The Monmouth inquirer., 1905-12-07
How hard It is for the minister's wife


ought not to have said that! When you
tell incidents like that in the pulpit
you are truly undermining your own
influence, and you do but little good"
How hard it is for a minister's wife
to do thatl Yet there is many minis
ter today who is ready to say that he
would not be what he is unless his
wife had been a faithful critic of his
sermon. How hard it is to tell that old
boyhood friend that he is doing wrong
and that unless he stops his sins his
! life will be ruined How hard 1t Is to
tell that young girl classmate that she
has no business to be going out at
| night with the men with whom she is
going! Easy to praise our friends for
| their virtuesl Are you ready to be true
/ and brave and to lift the danger signal
over your friends faults? You know
you can put your hand upon the life
weaknesses of your friends as no one
else can. Are you ready to be Cen
eral Joab to your King David?
But we must not stop here. When
we find King David going forth to
great emancipation of grief. When we
find David being induced to go forth
to meet the responsibilities of his king
dom we find him breaking the shackles
of sorrow which have bound him hand
and foot, as the Roman captives used
to be bound to the chariots Of their
conquerors in the triumphal entries
into the capital of the Caesars. And
thus, my friends, If you and l want to
be truly helpful to our friends in their
time of trouble, we should not try SO
much to pet them and sympathize with
them, but we should go as General
Joab went to King David to compel
them to go forth and do something.
Work as a Panacea.
Work is the best panacea for grief.
Many years ago great trouble came
to my fathers home. The best COM
forter my father had was not to be
found among those who came to weep
with him and to sympathize with him,
but the best comforter was the old
classmate who came and said: de
Witt, l am going through trouble far
worse than yours. My wife for ten
years has been in the insane asylum.
l want to give you the only cure
know to help you at this time. Do
not stay at home and cry. Go forth
into Gods great harvest field and work.
Work for God in the morning, work
for God at noon, work for God at night,
work and keep on working for God all
the time, and the blessed comfort from
God will be yours" Thus, my brother,
when you and are going to carry true
comfort to our friends in their time of
trouble do not go to them to pet them
Go to them and rouse them out of them
selves by urging them to do something
for some one else. 1t was by work
that David overcame his grief, not by
selfish tears and sobs and weepings in
the silence of his bedchamber.
And by the same reasoning, if there
be any blessing above all others for
which you and 1 should be thankful in
our days of adversely, it is for the
blessing Of work. By imposing on us
the necessity of earning our daily bread
and caring for those who are depend
ent upon us God is able to throw OF
the heavy burdens of our grief. And
how near those burdens were once to
destroying US! / today would have
you treasure your necessity of work
ing for your daily existence. Sorrow
and trouble raised their axes and
smote at you. At first you were stun
ned by the cruel blows. But hardly
had the blows of trouble and sorrow
descended when, like David, you had
to be up and out and doing. And in
your necessity for daily toll you found
one of Gods great panaceas for grief.
Oh, my friends, thank God today that
you have to work and continue to work
and, like King David, that you have to
work all the time.
But there is another fact want you
to notice about Joab's upbraidment and
denunciation He did not waste any
words about other peoples shortcom-
ings. He did not go to the king and
say: "Now, David, Absalom was an
ungrateful dog. You ought to have
hanged him long ago. And those peo-
pie who mutinied against you and
made you fee from your capital ought
to be sought out and punished" Oh,
no, Joab did not bother himself about
crying over the departed past. He
practically said to David: Here, the
Instruction has taken place. An aw-
full lot of damage has been done. There
is no use of talking about who caused
the difficulty. The one great fact we
want to solve is how can we get the
kingdom back upon it's old, stable foun-
dalton. 1t IS not now a question who
set fire to your palace, but how we can
put the confagration out. Now, you
had better get out of this room as soon
as possible and get back to your capital
and pick up the reins of government
without one moments delay" And
David returned and came to the Jor-
dan and went back to Jerusalem. Are
/ you and / ready to do as did David?
( Are you trying to jump in and over
come the evil deeds of others instead
| of sitting down and crying about them
and magnifying them?
J The world will never be saved by our
proving that other people are liars and
| ingrates. / read an article some years
/ or oh r oIIf nf