Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1903-12-12
HEARTS EASE
A Brilliant Sunday Discourse By DR..
- Howard Duffield.
The Iron Has Never Entered the Soul of
Those Who Expect Happiness to Be
Matter of Personal Choice.

Let not their hearts be troubled? How
could they help it? They were not men
who knew the world well and they were
going out to face the world alone. They
OF the schools, and they were to be the
teachers of novel, profound and revolution
airy truths. They were impulsive, undis
ciplined and without social, influence
Hitherto in every hour of difficulty 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 mission such as men never attempted.
and they must enter upon their adventure
broken with bereavement and crushed with
consciousness of helplessness. How could
they be otherwise than "troubled?" 1t is
simple mockery 70 say to the heart which
haunted with the bitterness o. loneliness
and stung with the keen sense of its ina.
bility to cone with the responsibilities OF
existence, Don't be troubled" The op.
pressed soul is ready to reply, "Pour acid
upon alkafi and say do not ferment.' But
when wishes are thwarted and hopes are
with,ered, and endeavor has its upshot
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 wormwood tang of sorrows blacklist
draught. His acquaintance with grief
was lifelong, He knew grief not as a
knew grief not as we know some neigh
Dor by occasional sight. He was the in
innate and inseparable associate of that
grim companion. 1t was Just because He
knew the secret sorrow. its strange min
lstry and its woudrous outcome, that when
He saw His friends standing at the TIRES
hold Of the very life which He Himself had
and suffering and defeat and scorn, life
OF utter. sacrifice to Ia. uplifting of 9th
l;,. liz" rejected by the world for whose
enrichment they were to give up every
ching that made their years sweet ia
trem. 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 were
seated, to another mansion, not made with
hands, eternal and glorious in the city OF
God. Present to His gaze was not SC
much the plow and the narrow and the
cold. dark burrows of the s:cdtme, as the
gladsome company of the reapers. laden
with golden sheaves and shouting the soag
of the harvest. He was looking across the
barbor 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:
Let not your heart be troubled. neither
let it be afraid. During the strange, sad
hours and the hard and weary days that
are coming. believe in God; believe also in
Me: and by and by the doors of your
Fathers house shall open wde for your
entrance upon larger. holier, purer min
istrv for which Che disc.plines of time
shall have evoked the capacity If it were
not so. would have told you"
Believe is Christ's talisman for charm
haunted heart. Believe in the Fathers
plan for His child. Believe in the Fathers
care of His child. There is no speculative
process by which The mind may unrave
the sore .engles of mortal experience A
condemned heart cannot find relief in Il
.5gic book. The cold bloodiess hand OF
reason never wiped awa~ a tear. The in.
tellect has never discovered any balm for
heartache. When one is diving of hunger
it is, no time to discuss the process by
which -four. is prepared. When one ID
plnched with poverty, it is not the hour
y, breach the tenets of political economy
The famine-stricken soul cries for bread,
troubled heart yearns for God Himself
and not for any theoretical discussion of
the nature of deity. When the problem
OF the cross becomes too sore and the
weight of the. burden becomes too heavy,
G. not struggle to express your experience
in a theological formula; do not strive to
snenIs f Lean sasa God in c yGTF do ans
His arms. Be not afraid. Believe. That
iIs the way. Christ would take the sting
from mortal sorrow
To attempt TO analyze such an act of no.
lief as the Master here prescribes would be
IKE endeavoring to learn to sing by study.
ing picture Of the larynx. One NAV
master the anatomy of the throat and
mayer utter note of song. Think your.
self back into the situation. Jesus was
desk and featuring to a class with refer.
ence to neatly articulated system of
dogmas: The shadow of life's mystery
was chilling to the hearts of those He
loved, and He was. striving to kindle in
Their breasts vivid. luminous, unquench.
ABLE consciousness of the divine sympathy
stead of theorizing about God" AS thougl,
he said: Peter, James. John and ali
the rest; you have lisped sentences CON
Gernmg God since you were little children,
Davld's holy hymns were your cradle songs
The sacred roles of the synagogue hayo
spoken to You their Sabbath day messages
from the Infinite One. Your hearts were
burned as You participated in the sol.
emnities of Passover and Pentecost. which
celebrated the august sovereignties with
which God had shaped your nations life.
With an irrepressble usefulness Won have
pondered the grandeur of Jehovah as You
felt Him present in the grandeurs of
mare. while the quiet watches of the
nN-n,
fishing ats beneath the unslceping stars.
Iha. God is YOUR God. He thinks. He
plans, lie wo Is for you. He marks your
steps. treasures Your tears. He
weighs a HIS heart every cross before
lie lays It E"rr you" shoulder. The
march OF the trihT:; Through he desert, the
progress, of humanity through the cen
turtles, the swing of the stars thro;::', the
sky IS no more to Him than the ,:.s.i.,c
OF the days of your life. There is moth
ing better known to God than the thing.
which befall You. There is no one nearer
to the heart of God than you are. lie. .
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
Him shall be lifted. Christ's cure for trou.
BILE is to live with God beside us in our
every day experiences; t., take God to
the office, a partner in our business; to
take God to the parlor, sharer in our
pleasures; to be in the companionship OF
God when throngs surround us or when
we tread way where no one else but
He can walk or enter the shades of a
.cneliness whereby all but He are forgot
ten. Eternity can bring us no nearer