Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1902-03-26


and are beaten and banged about when
| would have taken them IN the arms Of
my Affection YOU say. ANY other trial
but this" Your trial perhaps may he
a dishgured ceuntenance or a face that
is easily caricatured. and you say, Il
could endure anything il only | was good
looking" And your trial perhaps is a
violent temper, and you have TO drive
it like six unbroken horses amid the gun
powder explosions of a great holiday, and
ever and anon it runs away with YOU.
Your trial is the asthma. You say, IF
it were rheumatism or neuralgia or cry
sipelas, but it is this asthma, and II is
such an exhausting thing to breathe"
Your trouble is husband, sharp. snap
py and cross about the house and raising
a small riot because a button is off. How
could you know the button is OFF? Your
trial is a wife ever in contest with The
servants, and she is a sloyen. Though
she was very careful about her appear
anee in your presence once, now she is
careless. because, she says. her fortune
is made! Your trial is a hard school les
son you cannot learn, and YOU have bit
ten your finger nails until they are a
sight to behold.
Complaining Against God.
Everybody has sone vexation 0r annoy
ance or trial. and he or she thinks it is
the one least adapted. Anything but
this" all say: anything but this" My
hearer, are you not ashamed to be COM
planning all this time against God? Who
manages the affairs of this world any
how? Is ii an infinite Modoc n a Sit
ting Bull savage or an omnipot6nt Mana
Sahib? No; it is the most mel ciful and
glorious and wise being in Az the uni-
verse. You cannot teach omnipotence
anything. You have fretted and worried
almost enough. Do you not think so?
Some of you are making yourselves ride
ulOus in the sight of the angels. Here
is a naval architect. and he draws ont
the plan of a ship OF many thous' nd tons.
Many workmen are engaged on it for a
long while. The ship is done, and some
day, with the flags up and the air gor-
geous with bunting, that vessel is launch
ed for Southampton. At that time lad
six years of age comes running down
the dock with a toy boat which he has
mode with his own jackknife. and he
says: Here, my boat is better than
yours. Just look at this jibboom and
these weather crossjack braces" And
he drops his little boat beside the great
ship. and there is roar of laughter on
the decks! All, my friends, that great
ship is your life as God planned it--vast.
million tonned, ocean destined. eternity
bound! That little boat is your life as
you were trying to hew it out and fashion
it and launch i. d. not try &c be rival
of the great Jehovah. God is always
right, and in ni2e cases out Of ten you
are wrong. He sends just the hardships.
just the bankruptcies. just the cross thar
it is best for you to have.
Again, my subject teaches that God
keeps trial on us until we let go. The
farmer shouts Whoa to his horses as
soon as the grain is dropped from the
stalk. The farmer comes with his fork
and losses up the straw, and he sees that
the straw has let &C the grain and the
grain is thoroughly thrashed. So God.
Smiling rod and turning wheel both cease
as soon as we let go. We hold on to this
world, with it's pleasures and riches and
emoluments. and our knuckles are so
firmly set that it seems as if we could
hold on forever. God comes along with
loose. We started under the delusion
that this was a great world. We learn
ed out of our geography that it was so
many thousand miles in diameter and so
many miles in circumference, and we
said, "Oh, my. what a world" Trouble
came in after life. and this trouble sliced
off one part of the world, and it has
got TO be a smaller world and in some
destinations very insignificant world, aud
it is depreciating all the time as a spir-
itual property Ten per cent off, 80 per
cent off. and there are those who would
not give 10 cents for this world-the en-
tire world-as soul possession.
The Friendship that Indures.
We thought that friendship was a
grand thing. In school we used to write
compositions about friendship. and per-
haps we made our graduating speech on
commencement day on friendship. Oh. it
was a charming thing! But does it mean
as much to you as it used to? You have
gone on in life, and one friend has he
trayed you, and another friend has mis-
interpreted you, and another friend las
neglected you, and friendship comes now
sometimes to mean to you merely another
il a man had a competency he was safe
for all the future, but we have learn 4
that a mortgage may be defeated by an
unknown previous membranes that
signing your name on the back of a note
may be your business death warrant;
that a new tariff may change the current
of trade; that q man may be rich to-day
and poor tomorrow. And God, by all
these misfortunes. is trying TO loosen our
grip. but we still hold on. God smites
with a staff. but we hold on And he
strikes us with a rod. but we hold en-.
And lie sends over us the iron wheel Of
misfortune. but we hold on There are
men who keep their grip on this worll
until the last moment. who suggest to
me the condition and conduct of the poor
Indian in the boat in the Niagara rapids,
coming on toward the fail Seeing that
he could not escape. moment or two
before he got to the verge of the plunge
he lifted a wine bottle and drank it off
and then tossed the bottle into the air.
So there are men who clutch the world,
and they go down through the rapids Of
temptation and sin. and they hold On 10
the very last moment To life, drinking
to their eternal doom as they 90 over
and 90 Iown. On. let go. Let go! The
best fortunes are in heaven. There are
no absconding cashiers from that bank,
no failing in promises TO pay. Set your
affections on things above not on things
on the earth Let 90, Depend upon IL
that God will keep upon You the staff or
the rod or the iron wheel until sou DO
let go.
Another thing my text teaches us is