The Newtown bee., 1894-03-09

 1 ly there was great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and every ones bands were loosed." That is how quickly the tri- umph came, right in the midst of the praying and the singing; hope was crowned while it was climbing to it's seat, and expectation was made realiza- tion ere it had become full flower. l do not know that any exact intimation had been given to the two disciples as to how they were going to get out of
 1 THEIR TERRIBLE STRAITS.
 Probably not. God does not work in that way; He wants His children to trust Him because of what He is, be- cause of what they know Him to be, be- cause they are sure that He is all love and, therefore, will not harm them, nor let any real harm overtake them. Paul and Silas had not been told in any super natural way how deliverance would come and, least of all, that it would so soon come; but they knew it would come in Gods own good time, and that thought inspired their song. Never get the idea that Paul courted suffering, that he sought it and put himself in it's way as means of glorifying his Saviour. His sensitive and naturally timid nature, if you will, shrank from the fearful scourgings to which he was subjected with a recoil of feeling that we can never understand; but, when pursuing the path of duty, if being beaten with rods and pelted with stones came right in his way, he never once fiinched, faltered or turned asde-he looked his enemies right in the face, met his prosecutors more than half way, and generally met them with an exulting note of triumph which, sooner or later, broke out into a song.
 And that, my dear friend, is what I want you to do. Our subject in our pray CT meeting some weeks ago was this, "How Much Have I Borne for Christ?' AS l came from the meeting, some one asked me if l thought the true Christians life ought mainly to be one of suffering, and, if one was exuberantly happy most of the time, you were to put it down as q settled fact that,a ,as to his Christian life, there was something wrong. No, my friend, emphatically no; away with your lugubrious, dull-eyed, sober-visaged Christian; you may certainly put it down as a settled fact that there Is something sadly wrong with his Christian life.
 A CHRISTIAN OUGHT TO BE JOYOUS,
 ought to cultivate joyousness in the soil of his life just as he cultivates the dah- lias in his flower garden. When he thinks of what Jesus did for him, for him alone as if He did nothing for any one else when he thinks of his home and friends and his village and his country and the sun and the flowers and food; above all when he thinks of Heaven and it's eye surpassing and ear-excelling delights, he ought to break forth into singing, and his whole life ought to be in line with the grand "Hallelujah Chorus" Nor ought his singing, like the wren's, to be con- fined to the day; in the night of his sor' row and sickness and disappointment and loss and spiritual doubt, like the night ingale, he ought to sing, and, because the song is in the night, such singing should be his sweetest.
 There's power in song. "There is nc harder shield for the devil to pierce than is made up of singing and prayer" ""Cour age will often leap from the bosom of 8 song" Cromwell's Ironsides went into the battle of Naseby singing. Luther's glorious hymn, "Ein' feste Burg," 8 mighty fortress is our God, won town af ter town and city after city to the Re formed faith; the Marseillaise hymn has won more victories for the French thar the genius of their generals or the strength of their battalions.
 BUGLE BLASTS SOMETIMES BRIGHTEN and put to rout the enemy quite as effect. ively as bullets. Cheers will gain the day when sobs will be sure to lose it. Darkness is chased away by the sunlight one ray of brightness will dispel all the gloom begotten of cloudy day, tears dry up when a smile shines upon them, and the best remedy for an attack of the "blues'' is friend who has some good news to tell. I have known men who have literally sung peace and comfort in- to their hearts. At first, it seemed a hopeless struggle. Everything was black, everybody said it was ''too bad, ; all the advice that was offered was 'tBear up; try to bear it, for the blow is simply terrible" But the God-trusting Chris tian went to work, and he brought to his assistance a sweet thought, and re-en- forced that with golden promise from Gods Word, and marshalled into line a dear memory of some loving word that was spoken, and put in the advance line note of an old familiar air, and planted for the heavy artillery the full, ringing chorus of a song. What was the result Why, the tear and the choking sob and the deep frown all took sudden terror to- gether and fled panic-stricken when they heard the first footfall in the approach of the song. What Paul and Silas did in the inner dungeon of the jail at Phillippi and what countless others have done in the midnight hour of trial, you can do, too, chase away your trouble with song. MY SECOND POINT IS THIS:
 The song in the night is one of which others will catch the strain. While Paul and Silas were praying and singing, the other prisoners were listening to them.