The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1893-06-13

Your trial is Il hard schoO-lesson you can
not learn, and you have bitten your niger
mails until they are Il sight to Dehoid.
Everybody has some vexation or annoyance,
or trial, and he or she thinks 1t Is the one
least adapted. Anything but this, all
say, Anything but this
On, my nearer, are you not ashamed
to be complaining all this time against
God! Who manages the affairs OF this
world, anyhow? Is it an infinite Modoc!
or Sitting Bull savage? or an omnipotent
Mana Sahib! No; it is the most merciful
and glorious and wise being in all the
anything. You have fretted and worried
almost enough. Do you not think so?
So'ne of you are making yourselves ridcu-
lous IN the sight of the angels. Here is 4
naval architect, and he draws out the plan
or ship of many thousand tons. Many
wOrkmen are engaged on it for a long
while. The ship is done; and some day,
with the flags up and the air gorgeous with
bunting, that vessel is launched for South
ampton. At that time lad six years of
age, comes running down the dock with a
toyboat which he has made with his own
Jackknlfe, and he says: Here, my boat is
better than yours. just look at this iib-
boom and these weather cross lack braces"
and he drops his little boat beside the Great
ship, and there is Il roar of laughter on the
docks: All, my friends that great ship is
your life us God planned it--vast, million
tonned, ocean-destincd, eternity bound
That little boat is your life as you are try
ing to hew it out, and fashion it. and launch
1t. All. do not try to be rival of the great
Jehovah. God is always right, and i'll nine
cases out of ten you are wrong. He sends
just the hardships, just the bankruptcies, =.
just the cross that it is best for YOU 10 have.
He knows what kind of grain you are, and
he sends the right kind of thrcshing ma
chine. 1t will be Il rod, or staff or iron
wheel, just according as you are titches, or
cumnln, or corn.
Tt
keeps trial on us until we let GO The far
mer shouts whoa to his horses as soon
as the grain has dropped from the stalk.
The farmer comes with his fork and losses
up the straw, and he sees that the straw has
let 20 the grain, and the grain is thoroughly
threshcd. SO God. Smiling rod and turn
ing wheel, both cease as soon as we let go.
We hold on to this world with its pleasures
and riches and emoluments and our knuclles
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
a great world. We learned out of our ge
ograpby that it was SO many thousand miles
in diameter and so many thousand miles i'll
circumference, and we said: 20 my, what
Il world.' Troubles came in after-lifG, and
this trouble sliced off one part of the world
and that trouble sliced off another part of
the world, and it has got to be a smaller
world, and in some of your estimations
very insignificant world, and it is deprcci-
ahng all thee time as a spir-
itual property. Ten per cent off, fifty
per cent off, and there are those here who
would not give 10 cents for this world-for
the entire world-as Il soul possession
We thought that friendship was Il grand
thing. In school we used to write compost
tons about friendship, and perhaps we
made our graduating speech on commence
mcnt day on friendship. OH it was
charmed thing; but does it mean as much
to you az it used to? You have gone on in
life, and one friend has betrayed YOU, and
another friend has misinterpretcd YOU. and
another friend has neglected you, and friend
snip comes now sometimes to mean 10 YOU
merely another ak to grind
SO with money. We thought if n man
had competency he was safe for all tie
future, but we have learned that n mort
gage may be defeated by an unknown pre-
ylous incunbrance; that signing your name
on the back OF n note may be your business
death warrant; that Il new tariff may change
The current OF trade; that q man may be
rich today and poor tomorrow. And God
by all these mlStOrtunes. is trying to loosen
our grip; but still we hold on God Smites
US with q staff; but we hold on And he
strikes US with Il rod; but we hold on And
he sends over us the iron wheel of miSfor-
June; 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
Indian in the boat in the Niagara rapids,
coming on toward the fall Seeing that he
could not escape, q moment or two before
he got to the verge of the plunge he lifted a
Wine bottle and drank it off, and then tossed
the bottle into the air SO there are men
who clutch the world. and they go down
through the rapids Of temptation and sin,
and they hold on to the very last moment
of life. drinking to their eternal damnation
as they go over and go down
Oh. let 90! Let go! The best fortunes
are in heaven. There are no absconding
cashiers from that bank, no failing in nrom-
ises to pay. Set your affections on things
above. not on things on the earth Let go
Depend upon il that God will keen ,ln0n
you the staff or the rod or the iron wheel
until you do let go.
Another thing my text teaches us u.s.
that Christian sorrow is going to have
sure terminus. My text says: Bread
corn is bruised. because he will not he
ever threshng it. Blessed be God for
that! Pound away, Q fail. Turn ON, O
wheel. Your work Will soon be done. He |
will not be ever threshing it." Now the
Christian has almost as much use in the |
organ for the stop tremulant as he has for
the trumpet But after awhile he will put |
the last dirge into the portfolio forever
SO much of us rs is wheat will be sepa- |
rated from so much as is chalf and there |
will be no more 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 all round about you. There |
are no tears of poverty, because each one |
sits at the kings table and has his own |
chariot of salvation and free access to the |
wardrobe where princes get their array. |
No tears of sickness, for there are no pneu- |
monias on the air and no malaral exhala- !
tions from the rolling river of life, aud no
crutch for the lame limb and no splnt for |
the broken arm, but the pulses throbbing |
with the health of the eternal God in Il |
climate like our June before the blossoms |
fall. or our gorgeous October before the |
leaves scatter.
III that land the souls will talk over the
different modes of the threshiug. Oh, the |
story of the staff that struck the ftches, !
and the rod that beat the cummin, and the |
iron wheel that went over the corn. Daniel |
will describe the lions and Jonah leyia-
than and Paul the elmwood |
whips with which he was scoursed !
and Eve will tell how aromatic !
Eden was the day she left it and John
Rogers will tell of the smart of the flame, |
and Elijah of the fiery team that wheeled
him UP the sky steps and Christ OF the
numbness and paroxysm and hcmorrhages
of the awful crucihNion. There they are
before the throne of God. On one eleva-
ZION all those who were struck OF the stall.
On q higher elevation all those who were
struck of the rod On il highest elevation