Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1898-12-15
copyright. 1881 Washington. Dec. 4

AN optimistic view OF many tnlnSS tnat
are usually accounted as ineXplicable
In human experience and shows US that
even trouble and affection may not be
wholly without their brighter side.
Text Psalm 1874: Il will open my dark
saying upon the harp"
The world is full of the inexplicable,
che impossible. the unfathomable, the
We cannot go three
steps in any direction without coming
up against hard wall of mystery, rid
dies. paradoxes, profundities, laby
rinths, problems that we cannot solve
hieroglyphics that we cannot decipher,
anagrams we cannot spell out, sphinxes
that will not speak. For that reason
David in my text proposed to take up
some of these somber and dark things
and try to set them to sweet music.
81 will open nay dark sayings on a
harp" So look off upon society and
find people in unhappy conjunction of
circumstances, and they do not know
what it means, and they have right to
ask: Why is this? Why is that? And
think I will be doing good work by
trying to explain some OF these strange
things and make you more content with
your lot and shall only be answering
questions that have often been asked
me or that we have all asked ourselves
while try to set these mysteries to
music and open my dark sayings on a
harp
Interrogation the first: Why does
God take out Of the world those who
are useful and whom we cannot spare
and leave alive and in good health so
many who are only nuisance to the
world? | thought l would begin with
the very toughest of all the seeming
-inscrutables Many of the most useful
men and women die at 30 or 40 years
of age, while you often find useless peo-
pie alive at 60 and 10 and So John
Careless wrote to Bradford. who was
soon to be put to death. saying: "Why
doth God suffer me and other such cat
erpillars to live that can do nothing but
consume the aims of the church and
take away so many worthy workmen
In the Lords vineyard? ?" Similar ques.
lions are often asked. Here are two
men. The one is noble character and
q Christian man. He chooses for
lifetime companion one who has been
tenderly reared. and she Is worthy of
him and he is worthy of her. AS mer-
chant or farmer or professional man
or mechanic or artist he tolls to edu-
cate and rear his children. He II sue
,oeeding, but he has not yet established
for his family full competency. He
seems indispensable 10 that household.
but one day. before he has paid of the
mortgage on his house, he Is coming
home through strong northeast wind
and a chill strikes through him, and
four days Of pneumonia end his earth
" career, and the wife and children go
into a struggle for shelter and food.
His next door neighbor Is man who.
though strong and we'll, let's his wife
support him. He is around at the gro
.cery store or some general loafing place
in the evenings, while his wife sews.
His boys are initiating his example and
lounge and swagger ard swear. All the
use that man is in that house is to rave
because the coffee is cold when he comes
20 late breakfast or to say cutting
things about his wife's looks when he
furnishes nothing for her wardrobe.
The best thing that could happen to
that family would be that mans fu-
neral, but he declines to die. He lives
on and on and on So we have all mo-
ticed that many Of the useful are early
cut off, while the parasites have great
vital tenacity.
take up this dark saying on my harp
and give three or four thrums on the
string in the way of surmising and
hopeful guess. Perhaps the useful man
was taken out of the world because he
and his family were SD constructed that
they could not have endured some great
prosperity that might have been just
ahead, and they all together might have
gone down in the vortex Of worldliness
which every year swallows up 10000
households. And so he went while he
was humble and consecrated, and they
were bv the seventies of lie kept close
to Christ and fitted for usefulness here
and high seats in Heaven, and when
they meet at last before the throne they
will acknowledge that. though the fur
mace was hot. II purified tbs m and pre-
pared them for the eternal career OF
glory and reward for which no other
kind Of life could have fitted them. On
the other hand. the useles. man lived
on to 50 or 90 or 20 years because all
the ease he ever can have lie must have
In this world and you ought not there
fore begrudge him his earthly longev-
ity In all the ages there has not q
single loafer ever entered Heaven.
There is no place for him there to hang
around.
Interrogation the second: Why do
rood people have so much trouble. sick
ness. bankruptcy. persecution. the
three black yultures. sometimes put
ting their fierce beaks into one set Of
tangled nerves? think now of good
friend ] once had. He was a conse-
Grated Christian man. an elder in the
church. and as polished Christian gen
tleman as ever walked Broadway.
First his general health gave way. and