The Saint Paul globe., 1897-10-04
THEY ARE or GREAT VALUE
IN EVENING UP THE MANY-SIDED
CHARACTERS, OF VARIOUS
INDIVIDUALS.
CONSOLATION FOR THE WEAK,
That Even the Strong Have Their
Own BATTLES to Fight at
Times.

terian church yesterday morning on
| ''Discouragement, Its Causes and
| Cures DR.. Meldrun, in support of
his text, held that discouragemenr
was always caused by lack of faith.
| He divided mankind into two classes,
those who were susceptible to discour-
agement and those who were never
discouraged. Reverses came to the
Christian to temper and beautify his
! character. There was a beautiful as
pect in encouragement, inasnluch-- IS
| the temperament of man Was such
| that reverses had a tendency to give
] him more resistance to discourage
ment, and his character was made
more beautiful and symmetrical at ev-
cry obstacle encountered in the jour
ney OF life. Dr. Medium said:
ct is a good thing for some of US
that at one time or other we have
net with Encouragement. Whatever
we may be disposed to do in the way
of helping others is the result of that
fact that we know the meaning of re-
verse ourselves. It has been a good
thing for many man that he has
not had things all his own way, but
that he has to begin his work this
morning at the point where he began
yesterday morning There would be
no living with the man who was al
| lowed to go on continually and unin-
terruptedly, enhancing his own
strength, increasing his own riches,
adding to his intellectual attainmentS,
never meeting a difficulty that stag
gered him, never confronting a prob
| lem that deffed his intellectual pow
ers, or an enemy that seemed to out
match him at every turn. There
would be no living with such man.
! He would be so self-fattered and SO
! conscious of his superiority as to be-
! cCme a plague and discourag cement to
| other men. 1t is proVidential that the
strongest man should be compelled
sometimes to sit down and take his
breath, providential that the keenesC
and shrewdest mind should be some
| times outdone, providential that, In
| spite of his determination and push,
the man of enterprise and ambition
should not have all his own way.
There is some grim sort Of consola-
| ton in this to the poor, weak, strug-
| Cling pilgrims. In view of this, they
many think: We'll, if the man Of
strength, power and cleverness is COM
| PEELED to stop once in a while to eaten
| his breath-if he is compelled to think
hard and fight esperately-what Won
| der that we poor, ordinary mortals
should meet with perplexities and dis
cOuragements and be compelled to sit
| down sometimes and gather up our
wasted energies?'r People in a gen.
eral way may be divided into two
classes viz, those who are easily dis
couraged and those who are not easily
| discouraged. Pupils in the schools
| soldiers in the army, members of the
| church, are thus in a general way diff
| ferentiated.
| This church at this moment is large
| ly composed of those two sets, those
! whom it would be an easy task to turn
back to the Egypt of debt, and those
| who, having started for the promised
| land of financial freedom, are not cas-
| lily daunted by the difficulties in the
| way of those who would be willing to get
! to the promised land if they could get
| there by some easy and comfortable
| short cut through the territory of
| Eden. There are those who are deter
| mined to go on even if they have to
| take the long and trying roundabout
course in "rder to get to the desired
SlllldllOH 1NOW Lie ulllC1SilCe DS-
tween these two classes is in some
| measure a difference of natural tenn
permanent We must not be too exact
| ing in our judgment of one another
Many man is downcast and discour-
aged who would not be so but for some
popularity of temperament over which
| he has no control. His sunny moments
| are brief and few. Sometimes a ray Of
| light strikes and he smiles with merri-
ment and plays with the friskiest then
| suddenly the cloud shuts again and he
| is blank and fear-driven as ever. There
| are plenty of men, good men, men
whose piety we do not question, whose
natural disposition is to look at the
dark side of things, and with them, as
| a rule discouragements are exagger-
! ated. They have the gift of seeing
only darkness They do not know that
there are two twilights, the twilight of
! evening and the twilight of morning.
! We have often heard of the man who
| always said that there was a lion in
| the way He had a wonderful eye for
seeing lions. Nobody could persuade
him that he did not see the ravenous
| beast in the field he wanted to plow, or
| right in the middle of the road he
| wanted to travel We have also heard
| of the man who would not SOW because
| he was continually observing the wind.
| He was always sure the wind was in
| the cold quarter, Such men still live,
men who are discouraged by lions
which do not exist ana by winds Which
do not blow, by circumstances which
are either purely imaginary or which
| are exaggerated by their natural dis
! position to look only on the unfavor
! able side of things. We should deal
| gently with these men, and must re-
member that. they are not wholly blam-
/ able as we sometimes regard them.
| hot hot
position has been inherited 1t is one
/ of the burdens which has been trans
mitted from preceding generations 1t
cannot be denied that every man is
! born with a certain amount of joy and
! gladness. Conversion may Christianfze
the temperament, but it does not
change it. L
'"The sanguine'Enan after his conver-
sion does not become melancholy
man. But then neither does the mel
| ancholy man becomes9a Sanguine man.
! God takes men as they are and works
| in and through their failings. SO as to
produce in his church that unity In di-
versity which is the charm of the phys
! ical universe. Some9 of us are natur-
| ally timid and others naturally san
| guine and courageous, so that what is
called for is not harsh and unjust crit
| icism but encoura cement. What may
seem to you only small hill may seem
| an impossible mountain to your neigh
Dor. He was born with a natural ten
| dercy to exaggerate 'discouragements.
| It is burden of nature, and while he
! should understand that he should and
| may to a very great extent overcome
that predisposition with Gods help,
| still it is your business and mine to ac-
| ccmmodate ourselves to him, address
ourselves to him in no hardness Of
manner. At the same time, it may be
| said that the ease with which some
| -. 81, .-;old 70 diScnllra o.ar,nant may have