The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1893-10-28


to take care Of one violet2 I say
! "What are you doing down there in tho
, grass, poor little violet? Nobody
} knows you are here. Are you not
I afraid nights? You will die with thirst
nobody cares for you; you win suffer
you will perish" NO" says a star
'I'll watch over it tonight" no.
say the cloud, "I'll give IL drink. y
''No," says the sun, "I'll warm it in my
BOSOM" And then the wind rises, and
, comes bending down the grain, and
: sounding its psalm through the forest,
and sayi WHITTIER away, O wind! on
such swift wing9a aud 1t answers: II
am going to cool the cheek of that vio-
let And then | see pu1leys at work
in the sky, and the clouds are drawing
water, and sayi "What are you doing
there, o clouds?'' They sayi ave are
drawing water for that violet And
then look down into the grass.
and / 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 minis
try as that, tell you God = willing to
bend down to your case since He is
just as careful about the construction
of spiders eye as He is in the confor-
nation of flaming galaxies.
Plato had table 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
a body and find a sphere Of work. One
spirit came and took the body of
king, and did his work. Another spirit
came and took the body of a poet, and
did his work. After awhile Ulysses
came, and he said: "Why, all the fine
bodies are taken, and all the grand
work is taken. There is nothing left
for me-" And someone replied: ''Ah.
the best one has been left for. YOU"
! Ulysses said: whats that?' And the
reply was: 'The body of common
man, doing a common work, and for
common reward" A good fable for
the world. and just as good fable for
the church.
We must see blind man led along
by his dog before we learn what
grand thing it is to have ones eye
sight. We must see man with st.
Vitus' dance before we learn what a
grand thing it is to have the use of our
physical energies. We must see some
soldier crippled, limping along on his
crutch, or his empty coat sleeve pinned
up. before we learn what grand
thing it is to have the use of all our
physical faculties. In other words,
we are so stupid that nothing but the
misfortunes of others can wake us up
to an appreciation of our common bless
ings
We get on board train and start for
Boston, and come to Norwalk bridge,
and the "draw" is off, and crash goes
the train. Fifty lives dashed out. We
escape. We come home in great ex-
element, and call our friends around
us, and they congratulate us; and we
all kneel down and thank God for our
escape while SO many persisted. But
Tomorrow morning you get on train |
for Boston You cross that bridge at |
Norwalk. You cross all the other |
bridges. You get to Boston in safety. !
Then you return home. Not an ac-
cident, not an alarm. No thanks. In
other words. you seem to be more |
grateful when fifty people lose their |
lives and you get off, than you are |
grateful to God when you all get off,
and you have no alarm at all Now |
yon ought to be thankful when you es-
cape from accident, but more thankful |
when they all escape. In the one case
your gratitude is some W hat selfish; in
the other it is more like what it ought |
to be.
Oh! these common mercies, these
blessings, how little we APP
preciate them and how soon we forget
them! Like the OK grazing, with the
clover up to its eyes, like the bird pick
ing the worm out of the furrow-never
to thank God who makes the
grass grow, and who gave life TO every
living thing, from the animalcule in
the sod to the seraph on the throne.
on the 27th of November,
in the autumn of the year; but bless
ings, hour by hour and day by day,
and no thanks at all. I COM
pared our Indifference to the brute,
but perhaps ! wronged the brute.
do not know but that, among
its other instincts, it may have an in
stinct by which it recognizes the Di-
vine hand that feeds it. do not know
but that God is, through it, holding
with what we call cir
creation" The COW that |
stands under the willow by the water |
course, chewing its cud, looks very
thankful; and who can tell how much
i bird means by its song? The aroma
# the flowers smells like incense, and
he mist arising from the river looks /
ike the smoke of morning sacrifice. :
Oh, that we were as responsive
But l 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
We are called together in our churches
o give thanks to God for His goodness.
nd every day ought to be thanks
living day. We take most Of the
blessings of life as matter of course.
We have had ten thousand blessings
his morning. Before the night comes
We will have a Thousand more blessings
ou will never think of mentioning be-
GRO God