The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-12-23

many forxerfes are committed, how
many trust funds are gwamped how
many public one are being misap-
proprsated. how many bankruptcies
suffered! II may be-. II Is very un-
comfortable for Noah inside the ark,
for the apartment 10 crowded and the
air in vftiated with the breathing OF .
much human and animal life. but It II
not half as bad for him az though he
were outside b arr There Is not an
or, or q camel or an antelope, or q
sheep inside the ark as badly or as the
proudest king outside. While you are
on the pillow or lounge you will make
no bad bargains, you will rush into no
rash investments, you will avoid the
mistakes which thousands OF men as
good as you are every day making.
Notice also that there was a limit to
the shut in experience Of those ancient
mariners. / suppose the 40 days OF the
descending and uprising floods n the
$50 days before the passengers could go
ashore must have seemed to those
eight people in the big boat like a
small eternity. Rain, rain, rain!" said
the wife Of Noah. Twill 1t v stop?'
For 40 mornings they looked out and
saw not one patch of blue sky. Float
ing around amid the peaks Of noun
tains Shem and Ham n Japheth had
to hush the fears of their wives lest
they should dash against h project
ing rocks. But after awhile it cleared
off. Sunshine, glorious sunshine! The
ascending mists were folded up INTO
clouds, which, Instead Of darkening
the sky only ornamented it. AS they
looked out Of the windows these worn
passengers clapped their hands and
rejoiced that the storm was over, and
I think If God could stop such a storm
as that he could stop any storm in
your lifetime experience. If he can
oonfro1 a xyu1f11rQ in midSkV he can
stop a summer bat that flies in at your
window. AT the right time he will put
the rainbow on the cloud and the de-
LUCE of your m~isfortunes will dry up.
I preach the doctrine of limitation, re-
lief n disenthrallment. At Just the
right time the pain will cease, the
bondage will drop, the imprisoned will
be liberated, the fires will go out, the
body and mind and soul will be free.
Patience! An old English proverb re-
ferring to long continued invalidism
says, "A creaking gate hangs long on
it's hinges and this nay be a pro-
tracted case of veletudinarianism, but
you will have taken the last bitter
drop, you will have suffered the last
misinterpretation, you will feel the
gnawing of the last hunger, you will
have tainted the last time from ex-
haustion, you will have felt the cut
Of the last lancet, you will have wept
under the last loneliness. The last
week Of the Noahican deluge came,
the last hour, the last moment. The
beating of the rain on the roof ceased,
and the dashing of the pillows on the
side Of the ship quoted, and peace
fully as a yacht moves out over quiet
Lake Cayuga, Como or Luzerne h
ark, with it's illustrious passengers and
important freight, glided to it's noun
tain wharfage.
z EOp THE CTCK
Notice also that on the cessation Of
the deluge the shut ms came out, and
they built their houses and cultured
their gardens and started a new world
on the ruins of the Did world that a
been drowned out. Though Noah lived
$50 years after this worldwide accident
and no doubt his fellow passengers
survived centuries 1 warrant they new
err got over talking about that voyage
Now 1 have seen Dore's pictures n
many other pictures Of the entrance in
to the ark, two and two, of the human |
family and the animal creation into
that ship which SAILED etwee two |
Observation-Disclosures world n the |
post-diluvian wor1d-but I never saw
a picture of their soming out; yet their !
em~barkation was not more important |
than their Decentralization. Many ai
crew has entered a ship that never
Witness the steamer Portland, |
a few days ago, with 100 souls on
board, going down with all it's crew
and passengers. Witness the line of
sunken ships, reaching like a subma-
depths from America to Europe. If
any ship might expect complete
wreckage, the one Noah commanded
might have expected it. But no; those
who embarked d~isembarked. Over the
plank reaching down the side Of the
ark to the Armenian cliffs on which
they had been stranded the procession
descended. No other wharf felt so solid
Or afforded such attractiveness as that
height of Ararat when the eight pas
sengers put their feet on it. And no
a the last one, the invaded
wife of %Japheth, been helped Town the
plank upon the rock than the other
OF the ship were opened,
and such a dash of bird music never
filled the air as when the entire or
chestra OF robin redbreast, and morn
lark, and chafinch, and hooking
bird. and house swallow too wing into
the bright sky, while the cattle began.i
to low and the sheep to bleat and the
horses to neigh for the pasture, which
to grow green and aromatic. I
you plainly nothing interests me
more in that tragedy from the first to
the last act than the exit and the Eek
h a the fact that the shut ms"
the "got OUTS" And now
cheer with this story all the inmates
Of sickrooms and hospitals, and those
prisons where men and women are I'M
Justly endungeoned, and all the thou
sands who are bounded on the north
and south and east and west by floods,
delugeS of misfortune and disaster.
The ark of your trouble, if it does not
and on some earthly height of vindi-
a ~ mr. rnroH -s1l -
celestial.
PUT YOUR TRUST IN GOD.
If you have put your trust in God.
you will come our in the garden of
the King, among orchards bending
twelve manner of fruits and mar
vests that wave in the light of a sun
hat never sets. AS the eight passen-I
of that craft of Captain Noah new
er got over talking about their seafar-
ng experiences, SO you who have been
he shut ins of earth will d unbound