Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1904-04-28
MAKE FULL INQUIRY
OUR REGULAR SUNDAY SERMON
The Duty of the Christian In Case of
Tribulations That Come to Everv
One.

~ Dusy VI INC SAEISliou III case OF
Iribulations That Come to Every
One.
BROOKLYN, n. Y.-For his Sunday SER
mon, in the Tabernacle M E. Church,
Greenpolnt, the pastor, the Rev. Lincoln
Hollister Caswell, took as his subject "a
Little, Inquiry Into Tribulation.' The
text was from Romans v: 3: But we
glory IN tribulations." Mr. Caswell said:
Unto each the ever recurring questions
come. Whence the mission of adversity?
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.
1t yet 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 i1lou.re for the mission
OF trouble and learn the utility of adversi-
ty. 1t Is clear to the student of ethics
that there is an unknown quantity in the
formula OF suffering. In this question
equals life-life of service or of idieness;
OF force or OF weakness; Or grand or of
mean proportions. Adversely either makes
or ruins man, his individual character
alone determining whether he shall be
crushed or exalted. Opposing forces stim-
to dwell IN luxury, but he must do so at
the expense of the stronger forces of char
acter. 1t is hard to endure pain, it is
tar 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
betrlend and never oppose, crafty and
never grieve, satisfy and never smite, life
would become immeasurably less noble.
1t is not uncommon to think that suf-
fering, as well as sin, comes fleet footed
dependent upon sin. There is a ministry
OF suffering, but there can never be a min
istry of evil. Is hatred the cause of love;
revenge of forgiveness; selfshness of gen
erosity; vice of virtue? Humility is not
the daughter. of pride, nor is error the
propagator of truth. It is not true for a
man to hold that because he has sinned
he is capable of reaching higher holiness.
Give not evil the credit of befriending hui
manity. Sin ahenates, 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. It
exists Tor higher purpose than retribu-
tlon-for stimulating, educating, atoning
purpose so that Affections are but the
shadows OF Gods wings"
| Upon material things a literature is
written Read it! It tells of strife, strug-
gle, contention. The law of dissolution CO.
I 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
stellations that glow upon the brow of
night are but fire balls from the furnace Of
the sun; light itself, respondent and vi
taliZlng, comes from combustion, antag-
onism and chemical conflict. Adversely
enters into the very nature of things.
Earth's living forms once slumbered in the
F, granite rock. and would still have SUM
| 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, erosions, 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 fttest?'' They indicate that
all life is an extended conflict, where each
order preys upon the next below and grap-
| pies with the next above for mastery.
! What has been the discipline by which
our own nation has attained it's present
strength? It had indeed a wonderful pa
rentage. The brave little NetherIander
whom the Council OF Blood, the Inquisi-
| ton and the Holy See could not down;
the glorious Hugue-ot fresh from hearing
the blood cries of st. Bartholomew; the
sturdy, psalm singing Puritan who wrung
| Magma Charta from John who served
| Hampden to 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 religious liberty; these, whom
| the American is proud to own as worthy
ancestors, are all sons OF hardship and en-
durance, conquerors in the nobler fields of
battle. Thus out of milieriuma of struggle
with the myriad-headed hydra of persecu-
ton arises the America of to-day. The ma
tons birth was marked by pain. Speak,
ye noble slain of Bunker Hill! Ye patriots
clashing arms with an alien foe! Shout,
We pallid lips of the blood stained snow of
Valley Forge! And tell us that freedom is
gained by devotion to death; that liberty
by the bones of it's devotees; tell us that
the advancing stages of national life are
| heralded by conflict and fastened by the
presence of martyr host!
| Passing into the realm of the intellec-
tual it is found that the power of incisive
intellect is purchased with the hard coin
of struggle. The product of genius is
dearly bought. No pioneer of philosophy,
or science, or religion ever blazed his way
through untrod forests who was not con-
| fronted by poverty, prejudice or Lardships
! innumerable. Not in courts of ease; not
in rich classic halls; not in the midst of
fame and loud huzzas are deepest emotion
engendered, rarest truths found nor sub
limest conceptions begotten. From cup
of hemlock in Athens; from the cross in
Jerusalem; from an apostles dungeon at
Rome; from the chamber Of blind bard
| in London have come the thoughts that
have swayed the world.
| Why is the sacred page SO filled with
| tenderness, pathos and comfort? It was
not written with a golden pen in an easy
chair, in a scholastic library. For ink,
| there were tears Of multitude of weepers
| For pens, there were fishermen, shep-
| herds, bedouins of the desert, slaves, con-
victs and martyrs. For libraries, there
were desolate rocks, caverns, mountain
sides, sea shores and prison walls Out of
such harsh and unfavorable conditions
came the volumn which through all the
years has been coveted by the bereaved,
sought by the lonely, loved by the trou-
bled. Excellence Of thought comes by way
i of foil endurance denial