Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1902-07-24

, First-Perhaps you are where you arc
because YOU have not filled full that posi-
tion. and God will never call you. to q
higher place until you have overtioWed
where you are. Mourning and fretting be-
cause you are not where you want to pc
does not make things better. The bonds
are only frightened by the fretfuiness. INV. Two
birds in two cages in a room give an Illus
tration. One dashing itself against the bars
because it is imprisoned, injrring itself
! and stopping its song; the other singing
| ns If it would outsng the lark in the mead
ows. and moving thereby its mistress to
omen the cage and set it free. He who does
the best he can where God has placed INN
has put his foot on the round of the ladder
/ that leads up to higher things.
Second-Usefulnes is not the primarry
object for the Christian. We say, ,Oh,
that we might be moresuseful,' but hrst
rather let us desire to be more holy, tor
that is Gods will. There Is nothing pet
ter for the most of lis than sorrow or dis
appointment or trial because these things
shape character There is little merit in
, being good when everything about us
makes us good, and usefulness is the result
Of character, is to character what the fra
GRANGE is to the rose The gardener does
not aim first for the fragrance, but
to make the rose perfect, and the ira
GRANGE takes care of itself. 1t you study
the sermons of Whitfield, Wesley, Spur
geon and Moody you may wonder why
these sermons produced such mighty ci
fects. 1t was because the power was IN
the messenger rather than in the message.
TO be right with God, to be holy, to be
like Christ, is our first duty, and through
the door of holiness we pass, to usefulness.
In the early painting days of West,
Morse, the philosopher, entered his studio,
He was painting his masterpiece OF Christ
Rejected" when he said to his friend
'I.et me tie your hands and paint them IN
the picture" and if you have ever seen
this picture you have seen the hands OF
YOU are in bonds for Chrst's sake this very,
thought will take from you the sting OF
living possibly out of sight and doing only
common things as you have done In other
DAYS. vet the time will come when you
will be free.
Perhaps there are those here who are in
bondage because they have never yet be-
come Christians In the old Water street
mission there came one day man bowed
down with sin until he stood little more
than four feet high, like "a veritable dwarf,
but when he bowed at the altar and
yielded himself to Christ he stood up as
straight as an athlete. Perhaps this Is
what YOU need. Signing for peace, you
have not found it, searching for pleasure it
has eludcd its grasp. Oh, come to Christ
to-day, for He may set you Tree. :.
Then discipline may free us. Rawllns
White, the old martyr, was decrepit and
bowed with age, but when he stepped into
the fire suddenly these bonds were snapped
and his body was as straight as it had ever
been in the days Of his youth. and it may
not be when sorrow came to you ana
YOUR heart was almost breaking, when the
flames of affection took hold upon you that
God was but seeking to free you from
bondage and lead you out into larger
field of service. The thing from which you
shrank away He meant for your cdica.
ton.
A dear friend of mine with whom tray.
eled recently said, 81 was but an average
Christian until one day God came unto my
home and took my daughter, and then in
the midst of my sorrow | yielded
myself to Him, gave Him my time and
my money and everything that ] had, and
| stepped out into life of blessing such as
] had never known, and / would not give
the last twelve years for all my life before
put together" And then, too, we shall be
free when we see Him. For the man
whose sphere has been most circumscribed
the presence of the King that he was hut
in a preparation for a mission among the
saints at which the very angels might well
stand amazed.
If all these seem like hardships to us and
we have been without comfort, then let us
wait until the day of reward shall come.
The mother who has had a hard time with
her children, Just wait and do your best
When Charles Wesley comes to judgment.
and all the hosts that have been won t.
Christ by His power of music come, 1t will
be a great day, and when John Wesley
comes to Judgment with all the souls OF
Methodism with him it will be a marvellous
sight, but higher than the throne of either
Charles Wesley or John will be throne OF
susanna Wesley, their mother.
The old preacher who has been discour.
aged oft times because his church was SO
small and his work so apparently insigniti.
cant, needs only to wait until that great
day, and when that old minister who
preached in Falkirk stands in His presence
to say possibly to Him. Master. had but
little field" he will hear Him say, but
you led Robert MofTat to me- and as
Joseph Parker said the man who added
Robert Moffat to the church added a cont.
nent to the kingdom. And when the old
English minister whose field was very cir.
cumscribed, whose name is not generally
known, stands in His presence to say,
master, / did the best / could, but my
church was SMALL He will say to him,
But you led Charles Sturgeon to Christ,
and Sturgeon led multitude.
When Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn
came up the River Thames they had a
great entrance into the city of London
Fifty barges followed the Lord Mayor
Officials were dressed in scarlet. Musicians
chanted upon the banks of the river, and
she who was to be the queen clad in gar.
mcnts of beauty, walking upon velvet, en-.
tered Westminster Abbey, and the service
was great one, but it is as nothing com.
pared to the end when the rewards are
given to those who have simply been
faithful.
/ was sick, He will say, "and We visited
Me" and the young Christian Endeavorer
will say, But, Master, when?" and lie
through the wards of the hospital and gave
a flower to this one and cup of cold
water to that one" Il was weak and We
helped Me" and this business man will
say, But, Master, when?" and He will an
swer, 1T was the coin you gave to the man
in the crowded streets of the city yester.
day. and who but for that coin would havo
starved And to the mother who has
cared for her children, and the business
man who has faithfully performed the tasl;
of his business, and the father who has
been true in his home He will say, "Inas,
much as We did it unto the least of these
ye did it unto Me"
So you see it is not at all a question
as to where we have labored or how small
our experience has been, but have we done
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