Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1913-12-11
BRIGHT DAYS |
AND DARK
By REV. DONALD SAGE MAcKAY
D. D., LID.

Our bright days are counterbalanced
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 gaia.
and at the heart Of every defeat there
is for the man Of faith the
prophecy Of new victory. Go
where we will in the great universe
Of love and we find 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 wear 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 success
sion are all part of a divine plan.
These 1eeting changes of prosperity
and adversely, JOY and sorrow, life
and death, are not h%aphazard. They
are not the chance happenings Of a
cruel and needless fate. Nor are they
ebullitions ackleness in God, or for
getfulness Of his children. Not to
tantalize and tease the soul, not that
we may take u joys with trembling
and our orrows 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 Is worthless and best
within us. The dark days and the
bright days are as necessary to the
poise Of your character as the counter.
balance is necessary to the equilibri.
um of the wheel. It needs no pro.
found thinking to realize what a grind
Ing m%onotony life would be II there
were no shadows to offset its sunlight
What an insipid thing Joy would be-
come surfeit in the banquet Of life
If there were no bitters to cleanse
the palate Of the soul.
These bright days and dark days
In life as they come and go, some
times In rhythmic cadence and some.
times in ~bewildering confusion, are al
so part Of a divine revelation. They
are days Of revealing as we'll as days
Of discipline. God sends these alter.
mating seasons into your life to reveal
certain qualities within you, to call
into play certain capacities, to make
vital certain possibilities In your ma
tnre 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,
a truism that a man never knows how
much he IA endure until the day of
adversely comes. 1t has been pointed
out that Walter Scott became great az
q man and realized the highest ex-
preston of his genius not until the
wave 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
after that failure a new note became
vocal In the great writer's journal, a
new personality emerged. One re.
members in this connection the letter
which upon tho day succeeding the
news Of the disaster Scott wrote to
an intimate friend: II. have walked
FOR the las. time in these halls which
I have built, looked for the last tins
In all probability at the domain which
/ have planted, but death would HAYS
taken these things from me II mis-
fortune had not" The letter concludeu
with the words. Adversely Is to me
q tonic and bracer." Look at tina,
manuscript" says Ruskin. referring te
SCOTS novel Of Woodstock" which
was in curse of writing at the time
written In the very maelstrom Of tina,
adversely and not by tho CULVER Of
hair stroke, not BY the suggestion o.
= single tremor in the hand, not by a.
erasure or change, not by any falling
OF in the creative interest Of the stor,
could any one detect that when Scot
wrote the second part Of that move
he did so under . cloud Of bitter I'D
versity."
And biography - fun Of such I'M
maskings of the pressure Of the darl
days succeeding the bright days Ii
life. Millions personality became
far more potent influence after blind
ness had stricken him. The loss o
physical sight intensified the keennes
ef spiritual vision. Had Bunyan neve
lain IA Bedford jail no had neve
dreamed the Pilgrims Progrsss.l
Had Tom Hood never known for him
self the bitterness OF want and I'll,
ache Of pain no had never sung th,
.Song OF the Shirt. OF sobbsd out hi
immortal dirgs.l :'Ths Bridge q
sighs.s HadsDavid nsvsrgfallen % h
ala the world would never have FOL
the passion of pentiencs and aspirs
don Of heart which breathed throue
some such psalm % the nfty-nrst.H a
John never bSen banished TO the Il
land of Patmos ws should never hay
had the revelation o. heaven - no ID
upfolded 10 glortss n the last boo
of scripture IN enss. most solsm.
IL III. had Christ nevsrspassed thfoug
9he darkness ot Galway and tastsd Is
bittsruess 81 death. HI had nsya
beenssxaltsd q the saviour c Is
void. Il - biesssd sxperisncs surs
81 u tor ~ one q - from whom q
X NE HlA[ fEE5