Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1893-06-17


the Ephesian vociferation, and the
skinned ankles of the painful stocks,
and the laundering of the AleXandrian
corn-ship, and the beheading stroke OF
the Roman sheriff to bring Paul to his
proper development.
1t was not because Robert Moffat and
Lady Rachael Russell, and Frederick
Oberlin were worse than other people
that they had to suffer, it was because
they were better, and God wanted to
make them best. by the carefulness of
the threshing you may always conclude
the value of the grain.
Next, my text teaches us that God
proportions our trials to what we can
bear. The staff for the fitches. The
rod for the cummin. The iron wheel
for the corn. Sometimes people in
great trouble say: ''Oh, can't bear it,
God would not have sent it upon You II
he did not know that you could bear 1t.
You trembled and you swooned; but
You got through. God will not take
from your eyes one tear too many, nor
from your lungs one sigh too deep. nor
from your temples one throb too sharp.
The perplexities of your earthly busi-
ness have not in them one tangle too
| intricate.
You sometimes feel as If our world
were full of bludgcons 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 disappointment about
goods that you expected to go up but
that have gone down, or n swindle of
your business partner, or trick on the
part of those who are in the same kind
of business that you are, but God in
tended to override for immortal help.
"Oh," you say. there is no need talk
ing that way to mel don't like to be
cheated and outraged. Neither does
the corn like the corn-thrcsher; but
after it has been threshed and Win
moved it has great deal better opin-
ion of winnowing mills and corn
threshers.
Again: My subject teaches us that
God keeps trial on us until we let go.
We hold on to this world with its pleas
ures. 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 n great
world. Trouble came in after-life, and
this trouble sliced off one part of the
world. and that trouble sliced off an
other part of the world. and it has got
to be a smaller world and in some OF
your estimations, n very insignificant
world; and it is depreciating all the
time as spiritual property. Ten per
cent. off. Fifty per cent. off, and there
are those here who would not give ten
cents for this world-for the entire
world-as Il soul-possession.
WELL" you say, If | conld choose
my troubles would be willing to be
troubled" All. my brother, then it
would not be trouble. You would
chose something that would not hurt,
and unless it hurts it does not get sane
titled Everybody has some veXation
or annoyance, or trial. and he or she
thinks it is the one least adapted.
Anything but this" all say. ANY
thing but this"
Oh. 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 Mo-
doc? or Sitting Bull savage? or an ON
nipotent Mana Sahib? No: it is the
most merciful and glorious and wise
Being in all the universe. You cannot
teach Omnipotence anything You
have fretted and worried almost
enough. DO you not think so? Some
of you are making yourselves ridiculous
in the sight of the angels. God is al
ways right and in nine cases out OF ten
YOU are wrong. He sends just the
hardships, just the bankruptcies, just the
cross that is best for you to have. He
knows what kind of grain you are, and
he sends the right kind of threshing
machine. 1t will be a rod, a staff, or
iron wheel, just according as you are
fitches, or cummin, or corn.
We thought that friendship was
great thing. In school we used to write
compositions about friendship: and per-
haps we made our graduating speech
on commencement day on friendship.
Oh! it was n charmed thing; but does
it mean as much to you as it used to?
You have gone on in life, and one
friend has betrayed you, and another
e. L - &o1 md mr.
other friend has neglected you, and
friendship comes now sometimes to
mean to you merely another AK to
grind!
So with money. We thought if
man had competency he was safe for
all the future; but we have learned
that a mortgage may be defeated by an
unknown previous incumbrance; that
signing your name on the back OF
\ Hath