Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-06-16

ness have not in them one tangle too
intricate.
You sometimes feel as if our world
were full of bludgeons flying haphaz-
ard. Oh, no; they are threshing instru-
ments that God just suits TO your case.
There is not dollar of bad debts on
your ledger. or appointments about
goods that you expected to go up but
that have gone down, or swindle of
your business partner, or a trick on
the part of those who are in the same
kind of business that you are, but God
intended to override for your immortal
help. ''Oh," you say, there is no need
talking that way to mel don't like
TO be cheated and outraged" Neither
aoes the corn like the corn-thresher;
but after it has been threshed and win
moved it has n great deal bet err opin-
ion of winnowing- mills and corn
threshers.
"Nell," you say, eff could choose
my trou bles ! 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 1T does not get
sanctitied. Your trial, perhaps, may
be childlessness. You are fond of
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
at ections?" You say: ANY other
trial but this" Your trial perhaps
may be d sfigured countenance, or
face that is easily caricatured, and you
say: "Oh, could endure anything if
only | was good-loosing." And your
trial, perhaps, is n violent temper, and
you have to drive it like six unbroken
horses amid the gunDowder explosions
of great holiday, and ever and anon
IT runs away with you. Your tl'ial is
the asthma. You say: "Oh, II It We're
rheumatism, or neuralgia, or erysire-
las, but it is this asthma, and it is
such an eXhausting thing TO Breathe"
Your trouble is n husband, short. sharp,
snappy, and cross about the house,
Snd raising a small riot because II
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 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. EvcBy body has some vexa-
tion or ammo ance, or trial, and he or
she thinAs IL is tn, one least adapted.
Anything but this" all say. Any
thing but this"
ON, my nearer, are you not ashamed
TO be complaining al this time az ainst
&, d? Who mana ges the affairs of this
world, anyhow? Is it an infinite Mo-
doe? or Sitting Bull savage? or an
omripotent Mana Sahib? No; it is the
most merciful amt glorious and wise
Being in all the universe. You cannot
teach Omnipotence anything. You
have fretted and worried almost
enough. 10 You not think so? Some
of you are making yoursel'e s ridicu-
lous in the sight Of the angels. Here
is naval architect, and he draws out
the plan of a ship Of many thousand
tons. Many workmen are engaged on
it for long while. The ship is done;
and some day, with the flags up and
the air gorgeous with bunting, that
vessel is launched for Southampton.
At that time, lad six years o. age
comes running down the dock witl
toy boat which he has male with his
own jack-knife; and he says: Here,
my boat is better than Y urs. just
look at this jib boom and these weather
cross ack-braces;' and he drops his
little boat beside the great ship, and
there is roar of laughter on the
docks. All, my friends, that great
ship is your life as God planned it
vast, millIon-tonned, OCEAN destined,
eternity bound. That Little boat is
your life as you are try ing to hew IL
out, and fashion it, and launch IL. All.
10 not try to be a rival of the great
Jehovah. God is always rlgh., and in
nine cases out of ten you are wrong.
lie sends just the hardships, just the
bankruptcies, just the cross that is best
for you to have. lie knows what kind
of grain you are, and he sends the
right kind of threshlng-machine. it
will lie a rod, or staff, or iron wheel,
just according as you are fitches or
Iummin, 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 as the grain las dropped
from the stalk. The farmer comes
with his fork aud losses up the straw,
and he sees that the straw has let go
the grain, and the grain is thoroughly
! threshed. So God. Shifting rod and
turning wheel, both cease as soon as
we let go. We hold on to this world
with its pleasures, and riches, and
emoluments, and our knuclkles are so
firmly set that it seems as if we could
| hold on forever. God comes along
with some threshing trouble and beats
us loose. We started under the delusion
| that this was great world. We
learned out of our geography that it
was many thousand miles in diane
ter, and so many thousand miles in
circumference. and we said: 20 my,
what world" Troubles came in
after-life, and this trouble sliced off
one part of the world, and that trouble
sliced off another part of the world,
and il has got to be a smaller world,
| and, in some of your estimations very
| insignificant world; and il is depreeiat-
ing all the time as spiritual property.
Ten per sent off, 80 per cent Off, and
there arc those here who would not
give 10 cents for this world-for the
entire world-as a soul-possession.
We thought that friendship was n
| grand thing. In school we used to
write compositions about friendship;
and perhaps we made our graduating
| Spaaph On pprnrnanaarnant ~