The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-05-25

y
hearses through that poor soul
Again, remark: that those persons
are poor comforters who have never |
had any trouble themselves. A lark
spur cannot lecture on the nature of q
snowhake-it never saw a snowflake; |
and those people who have always
lived in the summer of prosperity can
not talk to those who are frozen in dis
aster. God keeps aged people in the
world, l think, for this very work of
sympathy. They have been through
all these trials. They know all that
which irritates, and all that which
soothes. If there are men and women
here who have old people in the house,
or near at hand, so that they can easily
reach them, congratulate you. Some
of us have had trials in life, and
although we have had many friends
around about us, we have wished
that father and mother were still
alive that we might go and tell
them. Perhaps they could not say
much, but it would have been such
comfort to have them around. These
aged ones who have been all through
the trials of life know how to give con-
dolence. Cherish them; let them lean
on your arm-these aged people. If,
when you speak to them, they cannot
hear just what you say the first time
and you have to say it second time,
when you say it a second time, do not
say it sharply. If you do, you will be
sorry for it on the day when you take
the last look and brush back the silvery
locks from the wrinkled brow just be-
fore they screw the lid on. Blessed be
God for the old people! They may not
have much strength to go around, but
they are Gods appointed ministers of
comfort to broken heart.
People who have not had trial them.
selves cannot give comfort to others.
They may talk very beautifully, and
they may give you a great deal of
poetic sentiment, but while poetry is
perfume that smells sweet, it makes a
very poor salve. If you have a grave
in pathway, and somebody comes
and covers it all over with flowers, it
is grave yet. Those who have not
had grief themselves know not the
mystery of broken heart.
But there are three or four consider
ations that will bring to those who
are sorrowing and distressed, and that
we can always bring to them, knowing
that they will effect cure. And the
first consideration is that God sends
our troubles in love. / often hear peo-
pie in their troubles say: "Why, Won
der what God has against me?" They
seem to think God has some grqdge
against them because trouble and mis-
fortune have come. Oh, no. Do you
not remember that passage of Scrip
ture: "Whom the Lord loveth he
chasteneth?" child comes in with a
very bad splinter in its hand and you
try to extract it. 1t is very painful
operation. The child draws back from
you, but you persist. You are going
to take that splinter out, so you take
the child with gentle but firm grasp,
for although there may be pain in it
the splinter must come out. And it is
love that dictates it and makes you
persist.
l once went through an ak factory,
and | saw them take the bars of iron
and thrust them into the terrible fur
naces. Then besweated workmen with
long tongs stirred the blaze. Then they
brought out a bar of iron and put it in
a crushing machine, and then they put
it between jaws that bit it in twain.
Then they put it on an anvil and there
were great hammers swung by ma
chinery-each one half a ton in weight
that went thump! thump! thump! II
that iron could have spoken it would
have said: "Why all this beating?
Why must be pounded any
more than any other iron% The
: workmen would have said: "We
! want to make axes out of you, keen,
sharp aXes-aXes with which to hew
down the forest, and build the ship,
J and erect houses, and carry on a thou
|, sand enterprises of civilization. That
is the reason we pound you" Now,
God puts a soul into the furnace OF
trial, and then it is brought out and
run through the crushing machine,
J and then it comes down on the anvil
and upon it, blow after blow, blow
after blow, until the soul cries out
} 20 Lord, what does all this mean?'
God says: II want to make some.
thing very useful out of you. You
shall be something to hew with and
J something to build with. 1t is prac
) tical process through which l am
) putting you" Yes, my Christian
! friends, we want more tools in the
church of God; not more wedges tC
split with. We have enough of these
Not more bores with which to drill. We
have too many bores. What we really
want is keen, sharp, well-tempered
} axes, and if there be any other way OF
, making them than in the hot furnace
, and on the hard anvil, and under the
heavy hammer, do not know what il
! is Remember that if God brings any
, kind of chastisement upon you, it is
only to make you useful. Do not sit
: down discouraged and say: II have nc
, more reason for living. wish were
| dead" Oh, there never was so much
reason for your living as nowl BY this
ordeal you have been consecrated a
priest of the most high God. Go out
, and do your whole work for the Mas
ter.
| Again, there is comfort in the thought
: that all our troubles are revelation
r Have you ever thought of it in that con
: nection? The man who has never beer