Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1895-08-30


| the hotel keeper where he is staying, asking
| for lenience, and the answer he gets is, III
you don't pay up Saturday night, you'll be
removed to the hospital"
The young man sends to comrade In the
same building. No help. He writes to
| banker who was friend Of his deceased
| father No relief. He writes to an old
| schoolmate, but gets no help. Saturday
night comes, and he is moved to the hospital.
Getting there, he is frenzied with grief
and he borrows sheetof paper and post
age stamp and he sits down, and he writes
| home. saving. "Dear mother, an SICK UNI
TO death. Come" Il is ten minutes OF 10
o'clock when she gets the letter. Al III
o'clock the train starts she Is five minutes
from the depot. She Sets there in time to
have five minutes to spare. She wonders
why a train that can go thirty miles an hour
cannot go sixty miles an hour. She rushes
into the hospital sho says. ''My son, what
does all this mean? Why didn't you send for
me? You sent to everybody but me. You
knew could AMI would help you. Is this
the reward get for my kindness 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 as that young
mpn treated his mother. When you get into
a financial perplexty, you call on the BAN
ker, you call ON the broker, you call on your
creditors, you call on your lawyer for legal
counsel: YOU call upon everybody, and when
You cannot get any help, then you go to God.
You say: 80, Lord, l come to Thee. Help
me now out OF my perplexity." And the Lord
comes. though it is the eleventh hour. He
| SAYS: "Why did you not send for Me before2
| AS ono whom his mother comforteth. so will
| I comfort YOU" 1t is to throw us back upon
| God that we have this ministry OF tears
Again, it is the use of trouble to capaci-
| tate us for the Office OF sympathy. The
priests, under the old dispensatlon, were set
| apat by having water sprinkle1 upon their
hands, feet and head, and by the sprinkling
ofteurs people are now set apart to the Office
OF sympathy. When we are in prosperity we
| like to have great many young people
| around ue. aud we laugh when they laugh,
| and we romp when they romp, and we sing
when they sing; but when We 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 Omnipotent in comfort.
| WHY! She has been through it all. At
7 o'clock in the morning she goes over
to comfort a young mother who has just lost
her babe. Grandmother knows all about
that trouble. Fifty years ago she felt it. At
II o'clock of that day she goes over to COM
fort 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 to sit up with some one severely
sick. She knows all about it. She knows
all about fevers and pleurisies and broken
bones. She has been doctOrng all her life,
spreading plasters and pouring out bitter
drops and shaking up hot pillows and con-
irving things to tempt "a poor appetite.
Drs Abernethy and Rush and Hosack and
Harvey were great doctors, but 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 in
our boyhood2 Was there any one who
could ever 50 touch sore without hurting
il?
Where did Paul get the ink with which to
to write his comforting epistle? Where did
David get the ink to write his comforting
Psalms? Where did John get the ink to
write his comforting Reyelations2 They got
it out of their own tears. When man has
gone through the curriculum and has taken
a course Of dungeons and 1mprisonments
and shipwrecks, he is qualified for the work
Of sympathy.
When | began to preach, my sermons on
! the subject OF trouble were all poetic and in
semi blank verse, but God knocked the blank
verse out of me long ago and have found
out that cannot comfort people except az l
myself have been troubled. God make me
the son of consolation to the peoplel
would rather be the means OF soothing one
perturbed spirit to-day than to play tuno
that would set all the sons OF mirth reellnS
in the dance.
am an herb doctor. l put into tho cal
dron the root out OF dry ground, without
form or comeliness. Then put In tho ros9
of Sharon and the lily Of the valley. Then
l put into the caldron some of the leaves
| from the tree of life and the branch that was
thrown into the wilderness Marah. Then
pour in the tears of Bethany and Golgotha;
| then stir them up. Then / kindle under
the caldron q fire made out Of the wood OF
the cross. and one drop of that portion will
| cure the worst sickness that ever afflicted
human soul. Mary AMI Martha shall receive
| their Lazarus from the tomb. The damselS
shall rise. And on the darkness shall break
the morning and God will wipe all tears
| from their eyes.
Jesus had enough trial to make Him SYM
pathetic with all trial. The shortest verse
in the Bible tells the story, "Jesus wept."
The scar on the back Of His either hand tbs
scar on the arch OF either foot, the row OF
scars along the line Of the hair, will ket p all
heaven thinking. Oh, that Great Weeper is
lust the one to silence all earthly trouble,
wipe out all stains o. earthly grie Gelte
Why, His step is softer than the step Of the
dew. 1t will not be tyrant bidding you 10
hush up your crying. 1t will be father
who will take you on His lett arm, His face
oeaming into yours, while with the soft tips
of the fingers of the right hand He shall wipe
away all tears from your eyes.
Friends, II we could gee any appreciation
of what God has in reserve for us, it would
make us so h0mesick we would be UNIT for
our everyday work. Professor Leonard,
formerly OF Iowa University, put in my hand
ameteoric stone thrown off from some 9TH
er world to this. How suggestive it was
to mel And have to tell you the best rep
reservations we have of heaven are only
aerolites flung off from that world which
rolls on bearing the multltudes OF the re-
deemed. We Rnalyze these aerolites and
find them crystallizations OF tears. No Won
| der, flung off from heaven! "God shall
wipe away all fears from their eyes,
Have you any appreciation of the good and
| glorious times your friends are having in
heaven? How different it is when they get
news there Of Christians death from what
| it is here, 1t is the difference between en-
barkation and coming into port. everything
depends upon which side OF the river you
stand when you hear of Christians death.
If you stand on this side of the river, you
mourn that they go. If 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 Incorporating
| here and reunion therel Together! Have
YOU thought Of it, They are together. Not
one of your departed friends in one land ana
| another in another land, but together, in diff
off ha hOm.n-fhB mouse