The Newtown bee., 1907-07-19

lem for one thing that stalked through J Jerusalem and weighed down on the prophets heart-the first verses of the prophecy are as heavy with its fear and its horror as the speaking of one who desired godliness and cleanliness could be about any American city. Whence could deliverance come; was there indeed any salvation. That was one burden and problem; the prob
 lem of evil in Jerusalem; then there was the second, which to us is not. so
 close-the Lord answered his cry about
 this problem of evil by a still more ter
 rible problem. Habakuk sees the an-
 swer. That answer is the host of Chal-
 deans coming up against the city. This
 bloody band appears riding on horses
 swift as leopards. These hordes are go-
 ing to settle the problem and that
 quickly about the corruption of Jerusa-
 lem, if Jerusalem itself does not set
 tie it. The evil resorts and drunken
 revels and wanton displays will all be
 the city itself. That is the answer to the first problem. But oh what fear full reply The sacred city itself in- volved in final and complete disaster; it is that that which the prophet sees
 as the only possible answer. What a message for the courier of the lord to bring over the plains up to the gate of the city. Is that all the word? Is that the only message? There must be another, there must be still another message and it is for that other mes sage in which Habakuk believes that he pictures himself as waiting and look ing out from the tower of the city. He has already gotten the first message about the manner of the destruction of l the corruption in the city. he gives us | that answer in the last half, of the first chapter. But that answer is if any thing more fearful and perplexlng than l the corruption. He will wait for the second answer, he will see if there be not another message; though 1t tarry
 he says he will wait for it because it | will surely come, it will not delay.
 This then is the clear subject given
 us for thought by the text. Waiting | for the message of the Lord, waiting 1 for the revelation of the Lord. :" Many
 and many a time like Habakuk the prophet the souls of men sit on the 1 high places of their city as he did. waiting for the message of the Lord, or as he did, looking for the revealing of the word of God unto their need. Dear friends, 1 feel that it has been in just such place as this that our com munity has been standing during this past week. We have all had brought l very near to us the strange and in applicable ways of human life and l death. The place of a great sorrow and loss, unexplained catastrophes, are | tO S0nu Ju0 uedTCS Ol HIGH up CO CuC | tower of watching, crying unto the | Lord, oh what is the meaning of it all? | Why is life so unintelligible, and the weight of the world so seemingly mean ingless? The reason of things, especi-
 ally the reason for the tears there are l in the things of earth, how often we
 want to know it. We go up and cry out to know it, we wait for the reve- | lation, we pray for the revelation. We would to God we could understand. In | the breaking up of homes we can know
 something of the gloom and burden of Jerusalem and all it's goodly places
 and all it's happy ways. Sometime ev-
 cry one of us goes up because of the sorrow there is about us or within us to | the tower of outlook and uplOok and realizes the weary weight of this unin- telligible world, and can do nothing,
 nothing at all, except wait for the rev elation For this I think is what we
 were meant to do; this is the only
 thing to do. Go where we can look out
 and up and there gather patience and
 trust to wait for Gods message of re
 vealing. There is nothing else. Though it tarry wait for it, that is what Habakuk said to himself. because ii will surely come; it will not delay. The meaning of all sad things is wait
 and we shall find the revealing of it
 there. Jesus seems to have gone into such place as this when in the pray CT and agony of the Mount of Olives
 and his explaining of the mystery o1
 the way in which He was being led
 was by saying that it was out of the will of God. And when He had consent
 ed unto the will of God and put off the explaining of it until God his father
 chose to reveal it, then angels came ano
 ministered unto Him. God grant that
 our homes and our hearts may have Il f<xr Of toh1y nr,1 CT where we as our need comes shal
 wait patiently and in trust for the re vealing of the goodness and love o1
 God
 T But sorrow is not the only expert ence where such places of watching
 are needed. Other times and places,
 too, have required them. Life has per !, plexities, practical perplexities where
 it is well that we do some quiet wait 5 ing and watcbipos> until the Lord speak to usI-A1frvS'l5 not always easy to de i eide. Which way we ought to go, and | which labor we ought to do is some times a very practical and difficult question to men and women. And in
 suR places also I think we might vel 1l(lesnber this lesson. Prohlsms o1 ! life, problems of business, and prob lens of conduct, when we consider
 these it were the better for us if there . were something of watching for the word of God in them; if we faced the duties and perplexlties and responsibili
 ties of life more often with the = thought-now what does God want me l to do in this matter, what does Goo mean to have me accomplish here iron such place of watching for the wort 5 of God we will go forth to better, larg 3 CT and happier living.
 3 And oh there is another place tha 7 should send us hurrying up to the tow CT of Gods message and Gods speak ing It is the frequent place of temp tation that comes to us, we come t. ! in our journey here on earth. If peo
 pie would only wait bit for the mes g sages of God to come unto them, wal l to hear what God will have to say un n to them when they are tempetd b. s the evil thought or the evil desire. 1 = before we did that which injured oth t CTS, or degraded ourselves, or gave e bad example in the world, put ava. e good from our lives; if then we woul : wait to hear what Gods spirit had t n say unto us, that would do muc = good. That would have over us req h and mighty control. Oh, we woul Il escape what Byron called .That dee