Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1894-07-20

and then he said: my life has been a
failure-a failure domestically. have
10 children. A failure socially, for l
am treated in the streets like pirate
A failure professionally because l know
bat one minister that has adopted my
sentiments. " For a quarter of CEN
tury he laughed at Christianity, and
ever since Christianity has been laugh
ing Il niu. NoW, it is a mean thing to
70 mo mans house and steal his
goods bit I ol you the most gigantic
bur .la,v eyer inventod is tho proposition
to steal these treasuers Of our holy re-
ligion. Tho meanest laughter ever ut
tered is the laugh of the skeptic-
David's Laugh.
The next laughter mentioned in the
Bible is Davids laughter, or the express
sion of spiritual exultation. Then was
our mouth filled with laughter. He
got very much down sometimes, but
there are other chapters where for four
or five times he calls upon the people to
praise and exult. 1t was not a more
twitch of the lips-it was demons.ra,
ton that took hold Of his whole physica,
nature. Then was our mouth hlIed
with laughter. " My friends, this world
will never be copverted to God until
Christians CRY less and laugh and sing
more. The horrors are poor bait. II
noople are to be persuaded to adopt our
HOLY religion, it will be because they
have made.up their minds it is happy
religion. They don't like a morbid
Christianity l know there are morbid
people who enjoy funeral. They come
early to see the friends take leave Of the
corpse, and they steal ride to the ceme-
terry. but all healthy people enjoy a
wedding better than they do burial
Now. Won make the religion Of Christ
sepulchral and hearselike, and you
make it repnlsive. / say plant the rose
of Sharon along the church walks and
columhine to Chamber over the church
wall. and have a smile on the lip, and
have the mouth filled with holy laugh
ter There is no man in the world, ex-
cept the Christian, that has the right to
feel an untrammeled glee He is prom
ised everything is to be for the best
here. and he is on the way to delight
which will take all the professions with
palm branches and all the orchestras
harped and cymbaled and trumpeted to
express. "Oh, " you say, Il have so
much trouble. Have you more trouble
than Paul had? What does he say:
"Sorrowful yet always rejoicing. Poor,
vet making many rich. Having moth
ing. vet possessing all things" The
merllest laugh thinl, have ever heard
has been in the sickroom of God s dear
children. When Theodosius was put
upon the rack he suffered very great
torture at the first.
Somebody asked him how he endured
all that pain on the rack. He replied:
"Whcn l was first put on the rack, l
suffered a great deal, but very soon a
voung man in white stood by my side,
and with a soft and comfortable hand
kcc.niof he wiped the sweat from my
brow, and my pains were relieved. 1t
was a punishment for me TO get from
the rack because when the pain was all
gone the angel was gone. " Oh, rejoice
evermore' You know how it is in the
army-an army in encampment If to-
day news comes that our side has had
@ defeat, and tomorrow another portion
Of the tidiDgs comes, saying we have
had another defeat, il demoralizes all
the host But il the news comes of VIC
tory today and victory tomorrow the
whole army is impassioned for the con-
test. Now, in the kingdom Of our Lord
Jesus Christ report fewer defeats tells
us the victoiies-victory over sin and
death and hell. Rejoice evermore, and
again l say rejoice. l believe there is
more religion in a laugh than in groan.
Anybody can groan, but to laugh in the
midst Of Punishment and persecution
and Undesirable trial, that required a
David, a Daniel, Paul. a modern hero
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