The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1896-03-15

which he endured unt1lN"i was nm
ished." Why didn't he come down?
4 Christ never comes down from the cross
| either In his own person or in the per-
son OF his disciples. They are all made
| to bear until 1t Is finished. Have we
not ourselves been where It seemed I, .
| IL our last desire had been refused? The
cup we prayed might pass has been
pressed to our lips. The heavens hive
seemed brass above and the earth n
desert beneath us. We have gone into
q night that had no stars. and waited
for a morning that brought no sun. In
such an hour the heart has cried
though the lips moved not,"t"My Cod
my God, why hast thou forsaken me %
AT such an hour ut is an unspeaknhle
relief ito remember that he whom GOD
most surely loved went down into the
same depths and uttered the same crv
RMS has been the experience OF them
all from the beginning unto now Again
and again there has been no lightanine
OF the lot. no lifting of the load, no turn.
ing away of the blow. The blow comes
and comes hard. too. And we orn in
clined to ask often, What profit Is there
II we pray unto him?" Made perfect
through suffering" is not true alone OF
the Captain of our Salvation, II is trun
of his followers as well.
His people bear about In their own
bodies the dying of the Lord How tha
been submerged nj the last. How the
sen'iest spirits have felt the, grinding
of hard life and never known q res.
pite. How the most beautiful charac
tiers have shone out of the darkest OK
perence. How the lovelest have borne
the longest. and not at eventide could it
lie said. There was light" Some
English poet. burdened with this
thought, has voiced what we all have
felt. in verse which l found floating
somewhere few years since,
1t is true o Christ, In Heaven
That the purest suffer most,
Aud the strongest wander farthest.
And most hopelcssly are lost?
Is the mark of rank in nature
Capacity for pain?
Does the anguish Of the singer
Make the sweetness OF the strain?
But In all this our elder has been be-
fore us. I'VE pass through no darker
rooms than he went through before"
Our faith should be for the time that
tests II. However wild the storm. we
trust the God who rules the storm. No
matter how long and dark the night.
we trust the God OF the morning. AS
we stand in the middle of the night it
may not add q single star to the sky, .
or throw n single ray of light on our
path, but we endure the darkness and
wait with vastly greater patience and
courage when we know that the sun
will rise again at o'clock In tile morn
ing.
AS we stand In the middle of the
winter, and the air is full of frost, and
the ground Is buried in snow, and the
waters of lake and river are locked I'm
Ice 1t may not put u single leaf on the
tree, or Il single flower on the hillside,
but 1t makes the winter vastly more
cheerful TO know that on the Dist of
March the sun will return to this north
eril hemisphere and begin to warm the
earth for another season. Roses will |
come again., and 1T will be summer
time by and by"
Faith may not Danish our difficulties |
Dut II gives meaning to the contest by |
which we overcome them IT does not
iii our loads for us, but we are made
strong TO carry them. 1t does not re- |
store our losses, or fill our loneliness and |
our tears: but losses and lonliness and
tears become less desolatc when we |
know that though weeping may endure
Tor a night, joy cometh In the morning
bearing precious seed. shall doubtless
come again with rejoicing. bringing his
sheaVes with him" II may not steady
the earth when 1t quakes, but 1t stead
les our souls amid the rocking, when we
KNOW that there are things which can
hot DC shaken, and that we receive a
Kingdom which cannot be moved.
](Copyright. 1896. Newspaper Sermon AS
| sociatton, Boston. The right of publi-
| catlon granted to all. IL credit be given
this paper.)
!