Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-03-27
conclude the value Of the grain.
HeIps Us Bcnr burdens.

Next, my text teaches us 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 trou-
bic say, ooh. can't bear IL" But you
did bear it. God would not have sent
it upon you IL he had not known that
you could bear 1t. 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 deep nor from your tenn
pies one throb too sharp. The perplex-
tiles of your earthly business have not
in them one tangle too intricate. You
sometimes 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 q swindle of your
business partner or trick on the part
Of those who are in the same kind of
merchandise that you are. but God in
tended to override for your immortal
help. "Oh," you say, there is no need
talking that way to me. don't like
to be cheated and outraged" Neither
does the corn like the corn thrasher,
but after it has been thrashed and
winnowed it has great deal better
opinion OF winnowing mills and corn
thrashers.
WELL" you say, "if l could choose
my troubles, I would be willing to be
troubled" All. my brother. then 1t
would not be trouble. You would
choose something that would not hurt,
and unless it hurt it does not get sane
tilted. Your trial perhaps may be child.
lessness. You are fond Of children.
You say, why does God send children
TO that other household, where they are
unwelcome and are beaten and banged
about when l would have taken them
in the arms of my affection!" You say,
ANY other trial but this" Your trial
perhaps may be disfigured counte-
nance or a face that is easily caricatur-
ed, and you say. II could endure any
thing if only l was good looking" And
your trial perhaps is violent temper,
and you have to drive 1t like six un-
broken horses amid the gunpowder ex-
plosions of great holiday, and ever
and anon it runs away with you. Your
trial is the asthma. You say. III it
were rheumatism or neuralgia or cry
sipelas, but it is this asthma, and it Is
such an exhausting thing to breathe"
Your trouble is husband, sharp, snap
ply and cross about the house and rails
ing n small riot because 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 sloven.
Though she was very careful about her
appearance in your presence once, 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 behold.
Complaining Against God.
Everybody has some vexation or an
noyance or trial, and he or she thinks
1t is the one least adapted. Anything
but this" all say; anything but this
My nearer, are you not ashamed to
be complaining all this time against
God? Who manages the affairs of this
world anyhow? Is it an infinite Mo-
doc or II Sitting Bull savage or an ON
nipotent Mana Sahib? No; it is the
most merclfu and glorious and wise
being in all the universe. You cannot
teach omnipotence anything. You have
fretted and worried almost enough
Do you not think so? Some of you are
making yourselves ridiculous in the
sight of the angels. Here is a naval
architect, and he draws out the plan of
a ship Of many thousand tons. Many
workmen are engaged on ii for a long
while. The ship is done, and some day.
with the flags up and the air gorgeous
with bunting, that vessel is launched
for Southampton. At that time a lad
six years of age comes running down
the dock with a toy boat which he has
made 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
ship, and there is a 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
md f0 abinn II and lnnnnh II
try to be a rival Of the great Jehovah.
God is always right, and in nine cases
out of ten you are wrong. He sends
just the hardships, just the bankrupt
cies, just the cross that 1t is best for
you TO have. He knows what kind of
grain YOU are, and he sends the right
kind Of thrashing machine 1t will be
rod or staff or iron wheel just accord
ing MS you are fitches or cummin or
corn.
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 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
1t seems as If we could hold on for
nd nIo