Mexico Missouri message., 1910-06-30
Disappointment
of Our Lives
By REV. +. r. MARSH
Pastor First Congregational Church
Houston, Texas

w maj we see, ldTBely OeleTlHineS
what we are. The books we read and
the sights we witness furnish much of
the foodstuff out of which character Is
made. Indeed, we say broadly: See.
ing is believing" and limit the field Of
mans activities TO the boundaries of
his horizon.
1t is not without significance that
the children of Israel, dying from fe
yer caused by the fiery serpents, we're
told that everyone who looked should
live. Surely the principle is of wider
application than this isolated incident
1t can be truly said that only those
who look really live. Here is a blind
man. He never had the incentive to
work that comes to every man at the
sight of thousands of his fellows
thronging our city's streets, intent
upon their business. Standing on
some mountain peak, he never saw
the crimson bars falling behind the
king of day; never knew the glory
of God as skies with sun and stars
and consultations unfold his mighty
acts; never felt the inspiration when
the night was passed and on the
morning sky clusters Of purple cloud
began to ripen in the crimson dawn
that man does not know nature, nor
life nor God. They who truly live
must also see. Vision has value.
Years have passed. You have not
been living on the tower. You have
plunged in the valleys. You have
waded deep waters. You have scaled
steep heights. Sometimes it has been
hard, God knows. Down the high.
ways of the years you have come
struggling, crying, cursing, some
times praying, but the ideal has not
been realized. Disappointment means
the failure of one of two parties to
keep an appointment. The vision has
failed.
Here is where a prophet on a tower
is needed. He can see some things
which you can not. You, in the
depths below! You, in the darkness
behind! You, disappointed at the
appointed place, hear what the Lord
God says to Habakkuk on the tower:
"The vision is yet for an appointed
time. though 1t tarry. wait
for it. because it will surely come"
Lies disappointments are a uni
versal experience. Some disappoint.
ments must succeed the certain de.
| lusions Of youth. The man higher
up has spoken a word to us and our
cherished plans have crumbled like
Jig saw puzzle. Joys we have sought
are crowded back into the future.
Stern reality has driven beyond today
into that vast tomorrow blessings
that seemed almost within our grasp
1t is equally true of the moral life.
In the darkness of some depression
we have had a vision of what we
might be, Of what we ought to be and
of what we said: by the grace of
God, we will be-
But we haven't At least hope we
have not attained that ideal.
The other effect of disappointment
may be to call up reserves of strength
and new battalions of energy.
Within the past year three notable
biographies have been published of
an actor, soldier and a reporter.
Richard Mansfield, autocrat, of
naughty spirit. at the beginning of his
career was offered an important part
in play. He tainted because he had
been two days without food, which he
was too poor to buy, and was imme.
diately dismissed. Disappointment of
poverty. Tecumseh Sherman, forty
years old, wrote: 81 look upon my.
self as dead cock in the pit, not
worthy of further notice" Disap-
pointed ambition! A little English
! boy, whose. father was dead, whose
mother had abandoned him, ran away
from the poor house, drifted to Amer.
| lea, fought as a confederate soldier
at Shiloh and eventually crowned dis
appointments with the laurels of sue.
! cess. His real name was John Row.
lands; the world knows him, by the
grace of the queen of England, as Sir
Henry M. Stanley
Think of the disappointments of
these men and host of others who
have endured as seeing an invisible
vision. Paul wrote: I'VE are trou-
bled on every side, yet not distressed"
We are perplexed, but not altogether
without help. Prosecuted but not for.
saken. Cast down, but not destroyed.
This means that with vision to be
attained, there must also be added a
vision to secure attainment. This
means that with an ideal there mist
also be added force to realize that
Ideal.
| Now, with this added help. though
the vision tarry, wait for it. Do not
discard the ideal. DO not even cramp
the ideal to fit the real Grow to Its
dimensions. Do not shirk the task to
fit your past efforts. Redouble your
efforts. BE absolutely sure you have
the right idea before you mako it
| your ideal.
Then. though 1t tarry, your disap.
1 pointment win prove heavens appoint
ment for a future day and God will
be on time,