The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1910-07-09
Disappointment
of Our Lives
By REV. r. n. MARSH
Pastor First Congregational Church
Houston. Texas

| what we are. The books we read and
the sights we witness furnish much Of
the foodstuff out Of which character II
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, were
told that everyone who looked should
live. Surely the principle is of wider
application than this isolated incident
It can be truly said that only those
who look really live. Here Is 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. Vision has value.
Years have passed. You have not
been living on the tower. You have
plunged in the valleys. You have
whded deep waters. You have scaled
steep heights. Sometimes 1t 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 prophet on 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 10 yet for an appointed
time though It tarry, wait
for it, because 1t 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 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 l hope we
have not attained that IDEAL l say
"hope So" because it we have
achieved that ambition it means, not
that we have made wonderful prog
ress, but that the vision was too in
significant to have lasting value.
The disappointments of life, be they
in secular business, Christian work
or Christian character, may produce
one Of two results. One is despair.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick.
Disappointments are like eggs, which,
brooded over and Matched, produce
the serpents of despair. When a man
begins to ask: Whats the usc?" he
ought to stop and find out.
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 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 imine-
diately dismissed. Disappointment of
poverty. Tecumseh Sherman, forty
years old, wrote: II look upon my
self as a dead cock in the pit, not
vorthy 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 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 a 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
vision to secure attainment. This
means that with an ideal there must
also be added a 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