The Penn's Grove record., 1904-02-12

LRN NOItAdStDu u the history. 1T has
deeper meaning and a sublimer justihca-
ton, or it had never been inspired by the
Holy Ghost.
And this assure to suggest itself to You
as 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
patIent IN coming to the conclusion that
God had left him, that life was a mere
apple OF Sodom, that he had backed up to
great walls Of fate aud he had not a friend
LIT on the earth. His soul, looking through
her darkened windows, concluded the heav-
ems were dark. The nerve, duiverin4 at
the g%entlest touch, mistook the ministra-
ton 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.
1t was a dreadful trial at the best; it was
worse Tor his way of meeting it.: and,
When he was at once in the worst health
and temper possible, he said: "Why il
nght gwen to a man whose way is hid:"
Is not this now, as it was then. one of the
most serious mistakes that can be made?
try to solve great problems of provi-
denee, 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 1t because you can make no music Of
IT, as, In such a condition OF life and such
a temper of the spirit. try to find these
great harmonies of God. When | am in
trouble, then, and darkness comes down
on me like a pail, the first question ought
to be, How much of this unbelief about
providence and life, like Cowper's sense
OF the objectionable SIM, comes from the
most material Reorganization? Is the
darkness l feel in the soul, or is it on the
windows through which the soul must
see" Then, clear on this matter. the
nan tried so will endeavor to stand at the
hrst, where this sad hearted man stood
az the last, in the shadow Of the Almighty.
II he must stand in a shadow, and hold on
to the confidence that somewhere within
al this trial is the eternal, the shadow Of
a great rock in a weary land. Friends
speculate all about the mystery, and their
conclusions from their premises are entire.v
correct; but they have forgotten to take
in the separate sovereign will Of God. as
working out a great purpose in the mans
life, by which he is to be lifted into a
grander reach of insight and experience
than ever he had before. Job said: Il
suffer, L am IN darkness and disappoint-
ment and pain, because it is fate" Jobs
friends said: mo, you suffer because you
have sinned. Rushes never grow without
mlre." They we're 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 lone he said: Il
have heard of Thee with mine ears. but
now mine eye seeth Thee"
There is a story In the annals of science
touching this principle, that we cannot
struggle faithfully with these things and
l ln0Vo fhnm u rnn Cr. H., nT-AZ
piercing here and there with his wonderful
Greek eyes:
Searching through all, he felt and saw
The springs of life, the depths of awe,
10 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 a half after Plato.
Appolonlus came, was arrested IN the
same way, took up the question where
Plato LETT it., tried to find out its full
meanings, Inc 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-
elple. 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 1t down, made all the established
facts the base of his mightier labors: and.
when he had done, he had shown that this
hgure, this problem, which had held men
spellbound through the ages, is & prime
element in the law of universal gravifation
at once the most beautiful theory and
the most absolute conclusion of science.
linen 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-
ing faithfully with 1t, 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 a
condition that shall answer to our concep-
ton; this fascination, which compels US
to search out the elliptic Of providence,
the geometrie certainty underlying the
apparent eccentricity. And every struggle
to ind this certainty; every endeavor 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 Hottest faith in our darkest
day, viii, In some way, aid the demonstra-
ton, until, in the full time, some Newton
of the soul will come and, gathering the
result of all these struggles between our
conception of life and our condition
ii life, will make it the base of some
vast generalization. that will bring the
rlpest conclusions of the science of provi-
dence into perfect accord with the grand
apostolic revelation. we 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 let this
one little segment In the arc of cur 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
perhaps never, works out His visible pur-
pose In one life, how, then, shall He in one
life work out His perfect willg 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 a problem in the heavens for John
| Herschel to make clear; Leopold Mozart
- " bCAOAACd that MI cOILOuA
Mozart found afterward Of themselves in
every chal-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
beei If God so instruct the bee; if God so
feed the bird: if even the lions. roaring
after their prey, seek their meat from
God; if He not only holds the hnnet on
the spray, but the lion on the spring, how
shall we dare lose heart and hopes
So, then, while we may not know what
! trials wait on any of us. we can believe
that as the days in which this man
wrestled with his dark maladies are the
only days that make him worth remem-
brance, and but for which his name had
never been written in the book of life:
so the days through which we struggle,
finding no way, but never losing the light.
viii be the most significant we ere called
to i've. Indeed. men of all ages have
wrestled with this problem Of the differ.
ence between the conception and the con-