Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1896-07-03

responsibility sets us to fortify
ing against every approach OF
danger and pain. We accumu-
late wealth, and with it hire the
Swiss soldiers of physical knows
ledge and invention, to stand as
a sleepless body guard about us
all the time. But, God. sends
some terrible revolutionists-a
panic, fire, explosion, earthquake,
bent on destruction, and Stays
them all at their post Of duty
your fortune is gone in a night;
your comforts all disappear in a
day; your best skilled physician
fails ia understand your rnalady.
So in the presence Of Cod you
stand stripped of all your human
helps Then-how real is God !
Then how sober thing life is !!
Then how momentous an in
terest in religion
(3). A sinful world must be
haunted everywhere with fear of
superhuman and sudden-appear>
ing physical dangers. at is not
enough, that being evil, fears
spring up in prophetic menace
from within. To obtain due
point and emphasis, that menace
wants to be seconded by appall-
ing correspondence, of fact
without. If the conscience vio-
lated by wrong, utters sentence
against itself, there needs to be
kind of conscience in things
without and visible-a -emorse
frowning in the sky, and driving
its black tempests across in
crashing thunder and hail;
throes of wrath shudder1ng in
earthquakes under the ground,
: and bursting up in volcanic
) fame. The world itself needs to
be a bad conscience, physically
represented. Peril must look
out from behind objects of beau
ty; sleep must be startled by
shapes of terror fitting across
. the brain. Who will care to be
delivered from evil. when he
sees, in fact, no fiery portent
above him. behind him, or before
him?"
| (4) God has not left us with
out guide in interpreting phys
ical catastrophes for the pious
and godly. Job was righteous
man-perfect and upright, who
feared God and eschewed evil.
His servants were slain by the
sword of the Sabeans, and all his
cattle stolen by the same. The
lightnings from heaven smote
his asses and sheep. A tornado
overturned the house and killed
his sons and daughters. His
own body covered with boils,
and his wife quarreling in his
ears. Job pauses after the first
shock and asks: cam I a sea or
a whale, that thou settest a watch
over me. Thou scarest me with
dreams. Thou terrifest me with
visions. VIVA: is man that
shouldst magnify him, and that
Thou shouldst set Thine heart
upon him; that Thou shouldst
visit him every morning and try
him every moment" Dob 7:I2,
I6) BY all this, God says: "You
are more than the greatest,
natural object, the sea; more
than the most powerful animal
the whale it is more to be
a man than you could ever have
dreamed without the physical
trials sent to you by disasters
and awful catastrophes. Since
these things have come, and you
are meeting them in faith, in the
end you will be a greater hero
than you could have been with
out them. Chicago could never
have been as grand, nor as great
without its fire. Memphis could
never have been the cleanest
city in the world withou the
yellow fever. This nation could
never have been SO united with
out the war of secession.
60 If man could fix an immu
table foundation in this life that
would neither shake nor decay,
he would forget God and the
Immortality of his own soul.
The supreme passion of those
who wear number nineteen col
lars and number six and half
hats, is to get position and a
situation in this world such as
no nischances can change, or
overset, or shake. In their pro
digious tllroes and endeavors,
they keep the world a stir, as
they press on, as they think, be>
You'd the spiritual, to the material
and changeless, to point where
men may say of them, They
are fixed solid" To this end
they pursue the mortal with the
zeal of the immortal. TO fix
and fasten their hopes and desti-
nies to some immutable anchor
age, absorbs every energy, and
all the zeal and Zest of life With