The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1902-02-06
A CHEERFUL SPIRIT
DR.. Talmage Says Is Causes for Thanks
giving That Are Seldom Recognized.
Remember the Daily Blessings - Comforts
Of Friendship.

DR.. Talmago calls attention to causes of
Thanksgiving that are seldom recognized,
and shows how to cultivate cheerful
Spirit test, Psalms xXxiii. 2, Sing unto
him with paaltery and ain instrument of
ten strings"
A musician as well as poet and con-
queror and king was David, the author
OF my text. lie first composed the sacred
rhythm and then played it upon harp,
striking and plucking the strings with his
fingers and thumbs. The harp is the old
est of musical instruments. Jubal invent
cd it, and he was The seventh descendant
from Adam. lis muaic was suggested by
.hc twang of the bowstring. Homer re.
fer5 to the harp in the "Iiad." 1t is the
most consecrdtcd OF all instruments. Tho
flute is more mellow, the bugle more mar
tial, the corlet more incsivc, the trumpet
more Resonant, the organ more mighty but
the harp has a tenderness and sweetness
belonging 10 no other instrument that |
lloE Of. IL enters into the richest sym.
bohsm of the Holy Scriptures. The cap.
tives in their saduess hung their harps
upon the willows" In other ages it had
eight strings. David's harp had ten
strings, and when his great soul was ahre
with the theme his sympathetic voice, ac-
companie1 by exquisite vibration OF the
chords, must have been overpowering.
With as many things TO complain about
anthems than any other man ever wrote.
he puts even the frosts and hailstorms
and tempests and creeping things and fly
ing fowl and the mountains and the hills
and day and night into chorus. Absa-
lom's plotting and Ahithophels treachery
and hosts Of antagonists and sleepless
nights and a running sore could not hush
his psclmody. Indeed the more his trou.
bles the mightier his sacred poems. The
words praise" and Song" are SO often
repeated in his psalms that one would
think the typesetter's case containing the
letters with which those words are spelled
would be exhausted.
In my text David calls upon the people
to praise the Lord with an instrument Of
ten strings. like that which he was accus.
toned to finger. The simple fact is that
the most Of us, il we praise the Lord at
all, play upon one string or two strings or
three strings when we ought to take harp
fully chordcd and with glad fingers sweep
all the strings. Instead OF being grateful
for here and there blessing we happen
to think of, we ought to rehearse all our
blessings so far as we can recall them and
obey the injunction of my text TO sing
unto Him with an instrument of ten
strings.
Have you ever thanked God for delight.
some food? What vast multtudes are a.
hunge;cd from day to day or are obliged
to take food not toothsome or pleasant to
tic .tastei What millions are. in struggle
for bread! A Confederate soldier went to
the front, and his family were on the
verge OF starvation, but they were kept up
by the faith of a child OF that household,
who, noticing that some supply was sure to
come, eXcla med, Mother, / think God
hears when We scr1pc the bottom of the
barrel
Have you appreciated the fact that on
IL. ~ /
rot come 20 all? Have you realized what
varieties of flavor often touch your tongue
and how the saccharin and the acid have
been afforded your palate? What fruits,
what nuts, what meats regale your appe-
tite, while many would be glad to get the
crrst5 and rind5 and peeings that fall
f-om your table.
For the fine Aavors and the luxurious
viardG you Eavc enjoyed for lifetime per.
haps you have never expressed to God a
word OF thanksgiving. That is one OF the
ten 'trings that you ought to have
thrunmed in praise to Cod, but ycu have
never yet put it in vibration.
Have you thanked God for eycsight as
originally given to you or, after it was
dimned by age, for the glass that brought
the page OF the book within the compass
OF the vision? Have you realized the plI.
vatiol those suffer to whom the day is az
black as the night and who never see the
face Of father or mother or wife or child or
friend! Through what painful surgery
many have gone to get one glimpse of the
light! The eye so delicate and beautiful
and uecfrl that one OF them is invauable
And most OF us have two of these won
ders OF divine mechanism. The man of
millions OF dollars who recently went blind
from atrophy Of optic nerve would have
been willing to give all his millions and be.
corlc a day laborer il he could have kept
oil the blindness that gradually crept over
his vision.
You may have noticed how Christs sym
pathies were stirred for the blind Oph
thalma has always been prevalent in Pal
cstinc, the custom Of sleeping on the house
dust of the dr. season, inviting this dread
iul disorder. A large percentage Of the in
habitants could not tell the difference be.
tween II o'clock at noon and 10 o'clock al
night. We are told of six of Chrst's mir
acles for the cure OF these sghtess ones,
but ! suppose they were only specimens oi
hundreds OF restored visions.
What pitiul spectacle Saul OF Tarsus
mighty man, three days led about in phys
zeal as wei as spiritual darkness. he who
aftcrward made Felix tremble by his clio
quoncc and awed the Athenian philoso
piers OF Mars Hill and was the only cool
headed man il the Alexandria corn shir
that went to pieces on the rocks OF Mile
tus, once thc mighty prosecutor OF Saul
afterward the glorious evangelist Paul fo1
three days not able TO take safe step
without guidance
Have YOU ever given thanks for two
eyes-nedIa between the soul inside and
the world outside, media that no one but
the infinite Cod could create? The eve
the window Of our immortal nature, The
gate through which all colors march, the
picture gallery of the soul! Without Tho
eye this world is big dungeon / feaI
that many Of us have never given one
hearty expression OF gratitude for treasure
of sight the loss of which ia the greatest
disaater possible, unless it be the loss ol
the mind. Those wondrous seven muscles
that turn the eye up or down, TO right oI
lett or arouhd. No one hut God could
have created the retina. III we have ever
appreciated what God did when He gave
us two eyes il was when we saw Others
with oblterated vision.
Alas, that only through the privation oil
others we came to realization OF our own
bles9ing If you had harp in hand and
swept all the strings OF gratitude, you
would have struck this, which is ono Of
the most dulcat of the ten strings.
Further. notice how many pass through
life in silence because the ear refuses to
do Its office. They never hear music, vo
cal o. instrumental The thunder that
rolls its full diapnson through the heav.
ems does not starte tho prolonged silence
The air that has for us 30 many melodies
has nc sweet sound for them. They live in
a .quietude that will not be broken until