The free press., 1895-03-07

I lessons she cannot get face that is not
as attractive as some Of her schoolmates,
prospect that through hard times she must
| quit school before she graduates-three trou-
| bles. There is an author. his manuscript re-
jected, his power Of origination in decadence.
numbness in forefnger and thumb. which
threatens paralysis-three troubles. There
| Is a reporter Of fine taste sent to report
| pugilism instead OF an oratorio, the copy
| he hands ia rejected because the paper
| q full, mother TO support c. small
income-three troubles. I could march
! right off these seats and across this platform,
| If thsY-Xlllld enTla -Gt-LlX- -ea1l.-ala- -naanla
| to play the hero or the heroine, not on
| small stage, with few hundred people to
| clap their approval. but with all the galleries
| of heaven filled with sympathetic and ap
| plauding spectators, for we are surrounded
| by great cloud of witnesses" My brother,
my sister, my father, my mother, what, a
struggle, if you only have the grace of
| Christ to listen, voice parts the
heavens saving, s'My grace is sufficient
for thee "Whom the Lord loveth He chast-
eneth, " "You shall be more than conquerors.
! And that reminds me of a letter on my table
| written by some one whom | suppose to be at
this moment present, saying, "My dear, dear
! doctor, you will please pardon the writer for
| asking that at some time when you feel like
it you kindly preach from the thirtieth
Psalm, fifth verse, weeping may endure for
night, but joy cometh in the morning. and
much obige a downtown business man.
So to all downtown business men and to
all uptown business men L say: Ii you have
on hand goods that you cannot sell and
debtors who will not or cannot pay, and you
are also suffering from uncertainty as to
what the imbecile American Congress will do
about the tariff, you have three troubles, and
enough to bring you within the range of the
consolation of my text, where you find the
triumph of Benaiah over a lion, and q pit
and a snowy day. Ii you have only one
trouble cannot spend any time with you
to-day. You must have at least three,
and then remember how many have tri-
umphed over such triad of misfortune
Paul had three troubles: Sanhedrin de-
nouncinS him that was one great trouble;
physical infirmity, which he called "a thorn
in the flesh" and although we know not what
the thorn was, we do know from the figure
he used that it must have been something
that stuck him-that was the second trouble;
approaching martyrdom-that made the three
troubles Yet hear what he says, If had
only one misfortune, 1 could stand that, but
three are two too many?" No. misinterpret.
He says: "Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.
Poor yet making many rich. Having moth
ing, yet possessing all things" "Thanks be
unto God, who giveth us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ"
David had three troubles, bad boy,
temptation to dissoluteness aud dethrone-
ment. What does he say? "God IS our re-
fuge and strength. a very present help in
time of trouble. Therefore will not we fea~,
though the earth be removed, and though
the mountains be cast into the midst of the
sea-"
John Wesley had three troubles-defa-
nation by mobs, domestic infelicity, fatigue
from more sermons preached and more miles
Travelled than almost any man of his time.
ff-
Is with us" And when his poet brother,
Charles Wesley, said to him, "Brother John
If the Lord were to give me wings, I'd fly"
Johns reply was, "Brother Charles, if the
Lord told me to fly, I'd do it and leave Him
to find the wings"
George Whitefeld had three troubles-re-
lection from the pulpits of England because
he was too dramatic-that was one trouble;
strabsmus, or the crossing of his eyes, that
<biected him to the caricature OF all the
small wits Of the day; vermin and dead AMI
mails thrown at him while he preached on the
commons-that made three troubles. Never
theless, his sermons were 50 buoyant that
little child. diving soon after hearing him
preach said in the intervals of pain, LET
me 90 to Mr. Whtefeld's God" Oh | am
so glad that Benaiah of my text was not the
only one who triumphed over lion in pit
on a snowy day.
Notice in my text victory over bad |
WedlUcr. IL WAS ~ SNOWY udy, NHcu OHt > |
vitality is ut a low ebb and the spirits are
naturally depressed and one does not feel |
like undertaking a great enterprise, when
Benaiah rubs his hands together to warm
them by extra friction. or trashcs his arms
around him to revive circulation of the
blood, and then goes at the lion, which was
all the more fierce and rayenous. because Of
the sharp weather. Inspiration here admits
atmospheric hindrance. The snowy day at
Valley Forge well nigh put an end to the
Struggle for American independence. The
slowy day demolished Napoleon's army on
the way from Moscow.
The inclemency of January and February
weather has some years bankrupted thou
sands of merchants. Long succession OF
stormy Sabbaths has crippled innumerable
churches. Lighthouses yelled by the snow
on many a coast have failed to warn off from
the rocks the doomed frigate. Tens OF thou
sands of Christians of nervous temperament
by the depression of snowy day almoHt
despair of reaching heaven. Yet in that
style OF weather Benaiah of the text
achieved his most celebrated victory,
and let us by the grace of God become
victor over influences atmospheric. If W.
are happy only when the wind blows from
the clear northwest, and the thermometer is
above freezing point, and the sky is an in
verted blue cup of sunshine poured all over
us it is a religion 95 per cent. off. Thank
God there are Christians who, though their
whole life through sickness has been a snowy
day, have killed every lion of dependency
that dared to put its cruel paw against their
suffering pillow 1t was a snowy day when
the Pilgrim Fathers set foot not on a bank of
flowers, but on the cold New England rock and
from ship that might have been more ap-
urODriatelV called after n December hurri-