Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1896-06-13

God Won't lot you drop.
Uses of Trouble.
suppose God let's 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
tan 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 1 repeat 1t, for God all
nounces it again and again, the best
thing that happens to US is trouble.
When the French army went down
into Egypt under Napoleon, all engi-
neer, in digging for u fortress, came
across q tablet which has been called
the Rosetta stone. There were inscrip-
lions in three or four languages on that
Rosetta stone. Scholars studying out
the alphabet of hieroglyphics from that
stone were enabled to read ancient in
scriptions on monuments and on tomb
stones. Well, many Of the handwritings
of God in our life are indecipherable
hieroglyphics. We cannot understand
them until we take up the Rosetta stone
of divine inspiration, and the explana-
ton 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 decipher the hieroglyphics,
Oh, my friends. have you ever calculate
ed what trouble did for David? 1t made
him the sacred minstrel for all ages.
What did trouble do for 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 Saints Everlasting Rest. "
What did it do for John BunyanP
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 you, 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 wind 1t has driven you in
to 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 or all things.
He put on canvas shattered bottle, q
cracked bell, an unstrung harp, sign
board Of O tavern called 1.-THE World g
End" falling down. shipwreck, the
horses of Phebus 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
trouble, with hand mightier and more
skillful than Hogarth's, pictures tho fall
ing, failing, moldoring, dying world.
And we want something permanent 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
by the power of Christie 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
clination of the standard. The standard
upright meant forward march; the in
clination of the standard meant surren-
der. Through the negligence of the man
who carried the standard, and the in
clination 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
inclination to surrender. Forward into
the conflict.
The Sorrowing Tree.
There is near Bombay tree that they
call the borrowing tree" the peculiar
ity of which is it never puts forth any
| bloom in the daytime, but in the night
puts out all its bloom and all its redo
lence. And I have to tell you that though
Christian character puts forth Its sweet
est blossoms in the darkness of sickness,
IL tlo,,Ir,,oe, &c f,,,ncio1 1tctracc tha