The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-09-18

anxieties, you have your vexations.
"Oh," you say, "they don't shape my
character. Since / lost my child, since
I have lost my property, have been a
very different man from what was. y
My brother, it is the little annoyances
CT your life that are souring your dis
position, clipping your moral character
and making you less and less of man.
You go into an artists studio. You
see him making piece of sculpture.
! You say, 'sWhy don't you strike hard
err" With his mallet and his chisel he
goes click, click, click! and you can
hardly see from stroke to stroke that
there is any impression made upon the
stone, and yet the work is going on.
You say, 'Why don'tyou strike harder7'
"Ohr' he replies, ''that would shatter
the statue. I must make it in this way,
stroke by stroke" And he continues on
by week and month until after awhile
every man that enters the studio is fas-
cinated.
Well, I find God dealing with some
man. He is shaping him for time and
shaping him for eternity. I say, 30
Lord, why not with one tremendous blow
of calamity shape that man for the next
world?' God says, 'sThat's not the way
I deal with this man; it is stroke after
stroke, annoyance after annoyance, ir-
ritation after irritation, and after awhile
he will be done and glad spectacle for
angels and Imen."
THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS.
Not by one great stroke, but by ten
thousand little strokes of misfortune are
men fitted for heaven. You know that
large fortunes can soon be scattered by
being paid out in small sums of money,
and the largest estate Of Christian char
acter is sometimes entirely lost by these
small depletions.
We must bring the religion of Jesus
Christ to help us in these little annoy
ances. Do not say that anything is too
insignificant to affect your character.
Rats may sink ship. One lucifer
match may destroy temple. A queen
got her death by smelling of poisoned
rose. The scratch of sixpenny nail
may give you the lockjaw. Columbus,
by asking for a piece of bread and a
drink of water at a Franciscan convent,
came to the discovery of a new world.
And there is great connection between
trifles and immensities, between moth
ings and everythings.
Do you not suppose that God cares for
your insignificant sorrows? Why, my
friends, there is nothing Insignificant in
your life. How dare you take the re-
sponsibility Of saying that there is? Do
you not know that the whole universe is
not ashamed to take care of one violet? I
say: "What are you doing down there
in the grass, poor little violet? Nobody
knows you are here. Are you not afraid
nights? You will die with thirst. No
body cares for you. You will suffer; you
will perish" mo" says a star, "Tll
watch over it tonight" ''No." says the
cloud, "I'll give it drink" NO. says
the sun, s'rll warm it in my bosom"
And then the wind rises and comes
bending down the grain and sounding
its psalm through the forest, and I say,
"Whither away, o wind, on such swift
wing~ and it answers. II am going to
cool the cheek of that violet" And then
see pulleys at work in the sky, and the
clouds are drawing water, and I say,
'What are you doing there, o clouds?"
They say. "We 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, Eyes, yes; God
clothes the grass of the field, and he has
never forgotten me, a poor violet" Oh,
my friends, if the heavens bend down to
such insignificant ministry as that, tell
you God is willing to bend down to your
case, since he is just as careful about
the construction Of spiders eye as he
is in the conformation of flaming gal
axies.
Plato had fable 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 sphere of work. One
spirit came and took the body of a king
and did his work. Another spirit came
and took the body of poet and did his
work. After awhile Ulysses came, and
he said: 'sWhy, all the fine bodies are
taken, and all the grand work is taken.
There is nothing left for me-" And some
one replied, "Ah, the best one has been
left for you" Ulysses said, whats
that?" And the reply was, "The body
of common man, doing common
work and for common reward" A
good fable for the world and just as
good fable for the church.
But, l remark again, we ought to
bring the religion of Jesus Christ into
our ordinary blessings. Every autumn
the president of the United States and
the governors make proclamation, and
we are called together in our churches
30 give thanks to God for his goodness.
But every day ought to be a thanksgiv-
ing day. We take most of the blessings
of life as matter of course. We have
had ten thousand blessings this morning
for which we have not thanked God.
Before the night comes we will have
thousand more blessings you will never
think of mentioning before God.
Iow TO APPRECIATE OUR BLESSINGS.