The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-12-22

prime and cnl0ral and bromide OF pO-
tassium and cocaine and intoxicants
are used, but nothing is more import
ant than a quiet spirit IL we would win
somnolence. How is a man going to
sleep when he Is in mind pursuing an
enemy? With what nervous twitch he
will start out of a dream! That new
plan of cornering his foe will keep him
wide awake while the clock strikes IL,
IL, 1, 2. I give you an unfailing pre-
scription for wakefulness: Speed the
evening hours rehearsing your wrongs
and the best way of ~ayenging them.
Hold a convention Of friends on this
subject in our parlor or office at s or
9 o'clock. Close the evening by writing
a bitter letter expressing your senti-
ments. Take from the desk or pigeon
hole the papers in the case to refresh
your mind with your enemy's mean
ness. Then lie down and wait for the
coming Of the day, and it will come be-
fore sleep comes, or your sleep will be
worried -quiescence and, If you take
the precaution to lie fiat on you back,
a frightful nightmare.
Why not put a bound to your ami
mostly? Why let your foes come into
the sanctities of your dorTmitory? Why
let those slanderers who have already
torn your reputation to pieces or injur-
ed your business bend over your mid
night pillow and drive from you one of
the greatest blessings that God can Of
fer-sweet, refreshing, all in~vigorating
sleep? Why not fence out your enc
mics by the golden bars of the sunset?
Why not stand behind the barricade
of evening cloud and say to them,
Thus far and no farther" Many a
man and many a woman is having the
health of body as we'll as the health of
soul eaten away by a m~alevolent
spirit. | have in time of religious
awakening had persons night after
night come into the inquiry room and
get no peace of soul. After. awhile I
have blunt1y asked them, rs there not
some one against whom you have a
hatred that you are not willing to give
After a little confusion they have
slightly whispered, Yes" Then | have
said, "You will never find peace with
God as long as you retain that viru-
lence."
GET RID OF HIDDEN RESENT
MENT.
A boy in Sparta having stolen a fox
ket him under his coat and, though
the fox was gnawing his vitals, he sub
mitted to it rather than expose his
misdeed. Many a man with a smiling
face has Under his jacket an animosity
that is gnawing away the strength of
DOoy III IlC lIuLCSIlty VI hIo oodl.
Better get rid of that hidden fox as
oon as possible. There are hundreds
of domestic circles where that which
is needed is the spirit of forgive
ness. Brothers apart and sisters apart
and parents and children apart. Solo
says a brother offended is harder
to be won than a strong city. Are there
not enough sacred memories of your
childhood to bring you together?
The rabbins recount how tina Nebu-
chadnezzar's son had such a spite
against his father that after he
was dead he had his father burned to
ashes and then put the ashes into -four
sacks and tied them to four eagles
necks, which flew away in opposite d.
And there are now domestic
that seem forever to have
all parental memories to the
four winds of heaven. How far the
fly with those sacred ashes! The
hour of shutdown makes to tha family
no practical suggestion. Thomas Car
lyle in his biography of Frederick the
Great says the old king was told by the
cOnfessor he must be at peace with his
ensmies if he wanted to enter heaven.
Then he said to his wife, the queen,
write to you brother after I am dead
that L forgive him. Roloff, the con-
fessor, said, Her majesty had. better
III I'LL lIlliIICoAdlCly. 4No, SdlO
the king; latter I am dead. That will
be safer" So he let the sun of his
earthly existence go down upon his
Again, we ought not ito allow the sur
to set before forgiveness takes place.
because we might not live ito see an
other day. And what if we should be
ushered into the presence of our Maker
with a grudge upon u soul? The ma
jority Of people depart this life in the
night. Between II o'clock p. m and 3
a. m. there is something in the
which relaxes the grip
the body la on the soul, and
most people enter the next world
through the shadows of this world.
Perhaps God may have arranged it
in that way Sc as to make the contrast
more glorious. I have seen SUM-
shiny days in this world that must
been almost like the radiance of
heaven. But as most people leave the
earth between shutdown and sunrise
they quit his world at it's darkest, and
heaven, always bright, will be the
brighter for that contrast. Out Of
darkness into irradiation.
Shall we then leap yer the roseate
bank of sunset into the favorite hunt
ing ground Of disease n death, car
rying our animosities with us? Who
WOuiu WALTZ 10 COu1rOnL MS COD,
whom we lave all done meaner
things than anybody has ever lone us,
carrying old grudges? How can we ex-
pect his forgiveness for the greater
when we are not willing to forgive
for the less? Napoleon was en-
couraged ITO undertake the crossing of
the Alps because Charlemagne had
previously crossed them. And all this
rugged path of forgiveness bears the
nnc ~ hs~~
luered Through suffering, and we ought |
20 be willing to follow. On the night of |
our departure from this life into the
next our n plea will have to be for |
mercy, and it will have to be offered |
n he presence of him who said, eff
you forgive not men their trespasses, |
neither will your Heavenly Father for
give your trespasses."
What a sorry plight if we stand there
hating this n and hating that one |
md wishing that one a damage and
Wishing some one else a calamity. and