Milford chronicle., 1906-08-10
pei lessons for the work of everyday

HIS Judgment just.
The parable, in the first place, proves
that God never takes snap judgment
upon any one. He is not like the cruel
marksman-I will not call him a sports
man-whO shoots pigeons from trap.
There the poor doomed bird is brought
out in a cage Then by pulling string
the cage tumbles to pieces. Then, be-
fore the dazed and frightened bird
can stretch his wings, bang goes the
gun. and the birds poor mangled body
falls over a quivering corpse. God does
not destroy an immortal soul as
treacherOus, murderOus Indian would
stealthily creep up and tOmahawk and
scalp the sleeping immigrants before
they could leap to their feet and grasp
their rifles and fight for their lives
God does not deal with man in this
matter as if he had to build as Robert
Louis Stevenson's grandfather built
That great engineer, Robert stevenson,
built the famous lighthouse upon the
dangerous rocks of Little Cumbrac.
He built it between the storms which
often howl about and lombard the
Scottish coasts. When you build on
that coast you must hasten or you will
be swallowed up in the surgings of the
seas. But God says: "Man. you, can
build your house in the dry season of
the east. You will have plenty Of time
to build it, You must not be slothful
or lazy. Time flies. but it does not fly
so quickly that you will not have plen-
ty of time to do the work which have
given you to do, if you will only con
scientiously apply yourself to that
work" "The rainy seasons are COM
ing" he warns us. "But the rainy sea-
sons will not come before the dry sea
sons have given you plenty of time TO
prepare for the Onrushing deluge.' Is
not this a true Interpretation Of my
text? Is not this a true Interpretation
of the history of our personal livesf
Let us reckon today how long your
dry season" or years of building, have
lasted. Ten years, twenty years, thirty
years, forty years, fifty years, have
they been. What! For some of you
have they not lasted sixty years? For
the first ten or thirteen years of your
life you may not have been responsible
for what you did, but since then you
certainly have been responsible. The
other day the chaplain Of one of the
largest state penitentiaries told my
people that a few years ago there was
sentenced to his penitentiary a boy
who came there in short trousers to
serve a sentence of many years. II
that boy, because he had committed a
tiendish crime, was looked upon as
morally responsible, does not God hold
us morally and spiritually responsible
for what we have builded since we
entered our teens. MY teens" As
we sneak those words how far they are
back in memory for some Of us. Yes,
God does not work a snap judgment
upon any one here today. He gives us
our work to do. He gives us a long
''dry season." or years of preparation,
in which to do that work. What have
YOU builded in your years of prepara-
ton? What have you done for man.
and what have you done for God?
We Are All Bu1Aderas
But while was pOndering upon our
'dry seasons" or years Of preparation
which have come to US in rearing our
life work, this thought came upon me
with driving force: During our years
of preparation for the "rainy season
we are all builders. We cannot get
awav from that fact. Every one OF
us is building, consciously or uncOn'
sciously. We are either building upon
the rocks or we are building upon the
sands. We must be the wise man OF
the parable or the foolish man Of the
parable. There is no escape. We have
to keep doing, and we must keep
growing, growing for good or growing
for evil.
In one of his sermons Mr.. Spurgeon
tells us that on his grandmOther's man
telplece, among. other marvels, there
was an apple in a bottle. This apple
completely filled the inside Of that bot
tie and was four OF five times larger
than the bottles neck. As little boy
Spurgeon used to climb up on a chair
and study that bottle. He kept saying
to himself, "How could a great big ap-
pie like that get into that neck| Then
he tried to unscrew the bottom OF the
bottle. Then he took it down and held
1t to the light to see whether or no the
glass had been broken and glued to
gether again. No, not one Of these
facts could account for the big apple
in the bottle. But one day he found
out the explanation. While he was
playing in the orchard he saw his
grandmother take another bottle and
place it over a very small apple and
then tie the bottle to the stem and
leave it there. Yes, she left it there
until the little apple grew into a big ap-
p!e. anG she put that second bottle win
its apple alongside of tine first bottle
with its big apple on the manreipiece.
When read that illustration l said to
myself, "Ah, that is the growth OF life"
We grow up without thinking of the
future. and some day we are suddenly
halted by a limitation that has been