The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1901-03-14

| business men make me think of. A
man is unfortunate in his business.
he has to raise a good deal of money
and raise it quickly. He borrows on
word and note all he can borrow. At
ter awhile he puts mortgage on his
house. Then he puts lien on his
furniture. Then he makes over his
life insurance Then he assigns all
his property. Then he goes to his
father-in-law and asks for help. Well,
having failed everywhere, completely
failed, he gets down on his knees and
says, "Oh, Lord, l have tried every
body and everything; now help me
out of this financial trouble" He
makes God the last resort instead OF
the first resort,
The Last Resort.
| Now, sorEe of you treat God just as
| that young man treated his mother.
When you get into financial perplex-
fty, you call on the banker, you call on
you call on your lawyer for legal coun-
sci, you call upon everybody, and when
you cannot get any help then you
go to God. You say: ooh, Lord, l
come to thee. Help me now cut of my
perplexity.' And the Lord comes,
| though it is the eleventh hour. He
says: why did you not send for me
before? AS one whom his mother COM
forteth, SO will comfort you" 1t is
to throw us back upon God that we
have this ministry of tears.
l like what Martin Luther said to
Philip Melanchton when Melanchton
has gone to bed discouraged and saying
to Luther: Our cause is lost. We have
had all our work for nothing. l am
/ in state of despair!" Then Luther
said: Come, Philip; we have had
enough of such talk! Let us sing the
Forty-sixth Psalm of David: God is
our refuge and strength, a very pres
ent help in trouble, therefore will not
we fear though the earth be removed
of the sea. Though the waters there
of roar and be troubled, though the
mountains shake with the swelling
thereof. Selah!'"
Again. it is the use of trouble to
capacitate us for the Office of sympa-
thy. The priests, under the old dis
pensation, were set apart by having
water sprinhled upon their hands, feet
and heao, and by the sprinkling of
tears people are now set apart to the
office Of sympathy. When we are in
| prosperity, we like to have great
many young people around us, and
we laugh when they laugh. and we
romp when they romp, and We sing
when they sing, but when We have
trouble we like plenty of old folks
around. Why? They know how to
talk. Take an aged mother, rs years
of age, and she is almost omnipotent
| in comfort. Why? She has been
through it all. At o'clock in the
morning she goes over to comfort a
young mother who has just lost her
babe. Grandmother knows all about
that trouble. Fifty years ago she felt
it. At IL o'clock of that day she goes
over to comfort widowed soul. She
knows all about that. She has been
walking in that dark valley 20 years.
| At O'Clock in the afternoon some one
knocks at the door, wanting bread.
She knows all about that Two or three
| times in her life she came to her last
| loaf. At 10 o'clock that night she
| goes over to sit up with some one
severely sick. She knows all about it
She knows all about fevers and pleu-
risies and broken bones. She has been
doctoring all her life, spreading plas-
tiers and pouring out bitter drops and
shaking up hot pillows and contriy-
ing things to tempt a poor appetite,
Drs. Abernethy and Rush and Ho-
| sack and Harvey were great doctors.
but the greatest doctor the world ever
saw is an old Christian woman. Dear
me! Do we not remember her about
the room when we were sick in orr
boyhood? Was there any one who could
ever so touch the sore without hurting
it? And when she lifted her specta-
cles against her wrinkled forehead so
| she could look closer at the wound it
was three-fourths healed. And when
| the Lord took her home, although you
| may have been men and women 80,
40, SO years of age, you lay on the
coffin lid and sobbed as though you
were or 10 years Of age.
The Unfailing Remedy.
am an herb doctor. put into the
caldron the root out of dry ground
without form or comeliness. Then |
put in the rose Of sharon and the lily
of the valley. Then l put into the
caldron some Of the leaves from the
tree of life and the branch that was
thrown into the wilderness Marah.
Then pour in the tears of Bethany
and Golgotha Then 1 stir them up.
Then kindle under the caldron a fire
made out of the wood of the cross,
and one drop Of that potion will cure
the worst sickness that ever afflicted
human soul. Mary and Martha shall
receive their Lazarus from the tomb.
The damsel shall rise. And on the
darkness shall break the morning,
and God will wipe away all tears from
their eyes.
Your troubles are educational. 1 go
into the office of 4 lapidary, an arti-
ficer in precious stones, and I see him
at work on one precious stone for
few minutes, and he puts it aside fin
ished. l see him take up another pre-
cious stone, and he works on that all
the afternoon. and I come in the next
dav and Rfi11 find h;y,, m