Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1913-11-20
BRIGHT DAYS
AND DARK
y REV. DONALD SAGE MAcKAY
D. D., LID.

AASS "a AAA0 -
Our bright days are counterbalanosd
BY dark days. Our times Of prosper.
ity are Offset by times Of adversely.
For every sorrow there Is In the d.
vine providence, q corresponding gain.
and at the heart Of every defeat there
10 for the man Of faith the
prophecy Of new victory. Go
where we will in the great universe
OF love and we ind everywhere the
working Of this divine law Of counter.
poise-the divine love compromising
OF every earthly loss. where sin
abounds grace doth much more
abound" Where death walks with
insolent feet life triumphs in exultant
song. When earthly Joys wither heav-
emily hope blooms in eternal beauty.
When time wears out its venture into
threadbare decay eternity robes her.
self in immortal splendor.
We want to realize, Of course, that
these bright days and dark in life
which alternate in such swift ucces
sion are all part Of a divine plan.
These deeting changes Of prosperity
and adversely. Joy and sorrow, life
and death. are not haphazard. They
are not the chance happenings of a
cruel and needless fate. Nor are they
ebullitions lckleness In God, or for
g%etfulness Of his children. Not to
tantalize and tease the soul, not that
we may take our joys with trembling
and our sorrows with cringing does
our Heavenly Father set the dark days
over against the bright days in life.
God sends these seasons for the
growth Of what IL worthless and best
within us. The dark days and the
bright days are rs necessary to the
poise OF your character as the counter.
balance Is necessary to the equilibri.
UNI OF the wheel. It needs no pro-
found thinking to realize what a grind.
ing monotony life would be II there
were no shadows to Offset its sunlight
What an insipid thing Joy would be.
come--a surfeit in the banquet Of life
III there were no bitters to cleanss
the palate of the soul.
These bright days and dark days
In life 90 they come and 90, some;
times In rhythmic cadence and some.
times in bswildering confusion. are al.
10 part Of a divine revelation. They
are days Of revealing as well as days
Of discipline. God sends these alter.
mating season into your life to reveal
certain qualities within you, to call
into play certain capacities, to make
vital certain possibilities In your ma
ture which the monotony Of an un.
broken experience could never bring.
The changing days Of life unmask the
reserves OF character. It Is, Of course.
q truism that 4 man ' knows how
much he can endure until the day Of
adversity comes. It has been pointed
,out that Walter Scot. became great 90
! man and realized the highest q.
preston Of his genius not until the
ave of adversely swept over his life.
A writer has pointed out the common.
place character Of SCOTS personal
journal up to the time before the fail.
ure Of his publishers took place. But
aftAr that failure . new note became
vocal In the great writer's Journal. q
new personality emerged. One re-
members in this connection the letter
which upon the day succeeding the
new Of the disaster Scott wrote to
An intimate friend: II have walked
Nor the las. time In these halls which
Il have built. looked for the last time
in all probability at the domain which
u have planted, but death would have
taken these things from me II mis-.
fortune had not" The lsttsr concludes
with the words. .Adversity IL TO mo
. tonic and . bracer." Look at that
manuscript" says Ruskin. referring to
SCOTS novel Of "Woodstock' which
was In course Of writing ct the time.
written IN the very maelstrom Of that
adversity and not BY the culver Of I
hair stroke. not BY the suggestion OF
. single tremor in the hand, not BY an
srasure or change. not BY any falling
OF in the creative interest Of the story
could any n detect that whom ecott
wrote the second part az that novel
he did 20 under . cloud Of bitter "a.
versity."
And biography = fun Of suoh IN.
maskings Of the pressure Of the dark
days succeeding the bright days Is.
life. Milton's personality became I
ifar more potent influence after blind.
ness had stricken him. The los a
physical sight intensified the ksenness
ipf spiritual vision. HAD Bunyan never
lain n Bedford jail he had neyar
ArnnmnA the sspiI~r1,ms. u--A..