Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1901-02-08

betterment of the world and not for
selfish purposes? I only take the risk
of asking the question and leave to
you the risk of answering it. These
things I say to show you that in order
to have the promise of the text full
filed in your case it is not necessary
you have 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 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 perp1exity is as common as
day or night.
So also misinterpretation 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
L, - =
fusion 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 true? Ny 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-
sistance so violent it dares not fully
express itself. Bereavement brings to
the Christian the thought of heavenly
reunion and more complete laying
hold of God, and a more tender appre-
citation of the divine presence, and
| deeper gratitude that we were per-
| mitted to have the departed one so
long, and a 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 it is loss of surplus or it
is the Punishment of 1uxuries. Most
of the wants of the prosperous classes
are artificial wants. The late Mr.. Ar
mour of the 100000, 900 estate pointed
to one of his clerks on ordinary salary
and said: "That man has a better ap-
petite than I, sleeps better nights and
enjoys life more than I do" Oh, the
gigantic miseries of those who have
too much! A man in Solomon's time
expressed as philosophic and reason.
able 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 superabundance or g
deficit, crying out: ''Give me neither
poverty nor riches" On the one side
he had seen the awful struggle of the
poor to get food and clothes and shell
ter and to educate their children, an6
on the other side he had seen the
equity foot and the Indigestion, anG
the insomnia, and the anxiety about
large investments, and the threatened
paresis often characteristic of those
who are loaded up and loaded dowr
with too many successes. Those PEG
pie who are generally called the mass
Iles-that is, the most of folks-havs
the things absolutely necessary fol
their we'll being. They have no Mu
rillos on their wall, nor a "Belshazzar',
Feast" in the dining room, nor a pail
But they have something which thos.
superabundantly supplied seldom have
They have better health because, be
ing compelled to walk, they get tn,
necessary exercise, and, their diet be
ing limited to plan food, they do no
suffer from midnight salads and ar
not victimized ny rare caterers. The.
retire for wholesome sleep at the yer,
hour in which others are leaving thei
homes for the dance or the card party
They will sleep the last sleep just a
we'll in the plain graveyard as thos
who have over them an arch of sculp
tured granite in costliest necropoli
or most historical abbey.
The reason so many people are mis-
cradle is because they do not let wei
enough alone. They are in one occu
patton and see it's annoyances and s.
change to another occupation and fin
as many annoyances, if not more
They live in one place and know it