Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-01-24

That Body Yesterday Morning by
Rev. r. r. Bigger, Pastor Of the
Third Presbyterian Church = A
Sermon Full of Earnest Thought
and Valuable Lessons to the Liv-
ing-Some of the Blessing Which
Sorrows Bring.
Yesterday morning the members of
! La Belle Lodge No. 2, of the South
Side, assembled in their lodge room
and marched in body to the Third
| Presbyterian Church, where they were
! addressed by Rev. r. R. Bigger. The
! service was held in honor to the men,
DRY of the deceased members of the
| lodge, and the sermon delivered was
appropriate to the occasion. 1t was
full OF earnest thought and valuable
| lessons, expressed in an eloquent man
ner. The following is a portion of the
| sermon delivered by Rev. Mr.. Bigger:
i On this memorial occasion it is not
my purpose nor desire to bring back
| to your minds the sorrowful scenes of
! your bereavements within the last
| year. Some of your departed broth
| ers have scarcely vanished from you,
| and you have not yet ceased hoping to
greet them. Doubtless you feel like
| eXclaiming:
ut matters not; for, go at night or
noon,
| A freA1d, when 'er he dies, died too
| SOOn."
| Daf T CHI f.
=, fering and sorrow fill large place
in the present system of things.
| These Affections are not accidents or
exceptions to the course of nature, but
! they enter into the development of
every life. Trials have their uses.
| We may not always be able to see the
good they do, yet the thoughtful per-
I son cannot fail to notice the change
! for good wrought in many lives by
| this agency | believe that the world
! is best equally as much by tribulatlon
! as by pleasure. What we enjoy most
] is not always best for us. Pleasure
| OF the right kind is surely blessing,
! but tribulation sent from an all-WlSe
| God is also a blessing. Is it not true
| that it's effects upon the character OF
| many persons are truly benign? IL
has been said that Suffering is the
! parent of gladness, sorrow the seed OF
| Joy, affection the germ of glory Inc
! diligent student can hardly fail to no
1 tice that there seems to be a. relation
shin between trials and glory, chas-
I, tisement and tribulation and triumph,
cross and crown as intimate as that
| between cause and effect, seed and
fruit, the wrestler's struggle and the
wrestler's garland. Therefore, as we
| hold this service in memory OF your
! dead this morning, let US not look up
on sorrow as calamity. or even as a
| thing to be deplored. Let us rather
reason together concerning its uses
and how true character is brought out
| by it's influence.
| Sorrow draws you closer together to
sympathy. Some one has said the
world needs more than bread; it also
needs sympathy. Brotherly love new
| err reaches it's sweetest and best until
/ If has suffered. Homes which never
| have been broken may be very happy
| in love. and very bright with gladness,
Int after sorrow has been a guest
| there. there is a depth in the love
which was never experienced before.
| Sorrow opens up the fountains OF SYM
pathy in the heart, it binds us close
IN the ties of brotherhood. The eXer-
cises of human love and sympathy IS
as far above mere animal instructive
affection as the sky above the earth.
The sorrow of bereavement awakes
those who are left to realization or
their new responsibilities The man
who has no responsibility is of little
use to the world MANY a son has
become a man the day he saw his
| fathers form lowered into the grave,
and turned away to take up the mantle
that had fallen at his feet. Many
thoughtless boy has become serious
man. as in a day, when he returned
from his fathers funeral and found 1t
his duty to care for his widowed
mother. and the management OF the
business Many a man has grown al
most instantly into beautiful gentle
ness, when the taking away Of the
! mo,ner of his little children compelled
him to be henceforth their father and
their mother Many a woman has
been transformed from weakness to
strength bv the bereavement which
took her husband from her side, leav-
ing her with little children to bring up.
1t gives you the blessed opportunity
Of helping some one. Pure and unde-
filed religion before God and the Faith
err is this: To visit the fatherless and
the widows in their affection, and to
I keep himself unspotted from the
world. Jas. 7:27 The spirit Of help
| fitness is the spirit of Christianity
We have to learn to help one an
other. We are naturally selfish, self
centered and thoughtless. But sorrow
has opened our hearts and hands as
nothing else could do. Until we eX-
perience what it is to be helped when
in distress, other peoples griefs touch
US in very superficial way. When
our homes are unbroken, the sorrows
of other homes do not find responsive
echoes in our hearts But when we
have experienced sorrow and distress,
we have new power of helpfulness.
| Craze on orr neighbours door means
more after that Thus it is that sor-
row in your homes makes you kind to
sorrowing hearts.
The sorrow Of bereavement makes
us think of our better home above. If
| things always went smoothly with US
! here, if no flowers ever faded, If there
| were never any interruption in our
! earthly Joys. we would not think of the
enduring things of the invisible world.
| 1t is when earthly things fail that we
| learn to set our affections on things
above Many man has never found
! peace with his God until his heart was