The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1901-04-26

You nave phenomenal worldly success
Notice also that God gives The
righteous the power to extract good
out of evil and by a divine chemistry
to change the bitter into the sweet
and the harmful into the beneficial.
The promise that it shall be well with
you does not imply that you are to be
free from trouble There is no escape
from that. We all have family rela-
tions, and some Of them will be max
ing exit from this world, so that be-
reavement is the universal inherit
ance. So also is financial loss. The
difference between the prospered and
those not prospered is the difference
in the amount they can afford TO lose.
The more wealth a man has the more
he can lose, but one man can afford
to lose a million dollars where anoth-
er man cannot afford to lose one dol
lar. On larger or smaller scale all
suffer financial loss. Amid the rapid
ity of the revolutions of the wheel of
national and international finance
monetary perplexity is as common as
day or night.
So also mlsinterpretation and SLAM
der came TO all who live active lives.
Our actions. thoroughly honest and
above board, may come under sus-
picion. Every courtroom at every term
of court hears illustrations Of the de-
lusion OF what is called circumstan-
tial evidence. Innocent men are fined
or imprisoned or electrocuted because
Of an unfortunate conjunction Of
events. What is true in courtrooms
Is true in all circles of domestic or
social or political or official life. You
have been misunderstood and misrep-
resented or will be misunderstood and
misrepresented. Then how can my
text be true2 My explanation is this:
The man without any divine grace in
his heart finds in these troubles irri-
tation and unbelief and melancholia
and despair. A Christian man finds in
them submission and enlarged views
and divine support and reconsecra-
ton. Bereavement to the wording
brings hard thoughts of God and re-
sistsnce so violent II dares not fully
express itself. Bereavement brings to
the Christian the thought of heavenly
reunion and a more complete laying
hold Of God, and more tender appre-
citation OF the divine presence, and
deeper gratitude that we were per-
mitted 10 have the departed one so
long, and more lively sympathy for
the sorrows Of others and another evil
dence Of Gods love. for whom the
Lord loveth he chasteneth."
Financial loss. which just now said
IS sure to come, never breaks up a
man who has strong faith in God. In
most cases IL Is loss OF surplus or il /
is the Punishment Of luxuries. Most
Of the wants Of the prosperous classes I
are artificial wants The late Mr.. Ar /
mour Of the s6o,OOo,o 900 estate pointed
10 one Of his clerks on ordinary salary /
and said: That man has better ap-
petite than /, sleeps better nights and
enjoys life more than / do" Oh, the
gigantic miseres Of those who have
too muchl A man in Solomon's time
expressed as philosophic and reason
able a wish as any man Of those times
Or OF our times. His name was Agur,
and he offered a prayer that he might
never have a superabundance or
deficit. crying out: Give me neither
poverty nor riches" On the one side
be had seen the awful struggle Of the
poor TO get food and clothes and shell
Ter and to educate their children. and
'n the other side he had seen the
youty foot and the indigestion, and
.he insomnia, and the anxiety about
arge investments, and the threatened
oaresis often characteristic of those
who are loaded up and loaded down
With too many successes. Those peo-
'le who are generally called the mass
.s-that is, the most Of folks-have
he things absolutely necessary for
heir well being. They have no Mu-
illoson their wall, nor a "Beishazzar's
FEAST in the dining room. nor a pair
v $1,000 sorrels at their doorway.
But they have something which those
uperabundantly supplied seldom have.
they have better health because, be-
hg compelled to walk, they get the
necessary exercise, and. their diet be-
ng limited to plan food, they do not
uffer from midnight salads and are
lot victimized by rare caterers. They
etire for wholesome sleep at the very
our in which others are leaving their
ONES for the dance or the card party.
hey will sleep the last sleep just as
veil in the plain graveyard as those
gho have over them an arch of sculp-
ured granite in costliest metropolis
+ most historical abbey.
The reason so many people are mis-
rable is because they do not let we'll
nough alone They are in one occu-
alton and see its annoyances and so
hange TO another occupation and find
8 many annoyances. if not more.
hey live in one place snd know its
environments and move
ITO another place which has just as
,anv limitations. Their investments
ield them four per cent. and they sell
mt TO make investments that will
ield ten per cent. and lose all. Bet
srsettle down and stop fretting about
oursef and the world.
Do any Of us fully realize the fact
hat God gives us three things in un-
mited supply. although no formula
T PRAYER that I ever heard recognizes
iem-water. air and sunlight? Water
Y the riverfull. Water by the lakeful.
-ater by the oceanful. Some for ablu-
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