The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1903-09-24

them al uDSpeakable sorrow, or some APP
palling responsibility, or some irksome re-
stralnt, OF perhaps it is an overwhelming
disgrace. Now are they like Simon of
Cyrene, full of bitterness and resentment,
struggling along under their burden with
logged persistence, but finding no JOY and
no profit in their cross. On the other hand,
there are the Pauls; the men and the
women that are bearing burdens just as
real and just as heavy as the others. They
have their own responsibilities and re-
straints, their own sorrows and disappoint-
ments, and they are as heavy to carry,
and as painful, too, as men ever have IN
this life. But what contrast they pre-
sent! for their life note is Joyous and tri-
umphant, notwithstanding the cross on
their backs. Simon is the man who is
bearing his lot in gloomy and sullen ST.
lence, and bearing it in a way that makes
you feel he is none the better for having
to do it. Paul is the man whose sufferings
and losses you can plainly see are the
explanation of his buoyant and courageous
spirit. His lot, disagreeable and difficult
as 1T IS, he accepts, not as the other man,
with bitterness and resentment, but in that
spirit of faith and obedience that God
has right to expect from all His chill
dren.
/ know there are some to whom this will
sound strange and perhaps impossible, and
| know they are conscientious and religious
people. They accept it as fact that men
must expect to be suddenly halted in life,
G |, like Simon of Cyrene, made to bear
some heavy and humiliating cross, and they
endeavor to be stout-hearted and brave
under the ordeal, but it is always and only
disagreeable and unfortunate circum-
stance In their lives; and they resent it and
hate it as did Simon; and that is all. They
never seem to find the source of strength
and happiness in their cross. Now, is it
true that the Paul attitude and the Paul
spirit are possible? Possible to the aver
age man, mean? Or do they require the
Paul conversion and the Paul Visions? La
it true that the Paul spirit is possible in
ordinary life, or must one have first caught
glimpse of the third heaven? [ ask you
to ponder this query, in the hope that we
may clearly see and be convinced that it
is no unattainable principle for any man,
anywhere in this world.
Here are two young men-classmates at
college, or shopmates, if you please, in the
as dlllgent as the other and about as sue
cessful. Nevertheless, there is marked
difference. The one finds study or bust
ress, as the case may be, irksome and
siavlsh. it neither inspires nor develops
him. He simply does what he does be-
cause he ought to or must, and his whole
life is nothing more than a stolid persist
CHCC IdChlHR IuC ucdTClH6SS anu CQe nope
fulness of the other. The other man is no
better scholar, no better workman or bust
ness man, but he is contrast, notwith-
standing. Whether it is study or business,
he finds his JOY and inspiration in what he
does, and does what he does from a spirit
of love. There are the same restraints,
the same burdens upon both, but the one
exults in them and is developed by them,
where as the other is full of resentment
and is in no way benefited. While the one
is full of enthusiasm and anticipation, the
other is heartless and crushed. The one is
Paul, the other is Simon.
People used to wonder why George Will
liam Curtis. the distinguished and gifted
editor of Harper's Magazine, entered the
lecture field. He was known to have a
lucrative position and considerable in
strange to many people that he should
take up, lecturing, with its inconvenience
and risks. Some were inclined to regard
him as mercenary, but on his death the
explanation appeared. Years before, so it
is said, Mr.. Curtis had engaged in bust
ness enterprise with friend which proved
unfortunate for both. 1t was in order to
meet all the obligations incurred by the
firm which bore his name that Decessitated
his goin-, on those extended lecture tours;
and Mr.. Curtis lived long enough to retire
from the lecture platforn-and that, too,
after he had paid every dollar of indebted
ness, with interest. Some might say that
is superfuous honesty, and yet many men
there are to-day who would do this very
fact the number of men who have done
so in the past is not small. Indeed. there
are men living in our midst who are striv-
ing to do this self same thing. But all
men do not manifest the same spirit in
this otherwise noble task One man will
act as # he were bond slave. and while
he is faithful to his duty, does it in
cherries, heartlsss manner, apparently
finding nothing in his hard experience to
rejoice in or be thankful for. He goes
about his task as Simon bore the cross
cursing the luck that brought him to the
hour, and full of bitterness and resentment
on account of it. Without heart or in
spiration, and without comfort or Joy, he
takes up his cross and trudges toward
Calvary. On the other hand there are
men to whom these heavy tasks become an
inspiration and source of strength: who
arc finding their happiness and their de-
velopment IN carrying the cross, a hap
plness and DEVELOPMENT that they would
otherwise never have known
# you and are to have the Paul spirit
OF courage and contentment, even while
we. stagger under the heavy cross, it can
only be by the way of the Paul attitude
oC"oA Stou Gill oIC esu1 lCidCiOuSulp W
Jesus Christ. This is the same Paul who
wrote, eve are children of { ID and if
children then heirs: heirs of God and Joint
heirs with Christi" the same Paul who
wrote, 'All things works together for
good to them who love God" Afterward
Simon of Cyrene understood the cross of
Christ, and then he became Paul Though
the authorities turned him out of the syn
agogue as defled, though he and his family
became ostracised, it mattered little to
them, since they could clearly see how
great good had come to them in the form
of misfortune.
And do we not see how true this is of
many people about us? Do we not see that
the burdens of the family to that young
mother, and that the new and heavy re-
sponsibility to others were just what they
needed to round out their characters and
to fill their careers with force and
strength?
And whatever may be the form of the
weight of the cross laid upon us in this
life, my friends, let us remember these
two things: That it is possible. like Paul,
the apostle, to find the inspiration and joy
of our lives in the cross; and, further. that
it must be so if our attitude toward God
is one of faith and obedience and our
relationship to Jesus that of loyal aud
loving disciple.