Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-09-08

NuldulJH blNIC hdh lOI NilC
next world?" God says, That's not
the way / deal with this man; IL is
stroke after stroke, annoyance after
annoyance, irritation after irritation;
and after awhile he win be done, and
glad spectacle for angels and men"
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 scat
tered by being paid out in small sums
of money, and the largest estate of
Christian character is sometimes en-
tirely lost by these small depletions.
We must bring the religion of Jesus
Christ tC Gelp us in these little annoy
ances. Do not say that anything is
too insignificant to affect your char
acter. Rats may sink a ship. One
lucifer match may destroy n temple.
A queen got her death by smelling of
a poisoned rose. The scratch of a six
penny nail may give you the lockj Nv.
Columbus by asking for piece of
bread and a drink of water at
Franciscan convent came to the dis
coverv of q new world. And there
is a great come .tion between trifles
aud immensities, between nothings
and everythings. Do you not suppose
that God cares for your insignificant
sorrows? Why, my friends, there is
nothing insig liticant in your life.
How dare you take the responsibility
of saying hat there is? Do you not
know that the whole universe Is not
ashamed to take care of one violet?
say, What are you doing down there
in the grass, p or little violet? No
body knows you are here. Are
you not afraid nights? You will
die with thirst; nobody cares
for you; you will suffer, you
will perish" mo" saws a star, "l'll
watch over it tonight" mo" says the
cloud. III give it drink NO" says
the sun, "l'll warm it in my bosom"
And then the wind rises, and comes
bending down the grain, and sounding
it's psalm through the forest, and [
say, 'Whither away, o wind. on su IN
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 sly, "Whlt are you do
ing there, o clouds" They say, 1--WE
are drawing water for that violet"
And then l look down in'o the grass,
and l say, Can it be that God takes
care of n poor thing like you?' and the
answer comes up, "Nes, yes; God
clothes the grass of the field, and he
has never forgotten me, poor violet"
Oh, my friends! if tie heavens bend
down to such insignificant ministry as
that. tell you God is will ng TO bend
down TO your case, since he is just as
careful about the construction of
spiders eye as he is in the copforma-
tion of flaming galaXies.
Plato had fable which have now
nearly forgotten, but il ran something
like this: lie said spl its of the other
world came back to this world to find
a body and find a sphere to work. One
spirit came and took the body of
king, and did his work. Another
spirit came and took the body of
p ct, 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 some one
replied, "Ah! the best one has been
left for you" Ulysses said, whats
that?" aud the reply was, The body of
a common man doing a common work,
and for common reward A good
fable FOR the world, and just as good
ia BILE for the church.
But | 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 church
to give thanks to God for his Goodness.
But every day ought to be a thanksgiv-
ing day. We take most of the bless
lngs 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 a thousand more bless
ings you will never think of mention
ing before God
We must see blind man led along
by his dog before we learn what "A
grand thing it is to have ones eye
sight. We must see n man with st.
Vitus' dance before we learn what
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 a
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 blessings
We geton board a train and start for
Boston, and come to Norwallx 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 a train
of cars 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 accident, 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
you ought to be thankful when you
escape from aeciden but more thank
full when they all escape. In one case
your gratitude Is somewhat selfish; in
the other, it is more like what it ought
to be.
Oh! these common mercies, these
common blessing. how little we APP