The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1901-02-08

! fore God, using their beauty for the
betterment of the world and not for
selfish purposes2 l only take the risk
of asking the question and leave to
you the risk of answering it, These
things l say to show you that in order
to have the promise of the text full
filed in your case 1t 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 divine chemistry
to change the bitter into the sweet
and the harmful into the beneficial.
The promise that 1t 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-
lions, and some of them will be maxi
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 differences
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 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
of court hears illustrations of the de-
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? My explanation is this:
| The man without any divine grace in
his heart finds in these troubles irri-
tation and unbelief and melancholia
I
them submission and enlarged views
and divine support and reconsecra-
ton Bereavement to the wording
brings hard thoughts of God and re-
sstance so violent IL dares not fully
express itself. Bereavement brings to
the Christian the thought of heavenly
reunion and more complete laying
hold of God. and 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 n
man who has strong faith in God. In
most cases il is a loss of surplus or 1t
is the Punishment of Injuries. Most
of the wants Of the prosperous classes
are artificial wants. The late Mr.. Ar
mour of the SGo,0O0,oo0 estate pointed
to one of his clerks on ordinary salary
and said: THAT man has better APP
petite than l, 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 a
| 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, and
| on the other side he had seen the
| equity foot and the indigestion, and
| the insomnia, and the anxiety about
/ large investments, and the threatened
| paresis often characteristic Of those
who are loaded mp and loaded down
| with too many successes. Those peo-
| pie who are generally called the mass
/ cs-that is. the most Of folks-have
| the things absolutely necessary for
( their well being. They have no Mu-
| rillos on their wall, nor az a,Shazzar's
/ Feast in the dining room, nor a pair
| of $1,000 sorrels at their doorway.
| But they have something which those
| superabundantly supplied seldom have.
They have better health because, be-
ing compelled to walk, they get the
necessary exercise, and, their diet be-
ing limited to plan food, they do not
suffer from midnight salads and are
not victmized by rare caterers. They
retire for wholesome sleep at the very
hour in which others are leaving their
homes for the dance or the card party.
They will sleep the last sleep just as
well in the plain graveyard as those
who have over them an arch of sculp-
tured granite in costliest metropolis
or most historical abbey.
The reason so many people are mis-
cradle is because they do not let well
enough alone. They are in one occu-
patton and see its annoyances and so
change to another occupation and find
as many annoyances, If not more.
They live in one place and know it's
uncomfortable environments and move
into another place which has Just as