The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-05-13
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN INTERESTING DISCOURSE BY THE
REV. L. H. CASWELL.
Subject "a Little Inquiry Into TribuIa-
Iation " A Pathetic Figure is the
ShilIy-shally Youth Cudaled in Luxury
and Shrinking From Life's Conbat.

and Shrinking From Lies Combat.
BROOKLYN, N. Y.-For his Sunday SER
mon, in the Tabernacle M. h. Church,
Greenpoint, the pastor, the Rev. Lincoln
Hollister Caswell, took as his subject "a
Little Inquiry Into Tribulation." The
text was from Romans " g. But we
CORY ia tribulatons.' Mr.. Caswell said:
Unto each the ever recurring questions
come. Whence the mission of adversely?
Why the existence of trouble? Do pain
and pleasure proceed from kindred laws?
How is it that while our earth in it's orbit
keeps symphony with the host of heaven,
it vet bears the undertone of anguish in
its bosom?
Snail we answer by impeaching Infinite
justice, by declaring the Tyranny of pain,
by asserting the bondage of suffering?
Not so. But rather iao~re for the mission
of trouble and learn the utility of adverse
ty. 1t is clear to the student of ethics
that there is an unknown quantity in the
formula of suffering. In this question X
equals life-lfe of service 81 of idleness;
of force or Of weakness; or grand or Of
mean proportions. Adversely either makes
or ruins a man, his individual character
alone determining whether he shall be
crushed or exalted. Opposing forces slim
ulate to heroic action. A man may choose
10 uWell III luxury, DuI lie luuSb 40 50 dC
the expense of the stronger forces of char
acter. 1t is hard to endure pain, it is
far harder to resist ease, but by resisting
and by enduring are wrought out those
princely qualities which are attributes of
the ideal man. And so we are placed amid
forces, rude and contrary, that we may
gain the glory of breaking and bridling
them. If nature and environment should
befriend and never oppose, crafty and
never grieve, satisfy and never smite, life
would become UNNECESSARILY less noble.
1t is not uncommon to think that suf-
fering, as well as sin, comes fleet footed
from Tartarus, whereas, suffering is not
dependent upon sin. There is ministry
of suffering, but there can never be min
istry of evil Is hatred the cause of love;
revenge Of forgiveness; sel6shness of gem
crosby; vice Of virtue? Humility is not
the daughter of pride, nor is error the
propagation of truth. It is not true for a
man to hold that because he has sinned
he is capable Of reaching a higher holiness.
Give not evil the credit of befriending hui
manity. Sin alienates, debases, ruins. Be-
hold how suffering rises above evil! Evil
is infamous; suffering may be glorious
Evil merits antipathy; suffering often de-
serves praise. Evil swears fealty to the
internal; suffering never. but repeatedly
vows allegiance to the Infinite. To punish
evil is suffering's smallest province. 1t
exists for a higher purpose than retribu-
tion--for stimulating, educating, atoning
purpose so that Affections are but the
shadows of Gods Wings
Upon material things a literature is
written. Read it! 1t Wells of strife, strug-
gle, contention. The laweof dissolution CO.
operates with the law of growth. The
rock dies that the vegetable may live; the
plant withers that the animal may grow;
the body decays that the spirit may ex-
pand eternally. Counter forces make the
life of the universe. The meteor CLEANS
because of resistance; the shimmering con-
stellations that glow upon the brow of
night are but fire balls from the furnace of
the sun; light itself, respondent and vi
talizing, comes from combustion, antag-
onism and chemical conflict. Adversely
enters into the very nature of things.
Earth's living forms once slumbered in the
granite rock, and would still have slum-
bered but for adverse forces active with
in. Chemicals were there to disintegrate,
earthquakes to shatter, fires to fuse. gla-
ciers to grind. There were corrodings,
consumings. crosions, decayings. wither-
ings and washing until the solid granite
unfolded its treasures to make possible
organic life.
What mean the expressions, natural
selection" struggle for existence" sur
vival of the fittest?" They indicate that
all life is an extended conflict, where each
order preys upon the next below and Crap
pies with the next above for mastery.
The life OF nations is no exception to
this law. Civilization NAV boast of her
attainments, but revolt and revolution are
the arbters for her progress. She may eX-
ult in the "evoiution of government" but
turmoil, violence, bloodshed cry out, eve
are factors in thy prosperity"
What people were more oppressed than
the ancient Hebrews? Rameses ensiaved
them in Egypt, hardship harassed them
pledged but little more than shock on
shock of battle. That was the nation
buffeted, defeated, tried-that became the
safe depository of truth, aud gave to the
world as its consummate flower Diety In
carnate.
What has been the discipline by which
our own nation has attained its present
strength? It had indeed wonderful pa
rentage The brave little Netherlander
whom the Council of Blood, the Inquisi-
ton and the Holy see could not down;
the glorious Huguenot fresh from hearing
the blood cries Of ST. Bartholomew; the
sturdy, psalm singing Puritan who wrung
Magma Charta from John who served
Ha-pGeu 20 resist the king, who animated
Cromwell and his Ironsides at Marston
Moor and Naseby, who taught Vane how
to die, who struggled amid overwhelming
forces for religions liberty; these, whom
the American is proud to own as worthy
ancestors, are all sons of hardship and en-:
durance. conquerors in the nobier fields of
battle Thus out of milleniums of struggle
with the myriad-headed hydra of persecu-
ton arises the America of to-day. The ma
ton's birth was marked by pain. Speak,
we noble slain of Bunker Hill Ye patriots
clashing arms with an alien foe Shout:
We pallid lips Of the blood stained snow of
Valley Forget And tell lis that freedom is
gained by devotion to death; that liberty
rides triumphant over road macadamized
by the bones of its deyotees; tell us that
tie advancing staqes of national life are