River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1908-05-07


went to the Mohammedan graveyards,
roasted on the boughs of the cypress
trees, and mingled their doleful notes
with the signing of the winds. The
Moslems declared that the spirits CT
the wicked dead dwelt in these birds,
and that their plaintive notes were
the wailing of the lost.
Now, into most of our lives there
come at times birds with black wings
and blue breasts. We cannot cap
ture and destroy them, and they al
most turn our hearts into a cemetery.
We have "the blues" Webster says
that the word "blues" is a contraction,
he might have said concentration, of
"blue devils" 1t is a word used In
classic English, as is the word
dumps" There is a state of mind
only as the dumps, so dull and
heavy" and these hard times are apt
to produce that state of mind.
While the author of this Seventy
seventh Psalm was writing the first
nine verses there was in his mind a
whole flock of these birds with black
wings and blue breasts. l believe that
God allowed him to have the blues, in
order that he might give us the Di-
vine analysis of this state of mind.
Having diagnosed the disease, he
then gives us the cure.
Let us pluck the feathers from the
wings of these blue-breasted birds and
examine them one by one, that we
may learn just the stuff that the blues
are made of.
The first black feather is
A Morbid Taste for Sorrow.
"My soul refused to be comforted."
There was comfort to be had, but he
did not want it. He preferred dis
comfort
Some people are never quite so
happy as when they are miserable.
They pet their griefs
The second feather is
A Distorted View of God.
II remembered God and was
troubled"
The remembrance Of God ought to
have given him pleasure. Infidelity
speaks of God whose every thought
is a star and whose dreams are con-
stellations' He thinks not of men,
Such view of God is enough to give
any one the blues.
The third black feather is
A Complaining Spirit.
II complained, and my spirit was
overwhelmed"
The more you complain the more
cause you will have for complaining
The squid blackens the water about
It that it may hide itself in the black
ness. 1t shuts out it's own vision, in
order that it may shut out the vision
Of Others And thus a complaining
spirit darkens everything about us.
Another black feather is
insomnia.
"Thou holdest mine eyes waking"
1t is hard to be cheerful when we
cannot sleep The darkness of the
mind enters our soul, and gas light
Will not Danish it. The fitting Of
hack wings makes a rustic in our
rooms that does not soothe us. Our
nerves become tomtoms on which
devils beat, rather than harp-strings
upon which angels play
Frances Ridley Havergal tells us
that the sweetest hours of her life
we're the nights of sleeplessness in
which her heart was awake to com-
munion with God, and her thought
lifted in praise and thanksgiving.
Happy the man who has grace thus
to turn restlessness into restfulness,
whose heart can sleep while his body
wakes, whose spirit reposes while his
flesh is weary.
Still another black feather is
The Memory of Good Times Gone.
II call to remembrance my song
in the night"
Once he was a nightingale, filling
the air with music; now he is
screech-owl, filling it with discords
The fact that he was once happy
makes him miserable to-day. Former
wealth makes present poverty more
oppressive; former health makes pres
snt sickness harder to bear.
Such spirit is good roosting-place
for the blues. If we were once
happy, let us be thankful for it.
If for several years we had the conf
forts of home, with the luxuries OF
wealth, let us be glad that it is so,
though now we are in struggling poT-
erty. A grateful spirit thinks with
pleasure of all the delights of the
past, and is hopeful for the future.
So much for the analysis of the
blues. Let US look for moment at
Gods Cure;
at the means by which these birds
of black wing and blue breast may
be driven away, or taken and de-
stroyed.
First, let there be clean-breasted
confession. This" says the Psalm
ist, SIS my infirmity."
God is not to blame if / am blue.
He would make me bright and cheer
full. l take the fault as my own.
He does not say that it is a sin. There
is quite a difference between sin and
infirmity. Infirmity is weakness of
a good thing, as an infrm eye, or
hand, or faith, or love.
Confession of sin brings forgiveness,
but there must be no apology. If we
whitewash our souls we shall not have
them washed white. Paul said: II
rejoice in infrmity, that the power Of
Christ may rest upon me-"
Again, faith in God is good cure
For tho bII1cc The Pca1nict saws.