The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1896-08-01

blow just hard enough to driya NJ
into tho harbor of Gods protection.
VIZ 4n feel VS. can taanaEs Dir 3wh
affairs We have helm and compasa
and chart and quadrant. Give uS
plenty OF sea feym and We saM "a and
cali on; but after awhile there comes
Caribbean whirlwind up the coast, and
we are helpless in tho gale, and we cry
out for harbor. All our calculations
upset, we say With this posti
Change and decay on all around SEQ;
o Thou who changest not. abide with mel
The south wind of mild providence
makes us throw of the cloak of Chris
tian character and we catch eoldi bue
his SHARP esst wind IL tf5ublE ni5kea
Us wrap around us the warm promises
The best thing that ever happens to us
is trouble That is a hard thing, per;
haps; to say. but repeat it, for God
anro;inces 1t again and again, the best
thing that happens to MS Is trouble:
When the French army went down
into Egypt, Under Napoleon, an engi-
neer, in digging for fortress, cams
across tablet which has been called
the Rosetta stone. There were inscrip-
lions in three or four languages on
that Rosetta stone. Scholars study
Ing put the alphabet of hiero-
glyphids from that stone were
enabled to read ancient inscrip-
tions on monuments and on tomb
stones. Well, many of the handwrit-
ings of God In uat life are indecipher-
able hierogiyphies; we can moi UNDER
stand them until we take up the Roset-
ia stone of divine inspiration, and the
explanation all comes out, and the
mysteries all vanish, and what was
before beyond our understanding
now is plain in its meaning, as We
read: "All things work together for
good to those who love God" So we
deciphcr the hieroglyphics. Obi my
friends! have you ever calculated
what trouble did for David2 IL
made him the saprsd minstrel
for all ages. What did trouble do for
Joseph? Made him the keeper of the
corn-cribs of Egypt. What did it do
for Paul? Made him the great apostle
Samuel Rutherford Made his invalid
ism more illustrious THAI robust
health: What did it do for Richard
Baxter? Gave him capacity to write
OF the "Saint's Everlasting Rest"
What did it do for John Bunyan?
Showed him the Singing gates of
the city. What has it done for you?
Since the loss of that child your spir-
it has been purer: Since the loss of
that Property. you have found out
that earthly investme nts are insecure.
Since you lost your health, you feel as
never before a rapt anticipation OF
eternal release, Trouble has hum.
bled you. has enlarged you, has multi
piled your resources, has equipped
you, has loosened your grasp from this
world and frightened your grip Oh the
next. Oh! bless God for the east wind.
1t has driven you into the harbor OF
Gods sympathy.
Nothing like trouble to show us that
this world is an insufficient portion:
Hogarth was about done with life, and
he wanted to paint the end OF all
all things. He put on canvas shat
tered bottle, cracked bell, an un-
strung harp, a sign-board of tavern
called "The Worlds End" falling down,
shipwreck, the horses of Phoebus
lying dead in the clouds, the moon
in her last quarter, and the
world on fire. Zone thing more, !"
said Hogarth, and my picture is done. !"
Then he added the broken palette
of painter. Then he died. But trou1
BILE, with hand mightier and more
skillfull than Hogarth's, pictures the
falling, failing, moldering, dying
, world. And we want something per-
manent to lay hold of, and we grasp
with both hands after God, and say:
1.-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"
Bless God for your trials. Oh, my
Christian friend! keep your spirits up
the power of Christ's Gospel. Do not
surrender. Do you not know that
when you give up, others will give up4
| You have courage, and others will
have courage. The Romans went into
the battle, and by some accident there
was an inclination of the standard.
The standard upright meant for-
| ward march; the inclination OF the
standard meant surrender. Through
the negligence of the man who car
| ried the standard, and the inclination
of it, the army surrendered. Oh! let
us keep the standard up, whether it be-
blown down by the east wind, or the
north wind, or the south wind. No in1
clination to surrender. Forward into
| the conflict
There is near Bombay tree that
they call the Borrowing tree" the Pc
culiarity of which is it never puts forth
any bloom in the daytime, but in the
night puts out all its bloom and all its
redolence. And have to tell you that
| though Christian character puts forth
| its sweetest blossoms in the darkness OF
sickness. the darkness of financial dis
tress, the darkness of bereavement, the
darkness of death, weeping may en-
dure for 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 carrolling 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