The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-02-15

are gone out of it?" Certainly"
~"Then-pray, sir, excuse me-but d you
not think you may trust him TO govern it
as long as you live in it?' The remark
was SO sensible that sleeplessness depart
ed and tranquility came.
A particular Providence is as certain
as a general Providence. It did not just
happen so that Brunei noticed a ship
worm boring into the wood, SO suggesting
to the engineer the tunneling of the
Thames. 1t did not just happen so that
a spiders web strung from tree to tree
suggested the suspension bridge to its
first originator. Nothing just happened
SO in your life or mine. 1t is not an auto
erat at the head of the universe, but a
Father.
Leave thy low yaulted past.
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast
Till thou at length art free.
Leaving thine o~utgrown shell by LIES unresting
sea!
An Unlimited Supply.
Do any of US fully realize the fact that
God gives US three things in unlimited
supply, although no formula of prayer
that / ever heard recognizes them-wa-
ter, air and sunlight? Water by the riv-
erful. Water by the lakeful. Water by
the ~oceanful. Some for ablution, some
for shaking Of thirst, some for baptistery,
some for fountains and aquariums. l
never appreciated what a wonderful
thing water is until last summer l stood
by the fountains before and around the
emperor's palace at Peterhof, Russia. l
had been familiar with his wonderful
element of nature from childhood, hav-
ing been born on the banks of the beauti-
full Raritan and as a barefooted boy dab
bled in the brook near my fathers house.
But | never realized until last summer
what water could do in play, or in strange
caprice, or Identification, or when climb
ing the ladder of the light, or when skill
full workmen took hold of it to toss it, or
whirl it, or shape it into crowns, or
hoist it into columns, or spring it into
arches, or lift it into stars, or turn it
into crescents, or build it into temples.
You forget you ever saw the less glorious
waters at Chatsworth, England, or Yer
sailles, France, as you stand in the bal
cony of the palace overlooking the Fin
land gulf, bewildered and transported as
you look at the one display called the
Golden Stairway fountain. The water
rolls down over "a steps 1 foot high and
20 feet long. All of these "a steps are
covered with sheets of FURNISHED gold.
| Silver step of the water on stairs of gold.
| What q glee of liquids, Rolling, dashing,
foaming, enrapturing s~plendors! Chorus
Of floodsi Poetry of waters! Doxology
of torrents! But that which most i'm
pressed me there and elsewhere is the
abundance of water, the fact that there
are so many waters that the continents
can afford to throw them away into the
sea, Hudsons and Ohios, Oregons and
Amazons, Rhines and Danubes and Vol
gas, and so abundant that the earth can
afford to have its oceans evaporate into
| the heavens, Mediterraneans and Allan
tics and Pacifics. How rich the earth is
with waters! Best beverage OF all the
nations, for after the richest banquet
with the richest beverages every one
wants at least a sip of it-water, cool wa
ter, God descended water!
With still more abundance is the air
distributed. An earth full of it. A sky
full of it. Swiftest and strongest eagle
cannot fly so high as not to have it in the
nostril or under wing. And what af-
fuerce of sunlight! No one but the in
finite God could dispense so much Of IT..
The golden candlestick set on the blue
mantel of the heavens! So great that the
Almighty is compared to it, the psalmist
crying out, "The Lord God is a sum-" 1t
is high time hat we recognize in our
liturgies and in our formulas of prayer
the three most abundant blessings of the
Universe which come to all.
Trust Thoroughly In God.
Now, is it not time that we all began
more thoroughly TO trust the Lord? We
trust him with our souls, why not trust
him with our bodies? We trust him with
our spiritual interests, why not trust him
with our temporal interests? We believe
what is said to us by an ordinarily honest
man. | could not anger you so much or
make your checks so burn with indigna-
ton as to doubt your truthfulness, and
how do you suppose the Lord of heaven
and earth feels when you doubt him, as
he declares in the text, Say We to the
righteous that it shall be we'll with him.
Such Il promise as that ought to calm
your pulses and irradiate your counte-
nance and halo al the future with rap
ture; for, after all, itmakes but little diff
ference what becomes Of us here if we
come ont III The right place, amid the
right surroundings and in the right COM
partnership. What are the 20 or so years
OF terrestrial stay compared with the cen
turtles. The millcnniuEls, the icons of Our
chief lifetime. which we are to begin
when we quit this insignificant planet, in
SlSt..L' 1il Us toiii.idiSu viii liic SIZE VI
other worlds? This world is only q school
house for heaven. We learn here only the
A B G of Il higher literature. or the sim
pie addition and subtraction of an inf
mite mathematics and are practicing the
eight notes of an eternal harmony. The
most important question any man ever
asks is. what will be my destiny? 2"
whittier am l bound" Where shall |
1and?" What is the terminus of this
short Journey" Now, child of God, do
not worry about that. 1t shall be well
with you in your next state of existence.
We know but little about heaven. There
is but little concerning it in the Bible
and that is on the last few pages and is
mostly fgurative. Do you know the rea-
son why? l suppose it is because if we
knew the full attractiveness of that place
we would be untitled for our duties here.
We would feel that we were standing in
he vestibule of a great Luxembourg and
would want to GO right in and see the
glories; or, standing il the portico Of a
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