The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1898-10-08

sensations would be dreadful, ana al
ter meeting the fourth, unless we sus.
pected conspiracy, we would gohoms
and go to bed, and the other six pes
simists would he useless surplus OF
encouragement.
My dear sir, my dear madam, what
do you mean by going about the world
with disheartenments? Is not the sup
ply of gloom and trouble and misfor-
tune enough to meet the demand with
out 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
plant black or blue. ! never saw a
black flower, and there's only here AMI
there bluebell or violet, but thu
blue is for the most part reserved for
the sky, and we have to look up 20 see
that, and when we look up no color
can do us harm. Why not plant along
the paths of others the brightnesses of
the glooms?
Do not prophesy misfortune If you
must be prophet at all, be an Eze~
kiel, and not jeremiah. In ancient
times prophets who foretold evil were
doing right, for they were divinely d.
rected, but the prophets Of evil in our
time are generally false prophets.
Some of our weather-wise people proph-
esied we would have summer OF un-
paralleled heat 1t has been very
comfortable summer. Last fall all the
weather prophets agreed in saying we
should have a winter of extraordinary
severity, blizzard on the heels of blix-
zard 1t was the mildest winter ever
remember to have passed. Indeed, the
autumn and the spring almost showed
winter out of the procession. Real
troubles have no heralds running
| ahead of their somber chariots, and no
one has any authority in our time to
announce their coming. Load your
selves up with hopeful words and
deeds. The hymn once sung in our
churches is unfit to be sung, for 1t says:
We should suspect some danger near,
Where we possessed some delight.
My four-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,
said to her: why did you not cry be-
fore?" She answered: "There was
no one to cry to-" Now, have to tell
you that while human sympathy may
be absent, divine sympathy is always
accessible. Give God your love, and
get His love; your service, and secure
His help; your repentance, and have
His pardon. God friend? Why, that
means all your wounds medicated, all
your sorrows soothed, and if some sud-
den catastrophe should hurl you out Of
earth it would hurl you into Heaven.
If God is your friend you can not go
out of the world too quickly or sud-
denly, so far as your own happiness is
concerned. There were two Christians
who entered Heaven; the one was
| standing at window in perfect
health, watching shower, and the
lightning instantly slew him, but the
lightning did not flash down the sky
as swiftly as his spirit flashed upward.
The Christian man who died on the
same day next door had been for the
last thee months suffering from
a disease that made nights sleep
less and the days an anguish.
Do you not really think that the case
of the one who went instantly was
more desirable than the one who en-
tered the shining gate through long
lane of insomnia and congestion? In
the one case is was like your standing
YEARLY at door, knocking ann wait
ing, and wondering if it was ever open,
ana knocking and waiting again,
while in the other case it was swing
ing open of the door at the first touch
OF your knuckle. Givcyour friendship
to God, rnd have Gods friendship for
You, and even the worst accident will
be victory.
How refreshing is human friend
1 Su1ps bIuc lIiSIluo, Whub piiCCiSoo
treasures! When sickness comes, and
trouble comes, and death comes. we
send for our friends first of all, and
their appearance in our doorway in
any crisis is reinforcement, and when
they have entered we say: Now 1t is
all right" Oh, what would we do
without personal friends, business
friends, family friends? But we
want something mightier than
human friendship in the great
exigencies. When Jonathan Edwards,
in his final hour, had given the last
good-by to all his earthly friends, he
turned on his pillow and closed his
eyes, confidently saying: snow where
is Jesus of Nazareth, my true and
never-failing Friend"