Semi-weekly independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1895-1897, 1895-12-21

ancc. PVhaps the trouble Is between the
ear and the forehead. liz the shape of n
neuralgia twinge. Nobody can see il or
sympath&e with it. but Just ut the time
when you want Your intellect clearest and
your disposition brightest you feel Il
sharp, keen, disconcerting thrust. The
Lord sent the hornet"
Perhaps these small insect annoyances
will come in the shape of Il domestic irri-
tatiol. The parlor and the kitchen do
not always harmonic. To get good serv
Ice and TO keep il is one of the greatest
questions of the country. Sometimes il
may be the arrOgancy and incOnsiderate-
ness of employers. but, whatever be the
fact, we all admit there are these insect
annoyances winging their way out from
the culinary department. If the grace of
God be not in the heart of the housekeep-
er. she cannot maintain her equilibrium.
The men come home at night and hear
the story of these annOyances and say,
"Oh. these home troubles are very little
things. They are small. small as wasps.
but they sting. Martha's nerves were all
unStrung when she rushed in, asking
Christ To scold Mary. and there are tens
of thousands of women who are dying,
stung to death by these pcstiferous domes-
hornet"
These small insect disturbances may
also come in the shape of business irrita-
tons. There are men here who went
through 1871 and the oath of September.
1S69. without losing their balance, who
are every day endorsed by little annoy
ances-a clerks i'll manners, or Il blot of
ink on a bill of lading. or the extrava-
gance of a partner who overdraws his
account, or the undertaking by business
rival. or the whispering Of store conf
dences in the street, or the making of
some little bad debt which was against
your judgment, just TO please somebody
else.
The Lord Sends Hornets.
1t is not the panics that Kill the mer~
chants Panics come only once in ten or
twenty years. 1t is the constant din of
these everyday annoyanceS which is
sending SO many of our best merchants
into nervous dyspepsia and paralysis and
the grave. When our national COM
merce tell fat on its face, these men
stood up and felt almost defiant. but
their Life is going away now under tie
swarm of these pestifcrouS annoyanccs.
The Lord sent the hornet"
| have noticed in The history Of some
that their annoyances are multiplying
and that they have Il hundred where they
used TO have ten The naturalist tells
us that a wasp sometimes has family of
10000 Wasps. and it does seem as if ey-
cry annoyance of your life brooded a
million. BY the help of God L want to
show you the other side. The hornet is
of no use? Oh. yes, The naturalists
tell us they are very important in the
worlds economy. They kill spiders. and
they clear the atmosphere, and | really
believe God sends the annoyances of our
life upon us to kill the spiders of the
soul and to clear the atmosphere of our
skies.
These annoyances are sent to us. l
think, to wake us up from our lethargy.
There is nothing that makes a man so
lively as n nest of yellow Jackets" and
L think that these annOyances are in
tended to persuade us of the fact that
this is not world for us TO stop in. If
we had & bed of everything that was at
tractive and soft and easy. what would
we want of heaven? We think that the
hollow tree sends the hornet, or we may
think that the devil sends the hornet 1
want to correct your opinion. The Lord
sent the hornet"
Then think these annoyances come on
us TO culture our patience. In the gym
nasium YOU find upright parallel bars
upright bars, with holes over each other
for pegs to be put in. Then the gymnast
takes Il peg in each hand, and he begins
To climb, one inch at time or two
inches, and getting his strength cultured.
reaches after awhile the ceiling And il
seems TO me that these annoyances in life
are Il moral gymnasium. each WOrriment
a peg with which we are to climb higher
and higher i'll Christian attainment. We
all love TO see patience, but il cannot be
cultured in fair weather Patience is a
child of the storm. If you had everything
desirable and there was nothing more to
get, what would YOU want with patience?
The only time 10 culture it is when Won
are lied about and sick and half dead.
"Oh." you say. IF / only had the cir
cumstances of some well-to-do man. |
would be patient. too!' You might as
well say. IF it were not for this water |
would SWIM or II could shoot this gun
if il were not for the charge" When YOU
stand chin deep in annoyances is the time
for you to swim out toward the great
headlands of Christian attainment. so as
to know Christ and the power of his res
direction and to have fellowship with his
sufferingS.
So as by Fire.
Nothing but the furnace will ever burn
out of us the clinker and the Stag | have
formed this theory in regard To small an
noyances and veXatiOns. 1t takes lust so
much trouble to fit us for usefulness and
for heaven. The only question is whether
we shall take it in the bulk or pulyerized
and graduated. Here is one man who
takes it in the bulk. His back is broken.
or his eyesight put ont. or some other aw-
full calamity befalls him. while the vast
majority of people take the thing piece
meal. Which way would you rather have
it? OF course, in piecemeal Better have
five aching teeth than one broken jaw:
better ten fly blisters than an amputa-
ton; better twenty squalls than one cy-
clone. There may be difference of opin-
ion as TO allopathy and homeopathy, but
in this matter of trouble | like home
opathc doses-small pellets of annoyance
rather than some knockdOwn dose Of
calamity. Instead of the thunderbolt