The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1899-10-11
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.

arms and refused to answer. At the very
time when you would suppose all decent
men would have applauded the heroism
of the man there were those to hiss. 1.-The
Lord sent the hornet" And when after
ward that man sat down on the western
coast of Africa, sick and worn out, with
perhaps the grandest achievement Of the
age in the way of geographical discovery,
there were small critics all over the world
to buzz and buzz and caricature and de-
ride him, and when after awhile he got
the London papers, as he opened them,
out flew the hornet. When [ see that
there are so many people in the world
who like to say disagreeable things and
write disagreeable things, come almost
in my weaker moments to believe what a
man said to me in Philadelphia one Mon
day morning. l went to get the horse at
the livery stable, and the hostler, plain
man, said to me, Mr.. Talmage, / saw
that you preached to the young men yes
terday." l said, "Yes." He said: mo
use, no use. Mans failure"
The small insect annoyances of life
sometimes come in the shape Of local
physical trouble which does not amount
to positive prostration, but which both
ers you when you want to feel the best.
Perhaps it is a sick headache which has
been the plague of your life, and you ap-
point some occasion of mirth or sociality
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
a neuralgia twinge. Nobody can see it
h ry-fth hut 1cf of hn
time when you want your intellect clear
est and your disposition brightest you
feel a sharp, keen, disconcerting thrust.
1.-THE Lord sent the hornet"
Domestic Irritations.
Perhaps these small insect annoyauces
will come in the shape of a domestic irri-
tation. The parlor and the kitchen do
not always harmonize. To get good SER
vice and to keep it is one of the great
questions of the country. Sometimes it
may be the arrogance and inconsiderate-
ness of employers; but, whatever be the
fact, we all admit there are these insect
annOyances 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, "Oh, these home troubles are very
little things!" They are small, small ss
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 pestiferous
domestic annoyances. The Lord sent
the hornet
These small insect disturbances may
also come in the shape of business irrita-
lions. There are men here who went
through the oath of September, 1869, and
the panics Of 1873 and 1898 without los
ing their balance who are every day un-
horsed by little annoyances-a clerks i'll
manners, or a blot of ink on a bill of lad
ing, 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 somebody else.
1t is not the panics that kill the mer-
chants. Panics come only once in ten or
twenty years. 1t Is the constant din of
these everyday annoyances which is send
ing 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 almost defiant, but their life is going
away now under the swarm of these pes
tiferous annOyances. 'The Lord sent the
hornet"
| have noticed in the history of some
of my congregation that their annoyances
are multiplying and that they have a
hundred where they used to have ten.
The naturalist tells us that wasp some
times has family Of 10000 wasps. and
it does seem as if every annoyance Of
your life brooded a million. BY the helm
of God, to-day 1 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
phere. 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 LetharEy.
These annoyances are sent on us, I
think, to wake us up from our lethargy.
There is nothing that makes a man so
iiFcly as nest Ol 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 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. I
want to correct your opinion. 1.-THE Lord
sent the hornet"
Then l 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 a 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 me
that these annoyances in life are a 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. Ii you had everything desra-
ole and there was nothing more to get,
what would you want with patience?