The Monitor-register., 1897-10-15

tresses when you know that they are
only forwarding the souls liberation.
Every rheumatic pain is only a plunge
on the husking peg. Every neuralgia
twinge is only a twist by the husker.
There is gold in you hat must come
out. Some way the shackle must be
broken. Some way the ship must be
launched for heavenly voyage. You must
let the heavenly Husbandman husk of
the mortality from the Immortality.
Chronic Ailments.
There ought to be great consolation
in this for all who have chronic all
ments, since the Lord is gradually and
more mildly taking away from you
that which binders your souls liberia
ton, doing gradually for you what fol-
many of us in robust health perhaps he
will do in one fell blow at the last. Al
the close Of every illness, at the close
of every paroxysm, you ought to say,
"Thank God that is all past now, thank
God / will never have to suffer that
again, thank God l am so much nearer
the hour of liberation" You will new.
er suffer the same pain twice. You may
have a new pain in an old place, but
never the same pain twice.
The pain does its work and then il
dies. Just so many plunges Of the crow
bar to free the quarry stone for the
building. Just so many strokes of the
chisel to complete the statue. Just SC
many pangs to separate the soul from
the body. You who have chronic all
ments and disorders are only paying in
installments that which some of us will
have to pay in one payment when we
pay the debt of nature. Thank God,
therefore, ye who have chronic disorders,
that you have SO much less suffering at
the last. Thank God that you will have
SO much less to feel in the way of pain
at the hands of the heavenly Husband
man when "the shock of corn cometh
in in his season."
Perhaps now this may be an answer
to a question which Iasked n Sabbath
morning, but did not answer, Why is
it that so many really good people have
SO dreadfully to suffer? You often find
a good man with enough pains and
aches and distresses, you would think,
to discipline a whole colony, while you
will find a man who is perfectly useless
going around with easy digestion and
steady nerves and shining health, and
his exit from the world is comparative
ly painless. How do you explain that?
Well, I noticed in the husking time
that the husking peg was thrust into
the corn and then there must be a stout
pull before the swathing was taken off
of the ear and the full, round, healthy,
luxuriant corn was developed, while on
the other hand there was corn that
hardly seemed worth husking. We
threw that into a place all by itself and
we called it %"nubbins."
'Nubbins."
Some of it was widowed, and some
of it was mice nibbled, and some of it
was great promise and no fulfillment.
All cobs and no corn. Nubbinsl After
the good corn had been driven up to the
barn we came around with the corn
basket and we picked up these nubbins.
They were worth saving, but not worth
much. So all around us there are peo-
pie who amount to nothing. They de-
velop into no kind of usefulness. They
are nibbled on one side by the world
and nibbled on the other side by the
devil and widowed all over. Great
promise and no fulfllment. All cobs
and no corn. Nubbinsl
They are worth saving. l suppose
many of them will get to heaven, but
they are not worthy to be mentioned in
the same day with those who went
through great tribulation into the king
dom of our God. Who would not rather
have the pains of this life, the misfor-
tunes of this life-who would not rath-
or be torn, and wounded, and lacerated,
and wrenched, and husked, and at last
go in amid the very best grain of the
granary, than to be pronounced not
worth husking at all? Nubbins! In 9TH
er words, I want to say to you people
who have distress Of body and distress
in business and distress of all sorts the
Lord has not any grudge against you.
1t is not derogatory, it is compliment
tary. "Whom the Lord loveth he chas-
teneth," and it is proof positive that
there is something valuable in you or
the Lord would not have husked you.
You remember also that in the time
of husking it was a n~eighboring re-
union. By the great fireplace in the
winter, the fires roaring around the
glorified backlogs on an old fashioned
hearth, of which the modern stoves and
registers are only the degenerate de-
scendants, the farmers used to gather
and spend the evening, and there would
be much sociality, but it was not my
thing like the joy of the husking time,
for then all the farmers came, and they
came in the very best humor, and they
came from beyond the meadow, and
they came from beyond the brook, and
they came from regions two and three
miles around. Good spirit reigned su-
preme, and there were great handshak-
ings, and there was carnival, and there
was the recital of the brightest expert
ences in all their lives, and there was a
neighborhood reunion the memory of
which makes all the nerves of my body
tremble with emotion as the strings of
a harp when the fingers of a player have
swept the chords.
The husking time was the time of
neighborhood reunion, and so heaven
will be just that. There they come upl
They slept in the old village church
yard. There they come upl They re-
clined amid the fountains and the
sculpture and the parterres of a city
cemetery. There they come upl They
went down when the ship foundered off
Cape Hatteras. They come up from all
sides-from potter's field and out of
the solid masonry of Westminster alb
hey. They come upl They come upl
All the h~indrances to their better ma
ture husked off. All their physical all
ments husked off. All their spiritual
dependencies husked off. All their him
ORANGES to usefulness husked off. The
grain, the golden grain, the God fash
Toned grain, visible and conspicuous.
Some of them on earth were such dis
agreeable Christians you could hardly
stand it in their presence. Now in
heaven they are SO radiant you hardly
know them. The fact is, all their i'm
projections have been husked off. They
did not mean on earth to be disagreed
BILE. They meant well enough, but they
told you how sick you looked, and they
told you how many hard things they
had heard about you, and they told you
how often they had to stand up for you
in some battles until you wished almost
that they had been slain in some of the
battles. Good, pious, consecrated, well
meaning disagreeables.
Husked OF.
Now in heaven all their offensive
ness has been husked off. Each one is as