The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1905-02-07

that mother rs she gets up i'll the mid
die of the night to put cool bandages
upon the hot brow Of her child II she
sees any blessing in sickness. Ask
that father who takes his lovely daugh-
out with the hot rays of the sun the
microbes of a diseased lung if he can
see any blessing in one Of his dear chill
dren slowly fading away as beautiful
flower will fade and wither before the
chilling breath of the autumnal frosts.
Ask that child if she sees any blessing
in pain when night after night she
must hear her mother groan under the
gnawing advancement Of fatal can
cer. When Christ was upon earth he
never heard the suppliant cry of
leper but his hands cleansed away the
scales. He never saw one possessed
with the devils Of disease mental or
PHYSICAL unless he cast them forth,
even though they were legion. How
can there now be any blessing in phys
Ical pain when Christ's mission on
earth was to heal the sick and be
divine physician to the body as well
as to the soul?'
Yes, my brother, blessings can come
and do come from physical pain In two
ways. First, in the influence of sick
ness upon those who are sick. You can
read this truth in the looks Of those
who have been near 70 deaths door.
When Dante used to walk through the
OF Of ho nj ~ Oh
passersby would stop and look at him
and in awe say, There goes a man
who has been in hell" When we see
Christian men and women who have
lain under the shadow of death in
sickroom we know they have had ex-
periences which have Influenced them
even as Dante had when, with Virgil
as his guide, he trod the hot, blistering
sands where dwelt and agonized the
multitudes Of the "lost and the de-
stroyed." We also know that their ex-
periences of suffering have nodded
their lives for good, even as Samuel
johnson felt this experience in his own
life. II myself" said he, was for some
years totally regardless Of religion. 1t
had dropped out of my mind. 1t was at
an early part of my life. Sickness
brought it back, and hope have new
er lost it since" O man. is not this
true of you? Do you suppose William
Mckinley could ever have uttered the
Lords Prayer with such feeling as he
did had he not been lying upon an OPP
Grating table in the Emergency hos
pital. of the worlds fair? Do you be
lieve that Christ would be Us near to
you had you not talked with him in
the midnight hour when the nurse was
DOING in her chair by your bed? Jesus.
thou son Of David, have mercy on met"
cried blind Bartemeus in his physical
weakness to the passing Christ. Jesus.
thou son of David, have mercy on mee'
we have cried to Christ in our physical
torture Do you not see any blessing in
pain, any spiritual mission in physical
suffering In your past life?
The Blessedness of sickness.
Benefcent is the sick bed for the
invalid. Blessed is Its influence upon
those who come in touch also with the
sanctified sufferer Wendell Phillips
would not have been as brave and as
true man as he was had his life not
been inspired by the bravery of that
sick wife who always kept saying to
him: ION, Wendell, on! God has a
mission for you. While you are out
battling in his name I will be here
praying and waiting for YOU Could
%l,n nhnr r
Rurdette wrote about his dead wife
and not realize that the frail little
woman whom he for years carried
around in his arms had mighty mis-
sion in molding and developing her
husbands life for spiritual good? BY
the letters my mother wrote me from
her sick room and by the letters you
have received from sick wife or a
sick daughter or sick mother who
was at that time in the shadow Of
death you knew that some of Gods
mightiest agents for the salvation Of
the world are to be found among those
Of pale cheeks, thin hands and feyered
brows. Oh, no, my friends, God will
never take out Of this world the splr-
itual mission of physical pain and snf-
fering until, through those sufferings,
the multitudes hare been brought to
confess Christ at the foot Of the cross.
An Easy Task.
Easy would 1t be for God to make
right might and to melt the iron heel
Of tyranny in the hot fires of his in
iignation and righteous wrath. Easy
would 1t be for God to come forth with
bis great legions OF angels and ride
down the hilisides of heaven upon the
white charger of victory Easy would
1t be for God to destroy his puny ad
versaries, as they are trying to destroy
his kingdom on earth. How dc know
this? In the first chapter of Proverbs
read that when the time shall draw
near for God to bear his right and come
to the defense Of his children by the
overthrow OF his enemies God shall
say: II also will laugh at your calam-
fly. will mock when your fear
cometh.'' God will easily overthrow
his adversaries when the right time
comes. But now even sin has its mis-
sion. The battle against sin can devel-
op US, even as a youth can be develop
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