The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-09-23

meeting the third our sensations would
be dreadful, and after meeting the
fourth, unless we suspected q conspira-
cy, we would go home and go to bed.
and the other six pessimists would be
a useless surplus OF encouragement.
My lear sir, my dear madam, what
do you by going about this world
with Disbursements? Is not the sup
ply of gloom and trouble and misfor-
tune enough to meet the demand with
our your running a factory OF pins
and spikes? Why should you plant
black and blue in the world when God
SO seldom plants them? Plenty Of scar
let colors. plenty of yellow, plenty of
green, plenty of pink, but very seldom
a plant black or blue. I saw a
black flower, and there's only here and
and there a blueball or a violet, but the
blue is for the most part reserved for
the sky, and we have to look up 10 see
that, and when We look up no color a
do us harm. Why not plant along the
paths of others the brightness instead
OF the glooms?
Do not prophesy misfortune. If o
must be a prophet at all, be an ezekiel
and not a jeremiah. In ancient times
prophets who foretold evil were doing
right, for they were divinely directed,
but the prophets of evil in our time are
o~AAO ILL., AoiCN PiOPfS%o'
weatherwise people p~rophesied we
would have a summer of unparalleled
heat. 1t has been a very comfortable
summer. Last fall all the weather
prophets agreed in saying we should
have a winter of extraordinary seVeri-
ty, blizzard on the heels of blizzard. 1t
was the mildest winter / ever remem-
Der to have passed. Indeed, the 40
tumn and the spring almost shovel
yrinfar III of tho nrOrocGJOn RpQl
troubles have no heralds running ahead
of their somber chariots, and no one
has any authority in our time to an
nOunce their coming. Loa yourself up
with hopeful words and deeds. The
hymn once sung in our churches is
unfit to be sung, for it says:
We should suspect some danger near
Where we possess delight.
In other words, manage to keep mis-
cradle all the time. The old song sung
at the pianos a quarter of a century
e was right-''Kind words can never
die" Such kind words have their
nests in kind hearts, and when they
are Matched out and take wing they
circle round in flights and never cease,
and sportsnnan's gun cannot shoot
them, and when they cease flight in
these lower skies of earth they sweep
CO ALL IN ~ "a
heaven. At Baltimore / talked into a
photograph. The cylinder containing
the words was sent on to Washington,
and the text day that cylinder from
another Photographic instrument,
when urned gave back to me the very
words l had uttered the day before n
with the same ~intonations. Scold into
a monograph, and it will scold back.
Pour mild words into a photograph,
and If will rntlrn tho Cpnt1onaCS 60
ciety and the world and the church
are monographs. Give them acerbity
and rough treatment, and acerbity and
rough treatment you will get back.
Give them practical friendliness, and
they will give back practical friendli-
ness. A father asked his little daugh-
ter, Mary. why is it that everybody
loves you?" She answered, Il don't
know, unless it is because I low ev-
erybody." "A man that hath friends
must show himself friendly"
THE SPIRIT OF SACRIFICE.
We want something like tina spirit
of sacrifices for others which was seen
in the English channel, where in the
storm a boa containing three men was
upset, and all three were in the water
struggling for their lives. A boa came
to their relief, and a rope was thrown
to n of them, and he refused to take
it, saying: First fling it to Tom. He is
just ready to go down. I can last some
time longer" A man like that, be he
sailor or landsman, be he in upper
ranks of society or lower ranks, will
always ave plenty of friends. What is
true MAYNARD is true Godward. We
must be the friends of God if we want
him to be our friend. We cannot treat
Christ badly all our lives and expect
him to treat us lovingly. I was read
ing of a sea fight in which Lord Mel
son captured a French officer, and
when the French officer offered Lord
Nelson his hand, Nelson replied, First
give me your sword, and then give
me your hand" Surrender of our re-
sistance to God must precede Gods
proffer of pardon to us. Repentance
before forgiveness. You must give up
YOU rebelliOus sword before you can
get a grasp of the divine hand.
Oh, what a glorious state of things
to have the friendship of God! Why,
we could afford to have all the world
against us and all other worlds against
us if we had Go for us. He could in a
minute blot out this universe, and in
another minute make a better uni
verse. I nave no idea that God tried
hard when he made all things. 8 }
most brilliant thing known to us is
light, and for the creation of that he
only used a word of command. AS
out of a flint a frontiersman strikes a
spark, so out of one word God struck
the MONDAY sun. For the making of
the present universe I do not read that
God lifted 80 much as a finger. The
Bible frequently speaks of Gods hand
and Gods arm and Gods shoulder and
Gods foot; then suppose he should put
land and arm and shoulder and foot
to utmost tension, what could he not
make? That God of such demonstrated
and undemonstrated strength you may
ave for your present and everlasting
friend, not a stately and reticent
friend, hard to get at, but as ap-
~proachable as a country mansion on
a summer day when all the doors and
windows are wide open. Christ said,
Il am the door," And he is a wide
door, a high door, a palace door, an
always open door.
My 4-year-old child got hurt and did
not cry until hours after, when her
mother came home, and then she burst
into weeping, and some of the domes-
tics. not understanding human nature,
80 l. - y