The Progress., 1898-12-17

| up piece or embroidery ana SAID,
''That is piece of poor MatiIda's
workmanship" Washington Irving sank
from hilarity into silence and walked
away. Out Of that lifetime grief the
great author dipped his pens mightest re-
enforcement. Calvin's Institutes of Re-
ligion,' than which more wonderful
| book was never written by human hand,
was begun by the author at twenty-five
years Of age because of the persecution
| by Francis, king Of France Faraday
| toiled for all time on salary of ESQ a year
and candles. As every brick of the wall of
Babylon was stamped with the letter n,
standing for NebuchadHezzar, so every
part Of the temple Of Christian achieve
ment is stamped with the letter T, stand
ing for trouble.
When in England man is flonorel with
knighthood, he is struck with the fat Of
the sword. But those who have come to
knighthood in the kingdom of God were
first struck, not with the Hat Of the sword,
but with the keen edge of the scimeter. TO
build his magnificence Of character Paul
could not have spared one lash, one prison,
one stoning, one anathema, one poisonous
viper from the hand, one shipWreck, What
is true of individuals is true of nations.
! The horrors Of the American Revolution
gave this country this side of the Mississ
ippi River to independence and France gave
the most Of this country west Of the Miss
issippi to the United States. France
owned it, but Napoleon. fearing that
England would take it, practically
made present to the United States-for
he received only $15 900. 900 for Louisiana,
Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska
Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado, Dakota, Mon
tana, Wyoming and the Indian Territory
Out OF the fire of the American Revolution
came this country east Of the Mississippi,
out of the European war came that west
Of the Mississippi River. The British en-
pire rose to its present overtowerisS
grandeur through gunpowder plot and Guy
Fawkes' conspiracy and Northampton in
surrection and Walter Raleigh's beheadinc
and Bacon's bribery and Cromwells disso-
luton Of parliament and the battles OF
Edge Hill and the vicissitudes Of centuries.
SO the earth itself, before it could become
an appropriate and beautiful residence for
the human family, had, according to Seol-
ogy, to be washed byuntversaI deluge and
scorched and made incandescent by uni
versal fires, and pounded by sledce hammer
and an excuse or an alienation Tor those
gone astray? They are the men who have
graduated at the Royal Academy of Trou.
bic, and they have the diploma written in
wrinkles on their own countenances. My,
my. What heartaches they had What
tears they have wept! What injustice
they have suffered! The migbtiest inhu-
ence for publication and salvation il
trouble
There are only three things that can
break OFF chain-a hammer, a file or a fra
and trouble is all three Of them. TIL.
greatest writers, orators and reformers get
much of their force from trouble. What
gave to Washington Irving that exquisite
tenderness and pathos which will make his
books favorites while the English language
continues to be written and spoken? A.
of icebergs and wrenched by earthquakes
that split continents, and shaken by vol
canoes that tossed mountains and passed
through the catastrophes OF thousands Of
years before paradise became possible and
the groves could shake out their green ban
ners and the first garden pour it's carnage
of color between the Gihon and the Hide
kel. Trouble-a good thing for the rocks,
a good thing for nations, as we'll as a good
thing for individuals. SO when you push
against me with sharp interrogation
point, Why do the good suffer? open the
dark saying on harp, and, though [ can
neither play an organ or cornet or hautboy
or bugle or clarinet, have taken soma
lessons on the gospel harp, and if you would
like to hear nae will play you these: 'All
things work together for good to those who
love Cod
Interrogation third: Why did the GOOD
God let sin or trouble come into the world
when He might have kept them out? My
reply is, He had a good reason. He had
hof 10 hno TT
had reasons which He could no moro make
US understand in our finite state than the
father, starting out on some great and
elaborate enterprise, could make the two
year-old child in its armed chair compre-
it. One vast to demonstrate what gran
deur of character may be achieved en- earth
by conquering evil. Had there been no
evil to conquer and no trouble to console,
then this universe would never have
known an Abraham or Moses or Joshua
or an Ezekiel or Paul or Christ or a
Washington or John Milton or John
Howard. and million victories which have
been gained by the cOnsecrated spirits Of
all ages would never have been gained.
Had there been no battle, there would have
been no victory. Nine-tenths of the an
thems OF heaven would never have been
sung. Heaven could never have been "a
thousandth part of the heaven that it is. T
will not say that am glad that sin and
sorrow did enter, but I do say that am
glad that after God has given all His
reasons to an assembled universe He will
be more honored than ifsin and sorrow had
never entered and that the unfallen
celestials will be outdone and will put
down their trumpets to listen and it will
be In heaven when those who have con-
quered sin and sorrow shall enter as it
would be in small singing school on earth
IL Thalberg and Gottschalk and Wagner and
Beethoven and Rheinberger aud Sch1manu
should all at once enter. The immortals
that have been chanting 10, 900 years before
the throne will say, as they close their
librettos, "Oh, il We could only sing like
that!" But God will say to those who have
never fallen and consequently have not
been redeemed, ''You must be silent now;
you have not the qualification for this an
them" SO they sit with closed lips and
folded hands, and sinners saved by grace
take up the harmony, for the Bible says
''no man could learn that song but the hun
dred and forty and four thousand which
were redeemed from the earth.''