The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-08-23

III y0u have any idea that sound d.
gestion and steady nerves and clear
eyesight and good hearing and plenty
or friends are necessary to make a
man happy. you have miscalculated.
suppose that these overhanging rocks
only made Jonathan the
harder and the faster to get up and
out into the sunlight. and his COM
oined d OF invalidisrn and inan-
clan embarrassment has often sent a
man up the quicker into the sunlight
OF Gods favor and the MONDAY OF his
glorious promises.
WHEN GOD is SOUGHT.
II is a difficult thing for a man to
feel his dependence upon God when ~.
has s10.o00 in the bank and $50. 600 in
government securities and a block Of
stores n three ships. Well" the
man says to himself. lit is silly for me
10 pray, Give me this day my daily
bread. when my pantry is full and the
canals from the west are crowded with
breadstufs destined for my store
houses Oh, my friends. IL the com-
oined r1isfortunes ard disasters OF life
nave made you climb up into the arms
or a sympathetic and compassionate
God. through all eternity you will bless
him that in this world there was n
sharp rock on the one side and a
sharp rock on the other side"
Again. that man is in the crisis Of
he text who has home troubles and
outside persecution at the same time.
The world treats a man we'll Just as
long as il pays to treat him we'll. AS
long as il can manufacture success out
OF his bone and brain and muscle il
favors him.. The world fattens the
horse il wants to drive. But let a man
man see it his duty to cross the track
of the world. then every bush is full Of
harms and Ftrcl- rhr,, - IT,. Y,A~-
will belittle him. They will c~aricature
him. They will call his generosity self
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT and his piety sancti-
~monlousness. The very worse persecu-
tioH will sometimes come upon him
from those who profess to be Chris
tons.
John Milton-great and good John
Milton-so far forgot himself as to
pray in SO many words hat his enc
mics might be eternally thrown down
into the darkest and deepest gulf OF
hell and be the undermost and most
detected and the lowest down vassals
of perdition. And Martin Luther so
far forgot himself as TO say in regard
to his theological opponents, Put
them in whatever sauce you please.
roasted, or fried, or baked, or stewed.
or boiled, or hashed. they are nothing
but asses" All, my friends. if John
Milton or Martin Luther could come
down to such scurrility what may you
not expect from less elevated oppon-
ents? Now, sometimes the world takes
after them; the newspapers take af-
ter them; public opinion takes after
them, and the unfortunate man is lied
about until all the dictionary OF Bill
lingsgate is exhausted on him. You
often see a man whom you know to
be good and pure and honest set upon
by the world and mauled by whole
communities. while vicious men tax
on a supercilious air in condemnation
of him, as though Lord Jeffreys should
write an essay on gentleness or Henry
VIII talk about purity or King Herod
take to blessing little children.
AN INSPIRATION.
Now, a certain amount of persecution
rouses a mans defiance, stirs his
blood for magnificent battle and makes
him fifty times more a man than he
would have been without the perse-
cutiOn. SO it was with the great re-
former when he said, Il will not be
put down; I will be heard" And SO it
was with Willard, the preacher, in the
time of Louis XXI. When Louis XI
sem word to him that unless he stop
ped preaching in that style he would
throw him into the river, he replied,
Tell the king that I will reach heaven
soOne by water than he will reach it
by fast horses" A certain amount of
persecution is a tonic and inspiration,
but too much Of it and too long on
tinued becomes the rock Bozez throw
ing a dark shadow over a mans life.
What is he to do, then? Gro home,
you say. Good advice that. That is
just the place for a man to go when
the world abuses him. Go home.
Blessed be God for our quiet and SYM
pathetic homes, But there is many a
man who has the reputation Of having
a home when he has none. Through UNI
t~hinkingness or precipitation there are
many matches made that ought never
to have been made. An officiating
priest cannot alone unite a couple. The
Lord Almighty must proclaim banns.
There are many homes in which there
is no sympathy and no happiness and
no good cheer. The clamor Of the
battle may not have been heard out
side, but God knows, notwithstanding
all the playing of the Wedding
March," and all the odor of the orange
blossoms, and the benediction Of the
officiating pastor, there has been no
marriage. So sometimes men have
awakened to find on n side of them
the rock of persecution and on the
other side of them the rock of domes-
tic infelicity. Wha shall such a one
do? Do as Jonathan did-climb. Get
up the heights Of Gods consolation
| from which you may look down in tri.
| umph upon outside persecution ano
| home trouble. While good and grea'
John Wesley was being ilence by
| tbs magistrates M having his name
written on the board fences of Londor
in doggerel, at the very time his
wife was making him as miserable a.
she could, acting as though she were
possessed by the devil, as / suppos'
she was, never doing him a kindness
until the day she ran away. so tina
he wrote in his diary these words: =
did not forsake her: I have not dis
missed her: / will not recall her
Planting one foot upon outside perse
cution and the other foot on hom'
trouble. John Wesley climbed up int
the heights Of Christian joy, and, az
ter preaching 5000 m an'
travelling 10000 miles, reached tn
heights Of heaven, though in this worl'
he had it hard enough-"a sharp rocl
on the one side and a sharp rock o.
the other side."