always right, and In nine cases out OF ten
you are wrong. Hesends just the hardships.
Just the bankruptcies, just the cross that il
is best for you to have. He knows what kind
OF grain you are, and He sends the right kind
OF thrashing machine. It will be rod or
stan or iron wheel just according as you are
1tches or cummin or corn.
Again, my subject teaches us that God
keeps trial on us until we let go. The farmer
shouts "whoa ~ to his horses as soon ms the
grain has dropped from the stalk. The far
mer comes with his fork and tosses up the
straw, and he sees that the straw has let 20
the grain and the grain IL thoroughly
thrashed. So God. Shifting rod and turn
ing wheel both cease as soon ms we let 90.
We hold on to this world with its pleasures
and riches and emoluments, and our knuckles
are so firmly set that II seems as II we could
hold on forever. God comes along with
some thrashing trouble and beats us loose.
We started under the delusion that this was
n great world. We learned out Of our geog-
raphy that 1t was so many thousand miles
in diameter and so many thousand miles in
circumference, and we said, "Oh, my. what
n worldP Troubles came in after life and
this trouble sliced of one part OF the world.
and that trouble sliced off another part of the
world. and it has got TO be smaller world.
and in some OF your estimations very in
significant world and It is depreciating all
the time as a spiritual property. Ten per
cent. OF, fifty per cent. of, and there are
those here who would not give ten cents for
this world-for the entire world-as soul
possession.
We thought that friendship was n grand
thing. In school we used to write compost
tions about friendship, and perhaps we
made our graduating speech on commence
ment day on friendship. oh, 1t was a charmed
thing. But does II mean as much to you as
1t used to2 You have gone on in life. and
one friend has betrayed you, and another
friend has misinterpreted you, and another
friend has neglected you, and friendship
comes now sometimes to mean to you merely
another AK to grind
So with money. We thought II man had
a competency he was safe for all the future,
but we have learned that n mortgage may be
defeated by an unknown previous incum-
brance that signing your name on the back
OF a note may be your business death war
rant that new tariff may change the cur
rent of trade that man may be rich to-day
and poor tomorrow. And God, by all these
misfortunes, is trying to loosen our grip, but
still we hold on. God emites us with staff
but We hold on. And He strikes us with q
rod, but we hold on. And Hesends over us
the iron wheel OF misfortune. but we hold on,
There are men who keep their grip on this
world until the last moment who suggest to
me the condition and conduct Of the poor In
dian in the boat I'm the Niagara rapids COM
ing on toward the fall. Seeingt that he could
not escape, q moment or two before he got
to the verge Of the plunge he lifted wine
bottle and drank 1t of and then tossed the
bottle into the air. So there are men who
clutch the world, and they 90 down through
the rapids Of temptation and sin, and they
hold on to the very last moment Of life drink
ing to their eternal damnation as they go
over and go down.
oh, let goi Let go, The best fortunes are
in heaven. There are no absconding cashiers
from that bank, no failing IN promises to pay.
Set your affections on things above. not on
It that God will keep upon you the staff, or
the rod, or the iron wheel until you do let go.
Another thing my text teaches us is that
Christian sorrow is going to have sure
terminus. My text says Bread corn is
bruised because he will not be ever thrashing
it." Blessed be God for that. Pound away.
o fail. Turn on, o wheel? Your work will
soon be done. "He will not be ever thrash
ing it," Now the Christian has almost as
much use in the organ for the stop tremulant
as he has for .he trumpet. But after awhile
he will put the last dirge into the portfolio
forever. So much Of US as Is wheat will be
separated from SO much as is chaff, and there
will be no need Of pounding.
They never cry in heaven because they
have nothing to cry about. There are no
tears OF bereavement, for you shall have your
friends oil round about you. There are no
tears OF poverty because each one sits at the
Kings table and has his own chariot Of sal
walton and free access to the wardrobe where
princes get their array. No tears OF sickness,
Tor there are no pneumonias on the Dir, and
no malarial exhalations from the rolling
river Of life, and no crutch for the lame limb,
and no splint for the broken arm, but the
pulses throbbing with the health OF the eternal
God in climate like our June before the
blossoms fall, or our gorgeous October be-
fore the leaves scatter.
In that land the souls will talk over the
different modes Of thrashing. Oh, the story
of the staff that struck the fltches, and the
rod that beat the cummin, and the iron