The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1899-10-13

for years, and every year, for four or
five years. many times a year I was
| asked if I had not consumption, and,
passing through the room, L would
| sometimes hear people sigh and say:
"A-ah, not long for this world!" I re-
| solved in those times that never in
any conversation would say anything
depressing, and by the help of God I
have kept the resolution. These peo-
pie of whom speak reap and bind in
the great harvest field of discourage
ment. Some day you greet them with
a hilarious "Good morning." and they
come buzzing at you with some depress-
ing information. "The Lord sent the
hornet"
1t is not the panics that kill the mer-
chants. Panics come only once in ten
or 20 years. It 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 fat on it's face, these men
stood up and felt almost defiant, but
their life is going away now under the
swarm of these pestiferous annoyances.
"The Lord 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 wasp
sometimes has family of 10000 wasps,
and it does seem as if every annoyance
of your life brooded a million. BY the
help of God, to-day 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 econ
omy. They kill spiders, and they clear
the atmosphere. And 1 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.
These annoyances are sent on us, I
think, to wake us from our lethargy.
There is nothing that makes man so
lively as Il nest of yellow jackets" and
think that these annoyances are in
tended to persuade us of the fact that
this is not a world for us to stop in. IT
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. 1
want to correct your opinion. 1.-THE
Lord sent the hornet"
Then 1 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 awhile the ceiling. And
it seems to me that these annoyances
in life are a moral gymnasium, each
worriment a peg with which we are to
climb higher and higher in Christian
attainment. We all love to see pa
thence, but it cannot be cultivated in
fair weather. Patience is 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, eff 1 only had the cir
cumstances of some well to do man l
would lie patient, too" You might as
well say: IF it were not for this water,
I would swim,' or, 81 could shoot this
gun if it were not for the cartridge"
When you stand chin deep in annoyances
is the time for you to swim out toward
the great headlands 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.
1 have formed this theory in regard to
small annoyances and vexations. II
takes just so 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 in the
sight put out, or some other awful
calamity befalls him, while the vast ma
jority of people take the thing piece
meal. Which way would you rather
have it?- Of course, in piecemeal. Bet
ter have five aching teeth than one
broken jaw; better ten fly blisters than
an amputation; better 20 squalls than
one cyclone. There may be difference
of opinion as to allopathy and homeo-
pathy, but in this matter of trouble 1
like homeopathic doses, small pellets
of annoyance rather than some knock
-