The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1896-06-13
CENTRAL : COLLEGE C0MMENC5MENr

whose growth is divine. Tins word is
well expressed in the Latin; coming
from s'ad" and ''nigo,'' meaning 10
scatter, 20 dash against, to ruin. We
find a good illustration of this in
the wax plant, from which our most
delicate linens and laces are woven, its
real value only appearing when it has
been beaten and shattered to pieces
| The vine that bears the most luscious
| fruit is the vine from which the ricn
| foliage has been cut; and how often
must the flower be bruised, that il may
give forth its sweetest fragrance.
! All the great battles of life are fought
through the human soul, and in order
that it may become strong for these
conflicts it must be exercised, nav,
more, must struggle, that the evil be
overcome and the good brought to
light.
Affliction has two results. The man
who shuns it deadens his own soul and
| blights his character, so that his life
becomes cold, hard and unsympathetic.
! lie is unable to help or teach others,
because he has never learned. Such
an one knows not the delights of true
/ living. But that soul which doth on
$ ,rrow lay hold. builds a character full
of love, sympathy, purity and gentle
ness; and by means of it things are
made plain that otherwise we should
not have been able to understand.
Sorrow discIplines life. We need
atllictiOn 10 show us our dependence on
God. We can not know why our souls
are rent by sorrow; but as the gold is
purified by the furnace, so the dross of
scIishness and wordliness must be
burned from our lives. Life has been
lIkened to a beautiful piece of embroid-
cry, where we see only the under side
with its rough edges and dark threads,
but where God sees the outer side with
Il clear outline and the colOrs blended
into a beautiful design.
Without sorrow we may have that
pleasure which is fleeting, and which
satisfies only one side of our nature.
But it is the hand of affliction rightly
used that brings universal and lasting
happiness.
/ No writer has perhaps ever exerted
gentler, purer, happier influence than
England's greatest poetess, Elizabeth
Barrett Browning. Her poetry is
/ characterized by depth of feeling and
true pathos. Her life throughout was
beautiful, yet it was not left untouched
by the great dIsciplinarian, for she was
an invalid all her life and suffered
much
Take the life of our great scientist as
he starts into the world with his gen
eral thirst for knowledge and his love
Of chemistry, and with scarcely eight
weeks of common school education.
Follow him after his daily run as news
boy on the railroad, into the night
Office where he busted himself with
learning telegraphy. Once, in his
eagerness, he established laboratory
in an empty car. The chemicals ex-
! ploded and set fire 10 the train. Still
he followed the bent of his genius.
| Could Thomas Edison have invented so
successfully the automatic repeater,
the phOnOgraph, the electric pen, and
many other useful things without
having had these struggles to over
Gomez
The name of the greatest German
composer of his lime, WOlf9ang
Mozart. awakens in the heart of the
lover Of music reverence and admira-
non. Yet this genius king in his own
| beautiful realm of music was the slave
of circumstances. The modern musi-
clan can scarcely believe that he was
more than once forced to beg for
dinner. To add to his difficulties his
wife was. an invalid. But through it
all he was gentle, loving and coura-
geous. How much the world owes to
these deep burrows Of affiiction!
For the example of a struggle of a
nation, take our own America in her
hard fight for Independence in l776,
and her later efforts IN establishing a
republican government. She would
never have been the powerful nation
that she is without these hard battles
to overcome.
1t is true some lives do not need as
great obstacles rs others. We see this
in the life of the intelligent and schol-
arly Mendelssohn. lie had every in-
citement to an idle life, but his law of
life was a passionate impulse to labor;
and yet while his works are loved and
appreciated by all, they will not live in
the hearts of the people as do those of
Mozart. What might he have been
had the hand of affliction brought out
the richest beauty of his soul?
Many were the triols that st. Paul
endured to attract a multitude of people
to Christ. The Jews scourged him,
and he was beaten with Roman rods.
and imprisoned. On his way TO Rome
ne was shipwrecked for fourteen davs.
We do not find him losing faith but
| giving encouraging words TO his COM
trials we see the purest lustre of the
noblest souls.
All these illustrations are of lives
| that are admired and loved by some
particular nation. America is proud
OF her worthless; England of hers, hut
there is one who is greater than all of
them. Not for any one nation does lie
come, but for the whole world, and 10
endure through all generations This
.'NIan of Gahlee" is the universal
example of the fierce plough share and
ITS perfect work. He was a perfect
man, .'mdde perfect through suffering'
From the time that lie started into the
ministry His trials began. immediately
after His baptism lie was tempted of
! the devil. s.lTe came unto His own
aud His own received Him not" He
was rejected, and the whole world was
against Him.
No other man ever thought of under
taking so great task ~ the moral
conquest of the race. The world has
nothing more precious than the grand
example that Jesus gave us when lie
was face to face with death. lie went
TO Jerusalem, knowing that the end
was near. His character is recognized
as great at all times, but in those days
of severest trial it seemed that all that
was grandcst, noblest, tcnderest, most
divine, showed forth as never before.
lie felt that it was Ills Fathers will
and did not ask that it might pass from
Him. After His trial n crown of
thorns was put upon His head. But
by His strength of sOul and beoutifni