The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1903-12-09
HEARTS EASE
Brilliant Sunday Discourse By DR..
Howard Duffield.
ne Iron Has Never Catered the Soul OF
Those Who Expect Happiness to Be q
Matter OF Personal Choice.


in the Old First Presbyterian Church,
Fifth avenue and Twelfth street, by the
Rev. DIR. Howard Duficld, pastor. Tn.
text was from John. xiv: l (Revised Yer
son): Let not your heart be troubled
Ye believe. in God, believe also in Me-
ar Dufiield said:
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
we're not men verscd in the wisdom
OF the schools, and they were to be the
teachers OF novel, profound and revolutions
ary truths. They were impulsivc, undis
cplined and without social influence
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 unfrended
10 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 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 it's ina.
bity to cone with the responsibilities oil
existence, Don't be troubled" The op.
pressed sonl is ready to reply, "Pour acid
upon alkali and say do not ferment But
when wishes are thwarted and hopes arc
wlthered, and endeavor has its upshot
IN disappointment, and the light of liio
has gone Hot into into sp eclipse do s not say to t me-
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 blackesa
draught. His acquaintance with grief
was lifelong. He knew grief not as a
casual passerby upon the streets. Ha
knew grief not as we know some neigh.
bor by occasional sight. He was the in,
innate and inseparable associate of that
grim companion. 1t was Just because Hd
knew the secret sorrow, its strange min.
istry and its woudrous outcome that when
He saw His friends standing at the thres.
hole, OF the very life which He Himself had
lived, life wrought out in loneliness
and suffering and defeat and scorn a lifa
Of utter sacrifice to t., uplifting of 9th,
e.s,. life rejected by the world for whose
enrichment they We're 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 were
seated, to another mansion, not made with
hands, eternal and glorious in the city OF
God: Present to His gaze was not 81
much the plow and the narrow and tho
cold. dark fnrrows of the s-cdtime, as tho
Gladsome. company of the reapers. laden
II Win EOiStH SuedNeS ana shouting the song
of the harvest. He was looking across thu
storm-swept 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:
Let not your heart he troubled. neither
let it he afraid: During the strange, sad
hours and the hard and weary days that
hp1 in, H.. ha1,a ~
Me; and by and by the aoors of your
Fathers house shall open wide for your
entrance upon larger. holer, purer min,
lstry, for which the disc.plines of tina
shall have evoked the canacity. ,f it wero
not so. I would have told you"
Believe" is Christs talisman for charm,
ing away the specter of trouble from the
haunted heart. Believe in the Father.
plan for His child. Believe in the Fathers
care OF HIS enid. There is no speculative
process by which the mind may unravel
the sore ,angles of mortal experience 4
condemned heart cannot find relief in u
logic book. The cold bloodless hand OF
reason never wiped ava" a tear. The in
tellect has never discovered any balm for
heartache. When one is diving of hunger
1T, is. no time to discuss the process by
which Hour, is prepared When one il
pnehed with poverty, it is not the hour
The famine-stricken soul cries for bread,
the bankrupt debtor demands coin. The
troubled heart yearns for God Himself,
ana not for anv 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,
6. not struggle to express your experience
IN theological formula; do not strive to
sirsunth ehaure the .u strain in yogr ,unaided
H5ienS.n His arm. Lean on on God 1Cuddle down. in
Is the way. Christ would take the sting
from mortal sorrow.
a. 10 attempt to anayze such an act of he.
iiief as the Master here prescribes would be
IKE endeavorng to learn to sing by study
ing picture OF the larynx. One may
meyer utter note of song. Think your.
seii back into the situation. Jesus was
aot 5, theological professor sitting at His
uesK ana lecturng to a class with refer
aogmas. The shadow of life's mystery
was chilling to the hearts of those He
!!oved,, and He was striving to kindle in
lr .helr breasts vivid. luminous, unquench.
stDs ils word to them, is Realize God in
sSead o. theorlzing about God As though
ne said: Peter, James, John and ali
ene rest; you have lisped sentences con.
nTern!line God since you were little children
me 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
emnities of Passover and Pentecost. which
celebrated the august sovereignties with
which God had shaped your nations life,
with an irrepressible wistfulness YOU have
pondered the grandeur of Jehovah as Won
lelt Him present in the grandeurs of
nature, while the quiet watches of the
nght stole over You as you lay in Your
nls,hing boats beneath the unsleeping stars.
That God is your God. He thinks. He
plans, He works for you. lie marks your
steps. He treasures your tears. He
weighs in His heart every cross before
lie lays it upon your shoulder. The
march OF the tribes through the desert. the
progress. of humanity through the cen.
turies, 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
ing better known to God than the things
WHICH befall you. There is no one nearer
70 the heart Of God than you are. Believe
., 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
r-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 nov hide
Him shall be lifted. Christ's cure for trou
bic is to live with God beside us in our
every day experiences. Ia take God M