Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1903-01-14
Sermon on ProvldentIaI Discipline.

BY REV. j. A. SEISS, ID. ID, LL.D1
AS of old, the laws of Providence
are still in force. We are in a per-
verse and troubled world. Trials,
reverses, hardships and disasters
come by reason of the wickedness
of mankind. Famines, pestilences,
plaques, calamities and distresses
affiict communities and nations.
The elements break from their accus-
toned bonds and bring destruction
to property and life. Business is
deranged. Commerce stagnates.
bankruptcies multiply. Disturbances
in church and State work varied
mischiefs. Society is assailed, con-
vulsed, weakened in its stays, and
threateded with fearful wrecks.
Whence is it? Men discuss the
question, and theorize and cast the
blame on thousand things which
they think to remedy with their wis
dom. But it is all the while the
judgment of Almighty God upon
irreligion, selfishness, vanity and
rebellion.sagainst his appointments,
institutes and requirements. Earthly
servants may laugh, and ridicule
such doctrine, but 80 it was in the
case of rebellious Israel, and that
was sample of how it is in all such
cases. Since man was placed upon
the earth, the invariable law has
been, that where!sin reigns, trouble
comes, and where the heart of man
is lifted against his Creator, humilia-
tion must follow. 1t is part of Gods
remedial discipline to bring His
people to their right senses and to do
away with their wickedness.
Nevertheless, God is considerate
and lenient to the erring and the
weak. He is not willing that any
should perish while there is possibility
of their salvation. Even in wrath He
remembers mercy. Although Israel
had sinned so often and so previously
that punishment had to come, yet,
with their affiiction for their ingrati-
tude and rebellion, He gave them a
new and further chance, and this
long and sorrowful trouble as de-
terrent against the repetition of for
mer apostacies. Prompt and severe
punishments for sin often serve for
valuable betterments.
The innocent must often suffer for
the gnilty. Moses and Aaron and
Joshua and Caleb, and thousands of
unoffending children had to endure
with the rest those sad and sorrow
ful years in the wilderness. We are
so closely bound up together in fami-
lies, communities and nations, that
the good cannot escape the conse-
quencee of the ill-doings of the
wicked. We are all members one of
another and if part of the body suf-
fers, the sound members must suffer
with it. This might seem unjust,
but it is really gracious beneficence.
These erring people needed the pres
ence and good offices of Moses and
his faithful friends now even more
than ever. 1t also furnished these
men opportunity for augmented use.
fulness and honor.
A chance for great rewards is
always counted full justification for
serious risks and sacrifices; and this
is the compensation to the innocent
when called upon to suffer with the
wicked. Every fruitful branch is
purged, that it's product may be the
greater ; while the attendant suffer
ing is not penal, but benefcent and
promotive of blessedness. 1t was no
ultimate loss or disadvantage to the
good, that there has been Cain for
every Abel--a Pharaoh for everv
Joseph-a Babylon for every Jeru-
salem--a Nero for every outgoing
of apostolic faith and zeal. The
blood of the martyrs has ever been
the seed of the Church on earth and
theirs are the highest seats in the
Church in Heaven.
All the world is in continual suf-
fering for its sins, and for the wick
edness of its populations and the
burden is on the good along with the
bad. But Notwithstanding the trou-
bles. and the sorrows, it is still a
scene of probation, with chance for
betterment even to the worst.
Things are as they are that we NAV
know whence they are, and that it
is an evil thing and bitter to depart
from the living God. Because sin
abounds, our lives are sorrowful ;
but this state of things prevails in
order to prove men, to have them
show what is in their hearts, and