Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-01-12

mentioned, eno Wnen tnlrty years after
the death OF Matilda Hoffman, who was
to have been his bride. her father picked
up q piece of embroidery and said,
"That Is Q piece OF poor Matilda's
workmanship" Washington Irving sank
from hilarity into silence and walked
great author dipped his penis mightiest re-
enforcement. Calvin's institutes Of Re-
ligion," than which moro wonderful
book was never written by human hand,
was begun by the author at twenty five
years OF age, because OF the persecution
by Francis, king OF France. Faraday
toiled for all time on salary of ESQ year
and candles. As every brick of the wall Of
Babylon was stamped with the letter N,
standing for Nebuchadnezzar, so every
part Of the temple of Christian achieve
ment Is stamped with the letter T, stand
ing for trouble.
When in England man Is honored with
knighthood, he is struck with the fiat of
the sword. But those who have come to
knighthood in the kingdom of God were
first struck, not with the nat of the sword,
but with the keen edge of the scimetsr. TO
build his magnifcence OF character Paul
could not have spared one lash one prison,
one stoning, one anathema, one poisonous
viper from the hand, one shipwreck. What
Is true Of individuals is true Of nations.
The horrors Of the American Revolution
gave this country this side Of the Mississ-
the most of this country west OF tho Miss
issippi to the United States. France
owned it, but Napoleon. fearing that
England would take it, practically
made present to the United States-for
he received only SIS 5,O00, 900 for Louisiana,
Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska,
Iowa, Minnesota, Colorado, Dakota, Mon
tana, Wyoming and the Indian Territory.
Out of the fire of the American Revolution
came this country east of the Mississippi,
out of the European war came that west
of the Mississippi River. The British en-
pire rose to its present overtowering
grandeur through gunpowder plot and Guy
Fawkes' conspiracy and Northampton in
surrection and Walter Raleighs beheading
and Bacon's bribery and Cromwell's disso-
luton of parliament and the battles of
Edge Hill and the vicissitudes of centuries.
So the earth itself, before it could become
an appropriate and beautiful residence for
the human family, had, according to geol-
ogy, to be washed by universal deluge and
scorched and made incandescent by uni
versai fires, and pounded by sledge hammer
OF icebergs and wrenched by earthquakes
that split continents, and shaken by vol
canoes that tossed mountains and passed
through the catastrophes Of thousands of
years before paradise became possible and
the groves could shake out their green ban
ners and the first garden pour its carnage
of color between the Gihon and the Hidde-
kel. Troubles good thing for the rocks,
a good thing for nations, as we'll as a good
thing for individuals. So when you push
against me with sharp Interrogation
point, Why do the good suffer? / open the
dark saying on harp, and, though I can
neither play an organ or cornet or hautboy
or bugle or clarinet. have taken some
lessons on the gospel harp. and If you would
like to hear me 1 will play you these: "All
things work together for good to those who
love God"
Interrogation third: Why did the good
God let sin or trouble come into the world
when He might have kept them out? My
reply is, He had good reason. He had
reasons that He has never given u.s. He
had reasons which He could no more make
US understand in our finite state than the
father, starting out on some great and
elaborate enterprise, could make the two
year-old child in its armed chair compre-
hend 1t. One was to demonstrate what gran
deur of character may be achieved en- earth
by conquering evil. Had there been no
evil to conquer and no trouble to console,
then this universe would never have
known an Abraham or Moses or u Joshua
or an Ezekiel or Paul or Christ or
Washington or John Milton or a John
Howard. and a million victories which have
been gained by the consecrated spirits of
all ages would never have been gained.
Had there been no battle, there would have
been no victory Nine-tenths of the an
sung. Heaven could never have been a
thousandth part of the heaven that it is. r
will not say that am glad that sin and
sorrow did enter, but do say that am
glad that after God has given all His
reasons to an assembled universe He will
be more honored than ii sin and sorrow had
never entered and that the unfallen
celestials will be outdone and will put
down their trumpets to listen and 1t will
be in heaven when those who have con-
quered sin and sorrow shall enter as 1t
would be in small singing school on earth
ifThalberg and Gottschalk and Wagner and
Beethoven and Rheinberger and Schumann
should all ut once enter. The immortals
that have been chanting 10 600 years before
the throne will say, as they close their
librettos, "Oh, II We could only sing like
that!' But God will say to those who have
never fallen and consequently have not
been redeemed, 'You must be silent now;
you have not the qualification for this an.
them" So they sit with closed lips and
folded hands, and sinners saved by grace
take up the harmony, for the Bible says
''no man could learn that song but the hun
dred and forty and four thousand which
were redeemed from the EARTH"
great prlma donna, who can now do
anything with her voice, told me that when
she first started in music her teacher in
Berlin told her she could be good singer.
but certain note she could never reach.
Anu tuOh, oho Solu, L Weut 10 WOrk ana
studied and practiced for years until did
reach it." But the song OF the singer re-
deemed, the Bible says, the exalted har-
monists who have never sinned could not
reach and never will reach. Would you
like to hear me in Il very poor way play q
snatch Of that tune? 1 can give YOU
only one bar of the music on this gospel
harp, Unto Him that hath loved US
and washed us from our sins In His own
blood and hath made US kings and priests
unto God and the Lamb, to Him be glory
and dominion forever and ever, amen"
But before leaving this interrogatory, why
God let sin come into the world, let me say
that great battles seem to be nothing but
suffering and outrage at the time of their
occurrence, YET after they have been long
while past we can see that it was better for
them to have been fought, namely, Sal
amis. Inkerman, Toulouse, .Arbela, Agin-
court. Trafalgar, Blenheim, Lexington,
Sedan.
But here must slow up lest In trying to
solve mysteries I add to the mystery that
we; have already wondered at-namely,
why preachers should keep on after all the
hearers are tired. SO gather up into one
great armful all the why's and hows and
wherefores OF your life and mine, which