Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1894-05-03
tending soul The midnight air is full Of

sky, Thy fathcrlcSS children j Will pre-
serve them alive, and let thy widows trust
in mcn'
Some one said to very poor woman,
How is 1t that in such distress you keep
cheerfulY" She said: 81 do it by what |
call cross prayers. When I had my rent TO
pay, and nothing to pay it with, and bread
TO buy, and nothing to buy it with, I used
to sit down and cry. But now do not get
discouraged. If I go along the street,
when l come to corner of the street say
The Lord help me then go on until |
come to another crossing of the street, and
again say, The Lord help me And so
utter prayer at every crossing, and since
! have got into the habit of saying these
cross prayers l have been able to keep up
my courage.
Grand Trials.
Learn again from this subject that poo
pie sometimes are surprised to find out
that what they have been struggling with
in the darkness is really an ''angel Of
blessing" Jacob found in the morning
that this strange parsonage was not an
enemy, but God dispatched messenger to
promise prosperity for him and for his
children. And so many man at the close
of his trial has found out that he has been
trying to throw down his own blessing.
If you are Christian man, will go back
in your history and find that the grandest
things that have ever happened TO you
have been your trials Nothing short Of
scourging, imprisonment and shipwrccS
could have made Paul what he was.
When David was fleeing through tho
wilderness, ptNsucd by his own son. he
was being prepared to become the sweet
singer of Israel. The pit and the dungeon
were the best schools ct Which Joseph ever
graduated The hurricane that upset the
tent and killed jobs children prepared the
man of " to write the magnificent poem
that has astounded the ages. There is no
way to get the wheat ont of the straw hut
to thrash it. There is no way To purify
the gold but to burn it Look at the POO
pie who have always had it their own way.
They are proud, discontented useless and
unhappy. If you want to find cheerful
folks, 90 among those who have been puri-
fed by the fire
After Rossini had rendered "William
Tell" the five hundreth time IA company
of musicians came under his window in
Paris and sercnadcd him. They put upon
hi, brow a golden crown of laurel leaves
But amid all the applause and enthusiasm
Rossini turned to friend and said 81
DAYS of youth and love" Contrast the
melancholy feeling of Rosaini who had
everything that this world could give him,
to the joyful experience of Isaac Watts,
whose misfortunes We're innumcrablc,
when he says
The hill of Zion yields
A thousand sacred sweets
Before we reach the heavenly fields
Or walk the golden streets.
Then let our songs abound
And every tear be dry.
We are marching through lmmanueI g
ground
To fairer worlds on high.
1t is prosperity that kills and trouble
that saves While the Isracites were on
the march amid great privations and hard
ships they behaved we'll After awhile they
prayed for meat, and the sky darkencd
with a great flock of quails, and these
quals fell in large multitudes all about
them, and the Israelitcs ate and ate and
stuffed themselves until they died, Oh,
my friends, it is not hardship or trial or
starvation that Injuries the soul, bat album
dant supply. II is not the vulture of trou-
Bile that eats up the Christians life. 1t is
the quals. 1t is the quails. You will yet
find out that your midnight wrestic by the
brook Jabbok is with an angel of God come
down to bless and save.
The Mark of Trouble.
Learn, again, that while our wrestling
with trouble may be triumphant we must
expect that it will leave its mark upon us.
| Jacob prevailed, but the angel touched
! him, and his thigh bone sprang from its
socket, and the good man went lmping On
| his way. We must carry through this
world the mark OF the combat What
| plowed those premature wrinkles in your
| face? What whitehead your hair before it
was time for frost? What silcnccd forever
so much OF the hilarity of your household?
All, it is because the angel OF trouble hath
| touched you that you go limping on your
way. You need not be surprised that
| those who have passed through the fire do
not feel as gay as once they did.
Do not be out Of patience with those who
come not out of their Dependency. They
may triumph over their loss, and yet their
gait shall tell you that they have been
trouble touched. Arc we stoicS thai we
can, unmoved, see our cradle rined of the
| bright eyes and the sweet lips: Can we
| stand unmoved and sec our gardens of
| earthly delight uprooted? viii Jesus, who
wept himself, be angry with us if we pour
! our tears into the graves that open TO
swallow down what we love best Was
Lazarus more dear 10 him than our beloved
dead to us? No We have a right to weep.
/ Our tears must come You shall not drive
! them back to scald the hearts. They fail
into Gods bottle Afflicted ones have
died because they could not weep. Thanl;
God for the sweet, the mysterious relief
that comes to us in tears, Under this gen
tie rain the flowers of corn put forth their
bloom God pity that dry, withcred,
parched, all consuming grief that wrings
its hands, and grinds its teeth and bites
its nails unto the quick, but cannot weep!
We may have found the comfort of the
cross and yet ever after show that in the
dark night and by the brook Jabbok we
were trouble touched.
Again we may take the idea of the text
! and announce the approach of the day
dawn No one was ever more glad to see
the morning than was Jacob after that
night Of struggle. 1t is appropriate foi
philanthropists and Christians to cry out
with this angel Of the text, "The day
breaketh The worlds prospects are