Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-10-21
AN ABLE DISCOURSE
DELIVERED LAST NIGHT
IN THIS FIRST UNITED PREsBy-
TERRAIN CHURCH ny HE
PASTOR. THE
REV. cHAs. H. ROBINSON, D. D.
His Text Taken From Hebrcws-&
striking Gesture of Despondency.
III Health "a Cause.-The Cure for
All Despondency-Tcst 10
Christ, the Messish--tsreat Vie
tories for God-God and Com
science-The Sermon.

Robinson. D. D.. the pastor, preached
an able sermon to a very large audience
on the text taken from Hebrews Xii,
70: Wherefore lift UP the hands which
hang down and the feeble knee?"
the Rev. Robinson in his introduc-
tory remarks said:
The figures of the text are very
striking gestures of discouragement
Hands which hang down and feeble
knees are sort of visible speech, See
ing before us the man who through
dependency has given up for TIE time
and surrendered himself to the mood of
Encouragement
Human nature has two ways of eS-
pressing its controlling moods One is
by words. which appeal to the ear, and
another is by gestures, which appeal
to the eye. The latter are sometimes
the more expressive of the two. Not
infrequently the motion of the hand.
the play of the lips. the CLINT of the eye
will convey more than an hours CONVEX
sation.
What could be more expressive than
the gesture spoken OF in the text
What a picture 1t is of the utterly
discouraged man. Hands down. All
buoyaney of movement gone, the whole
carriage betraying shaken and falter-
ing purpose.
The selection of such theme as
this for pulpit treatment needs no vindi-
cation. If It did II could be found in
two facts; first. the prevalence of the
discouraged mood. The best of Us are
no strangers to 1t. and wherever we
look our eyes are somewhere bound to
light upon someone hose hands hang
down and whose knees are feeble. Sec
ond, the cure of it.
"A thoroughly discouraged man Is a
thoroughly weakened man. Mr. Moody
saws God cannot use discouraged peo-
pie That is probably true but the devil
can. Our first teachers often reiterated
and our later experience has confirmed
the adage that Satan has work for idle
hands to do, and hands that hang down
are idle hands.
Feeble knees are the walking signs
of detected weakness, and
weakness of Any Kind
lis the soil out of which the devils SOW
ings spring to prolific harvest, and so
by the double argument that God can
. do nothing with the discouraged man
10 4. linn with hi
: The mood here pictured is to be con-
demned.
in our consideration OF the subject
| shall invite your attention first to the
causes of Encouragement What then
produces these moods so fraught with
unhappness and in which every pro-
iect is seen through waves OF azure,
every object is distorted into unbeauti-
: fun shapes. the jest taken out OF life
and the work of life robbed of its joys?
Ill health is often one of the causes,
however we may dislike to make the
confession; it is fact from which we
cannot get away, that the state of the
body has a sovereignty over the state
of the soul A recalcitrant liver.
clogged phyical system, nerves that are
rendered over-sensitive by strain or lock
OF nourishment, rack OF pain IN mus
c1es or bones. are the stuff out OF which
many slough of despond Is made
moor digestion is like an obstrueted
keyboard in a piano. No matter how
!. skillfu. the touch the rendering VIII DE
undertone.
"It is difficult to front hard duty
with zest and enthusiasm when health
: is below par and the discouraged mood
is frequently nothing more than an
unpleasant symptom OF bad physical
condition.
"Rut again adverse circumstances
are a frequent cause of discourage
ment. The chameleon taken in
: the color of its surroundings
and so in degrees does hu-
man nature. Environment is al
ways one of the terms of the human
equation and how man stands has
much to do with the way he looks at
things. Elijah on Carmel fearless.y
challenging false gods and finging his
whitening sarcasm into the teeth OF the
priests of Baal and Elijah under the
Juniper tree weakly requesting for
himself that he may die are
the same man differently sit
uated David fresh from the
family affairs of his father Jessie,
his faith girded with the memory OF
the easy triumph over lion and bear
was intrepid and dauntless and more
than match for any God defylng An
akin. but David in the valley OF Her
mon and at the hill of Mixar. worried
and worn by his ten months night
from Saul has lost something of the
buoyancy of faith as he cries: oh my
God. my soul is cast down within me;
why hast thou forgotten me; why go
mourning because of the enemy
John the Baptist at the zenith OF his
fame with great multitudes hanging