The Iola register., 1902-03-28

the gram.
Next, my text teaches up that God
proportions our trials to what we can
bear-the staff for the fitches, the rod
for the cummin, the iron wheel for the
corn. Sometimes people in great
trouble say: "Oh, l can't bear It'll" But
you did bear il. God would not have
sent II upon you IL He had known that
you could not bear it. You trembled
and you swooned, but you got through.
God will not take from your eyes one
tear too many nor from your lungs one
sigh too odeepnorf from your temples one
throb too sharp. The perplexities Of
your earthly business have not in them
one tangle too intricate. You some
times feel as if our world were full of
bludgeons flying haphazard. Oh, no;
they are thrashing instruments that
God just suits to your case. There is
not dollar of bad debts on your ledger
or disappointment about goods that
you expected to go up, but that have
gone down, or a swindle of your busi-
ness partner or a trick on the part Of
those who are in the same kind of mer-
chandise that you are, but God intend
ed to overrule for your immortal help.
"Oh," you say, "there isno need of talk
ing that way to me. don't like to be
cheated and outraged" Neither does
the corn like the corn thrasher, but
after 1t has been thrashed and win
moved it has a great deal better opin-
on of winnowing mills and corn thrash
ers.
"Well," you say, "if I could choose
my troubles, would be willing to be
troubled" All, my brother, then IT
would not be trouble. You would
choose something that would not hurt,
and unless it hurt IL does not get sane
titled. Your trial perhaps may be child
lessness. You are fond of children.
You say: "Whyd does God send children
to that other household where they are
unwelcome and. are beaten and
banged about when would have taken
them in the arms of my affection?"
You soy; ANY other trial but this"
Your trial perhaps may be disfgured
countenance OF face that is. easily
caricatured, and you say: 81 could en-
dure anything If only was good look
ing" And your trial perhaps is vio-
lent temper, and you have to drive it
like six unbroken horses amid the gun
powder explosions of great holiday,
and ever and anon il runs away with
| you. Your trial is the asthma. You
say: "lf it were rheumatism, or neu-
ralgia, or erysipelas, but it is this asth-
ma, and it is such an eXhausting thing
to breathe" Your trouble is a hus-
band, sharp, snappy and cross about
the house and raising n small riot be-
cause 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 sloven. Though she was
very careful about her appearance in
| your presence one, now she is careless,
because, she says. her fortune is made!
Your trial is hard school lesson you
cannot learn, and you have bitten your
finger nails until they are a sight to be-
hold
Again, my subject teaches that God
keeps trials on us until we let go. The
former shouts "Whoa!" to his horses
as soon as the grain is dropped from
the stalk. The farmer comes with his
fork and tosses up the straw, and he
sees the straw has let go the grain
and the grain is thoroughly thrashed.
So God. Shifting rod and turning wheel
both cease as soon as we let go. We
hold on to this world, with its pleasures
and riches and emoluments, and our
knuckles are so firmly set that il seems
as if we could hold on forever. God
comes along with some thrashing
| trouble and beats MS loose. We start
ed under the delusion that this was a
| great world. We learned out of our ge-
ography 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 estimations
a very insignificant world, and it is de-
preciating all the time as a spiritual
property. Ten per cent. off, so per cent.
off, and there are those who would not
give ten cents for this world-the en-
tire world-as soul possession.
Another thing my text teaches us is
that Christian sorrow is going to have
sure terminus. My text says:
Bread corn is bruised because he will
not ever be thrashing it," Blessed be
God for that! Pound away, o fail!
| Turn on, o wheel! Your work will
soon be done. "He will not ever be
thrashing It'll" Now, the Christian h as
almost as much use in the organ for
the stop tremulant as he has for the
trumpet, but after awhile he will put
the last dirge into the portfolio for
ever. So much of us as is wheat will
be separated from so much as is chaff,
and there will be no more need of
pounding. They never cry in Heaven
because they have nothing to cry
about. There are no tears of bereave-
ment, for you shall have your friends
all round about you. There are no
tears of poverty because each one sits
l Al 1. 4