Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-10-12


point some occasion of mrth or socialty
or usefulness, and when the clock strikes
the hour you cannot make your appear
ance. Perhaps the trouble is between
the ear and the forehead in the shape of
n neuralgia twinge. Nobody can see it or
sympathize with it, but just at the time
when you want your intellect clearcst
and your disposition brightest you feel n
sharp, keen, dsconcerting thrust. The
Lord sent the hornet"
Domestic Irritntions.
Perhaps these small insect annoyances
will come in the shape of domestic irri-
tation. The paror and the kitchen do
not always harmonize. To get good
service and to keep it is one of the great
questions of the country. Sometimes it
may be the arrogance and inconsideratc-
ness of employers but whatever be the
fact, we all admit there are these insect
annoyanccs winging their way out from
the culinary department. If the grace of
God be not in the heart of the house
keeper, she cannot maintain her equilib-
rum. The men come home at night and
hear the story of these annoyances and
say, ooh, these home troubles are very
little things!' They are small, small as
wasps, but they sting. Martha's nerves
were all unstrung when she rushed in
asking Christ to scold Mary, and there
are tens of thousands of women who are
dying, stung to death by these pcstiferous
domestic annoyances. THE Lord sent
the hornet"
These small insect disturbances may
also come in the shape of business irrita-
tons. There are men here who went
through the oath Of September, 1869, and
the panics of 1873 and OF 1893 without
| losing their balance who are every day
endorsed by little annoyances-a clerks
| ill manners, or n blot of ink on n bill of
| lading, or the extravaganza of a partner
| who overdraws his account, or the under
selling by business rival, or the whis-
pering OF store condolences in the street,
or the making of some little bad debt
which was against your judgment; but
you wanted to please some body else.
/ 1t is not the pancs that kill the mer-
chants. Panics come only once in 10 or
20 years. 1t is the constant din OF these
everyday annoyances which is sending so
many of our best merchants into nervous
dyspepsia and paralysis and the grave
When our national commerce fell fiat on
its face, these men stood up and felt al
most defiant, but their life is going away
now under the swarm of these pestifcr-
GUS annOyanceS. ne Ioru sent the
hornet"
| have noticed in the history of some
of my congregation that their annoy
ances are multiplying and that they have
hundred where they used to have ten.
The naturalist tells us that n wasp some
times has a family of 10000 wasps, and
it does seem as if every annoyance of
your life brooded million. BY the help
of God today ! want to show you the
other side. The hornet is of no use: Oh,
yes The naturalist tells us they are very
important in the worlds economy. They
kill spiders. and they clear the atmos-
phcre. And | really believe God sends
the annoyances of our life upon us to
kill the spiders of the soul and to clear
the atmosphere of our skies.
Wake Us From Lethargy.
These annoyances are sent on us, l
think, to wake us up from our lethargy.
There is nothing that makes n man so
lively as a nest of yellow jackets" and
| think that these annoyances are in
tended to persuade us OF the fact that
this is not world for us to stop in. If
we had a bed Of everything that was at
tractive and soft and easy, what would
we want Of heaven? We think that the
hollow tree sends the hornet. or we may
think that the devil sends the hornet. |
want TO correct your opinion. The Lord
sent the hornet"
Then | think these annoyanceS come
on us to cultivate our patience. In the
gymnasium you find upright parallel bars
with holes over each other for pegs to be
put in. Then the gymnast takes peg in
each hand, and he begins to climb, one
inch at time or two inches, and getting
his strength cultivated, reaches after a
while the ceiling. And it seems to mo
that these annoyances in life are moral
gymnasium, each worriment peg with
which we are to climb higher and higher
in Christian attainment. We all love TO
see patience, but it cannot be cultivated
in fair weather Patience is a child of
the storm. If you had everything desira-
BILE and there was nothing more to get,
what would you want with patience?
The only time to cultivate it is when you
are lied about and sick and half dead.
oh" you say, 'if l only had the cir
cumstances of some well to do man |
would be patient too" You might as
we'll say, "lf it We're not for this water,
/ would swim" or, 81 could shoot this
gun if it were not for the cartridge"
When you stand chin deep in annoyances
| IL luc iIllt lOI YOU " bWIul oul toN
the great hcadlands of Christian attain
ment, so as to know Christ and the
power of his resurrection and to have
fellowship with his sufferings."
Nothing but the furnace will ever burn
out OF us the clinker and the Stag have
formed this theory in regard to small an
noyances and vexations. 1t takes just SC
much trouble to fit us for usefulness and
for heaven. The only question is whether
we shall take it in the bulk or pulverized
and graduated. Here is one man who
takes it u the bulk. His back is broken
or his eyesight put out, or some other
awful calamity befalls him, while the
vast majority of people take the thing
piecemeal. Which way would you rather
have it? or course. in piecemeal Better
have FIVE aching teeth than one broken
jaw; better 10 fly blsters than an ampu
tation, better 90 squalls than one cyclone
There may be difference Of opinion as
, to allopathy and homeopathy, but in this
matter of trouble like homeopathic,
/ doses, small pellets of annoyance rather
than some knockdown dose OF calamity
, Instead OF the thunderbolt give us tn,
hornet. If you have a bank, you would
n great deal rather that 80 men would
come In with checks less than 500 thar
. to have two depositors come in the same
, day, each wanting his $4,000. In this
t latter case you cough and look down T.
the floor and YOU look I'D to the CeilipI