The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1904-02-10

| be broken promise made to God
Now, in trying to find some solution OF
! this question. | want to say frankly that
| caunot pretend to make the mystery all
| clear. so that 1t will give YOU no more
| trouble; because ] cannot put a girdle
| around the world IN forty minutes, and
also because a full solution idust depend
! greatly OH our own dissolution. | believe.
! also, that the man who thinks he has left
nothing unexplained, iii the mystery OF
| providence. and life, has rather explained
nothing. l listen to him, If am in trou-
BILE, and then go home and break my heart
! all the same, because | see that he has not
only not cleared up the mystery, but that
trouble him. The "Principa" and the
Single Rule of Three are alike simple and
ensy to him because he does not know the
Rule of Three. And so cannot be sat.
lsfed with the last words which some later
hand has added to the, book that. holds this
sad history. They tell us how Job has all
his property doubled, to the last ass and
camel-has seven sons again and three
daughters, has entire satisfaction OF all
his accusers, lives hundred and forty
years, sees four generations of his line and
then dies-satisfed.
Need l say that this solution will not
stand the test of life, and that il life, on
the average, came out so from its most
trying ordeal, there would be little need
for ,our, sermons. For then, every life
dence and the last page in time would vim
dlcate the first. Men do not so live and
die; and such cannot have been the primi-
tive conclusion of the history. II has
deeper meaning and a suhlimer iustifca-
ton, or it had never been inspired by the
holy Ghost.
And this issure to suggest itself to you
AZ you read the story, that job, in his
trouble, would have lost nothing and
gained very much If he had not been SO i'm
| mt tn ha fbuf
God had left him. that life was mere
apple of Sodom, that he had backed up to
great walls of fate and he had not a friend
left on the earth. His soul, looking through
her darkened windows, concluded the heav-
ems were dark. The nerve, quivering at
the gentlest touch, mistools the ministra-
| ton Of mercy for blow. He might have
| found some cool shelter for his agony; he
! preferred to sit on the ashes in the burn
| ing sun. He knew not where the next
rpbe was to come from; this did not deter
him from tearing to shreds the robe that
| was to shelter him from the keen winds.
| 1t was a dreadful trial at the best; it was
worse for his way OF meeting it,: and,
when he was at once in the worst health
and temper possible, he said: why is
light given to man whose way is hid?"
| Ia not this now, as it was then, one of the
! most serious mistakes that can be made?
| / try to solve great problems of provi'
dence, perhaps, when ] am so unstruug az
4, w Dt eutlEty unubttu 10 LOuCH
more subtle, delicate and far reaching har.
monies. As well might you decide on soma
exquisite anthem when your organ is
/ broken, and conclude there is no music
in it because you eau make no music oil
| it, as, in such a condition of life and such
temper of tine spirit. try to find these
great harmonies of God. When 1 am in
| trouble, then, and darkness comes down
ou me like pail, the first question ought
to be, How much of this unbelief about
providence and life, like Cowper's sense
OK the objectionable sin, comes from the
most material disorganzation? Ia the
darkness | feel in the soul, or is it on tho
windows through which the soul must
see" Then, clear on this matter. the
man tried SO will endeavor to stand at the
FIRST, where this sad hearted man stood
at the last, in the shadow Of the Almighty,
il he must stand in a shadow, and hold on
to the confidence that somewhere within
sll this trial is the eternal the shadow OF
o great rock in a weary land. Friends
speculate all about the mystery, and their
conclusions from their premises are entirely
correct; but they have forgotten to take
in the separate sovereign will of God. az
working out q great purpose IN the mans
life, by which he is to be lifted into
than ever he had before. job said Il
suffer, am in darkness and disappoint,
nent and pain. because it Is fate" Jobs
friends said: No; you suffer because, you
have sinned. Rushes never grow withoug
mire." They were both wrong. and all
wrong. He suffered because that was tho
divine way OF bringing him out of his
sleek, we'll satisfied content: and when
through sufferingthis was done he said: Il
have heard of Thee with mine ears. but
now mine eye seeth Thee"
If had never gone into darkened rooms
where the soul stands at the parting of thd
worlds; or sat down beside widows and
little children. when the desire of their
! eyes was taken away with a stroke. OF
grasped the hands OF strong men. when
all they had toiled for was gone. nothing
left but honor; or. ministered to. men
mangled on the battlefield beyond all tell
ing; and heard in all these places whert
darkness was on the way, melodies. melo
dies that ! never heard among the com
monplaces of prosperity, could not be SO
way so that the melody may grow clear
and entire in the soul.
There is story in the annals Of science
touching this principle, that we cannot
struggle faithfully with these things and
leave them as we found them. Plato,
piercing here and there with his wonderful
Greek eyes:
Searching through all, he felt and saw
,lhe springs OF life the depths OF awe,
To reach the law within the law"
was impressed by the suggestive beauty OF
the elliptic figure. He tried to search out
its full meaning, but died without the
sight. A century and half after Plato,
Appolonius came, was arrested in tha
same way, took up the question where
Plato left it, tried to find out its full
meanings, and died without the sight!
And so. says a fine writer, for eighteen
centuries. some OF the best minds were
fascinated by this problem, drew from it
strength and discipline; and yet, IN all this
time, the problem was an abstract form,
a beautiful or painful speculation. 1t did
not open out into any harmonious prin'
ciple. There was light on the thing, but no
light on the way. In the full time, Kepler
came; sat down to the study; and by what
| we call the suggestion of genius, but ought
| TO call the inspiration OF the Almighty,
found that the orbits of the planets were
, elliptical, and he died. Then Newton was
, born, took up the problem where kepler
had laid it down, made all the established
, facts the base of his mighter labors; and,
when he had done, he had shown that this
, igure, this problem, which had held men
.pellbound through the ages, is prime
element in the law OF universal gravitation
at once the most beautiful theory and
the most absolute conclusion OF science.
. Then men could see how it was. because
God had made the light shine on. the
, thing, that the way was found. From New
, ton back TO Plato, In true apostolic order.
every man. bending over this mystery OF
q ,isht where there was no way, and wrest-
, ih faithfully With it. had not only grown
| moSe noble IN ms own soul IN the struggle,
hat aad done his share toward tue solution
,,I ~, and lnsf tyhn a