Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1898-06-08

Subject: "Making the Best OF Thfngs'.-
Advice About Looking on the Bright
Side-Blessings in Misfortune's Guise-
Bereavenents Fortify Our Spirit.
TEXT: "And now men see not the bright
ight which Is In the clouds. job xxXvii..
81.
Wind east Barometer falling. Storm.
signals out. Ship reefing maintopsai!
Awnings taken in. Prophecies of foul
gate around the sun, proposing to abolish
him. But after awhile he assails the TANKS
of the clouds with flying artillery of light,
and here and there is II sign of clearing
weather. Many do not observe II. Many
do not realize it. 'And now men see not
the bright light which is In the clouds" In
other words, there are a hundred men look
ing for storm, where there is one man look
ing for sunshine. My object is to get you
and myself into the delightful habit of
making the best Of everything.
You may have wondered at the statistics
that In India, in the year 1875, there were
over nineteen thousand people slain by
wild beasts, and that in the year 1876 there
were in India over twenty thousand peo-
pie destroyed by wild animals. But there
Is monster in our own land which Is year
by year destroying more than that. 1t is
the old bear of melancholy, and with Cos
pei weapons propose to chase it back to
its midnight caverns. l mean to do two
sums-a sum in subtraction and sum in
addition subtraction from your days
Of depression and an addition to your days
of joy. IfGod will help me 1 will compel
you to see the bright light that there is in
the clouds, and compel you to make the
best OF everything.
In the first place, you ought to make the
very best of all your financial misfortunes.
During the panic years ago, or the long
years Of financial depression, you all lost
money. Some of you lost it in most unar-
cOuntable ways. For the question, 'How
many thousands Of dollars shall put aside
this year?" you substituted the question,
"How shall pay my butcher, and baker,
and clothier, and landlord?" You had the
sensation Of rowing hard with two oars,
and vet all the time going down stream.
You did not say much about it because
1t was not polite to speak much OF finan-
cial embarrassment; but your wife knew.
Less variety of wardrobe, more economy
at the table, self-deniaI in art and tap
estry. Compression; retrenchment. Who
did not feel the necessity of it? My friend
did YOU make the best of this? Are you
aware OF how narrow an escape you made?
Suppose you had reached the fortune to-
ward which you were rapidly going? What
then? You would have been as proud as
Lucifer.
How few men have succeeded largely in
q financial sense and yet maintained their
simplicity and religious conservation, Not
one man out of "A hundred. There are glori-
Gus exceptions, but the general rule is that
in proportion as a man gets well or for this
world he gets poorly off for the next. He
loses his sense OF dependence on God. He
gets distaste for prayer meetings. With
plenty of bank stocks and plenty of Gov
ernment securities, what does that man
know Of the prayer, Give me this day my
daily bread?" How few men largely sue
cessful in this world are bringing souls to
| Christ or showing self-denial for others or
are eminent for piety? You can count
them all upon your eight fingers and two
| thumbs.
One of the old covetous souls, when he
| was sick, and sick unto death, used to
have a basin brought ina basin filled
with gold, and his only amusement and
the only relief he got for his infianed
hands was running them down through
the gold and turning it up in the basin.
| Oh, what infatuation and what destroying
| power money has for many mani Now,
YOU were sailing at thirty knots the hour
| toward these vortices OF wOrldliness- what
a mercy it was, that honest defalcationl
| The same divine hand that crushed your
| store-house, your bank, your office, your
insurance company, lifted you out of de-
| structon. The day you honestly sus-
pended in business made your fortune for
| eternity.
"Oh," you say, 81 could get along very
well myself, but am disappointed that
l cannot leave u competence for my chill
dren." My brother, the same financial mis-
| fortune that is going to save your soul will
save your children. With the anticipation
| OF large fortune, how much industry would
your children have?-without which habit
| of industry there is no safety. The young
man would say, "Weil, there's no nee / of
my working; my father will soon step out,
and then I'll have just what l want" You
| cannot hide from him how much You are
| worth. You think you are hiding it; he
knows all about it. He can tell you almost
to a dollar. Perhaps he has been to the
county office and searched the records OF
deeds and mortgages, and he has added 1t
all up, and he has made an estimate of how
long you will probably stay in this world,
and is not as much worried about your
rheumatism and shortness of breath as you
are. The only fortune worth anything
| that you can give your child Is the fortune
you put in his head and heart, OF all the
| young men who started life with seventy
thousand dollars capital, how many turned
out we'll? do not know half dozen.
| The best Inheritance young man can
have is the feeling that he has to fight his
own battle, and that life is a struggle into
which he must throw body, mind and soul,
| or be disgracefully worsted. Where are
1 the burial places of the men who started
life with u fortune? Some of them In the
| potters field; some in the suicides grave.
But few Of these men reached thirty-five
years OF age. They drank, they smoked,
| tHey RAnDleu. LII tueu the DttSt ue-
stroyed the man. Some of them lived long
enough to get their fortunes. and went
through them. The vast majority of them
did not live to get their Inheritance. From
the gin-shop or house of infamy they were
brought home to their fathers house, and
in delirum began to pick off loathsone
reptiles from the embroidered pillow, 10
fight back imaginary devils. And then
they were laid out in highly upholstered
parlor, the casket covered with flowers by
indulgent parents-howers suggestive OF q
resurrection with no hope.
As you sat this morning at your break
fast table, and look ed into the faces Of your
children, perhaps you said within yourself
"Poor thingsl How 1 wish l could start
them in life with competence! How
have been disappointed in all my expecta
tions of what would do for themr' Upor
that scene OF pathos break with a paear
Of congratulation, that by your financia
| losses your own prospects for heaven anC
the prospect for heaven Of fyourchildren arr
nightly improved. You may have lost
toy, but you have won a palace. Let M
here say, in passing, do not put much stres:
on the treasures OF this world. You canno
take them along with you. At any rate
you cannot take them more than two o
three miles; you will have to leave them a
the cemetery. Attila had three collins. s.
fond was he of this life that he decreed tina
first he should be buried In a coffin Of gold
and that then that should be inclosed in
coffin OF silver, and that should be inclose'
in coffin of iron, and then large amour
of treasure should be thrown in over hi
body. And so he was buried, and the me-
who buried him were slain, so that no on
nigh. know where he was buried, and no on
might there interfere with his treasures
Oh, men Of the world, who want to tax
your money with you, better have thre
collins.
Again, l remark, you ought to make tn
very best OF your bereavements. The Who'll
tendency is to brood over these separation
and to give much time to the handling c
mementoes Of the departed, and to max
, long visitations to the cemetery, and to sa,
"Oh, can never look up again; my hope
gone; my courage is gone; my religion
zone; my faith in God is gonel Oh, tn
5 wear and tear and exhaustion of this lone
, inessl'' The most frequent bereavement
the loss of children. Ifyour departed chill
had lived as long as you have lived, do yo'
not suppose that he would have had abou
, the same amount OF trouble and trial tina