Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1902-02-21

| does not go to Troy or to Springfield to do
! battling, but he goes there for swords and
muskets. look upon the church of Christ
| and the Sabbath day as only the place and
| time where and when we are to get armed
| for Christian conflict, but the battlefield Is
on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thurs
day, Friday and Saturday.
Now, be careful to let none of those an
| noyances 60 through your soul unarraigned.
| Compel them to administer your spiritual
wealth. The scratch of a sixpenny nail
sometimes produces lockiaw. and the clic
of most InnnIteslmaI annoyance may
damage you forever. Do not let any an
noyance or perplexity come across your
| soul without its making you better.
Our National Government did not think
it belittling to put tax on pins and a tax
| on buckles and tax on shoes. The indi-
vidual taxes do not amount to much, but
in the aggregate to millions and millions of
dollars. And I would have you, o Chris
tian man, put a high tariff on every annoy
ance and vexation that comes through your
soul. This might not amount to much in
single cases, but in the aggregate it would
be great revenue of spiritual strength and
satisfaction. A bee can suck honey even
out of a nettle, and if you have the grace
of God in your heart you can get sweetness
out of that which would otherwise irri-
tate and annoy. The only way to get pre-
pared for the great troubles of life is to
conquer these small troubles.
And I have to tell you, O Christian men,
if you cannot apply the principles of
Christ's religion on a small scale you will
never be able to apply them on q large
scale. If you cannot contend successfully
against these small sorrows that come
down single handed, what will you do
when the greater disasters of life come
down with laundering artillery, rolling
over your soul?
Again, we must bring the religion Of
Christ into our commonest blessings. When
the autumn comes and the harvests are in
and the governors make proclamations, we
assemble in churches and we are very
thankful. But every day ought to be a
thanksgiving day. We do not recognize
the common mercies of life. We have to
see blind man led by his dog before we
begin to bethnk ourselves of what grand
thing it is to have undimmed eyesight.
We have to see some wounded man hob
bling on his crutch or with his empty coat
sleeve pinned up before we learn to think
what grand thing God did for us when He
gave us healthy use of our limbs. We are
so stupid that nothing but the misfortunes
of others can rouse us up to our blessings.
AS the OK grazes in the pasture up to it's
eye in clover, yet never thinking who
makes the clover, and as the bird picks up
the worm from the furrow, not knowing
that it is God who makes everything from
the animalcule in the sod to the seraph on
the throne, so we 60 on eating, drinking
and enjoying, but never thanking, or sell
dom thanking, or, if thanking at all, with
only half heart.
l compared our indifference to the brute,
but pe.haps l wronged the brute. | do not
know but that, among its other instincts,
it may have an instinct by which it recog-
nizes the divine hand that feeds it. do
not know but that God is, through it,
holding communication with what we call
Irrational creation" The cow that stands
under the willow by the watercourse chew
ing its cud looks very thankful, and who
can tell how much a bird means by its
song? The aroma of the flowers smells like
incense, and the mist arising from the river
looks like the smoke of morning sacrifice.
Oh, that we were as responsive! Yet who
thanks God for the water that gushes up
in the well, and that foams in the cascade,
and that laughs over the rocks, and that
patters in the showers, and that claps its
hands in the sea? Who thanks God for
the air, the fountain of life, the bridge Of
sunbeams, the path of sound, the great fan
on hot summers day? Who thanks God
for this wonderful physical organism, this
sweep Of the vision, this chime of harmony
struck into the ear, this soft tread of a
myriad delights over the nervous tissue,
this rolling of the crimson tide through ar
terry and vein, this drumming of the heart
on our march to immortality? We take all
these things as matter of course.
But suppose God should withdraw these
common blessings! Your body would be-
come an inquisition of torture, the cloud
would refuse rain, every green thing would
crumple up, and the earth would crack
open under your feet. The air would cease
it's healthful circulation, pestilence would
swoop, and every house would become a
place of skulls. Streams would first swim
with vermin and then dry up, and thirst
and hunger and anguish and despair would
lift their sceptres. Oh, compare such life
as that with the life you live with your
families! Is it not time that, with every
action of your life we began to acknowl-
edge these everyday mercies? Whether
We eat or drink or whatsoever We do, do all
to the glory Of God" Do address man
or a woman who has not rendered to God
one single offering of thanks?
/ was preaching one Thanksgiving Day
and announced my text-"Oh, give thanks
unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mer-
cy endureth forever" 1 do not know
whether there was any blessing on the SER
mon or not, but the text went straight to
as I read the text: "'Oh. give thanks unto
the Lord, for He is good Why, I have
never rendered Him any thanks! Oh, what
an migrate I have been!" Can it be, my
brother, that you have been fed by the
good hand of God all these days, that.you
have had clothing and shelter and all the
never offered your heart to God? Oh, let
benefcent surroundings, and yet have
q sense of the divine goodness shown you
in everyday blessings melt your heart, and
If you have never before uttered one ear
nest note Of thanksgiving let this be the
day which shall hear you sing! What l
say to one 1 say to all. Take this prac-
teal religion | have recommended into
your everyday life. Make every day a
Sabbath and every meal a sacrament and
every room you enter holy of holies. We
all have work to do; let us be willing to do
it. We all have sorrows to bear; let US
cheerfully bear them. We all have battles
to fight; let us courageously fight them. If
you want to die right, you must live right
Negligence. and Incidence will win the hiss
of everlasting scorn, while faithfulness will
gather its garlands and wave its sceptre
and sit upon its throneflong after this
earth has put on ashes and eternal ages
have begun their march. You go home to-
day and attend to your little sphere of du-
ties I will go home and attend to my lit
tie sphere Of duties. Every one in his own
place. So our every step in life shall be a
triumphal march, and the humblest foot
stool on which we are called to sit will be
"a conqueror's throne. -.
copyright, 1907. l.. Klopsch.I