Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-06-23

Your trial perhaps Nay nc ISIS
nred countenance or face that is
easily caricatured, and you say. 'Oh,
I could endure anything If only
was good looking" And your trial perhaps
is a violent temper, and you have TO drive IT
like six unbroken horses amid the gunpow-
der explosions Of a great holiday, and ever
and anon it runs away with YOU Your triai
"a the asthma. You say, Ion, II II We're
rheumatism or neuralgia or erysipelas, but
il is this asthma and it is such an exhaust
ing thing to breathe" Your trouble Is nus
band. short, sharp, snappy and cross about
the house and raising small rot because
button is of! How could you know the but
ton is OH
Your trial il wife ever in contest with the
servants and she Is a sloven. Though she
was very careful about her appearance in
your presence once now she is careless. be-
cause she said her fortune is made! Your
trial is a hard school lesson you cannot
learn. and you have bitten your finger nails
until they are a sight to behold Everybody
has some vexation or annoyance or trial,
end he or she thinks it is the one least
adapted. Anything but this" all say.
Anything but this"
Oh, my hearer, 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 saw
age. or an omnipotent Mana Sahib. No, il
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 your
selves ridiculous in the sight of the angels.
Here is naval architect, and he draws out
the plan of ship of many thousand tons.
Many Torkmen are engaged on it for a long
while. The ship is done, and some day, with
the flags up and the air gorgeous with bunt-
ing. that vessel is launched for Southampton.
At that time a lad six years of age comes
running down the dock with a toy boat which
he has made with his own jackknife, and he
says: ''Here. my boat is better than yours
Just look at this jibboom and these weather
cross jack braces" and he drops his little
boat beside the great ship, andthere is roar
of laughter on the docks.
All. my friends. that great ship is your life
as God planned it-yast, million tOnned,
ocean destined, eternity bound. That little
boat is your life as you are trying to hew it
out and fashion it and launch it. Alb. do not
try to be rival of the great Jehovah. God
is always right, and in 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 to have. He knows what kind
of grain you are, and He sends the right kind
of thrashing machine. It will be rod or
staff or iron wheel just according as you are
ftcheS or cummin or corn.
Again. my subject teaches US that God
keeps trial on us until we let go. The farmer
shouts whoa - to his horses as soon as the
grain has dropped from the stalk. The far
mer comes with his fork and losses up the
straw, and he sees that the straw has let go
the grain and the grain is thoroughly
thrashed. SO God. Shifting 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 knuckles
are 50 firmly set that it seems as IL we could
hold on forever. God cones along with
some thrashing trouble and beats US loose.
We started under the delusion that this was
q world n
-aphy that it was so many thousand miles
in diameter and SO many thousand miles IN
circumference, and we said, ''Oh, my, what
a world ~ Troubles came in after life, 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 a very in
significant world, and it is depreciating all
the time as a 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 soul
possession.
We thought that friendship was a grand
thing. In school we used to write compost
lions about friendship, and perhaps we
made our graduating speech on commence
ment day on friendship. Oh, it was a 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
friend has misinterpreted you. and another
friend has neglected you, and friendship
comes now sometimes to mean to you merely
another ak to grind
So with money. We thought if II man had
a competency he was safe for all the future,
but we have learned that mortgage may be
defeated by an unknown previous 1ncum-
brance that signing your name on the back
Of note may be your business death war
rant that new tariff may change the cur
rent of trade that man may be rich to-day
and poor tomorrow. And God, by all these
misfOrtunes, is trying to loosen our grip. but
still we hold on. God smites US with staff,
but we hold on. And He strikes US with a
rod. but we hold on. And He sends over us
the iron wheel Of misfortune. 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 In
dian in the boat in the Niagara rapids com
ing on toward the fall Seeingthat he could
not escape, a moment or two before he got
to the verge of the plunge he lifted q 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, drink
ing to their eternal damnation as they go
over and go down.
Oh, let go! Let go The best fortunes
in heaven. There are no absconding cashiers
from that bank, no failing in promises to pay.
Set your affections on things above, not on
thing on the earth. Let go! Depend upon
it that God will keep upon you the staff. or
the rod, or the iron wheel until you do letgo.
Another thing my text teaches US is that
Christian sorrow is going to have sure
terminus. My text says: Bread corn Is
bruised because he will not be ever thrashing
it. Blessed be God for that. Pound away,
O.1ail. Turn on. o wheel? Your work will
soon be done. He will not be ever thrash
ing it," Now the Christian has almost as