Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1910-11-11
9bort gern1ons
For
5unnap Dalf=Nour
Theme:
STRENGTH OUT OF
WEAKNESS
+ I. +
BY Edwin Whittier Caswell, D. D.

strong."--Hebrews, XII, 81.
The one hundred thousand specta-
tors witnessing the Olympiad at Lon
don were filled with wonder when
they saw mere boy from New York
City, the smallest of the fifty-fve COM
petitors, win the great Marathon race.
Littleness was better than bigness;
quality than quantity. That the I'M
seen forces Of will. courage, purpose
and faith are mightier than visible
prowess was proven when David met
Goliath, when the Japanese defeated
the Russians, and when John Hayes
won the twenty-six mile race.
Consciousness of weakness means
preparation, discipline progress and
development, and these mean victory
Necessity is called the mother of in
vention; therefore If the young man
of wealth feels no necessity he will
fail of the greatest achievement.
Carnegie and Rockefeller struggled
up from the weakness of poverty to
the summit of wealth and influence
Dante, Ruskin and Carlyle fought
against the weakness of bodily ills
till they attained the climax of intel
lectual greatness. The handicap of
blindness enabled Milton, of England,
Milburn and Mathewson, of Scotland,
to behold visions of thought and beau
ty beyond their fellows.
Hardships, deprivations and great
difficulties in early life lifted Lincoln
and Grant into their Hottest seats of
power. Prisons have palaces proved
to minds like Paul and Bunyan, where
they were inspired to produce pen pic
lures that have delighted and blessed
mankind in every land. Is it not a
sublime truth that there is pathway
upward for every one? No wonder
that Paul glOried in his inffrmities,
prosecutions and distresses, for he
exclaimed, when / am weak, then am
/ strong, for the power of Christ will
rest upon me-"
The little child becomes strong be-
cause it stretches out it's hand to the
parent. The father is nobler when he
bears his child out of danger into
safety. So the sinful and troubled
soul that stretches out it's hands OF
faith to the Heavenly Father feels I'm.
derneath the everlasting arms and
nestles in the bosom Of forgiveness
and fatherhood; and who shall say
God Is not happier and mightier be-
cause of His embrace of helplessness?
Do you feel crushed by the law of
"the survival of the fttest," or that
"the weakest go to the WALL? Heav-
ems law of grace creates fitness and
meetness for the highest inheritances.
Do you agonize In the commissions OF
pain? 1t is the Divine Hand leading
you to greater riches, as earthquakes
reveal the gold in the rended rocks.
If God in nature can produce the
diamond from the black carbon. the
white lily from the black earth and
bulb, the great tree from the tiny
seed, He can bring purity out Of sim
fitness, strength out of weakness and
heaven out of hell. His power will
enable the soul that trusts in Him to
overcome dangerous hereditary tend
encies, untoward environments and
unspeakable difficulties, so that you
may become the author of opportuni-
ties and the creator of circumstances,
and though at last, like John Brown,
you go down to ignorminious death,
your liberty loving soul will go
marching on" through all millenni-
ums, in blessed companionship with
Him who arose from the weakness OF
the manger, the cross and the sepul-
chre to become Conqueror and Ruler
of all worlds.
If we put our little crosses at the
foot of His great cross He will lift
them up until they become transfig-
ured into crowns Of glory for ever.
more.