The Monitor-register., 1896-06-12

Grace to Be What We Should Be Under
the Chill East wind-The Uses of Trou-
BILE.
WASHINGTON, June I'm his dis
course today Rev. DR.. Talmage pointed
ont the consultations which the religion
of Christ extends to all who are in trou-
BILE and specially to such as are in deep
misfortune or suffering from bereave-
ment. He chose as his text Exodus K,
IS. s'And the Lord brought an east
wind upon the land all that day and all
that night"
The reference here is not to a cyclone.
but to the long continued blowing OF the
wind from an ~unhealthful quarter. The
north wind is bracing, the south WIND
is relaxing, but the east wind IS lrrltat-
inga and full of threat. Eighteen times
does the Bible speak against the east
wind. Moses describes the thin ears
blasted by the east wind. The psalmlst
describes the breaking of the ships OF
Tarshish by the east wind. The iocusts
that plagued Egypt were borne in on the
east wind. The gourd that sheltered
Jonah was shattered by the east wind
and in all the 6, 900 summers, autumns
winters, springs, of the worlds exist
ence the worst wind that ever blew Is
the east wind. Now. if God would only
give us a climate of perpetual o west
er. how genial and kind and placid and
industrious Christians we would all bel
But it takes almighty grace to be what
we ought to be under the east wind.
Under the chilling and wet wing of
the east wind the most OF the worlds
yillainies, frauds, outrages, suicides
and murders have been Matched out. l
think if you should keep a meteorologl-
cal history of the days of the year and
nut right beside it the criminal record
Of the country you would find that
those were the best days for public NOR
ais which were under the north or west
wind. and that those were the worst
days for public morals which were I'M
der the east wind The points OF the
compass have more to do with the
worlds morals and the church's piety
than you have yet suspected. Rev. DR..
Archibald Alexander, eminent for learn
ing and for conservation, when asked by
one of his students at Princeton whether
he ALWAYS had full assurance of faith,
replied, eyes, except when the wind
blows from the east" DIR. Francia, die
tator of Paraguay, when the wind was
from the east, made oppressive enact
ments for the people, but when the
weather changed repented him of the
cruelties, repealed the enactments and
was in good humor with all the world.
climatic Changes.
Before I overtake the main thought of
my subject 1 want to tell Christian
people they ought to be observant OF
climatical changes. Be on your guard
when the wind blows from the east.
There are certain styles of temptations
that you cannot endure under certain
styles of weather. When the wind blows
from the east, if you T Of a nervous
temperament, go not among e~xasperat-
ing people, try not to settle bad debts,
do not try to settle old disputes, do not
talk with a bigot on religion, do not go
among those people who delight in say
ing irritating things, do not try to collect
funds for a charitable institution, do
not try to answer al insulting letter. If
these things must be done, do them
when the wind is from the north, or the
south, or the west, but not when the
wind is from the east.
You say that men and women ought
not to be SO sensitive and nervous. I adj
NIT it, but I am not talking about what
the world ought to be. I am talking
about what the world is. While there
are persons whose disposition does not
seem to be affected by changes in the at
mosphere, nine out of ten are nightly
played upon by such influences. o
Christian mani under such circum-
stances do not write hard things against
yourself, do not get worried about your
fuctuating experience. You are to re-
member that the barometer in your soul
is only answering the barometer Of the
weather. Instead of sitting down and
being discouraged and saying, 81 am
not a Christian because I don't feel ex-
hilarant, " get up and look out OF the
window and see the weather vane point
ing In the wrong quarter. and b say;
''Get thee behind me. satan, thou prince
of the power of the air; get out Of my
house; get out of my heart, thou demon
of darkness horsed on the east wind.
Awayl' However good and great you
may be in the Christian life, your soul
will never be independent of physical
condition. I feel 1 am uttering a most
practical, useful truth here, n that
may give relief to a great many Chris
tians who are worried and Respondent
at times.
DIR. Rush, a monarch in medicine,
after curing hundreds Of cases of mental
depression, himself fell sick and lost his
religious hope, and he would not believe
his pastor when the pastor told him
that his spiritual depression was only a
consequence of physical depression. An
drew Fuller, Thomas Scott, William
Cowper, Thomas Boston, David Brain
erd, Philip Melanchthon were mighty
men for God, but all of them illustra-
tons of the fact that aman's soul is not
independent of his physical health. An
eminent physician gave as his opinion
that no man ever died a greatly trl-
umphant death whose disease was below
the diaphragm. Stackhouse, the learned
Christian commentator, says he does not
think Saul was insane when David
played the harp before him, but it was
a hypochondria coming from infamma-
ton of the liver. Oh, how many good
people have been mistaken in regard to
their religious hope, not taking these
things into consideration
The dean of Carlisle, II of the best
men that ever lived, and III of the
most useful, sat down and wrote:
Though / have ~endeavored to discharge
my duty as well as 1 could, yet sadness
and melancholy of heart stick close by
and increase upon me. I tell nobody.
put I am very much sunk indeed, and I
wish I could have the relief of weeping
as I used to. My days are exceedingly
dark and distressing. In a word, AL
mighty God seems to hide his face. and
I intrust the secret hardly to any earthly
being. I know not what will become OF
me. There is doubtless a good deal OF
bodily affection mingled with this, but it
is not all so. / bless God, however, that
I never lose sight of the cross, and
though I should die without seeing any
personal interest in the Redeemer's
merits, I hope that l shall be founda at
his feet. 1 will thank ydb for a word at
your leisure. My door is bolted at the
time 1 am writing this, for l am full OF
tears"
The East Wind.
What was the matter with the dean
of Carlisle? Had he got to be a worse
man? No. The physician said that the
state of his pulse would not warrant his
living a minute. Oh, if the east wind
affects the spleen. and affects the lungs,
and affects the liver, it will affect your