Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-03-17

ing cOnSOldJlou IN our ncdTt, every
chapter a stalk, every verse stem,
every word rose. & complete Savior,
a complete Bible, 8 complete universe,
a complete Jordanic passage. Every
thing that God does Is complete.
Again, l learn from this Jordanic
passage that between us and every
Canaan of success and prosperity there
is river that must be passed. ''Oh, how
/ would like some of those grapes on
the other side!' said some of the Israel
ties to Joshua. ''Well," says Joshua,
eff you want the grapes why don't you
cross over and get them?" There is
river of difficulty between us and every
thing that isworth having; that which
costs nothing is worth nothing. God
didn't intend this world for an easy
parlor, through which we are to be
drawn in a rocxing-chair, but we are
to work our passage, climb masts, fight
battles, scale mountains and ford riv-
ers. God makes everything valuable
difficult to get at, for the same reason
that he put the gold down in the mine,
and the pearl clear down in the sea, to
make us dig and dive for them. We
acknowledge this principle in worldly
things; oh, that we were only wise
enough to acknowledge it in religious
thagsl
You have scores of illustrations I'M
der your own observation where men
have the hardest lot, and been trodden
under foot, and yet after while had
it easy. Now their homes blossom and
bloom with pictures, and carpets that
made foreign looms laugh now en-
brace their feet; the summer winds
lift the tapestry about the window
gorgeous enough for Turkish Sultan;
impatient steeds paw and neigh at the
door, their carriages moving through
the sea of New York life a very wave
of splendor. Who is it? Why, it is a
boy that came to New York with
dollar in his pocket, and all his estate
slung over his shoulder in a cotton
handkerchief. All that silver on the
danriLg span is petrifed sweat-drops;
that Scautiful dress is the faded calico
over which God put his hand of per-
lection, turning it to Turkish satin or
Italian silk; those diamonds are the
tears which suffering froze as they fell.
Oh, there is a river of difficulty be-
tween us and every earthly achieve
ment. You know that. You admit
that.
You know this is so with regard TO
the acquisition of knowledge. The
ancients used to say that Vulcan struck
Jupiter on the head and the goddess of
wisdom jumped out, illustrating the
truth that wisdom comes by hard
knocks. There was river of difficulty
between Shakespeare, the boy holding
the horses at the door of the London
Theater, and that Shakespeare, the
great dramatist, winning the applause
of all audiences by his tragedies. There
was river between BENJAMIN Frank
lin, with a loaf of bread under his arm,
walking the streets of Philadelphia,
and that same Benjamin Franklin, the
philosopher, just outside of Boston fly
ing kite in the thunderstorm. An
idler was cured of his bad habit by
looking through his window, night
after night, at man who seemed sit
ting at his desk turning off one sheet
of writing after another, until almost
the dawn of the morning. The man
sitting there writing until morning
was industrious Walter Scott; the man
who looked at him through the window
was Lockart, his illustrious biographer
afterward. Lord Mansfield, pursued
by the press and by the populace, be-
cause of a certain line of duty, went
on to discharge the duty; and while
the mob were around him demand
ing the taking of his life, he shook
his hat in the face of the mob, and
said, "Sirs, when ones last end comes,
il cannot come too soon, If it falls in
defence of law and the liberty of his
country" And SO there is, my friends,
tug tussle, a trial, a push, an
anxiety, through which every man
must go before he comes to worldly
success and worldly achievement. You
admit it. Now be wise enough to APP
ply it in religion. Eminent Christian
character is only gained by the Jor-
danic passage; no man just happened
to get good.
Why does that man know so much
about the Scriptures? He was study
ing the Bible while you were reading
a novel. Hewas on fire with the sub
limities Of the Bible while you were
sound asleep. BY tug, tussel, pushing
and running in the Christian life that
man got so strong for God; in n hun
dred Solferinos he learned how to fight;
in hundred shipwrecks he learned
how to swim. Tears over sin, tears
over lions desolation, tears over the
imponitent, tears over the graves made,
are the Jordan which that man had
passed. Sorrow pales the cheek, and
fades the eye, and wrinkles the brow
and withers the hands;there are mourn
ing garments in the wardrobe, and
there are deaths in every family record,
all around are the relics of the dead.
The Christian has passed the Red
Sea of trouble. and yet he thinks there
is Jordan of death, between him and
heaven. He comes down to that Jor-
dan of death, and thinks how many
have been lost there. When Molyneux
was exploring the Jordan in Palestine,
he had his boats all knocked to pieces
n !. A Il