The Nevada County picayune., 1910-07-01
Disappointments of Our Lives By REV. F. K. MARSH Pastor First Congregational Church
 Houston, Texas

made. Indeed, we say broadly: See ing is believing" and limit the field of mans activities to the boundaries of his horizon
 It 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 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 lpon their business. Standing on
 ome 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 constellations 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 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 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 1t will surely come"
 Lifes dsappointments 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 a 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.
 It 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 I hope we have not attained that ideal. I 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 dsappointments 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 use?" 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 a reporter. Richard Mansfield, autocrat. of naughty spirit. at the beginning of his career was offered an important part in play He fainted because he had been two days without food. which he was too poor to buy, and was imme- diately dismissed Disappointment of poverty. Teeumseh sherman. forty years old. wrote: "I look upon my self as a 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 ica, fought as a confederate soldier qt Shiloh and eventually crowned dis
 ppontments 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 NJ Stanley,
 Think of the disappontments of these men and a host of others who have endured as seeing an invisible vision. Paul wrote: We 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 a vision to be attained there must also be added vision 10 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 1t. Do not discard the ideal. Do not even cramp .bo ideal to fiji the real Crow tO its