Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1896-06-13

WlnQ IN the tower OF LcuuDn the
swords and the guns OF other ages are
FURNISHED and arranged into huge pas
sion flowers and sunfowers and bridal
cakes. and you wonder how anything SO
hard as steel could be put into such
floral shapes. have to tell you that the
hardest, sharpess, most cutting, most
piercing sorrows of this life may be
made to bloom and blossom and put ON
bridal festiyify. The Bible says they
shall be mitigated, they shall be as
suaged, they shall be graduated. God is
not going TO allow you to be overthrown.
A Christian woman, very much de-
spondent, was holding her child in her
arms and the pastor, trying to console
the wsnan in her spiritual depression,
said. There. you will let your child
Drop ''Oh, no." she said, .Icouldn' t
let the child Drop He said, "Ycu viii
let the child Drop Why" she said,
''if should drop the child here, it would
dash his life outr' well, now, said
the CHRISTIAN minister, don't you think
God is as good as you are? Won't God,
your Father. take as good care of you,
his child, as you take care of your child
God won't let you drop.
Uses of Trouble.
1 suppose God lets the east wind blow
just hard enough to drive us into the
harbor of Gods protection We all feel
we can manage our own affairs We
have helm and compass and chart and
quadrant. Give us plenty of sea room
and we sail on and sail on; but after
awhile there comes Caribbean whirl-
wind up the coast, and we are helpless
in the gale, and we cry out for harbor.
All our calculations upset, we say with
the poet:
Change and decay on all around see.
Oh. thou who changest not, abide with mel
The south wind of mild providence
makes us throw off the cloak Of Chris
tian character and we catch cold, but
the sharp east wind of trouble makes us
wrap around US the warm promises.
The best thing that ever happens to us
is trouble. That is hard thing perhaps
to say; but / repeat it, for God an
nounces it again and again, the best
thing that happens to as is trouble.
When the French army went down
into Egypt under Napoleon, an engi-
neer, in digging for fortress, came
across tablet which has been called
the Rosetta stone There were inscrip-
tions i'll three or four languages ON that
Rosetta stone. Scholars studying out
the alphabet of hiercglyphics from that
stone were enabled to read ancient in
scriptions on monuments and on tomb
stones. We'll, many Of the hardwritings
of God in our life are indecipherable
We cannot understand
them until we take up the Rosetta stone
of divine inspiration, and the explara-
ton all comes out, and the mysteries all
vanish, and what was before beyond
our understanding now is plain in its
as we read, 'All things work
together for good to those who love
God. F." So we decipher the hieroglyphics.
Oh, my friends. have you ever calculat-
ed what trouble did for David? 1t made
him the sacred minstrel for all ages.
What did trouble do fer Joseph? Made
him the keeper of the corncribs of
Egypt. What did it do for Paul? Made
him the great apostle to the gentiles.
What did it do for Samuel Rutherford?
Made his invalidism more illustrious
than robust health. What did it do for
Richard Baxter? Gave him capacity to
write of the Saint Everlasting Rest. :"
What did it do for John Bunyan?
Showed him the shining gates Of the
city. What has it done for you? Since
the loss of that child your spirit has
been purer. Since the loss of that prop
erty, you have found out that earthly
investments are insecure. Since you
lost your health, you feel as never be-
fore rapt anticipation Of eternal re-
lease. Trouble has humbled yo1, has
enlarged you, has multiplied your re-
sources, has equipped you, has loosened
your grasp from this world and frightened
your grip ON the next. Oh, bless God
for the east windl 1t has driven you in
to the harbor of Gods sympathy.
Nothing like trouble to show us that
VINO WOlA0 ID tllA AllSO1i1AlGHb iJOl blOlls
Hogarth was about done with life, and
he wanted to paint the end of all things.
He put ON canvas shattered bottle, a
cracked bell, an unstrung harp, sign
board of tavern called 1.-THE World 8
End falling down, shipwreck, the
horses of Phebus lying dead in the
clouds, the moon in her last quarter,
and the world on fire. lone thing
more said Hogarth, and my picture
is done. Then he added the broken
palette of a painter. Then he died. But
trouble, with hand mightier and more
skillful than Hogarth's, pictures the fall
ing, failing, moldering, dying world.
And we want something permanent to
lay hold of, and we grasp with both
hands after God, and say, ''The Lord is
my light, the Lord is my love, the Lord
is my fortress, the Lord is my sacrifice,
the Lord, the Lord is my God f"
Bless God for your trials. Oh, my
Christian friend, keep your spirits up
by the power Of Christ's gospel. Do not
surrender. Do you not know that when
you give up, others will give up? You
have courage, and others will have cour-
age. The Romans went into the battle,
and by some accident there was an in
of death, weeping may endure for a
night, but joy cometh in the morning. !"
Across the harsh discords of this world
rolls the music of the skies-music that
breaks from the lips, music that breaks
from the harps and rustles from the
palms, music like falling water over
rocks, music like wandering winds
among leaves, music like caroling birds
among forests, music like ocean pillows
storming the Atlantic beach. 'They
shall hunger no more, neither thirst any
more, neither shall the sun light on
them nor any heat, for the Lamb which
is in the midst of the throne shall lead
them to living fountains of water, and
God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes. / see great Christian feet APP
preaching that harbor. Some of the
ships come in with sails rent and bull
warks knocked away, but still afoat
Nearer and nearer the shining shore.
Nearer and nearer eternal anchorage
Haul away, my lads; haul awayl Some
OF the ships had mighty tonnage, and
others were shallops easily listed of the
wind and wave. Some were men-of- war
and armed of the thunders of Christian
battle, and others were unpretending
tugs taking others through the Mar
rows, and some were coasters that
never ventured out into the deep seas of