The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-02-25

stead or an oratorio, the copy he hands
In is rejected because the paper is full, q
mother to support on small income
three troubles! / could march right off
the seats, and across this platform, if
they would come at my call, five hum
dred people with three troubles. This
IS the opportunity to play the hero or the
heroine, not on a small stage with a few
hundred people to clap their approval.
but with all the galleries Of heaven filled
with sympathetic and applauding spec
tatorS, Tor we are surrounded by
great cloud Of witnesses" My brother,
my sister, my father, my mother, what
a chance you have! While you are in
the struggle, if you only have the grace
of Christ to listen, a voice parts the
heavens, saying, MY grace is sufficient
for thee" Whom the Lord loveth he
chasteneth; You shall be more than
conquerors.'' And that reminds me of
a letter on my table written by some one
whom I suppose to be at this moment
present, saying: MY dear, dear Doc
tor: You will please pardon the writer
for asking that at some time when you
feel like it, you kindly preach from the
S0th psalm, 5th verse: Weeping may
endure for a night, but joy cometh in
the morning and much oblige a down
town business man" So to all down
town business men. and to all up town
business men, I say, if you have on
hand goods that you can not SELL anu
debtors who will not, or can not, pay
and you are also suffering from I'M
certainty as to what the imbeclle
American congress will do about tne
tarln, you have three troubles, anu
enough to bring you within the range
OF the consolation of my text, Wnere
you find the triumph of Benaiah over
lion, and pit, and snowy day. IL
you have only one trouble, I can not
spend any time with you to-day. YOU
must have at least three, and then re-
member how many have triumpheo
over such a triad of misfortune. PAU
had three troubles: Sanhedrin denoun-
cling him-that was one great 1roup1e'
physical infirmity, which he caileo
thorn in the f1esh," and although we
know not what the thorn was, we 90
know from the figure he used that II
must have been something that stuck
him-that was the second trouble; ap-
preaching martyrdom-that made the
three troubles. Yet, hear what ne says:
If I had only one misfortune. 1 coulo
stand that; but three are two 100
many?" No: 1 misinterpret. He says
'Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor
yet making many rich; having nothlng'
yet possessing all things" Thanks pe
unto God, who giveth US the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ"
David had three troubles; bad ooy'
temptation to disSoluteness, ana oe-
thronement. What does he say? COO
is our refuge and strength. very pre-
sent help in time of trouble. Therefore.
will not we fear, though the earth be re-
moved, and though the mountains De
cast into the midst of the sea"
John Wesley had three troubles:: De-
famation by mobs; domestic 1nfenciIy i,
fatigue from more sermons preacheo
and more miles Travelled than almost
any man of his time. What does he say
1.-THE best of all is, God is with US
And when his poet brother, Charles
Wesley, said to him, Brother John, II
the Lord were to give me wings, I'd ny,
Johns reply was, Brother Charles II
the Lord told me to fly, I'd do 1t, ana
leave him to find the wings"
George Whitefie1d had three troubles:
Rejection from the pulpits of England
because he was too dramatic-that was
| one trouble; strabismus, or the crossing
of his eyes that subjected him to the
caricature of all the small wits OF the
day; vermin and dead animals thrown
at him while he preached on the COM
mons-that made three troubles. Never
theless his sermons were SO buoyant that
little child dying soon after hearing
him preach said in the intervals Of pain,
Let me go to Mr.. Whitefield's God" ON,
I am so glad that Benaiah of my text
was not the only one who trtumpheo
over a lion in a pit on snowy day.
Notice in my text a victory over bad
weather. 1t was a snowy day, when
ones vitality is at a low ebb, and the
spirits are naturally depressed, and one
does not feel like undertaking a great
!, T1fc h n nd
together to warm them by extra fric-
ton, or threshes his arms around him
to revive circulation of the blood, and
then goes at the lion, which was all the
more fierce and ravenOus because OF the
sharp weather. Inspiration here ad-
mits atmospheric hindrance. The
snowy day at Valley Forge well nigh
put an end to the struggle for American
| independence. The snowy day demol-
| ished Napoleon's army on the way from
Moscow. Thu inclemency Of January
and February weather has some years
| bankrupted thousands 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 thousands of Christians of ner-
vous temperament by the depression
! OF a snowy DAY almost despair Oi
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 we are hap
| py only when the wind blows from the
| clear northwest, and the thermometer is
above freezing point and the sky is an
| inverted blue cup Of sunshine poured
all over US, it is religion 80 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 pill
low. It was a snowy day when the pill
grim fathers set foot, not on bank of
| flowers, but on the cold New England
rock, and from ship that might have
been more appropriately called after q
| December hurricane than after May
| flower, !" they took possession of this great
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