Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-08-19


men who lost fortune and health at the
same time and yet who sing all day
and dream Of heaven all night. If you
have any idea that sound digestion and
steady nerves and clear eyesight and
good hearing and plenty Of friends are
necessary TO make man happy, you
have miscalculated. Isuppose that these
overhanging rocks only made Jonathan
scramble the harder and the faster to
get up and out into the sunlight, and
this combined shadow Of invalidism and
financial 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.
1t is a difficult thing for man TO
feel his dependence upon God when he
has $40, 600 in the bank and $50, 900
in government securities and block
of stores and three ships. "Well, " the
man says TO himself, "it is silly for mo
to pray, Give me this day my daily
bread, when my pantry is full and the
canals from the west are crowded with
breadstuffs destined for my store
houses. Oh, my friends, if the COM
bined misfortunes and disasters Of life
have made you climb up into the arms
Of a sympathetic and compassionate
God, through all eternity you will bless
him that in this world There was
sharp rock on the one side and a sharp
rock on the other side.
Again, that man is in the crisis of
the text who has home troubles and
outside persecution at the same time
The world treats man well just as
long as it pays to treat him well. As
long as it can manufacture success out
Of his bone and brain and muscle it ia
yors him. The world fattens the horse
it wants to drive But let man see it
his duty to cross the track Of the world,
then every bush is full of horns and
tusks thrust at him. They will belittle
him. They will caricature him. They
will call his generosity self aggrandize-
ment and his piety sanctimoniousIiess.
The very worst persecution will some
times come upon him from those who
profess to be Christians.
John Milton-great and good John
Milton-so far forgot himself as to pray
in so many words that his enemies
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 him
self as to say in regard to his theolog-
ical 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 Lu-
ther could come down to such scurrility
what may you not expect from less ele-
waited opponents? Now, sometimes the
world takes after them; the newspapers
take after them public opinion takes
after them, and the unfortunate man is
lied about until all the dictionary Of
Billingsgate 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 COM
munities, while vicious men take 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 mans defiance, stirs his blood
for magnificent battle and makes him
so times moro man than he would
have been without the persecution. So
it was with the great reformer when he
said, Il will not be put down; will
be heard" " And SO it was with Millard,
the preacher, in the time of Louis XII
When Louis XI sent word to him that
unless he stopped preaching in that
style he would throw him into the
river he replied, Tell the king that !
will reach heaven sooner by water than
he will reach it by fast horses. " A GER
tain amount of persecution is a tonic
and inspiration, but too much OF 1t and
too long continued becomes the rock
Bozez throwing a dark shadow over a
mans life. What is he to do, then! Go
home, you say Good advice that. That
is Just the place for man to 90 when
the world abuses him. Go home Blessed
be God for our quiet and sympathetic
holnesl But there is many man who
has the reputation Of having home
when he has none. Through unthink
iugness or precipitation there are many
matches made that ought never 70 have
been made. An officiating priest cannot
alone unite couple. The Lord AL
mighty must proclaim banns There are
many homes in which there is no sym
pathy and no happiness and no good
cheer The clamor of the battle may
not have been heard outside, but God
knows, Notwithstanding all the play
ing 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 some
times men have awakened to find on
one side Of them the rock of persecu-
tion and on the other side Of them the
rock of domestic infelicity. What shall
such one do? Do as Jonathan did
climb. Get up the heights Of Gods con-
ISOLATION, from which you may look
down in triumph upon outside persecu-
ton and home trouble. While good and
great John Wesley was being silenced
by the magistrates and having his name
written on the board fences of London
in doggerel, at that very time his wife
was making him a. miserable as she
could, acting as though she were pos
sessed by the devil, as l suppose she
was, never doing him kindness until
the day she ran away, so that he wrote
in his diary these words; 81 did not
forsalse her; have not dismissed her;
| will not recall her" Planting one
foot upon outside persecution and the
other foot on home trouble, John Wes-