Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1901-02-07

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the world very well before you came
into it?" mo doubt of it," was the re-
ply. And do you not think he will
govern 1t quite as well when you are
gone out of it," Certainly" Then
pray, sir, excuse me--but do you not
think you may trust him to govern 1t
as long as you live in it," The remark
was so sensible that sleeplessness de-
parted and tranquility came.
A particular Providence is as certain
as general Providence. 1t did not
just happen so that Brunei noticed a
ship-worm boring into the wood, so
suggesting to the engineer the tunnel
ing OF the Thames. 1t did not just
happen so that spiders web strung
from tree to tree suggested the sus-
pension bridge to its first originator.
Nothing Just happened so in your life
or mine. 1t is not an autocrat at
the head Of the universe, but Father.
Leave thy low vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the
last,
Shut thee from heaven with dome
more vast
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's
An Unlimited Supply.
Do any of us fully realize the fact
that God gives US three things in I'M
limited supply, although no formula
of prayer that l ever heard recognizes
them-water, air and sunlight? Water
by the riverful. Water by the lakeful.
Water by the oceanful. Some for ablu-
tion, some for shaking the thirst, some
for baptistry, some for fountains and
aquariums. I never appreciated what
a wonderful thing water is until last
summer stood by the fountains be-
fore and around the emperor's palace
at Peterhof, Russia. / had been fami-
liar with this wonderful element Of
nature from childhood, having been
born on the banks of the beautiful
Raritan, and as a barefooted boy dab
bled in the brook near my fathers
house. But l never realized until last
summer what water could do in play,
or in strange caprice. or Identification,
or when climbing the ladder of the
light, or when a skillful workman took
hold of 1t to toss 1t. or whirl it, or
shape it into crowns, or hoist it into
columns, or spring it into arches, or
lift 1t into stars, or turn 1t into cres-
cents. or build it into temples. You
forget you ever saw the less glorious
waters at Chatsworth. England. or
Versailles, France, as you stand in the
balcony of the palace overlooking the
Finland gulf, bewildered and trans
ported as you look at the one display
called the Golden Stairway fountain.
The water rolls down over "a steps one
foot high and 20 feet long. All Of these
"a steps are covered with sheets OF
FURNISHED gold. Silver step OF the
water ON stairs of gold! What a glee
of liquids! Rolling, dashing, foaming,
enrapturing splendors! Chorus OF
floods! Poetry of waters! Doxology
of torrents! But that which most i'm
pressed me there and elsewhere is the
abundance of water. the fact that there
are SO many waters that the CONT
nents can afford to throw them away
into the sea, Hudsons and Ohios, Ore
CONS and Amazons, Rhines and Dan
ubes and Volgas. and so abundant
that the earth can afford to have its
oceans evaporate into the heavens,
Mediterraneans and Atlantics and Pa
cities. How rich the earth is with wat
ers! Best beverage of all the nations,
for after the richest banquet with the
richest beverages, every one wants at
least sip of it-water, cool water, God
descended water!
With still more abundance Is the air
distributed. An earth full of it. A
sky full of it. Swiftest and strongest
eagle cannot fly so high as not to
have it in the nostril or under wing
And what affluence of sunlight! No
one but the infinite God could dispense
so much of it. The golden candlestich
set on the blue mantel of the heavens,
So great that the Almighty is COM
pared to it, the psalmist crying out,
THE Lord God is a sum-" 1t is high
time that we recognize in our liturgies
and in our formulas of prayer the
most abundant blessings of the
universe whichscome to all.
Trust Thoroughly In God.
Now, is it not time that we all be-
gan more thoroughly to trust the
Lord? We trust him with our souls
why not trust him with our bodies?
We trust him with our spiritual inter-
ests, why not trust him with our tenn
poral interests? We believe what is
said to us by an ordinarily honest man
I could not anger you so much OF
make your cheeks SO burn with indig-
nation as to doubt your truthfulness
and how do you suppose the Lord OF
heaven and earth feels when you
doubt him, as he declares in the text
Say We to the righteous that 1t shall
be we'll with him. Such a promise as
that ought to calm your pulses and ir-
radate your countenance and halo al
the future with rapture; for, after all
it makes but little difference what be-
comes of us here, If we come out at the
right place amid the right surround
ings and in the right compan!onship
What are the twenty or eighty years
Of terrestrial stay compared with the
centuries, the milleniums, the aeons o.
our chief lifetime, which we are to be-
gin when We quit this insignificant
planet, Insignificant as compared with
the size Of other worlds? This world
is only school house for heaven. w,
learn here only the A B Of higher
literature. or the simple addition ant
subtraction Of an infinite mathematic.
and are practicing the eight notes o
an eternal harmony. The most i'm
portant question any man ever asks Is
What will be my destiny?" "Whitkel