The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1895-08-22

u You 80 often hear peopls, in reciting the
last experience OF some friend say, "He
made the most beautiful prayer I ever
heardT' What makes II beautiful? II Is the
earnestness Of IL. Oh! tell you man Is
In earnest when his stripped and naked soul
wades out In the soundless, shoreless, bot
tomless ocean OF eternity.
IL is trouble, my friends that makes us
feel our dependence upon God. We do not
know our own weakness or Gods strength
until the last plank breaks. II Is contcmpti-
BILE in IA when there IL nothing else To take
hold Of that we catch hold of God onl'.
why. YOU do not know who the Lord Is. "
Is not an autocrat seated far up in pala
from which He emerges once n year, ,preced Il
bv heralds swinging swords To- clear the way.
No. But Father willing. ut our call. to
stand by us in every crisis aud Jredicament
OF life. | tell you what some of YOU bust
ness men make me think Of. Young man
goes of from home To earn his fortune. He
goes with his mothers consent and bencdic-
ton. She has large wealth, but he wants to
make his own fortune. lie goes far away.
falls sick. gets out of money, He sends for
the hotel keeper whore he is STAYING asking
for lenience. and the answer he gets IL. "If
you don't pay up Saturday night you'll De
removed to the hospital
The young man sends To- n comradc In the
same building No help. lie writes To a
banker who was friend OF his deceased
NJ Eflltls tt' WFltfS 10 an 0iu
schoolmate. but gets no help Saturday
night comes. and hc Is moved to the hospital.
Getting there. he H. frcnzicl with grief.
and he borrows n sheet of paper and post
age stamp, and he sits down, and he writes
home, saying: Dear mother. am sick un-
to death. Come" II is ten minutes OF 10
o'clock when she gets the letter Az 10
o'clock the train starts. She H. five minutes
from the depot. She gets there In time To
have five minutes 90 spare. She wonders
why train that can 90 thirty miles an hour
cannot go sixty miles an hour She PUSHES
into the hospital. She SAYS: "Myson, what
does all this mean! Whydidn't YOU send for
me? You sent to everybody but me. You
knew | could aud would hello vou l. this
the reward get for my kndnr., TO you al
ways She bundles him up. takes him
home and gets him we'll very soon Now,
some Of YOU treat God just ~ that young
man treated his mother. Whom YOU got into
n financial perpleNitN YOU call on the ban
kcr, YOU call on the broker. YOU call ou your
creditors. YOU call ON your lawyer for legal
counsel; you call upon everybody. aud when
YOU cannot gctany help. then you - 20 God.
You sav! 80. Lord, como to Thee. Help
me now out otmy pcrplcNity.' Aud the Lord
comes, though II H. the eleventh hour. He
says. "Why did you not send for Ne before1
A. one whom his mother comlortcth. SO will
| comfort you.' II is To- throw IL back upon
Again. 1t Is the use of trouble to capaci-
tate a. for the Office of sympathy The
priests. under the old dispensauun. were set
apart by having water Spriuklcd upon their
hands. feet and head. aud by the sprinkling
oi tears people ARE now ~rtapart to the ofllco
OF sympathy. When We are IN prosperity we
like To have u great many Young people
around Va, aud We laugh when they laugh,
ulr we romp when they romp. aud we sing
when they sing: but when W. have trouble
we like plenty OF old folks around. WHY
They know how To- talk.
Take an aged mother. seventy years Of age,
and she Is almost omnipotrut ia comfort.
Why She has been through II all. At
o'clock in the morning she goes over
to comfort a young mother who has Just lost
her babe Granlmother knows all about
that trouble. Fiity wears ago she felt IL. Al
~ o'clock OF that day she goes over to COM
fort a widowed soul. She knows all about
that. She has been walking IN that dark
valley twenty years. At o'clock In the
afternoon some one knocks at the door.
wanting bread She knows all about that.
Two or three times In her life she came TO
her last loaf. At 10 o'clock that night she
goes over 20 sit up with some onp severely
sick. She knows all about IT, She knows
t1l about fevcrs and pleurisiea and broken
bones. She has been doctoring all her life.
spreading plasters and pouring out bitter
triving things to tcmpt tt poor appetite.
Drs. Aberncthy and Rush and Hosack and
Harvey We're great doctors. hut the greatest
doctor the world ever saw is an old Christian
woman. Dear mel DO we not remember
her about the room when we were sick I'm
our hoyhood? Was there any one who
could ever SO touch n sore without hurting
il?
Where did Paul get the ink with which 10
20 write his comforting epistlay Where did
David get the ink to write his comforting
Psalms? Where did John get the ink 10
write his comforting Revelations? They got
II out of their own tears. When man has
gone through the curriculum and has taken
II course Of dungeons and imprisonments
and shipwrecks, he Is qualified for the work
Of sympathy.
When began to preach, my sermons onD
the Gubject Of trouble were all poetic aud in
semi blank verse, but God Knocked the blank
verse out Of me long ago and have found
out that cannot comfort people except ~ II
myself have been troubled. God make mel
the son of consolation 10 the people! II
would rather he the means of soothing one,
perturbed spirit to-day than to play tunel
that would set all the sons Of mirth reclingl
in the dance.
Have you any appreciation of the good and
glorious times your friends arc having inl
heaven How different II Il when they geu
news there Of Il Christians death from what
1t is here! II Is the difference between en-
barkation and coming into port. Everything
depends upon which side OF the river YOU
stand when you hear of u Christians death.
II you stand on this side of the river, YOU
mourn that they go. II you stand on the
other side Of the river, YOU rejoice that they
come. On the difference between funeral
on earth and a jubilee In heaven-between
requiem here and triumph there-parting
here and reunion there! Together Have
you thought of it? They are together Not
one of your departed friends In one land and
another in another land, but together, in diff
iercnt rooms Of the same hou,e-the house
of many mansions. Together,
1 never more appreciated that thought
tina when we laid away in her last slumber
my sister Sarah. Standing there In tho VII
lage cemetery, | looked around and said,
"There is father, there il mother. there is
grandfather there is grandmother. there are
whole circles OF kindred and i thought to
myself, Together in the grave together
in glory | am 50 impressed with the
thought that | do not think it l. any fannti-
csm when some one Is going from this
NynrlI Ia A. thnul tina