The Yale expositor., 1898-10-07

1
eyes swimming in death the stag leaps
you realize how much David had suf-
fered from his troubles. and how much
he wanted God when he expressed
himself in the words OF the text: Gas
the hart panteth after thee water
brooks, so panteth my soul after thee,
o God"
Well, now, let all those who have
coming after them the lean hounds OF
poverty, or the black hounds Of perse-
cution, or the spotted hounds of vlcis-
situde, or the pale hounds of death, or
who are in any wise pursued, run to
the wide, deep, glorious lake OF divine
solace and rescue. The most of the
men and women whom l happened to
know at different times, IL not now,
have had trouble after them, sharp
muzzled troubles, swift troubles all
devouring troubles. Many of you have
made the mistake of trying to fight
them. Somebody meanly attacked you
and you attacked them; or they over
reached you in q bargain. and you
tried, in Wall street parlance, to get
corner on them, or you have had
bereavement, and, instead OF being
submissive you are fighting that be-
reavement; you charge on the doctors
who failed to effect cure; or you
charge on the carelessness OF the rail-
road company through which the acct
dent occurred; or you are a chronic in
valid, and you fret, and worry. and
scold, and wonder why you cannot be
we'll like other people, and you angrily
blame the neuralgia or the laryngitis,
or the ague. or the sick headache. The
fact Is, you are deer at bay. Instead
OF running to the waters of divine con-
ISOLATION, and shaking your thirst and
cooling your body and soul in the good
cheer of the Gospel, and swimming
away into the mighty deeps OF Gods
love, you are fighting a whole kennel
Of barriers.
saw in the Adirondacks a dog lying
across the road and he. seemed un-
able to get up, and I said to some hunt
ers near by. What is the matter with
that dog?" They answered, "a deer
hurt him." And I saw he had a great
swollen paw and a battered head.
showing where the antlers struck him.
And the probability is that some OF
you might give mighty clip to your
pursuers. you might damage their bus
mess. you might worry them into Ill
health, you might hurt them as much
as they have hurt you, but after all, 1t
is not worth while. You only have
/ nj 1. a l..
Upper Saranac, into which the noun
tains OF Gods eternal strength look
down and moor their shadows. AS for
your physical disorders. the worst
strychnine you can take is fret
fulness. and the best medicine
is religion. l know people who
were only little disordered,
yet have fretted themselves into com
plete valetudinarianism, while others
put their trust in God and come up
from the very shadow of death, and
have lived comfortably twenty-five
years with only one lung. A man with
ono lung, but God with him, is better
OFT than a goddess man with two lungs.
saw whole chains of lakes in the
Adirondacks, and from one height you
can see thirty, and there are said to be
over eight hundred in the great will
derness Of New York So near are
they to each other that your mountain
guide picks up and carries the boat
from lake to lake. the small distance
between them for that reason called a
carry" And the realm OF Gods
/ Word Is one long chain OF bright. re-
freshing lakes; each promise a lake,
very short carry between them, and
though for ages the pursued have been
drinking out of them, they are full up
to the top of the green banks, and the
same David describes them, and they
seem so near together that in three
different places he speaks of them as
continuous river, saying: There is a
river, the streams whereof shall make
glad the city of Cod" Thou shalt
make them drink of the rivers of thy
| pleasures" Thou greatly enrichest
1t with the river of God, which is full
of water"
But many of you have turned your
back on that supply, and confront your
trouble, and you are soured with vCur
circumstances, and you are fighting So
ciety and you are fighting a pursuing
world. and troubles, instead of dr1v-
ing 20, into the cool lake Of heave ,ly
comfort. have made you stop and turn
around and lower your head, and it is
simply antler against tooth. l do not
blame you. Probably under the same
circumstances l would have done
worse. But you are all wrong. You
need to do as the reindeer does in
February and March-it sheds its
horns. The Rabbinical writer's allude
to this resignation of antlers by the
stag when they say Of man who ven
lures his money in risky enterprises,
he has hung it on the stays horns
and proverb in the far East tells
man who has foolishly lost his fortune
to go and find where the deer sheds
her horns. My brother, quit the an
tagonism of your circumstances, quit
misanthrophy. quit complaint, quit
| pitching into your pursuers he aa wise