The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1898-08-19

NhNAA ohoNOWsy anu NlOP NASAA APOh 49,
poor mans way. God help him!
There is a sharp rock on the one side
and sharp rock on the other side"
Now, a certain amount OF persecu-
tion rouses a mans defiance, stirs hts
blood for magnificent battle, and makes
him fifty times more a man than he
would have been without the persecu-
ton. So it was with the great Re-
former when he said, II will not be
put down; l will be heard" And so 1t
was with Willard, the preacher, in the
time Of Louis XI. When Louis XI.
sent word to him that unless he
stopped preaching in that style he
would throw him into the river, he
piled, Tell the king that l will reach
heaven sooner by water than he will
reach it by fast horses" A certain
amount Of persecution is tonic and
inspiration, but too much OF it, and too
long continued, becomes the rock Bozez
throwing a dark shadow over mans
life. What is he to do then? Go
home, you say. Good advice, that,
That is just the place for 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 hav-
ing a home when he has none.
Through unthinkingness or precipita-
ton 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 outside, but God knows
Notwithstanding all the playing OF the
Wedding March," and all the odor Of
the orange blossoms, and the benedic-
ton of the officiating pastor. there has
been no marriage. So sometimes men
have awakened TO find on one side OF
them the rock Of persecution. and on
the other side OF them the rock of do
nestle infelicity. What shall such q
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 and
home trouble. While good and great
John Wesley was being silenced by the
magistrates, and having his name writ
ten on the board fences of London in
doggerel, at that very time his wife
was making him as miserable as she
could-acting as though she were pos
sessed by the devil, as | suppose she
was; never doing him a kindness until
the day she ran away, so that he wrote
in his diary these words: Il did not
forsake her; have not dismissed her;
| will not recall her." Planting one
foot upon outside persecution. and the
other foot on home trouble, John Wes-
ley climbed up into tAe heights OF
Christian joy, and after preaching
forty thousand sermons, and travelling
two hundred and seventy thousand
miles. reached the heights OF heaven.
though in this world he had 1t hard
enough-"a sharp rock on the one side,
and sharp rock on the other"
Again that woman stands in the crisis
of the text who has bereavement and
a struggle for livelihood at the same
time. Without mentioning names, |
speak from observation. All, ii is
hard thing for woman to make an
honest living, even when her heart is
not troubled and she has a fair cheek,
and the magnetism of an exquisite
presence. But now the husband, or the
father. Is dead. The expenses OF the
obsequies have absorbed all that was
left in the savings bank. and. wan and
wasted with weeping and watching, she
goes forth-a grave, hearse, a coffin,
behind her-to contend for her exis-
tence and the existence of her children.
When | see such a battle as that open,
! shudder at the ghastliness OF the
spectacle. Men sit with embroidered
slippers and write heartless essays
about womens wages, but that ques-
ton is made up of tears and blood and
there is more blood than tears. oh,
give women free access to all the
realms where she can get livelihood,
from the telegraph Office TO the pulpit!
Let mems wages be cut down before
hers are cut down. Men have iron in
their souls, and can stand it. Make
the way free to her Of the broken heart.
May God put into my hand the cold,
bitter cup OF privation and give me
nothing but windowless hut for shell
ter for many years. rather than that af-
ter am dead there should go out from
my home into the pitiless world a
woman's arm to fight the Gettysburg,
the Austerlitz, the Waterloo of life for
bread! And yet, how many women
there are seated between the rock or
bereavement on the one side and the
rock of restitution on the other! Bo-
ZEE and Seneh lnterlocling their shad-
ows and dropping them upon her mis-
cradle way. There is q sharp rock
on the one side, and sharp rock on
the other side"
What are such to do? Somehow, let
them climb up into the heights of the
glorious promise: Leave thy father
less children | will nrpSerVe them alive