The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-03-02

Holy Ghost.
And this assure to suggest itself to you
as you read the story, that JOB, IN bus
gained very much if he had not been 80 i'm.
patient in coming to the conclusion that
God had left him, that life was mere
| apple of Sodom, that he had backed up 70
great walls of:fate and he had not a, friend
| left on the earth. His soul, looking through
her darkened windows, concluded thetheav-
ems were dark. The nerve, quiVering at
the gentlest. touch, mistook the mlmstra-
tion Of mercy:for a 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
| robe was to come from; this did not deter
! him from tearing to shreds the robe that
was to shelter him from the keen winds.
| It was 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 ls
light given to man whose way Is hld?'
| Is not this now, as it was then, one OF the
most serious mistakes that can be made!
dence, perhaps, when am so unstrung as
| tn be entirely untitled to touch their
more subtle, delicate and far reaching har-
monies As well might you decide on some
exquisite anthem when your organ, is
broken, and conclude there is no music
| in it because you can make no music OF
it, as, in such a condition of life and such
temper OF. the spirit, try to find these
great harmonies of God. When I am in
on me ike pail, the first question ought
| to be, "How much Of this unbeief about
providence and life, like Cowper's sense.
| OF the objectionable sin, comes from the
| most material DISCRIMINATION? Is the
darkness feel in the soul, or is it on the
| windows through which the soul must
| see~ Then, clear on this matter, the
| man tried so will endeayor to stand at the
first, where this sad hearted man stood
| if he must stand in shadow, and hold on
| to the confidence that somewhere within
all this trial is the eternal, the shadow Of
a great rock in weary land. Friends
speculate all about the mystery, and their
conclusions from their premises are entiresy
correct; but they have forgotten to take
in the separate sovereign will Of God, as
working out great purpose IN the mans
| life, by which he iR to be lifted into
than ever he had before. Job said: IL
suffer, I am in darkness and disappoint-
| friends said: "No, you suffer because you
have sinned. Rushes never grow without
| mire" They were both wrong, and all
| wrong. He suffered because that was the
divine way of bringing him out of his
sleek, well satisfied content; and when
through suffering this was done he. said, II
| have heard OF Thee with mine ears, but
now mine eye seeth Thee"
There is story in the annals ef' 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: t.,... =. >,la.,,..i..i
Searching through all, he felt and saw
The 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
it's. full meaning, but died without the
sight. a century and half after Plato,
Appolonius came, was, arrested in the
Plato left it, tried to find out its full
meanings, and died without the sight.
And so, says 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,
beautiful or painful speculation. It did
not open out into any harmonious prin-
eiple. There was light on the thing, but no
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 be died. Then Newton was
born, took up the problem where Kepler
had laid it down, made all the established
facts the base of his mightier labors; and,
when he had done, he had shown that this
figure, this problem, which had held men
spellbound through the ages. is q prime
element in the law of universal gravitation
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
a light where there was no way, and wrest-
ling faithfully with it, had not only grown
more noble in his own soul in the struggle,
but had done his share toward the solution
found by this greatest and last, who was
also born under the law that they might
receive the adoption of sons."
So, tell you, is this restless search for
condition that shall answer to our ccncep-
ton; this fascination, which compeIs us
to search out the elliptic of providence,
the geometric certainty underlying the
| apparent eccentricity. And every struggle
to find this certainty; every endeayor to
plumb the deepest causes of the discord
between what the nature bears and what
the soul believes; every striving to find
| the God of our loftiest faith in our darkest
day, will, in some way, aid the demonstra.
tion, until, in the full time, some Newton
of the soul will come and, gathering the
roc,It nf al OF hott
conception of life and our condition
in life, will make it the base of some
vast generalization, that will bring the
ripest conclusions of the science of provi-
dence into perfect accord with the grand
apostolic revelation. eve know that all
things work together for good to them that
love God"
We wrong the deepest, revelations of
| life when we are not content to ut this
one little segment in the arc of. our exist
ence stand in its own simple, separate
| intention, whether it be gladness or gloom;
| and trust surely, if we are faithful, the
full and perfect intention. must come out
in the full range of our being. God seldom
pose in one life, how, then, shall He in one
life work out His perfect will? The dumb
poetry in William Burns, the father, had
to wait for Robert Burns, the son; Ber-
nardo waited to be perfected in his son,
Torquato Tasso; William Herschel left
many problem in the heavens for John
Herschel to make clear; Leopold Mozart
| wrestled with melodies that Chrysostom
Mozart found afterward of themselves in
every chai--ber of his brain, and Raymond
Bonheur needed his daughter Rosa to come
and paint out his pictures for him. DR..
Reid has said. that when the bee makes
its cell so geometrically, the geometry is
not in the bee, but in the geometrician that
made the bee. Alas, if in the Maker there
| is no such order for us as there is for the
| haal IL God co In tr,lct The hoe. iE God On