Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1903-12-10
HEARTS EASE
A Brilliant Sunday Discourse cy DR..
Howard Duffield.
The Iron Has Never Entered the Soul OF
Those Who Expect Happiness to Be a
Matter of Personal Choice.

the subject OF the sermon Sunday morning
in the Old First Presbyterian Church,
Rev. DR.. Howard Duffield pastor. TIL.
text was from John, xiv: l (Revised Yer
sion): LET not your heart be troubled
Ye believe in God, believe also in Me-"
ur. Dufheld said:
Let not their hearts be troubled? How
could they help it? They were not men
who knew the world well and they were
were not men versed in the wisdom
Oh the schools, and they were to be the
teachers Of novel, profound and revolutions
airy truths They were impulsive, undis
ciplined and without social influence
Hitherto in every hour of difficulty a dI
vine friend had stood at their side to
blunt upon the shield of His love every
dart which was launched at them. Now
they must address themselves unfriended
to a mission such as men never attempted,
and they must enter upon their adventure
broken with bereavement and crushed with
a consciousness of helpessness. How could
they be otherwise than "troubled?" 1t is
simple mockery to say to the heart which
is harried with the mystery of pain and
haunted with the bitterness o. loneliness
and stung with the keen sense of its ina.
bility to cope with the responsibilities oil
existence, Don't be troubled" The on.
pressed soul is ready to reply, "Pour acid
upon alkali and say do not ferment.' But
when wishes are thwarted and hopes are
withered, and endeavor has, its upshot
in disappointment, and the light of lifa
has gone into eclipse. do not say to me,
Let not your heart be troubled Either
YOU have not measured my grief or the iron
has never entered your SOUL
But he who spoke this sentence had
taken the exact measure of the woe OF
those to whom He spoke, and He knew
the NORWOOD tang of sorrows blacklist
draught. His acquaintance with griei
was lifelong. He knew grief not as a
casual passerby upon the streets. Hc
Dor by occasional sight. He was the in
innate and inseparable associate of that
grim companion. 1t was Just because lie
knew the secret sorrow, its strange min
istry and its woudrous outcome, that when
He saw His friends standing at the thres.
hold of the very life which He Himself had
lived, life wrought out in loneliness
and suffering and defeat and scorn, lifq
of utter sacrifice to tI.s uplifting of 9th,
ELS. a life rejected by the world for whose
enrichment they were to give up every
thing that made their years sweet to
them. He said. "Let not your hearts ba
troubled" In thought He was looking far
forward from that unknown house in Jeru.
salem beneath whose roof they then vera
seated, to another mansion, not made with
hands, eternal and glorious in the city OF
God. Present to His gaze was not so
much the pillow and the narrow and the
cold. dark burrows of the s:edtime, as tho
Gladsome. company of the reapers, laden
with golden sheaves and shouting the song
. of the harvest. He was looking across the
stormswept sea of the safe and sheltered
harbor where the troubled waves were
sleeping. He was thinking not only OF
the wrench of parting, but of the clasp OF
greeting. Present to His mind was not
only the death which was to separate, but
the death which was to unite. So He said:
''1.et not YOUR heart be troubled neither
hours and the hard and weary days that
are coming. believe in God; believe also in
Me- and by and by the ooors of your
Fathers house shall open wide for your
entrance upon larger. holier, purer min.
istrv for which the dsc.p)ines of TINA
shall have evoked the caracitv # it wera
not so, I would have told you"
"Believe" is Christ's talisman for charm,
ing away the specter of trouble from the
haunted heart, Believe in the Fathers
plan for His child. Believe in the rathcra
care of His child. There is no speculative
process by which the mind may unravel
the sore ;ongles Of mortal experience. a
condemned heart cannot find relief in
logic book, The cold bloodless hand oil
reason never wiped ava" a tear. The in,
tcllcct has never discovered any balm 70,
heartachc. When one is diving of hunger
it is no time to discuss the process by
which -four is prepared. When one i.
pinched with poverty, it is not the hour
- breach the tenets of political economy.
The famine-stricken soul cries for bread,
the bankrupt debtor demands coin. Tho
troubled heart yearns for God Himself,
and not for anv theoretical discussion of
M of Init
OF the cross becomes too sore and tho
weight of the burden becomes too heavy,
G not struggle to express your experience
In a theological formula do not strive to
endure, the strain in your unaded
strength. Lean on God. "Cuddle down" in
ills arms. BE not afraid Believe. That
Is the way, Christ would take the sting
from mortal sorrow.
>. 10 ATTEMPT to analyze such an act of be-
ilef as the Master here prescribes would be
like endeavoring to learn to sing by study
ing a picture of the larynx. One NAV
master the anatomy of the throat and
never utter note of song Think your.
self back into the situation. Jesus was
not, theological professor sitting at His
desk and lecturing to class with refer
ence to a neatly articulated system of
dogmas, The shadow of LIES mystery
was chilling to the hearts of those He
loved, and lie was. striving to kndle in
their breasts a vivid. luminous, unouench.
aDle consciousness of the divine sympathy
His word to them is 'Realize God in.
stead of theorlzing about God" As though
lie said Peter, James, John and all
the rest. You have isped sentences con.
cernmg God since YOU liver We're little Children
David's holy hymns were your cradle songs
Inc sacred roles of the synagogue have
spoken to You their Sabbath day messages
from the Infinite One Your hearts were
burned as you participated in the SOL
emnitics of Passover and Pentecost, which
ceiebrated the august sovereignties with
which God had shaped your nations life.
With ar, irrepressible wistfulness YOU have
pondered the grandeur of Jehovah as You
1elt Him present in the grandeurs of
nature, while the quiet watches of the
night stole over you as you lay in your
fishing boats beneath the unsleepng stars.
That God is your God. He thinks, He
plans, lie works for you. He marks your
steps. lie treasures your tears He
weighs in His heart every cross before
lie lays. 1T upon your shoulder The
march of the tribes through the desert. the
progress. of humanity through the cen
turtles, the swing of the stars through the
sky is no more to Him than the passing
OF the days of your life; There, is moth
which befall you. There is no one nearer
to the heart Of God than you are. Believe
in Him.
The reason trouble is so troublesome is
that we seldom put God in the present.
tense. We transpose Him into the dim
past and dwell upon the wonders He,
,'rought in the days of the fathers We
transpose Him into the remote future
and dream of the glories which shall be
ours when all the wells which now hide
Him shall be lifted. Christ's cure for trou-
BILE is to live with God beside us in our
every day experiences; to take God to
the office, partner in our business; to
take God to the parlor, a sharer in our
God when throngs surround us or when
we tread way where no one else but
He can walk or enter the shades of a