Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1913-09-18
BRIGHT DAYS
N DARK
b REV. DONALD SAGE MAcKAY
D. D.. LID.

But where sin abounded. grace did
much more abound.-Rom. $40.
How much the counterbalance plays
its part In the activities of human life!
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, a corresponding gain,
and at the heart Of every defeat there
is for the mar Of faith the
prophecy Of new victory. Go
where we will in the great universe
OF love and VIZ 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 cal out It's venture into
threadbare decay eternity robes her.
oOA1 III llAu1OTLdt 6plSluOT.
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 leeting 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
ebullittons fckleness In God, OF for
g%etfulness Of his children. Not to
tantalixe and tease the soul, not that
we may take our joys with trembling
and our sorrows with cringing does
u 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.
UNI Of the wheel. 1t needs no pro.
found thinking to realize what a grind.
Ing monotony life would be II there
were no shadows to Offset It's sunlight
What an insipid thing Joy would be.
come-a surfeit in the banquet of life
-if there we're no bitters to cleanse
the palate Of the soul.
These bright days and dark days
in life as they come and 60, some:
times In rhythmic cadence and some.
times in bewildering confusion, are al
30 part Of q divine revelation. They
are days Of revealing as well 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,
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 q man never knows how
much he can endure until the day O.
adversely comes. It has been pointed
out that Walter Scott became great az
q nan 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 Scott's persona
Journal up to the time before the fail
ure OF his publishers took place. Blu
after that failure q new note becam.
vocal In the great WRITER'S journal.
now personality emerged. One re
members in this connection the lette
which upon the day succeeding til,
news Of the disAster Scott wrote Il
m intimate friend: Fl have wake,
for tho las. time IN those halls whicl
I have built, looked for the last tim
mall probability 1t the domain whicl
I have planted, but death would hay
taken these things from me II mil
fortune had not" The letter conclude
with the words. .Adversity ii to IA
1 tonic and = bracer." "IooE at tia
manuscript" says Ruskin. referring t
SCOTS novel Of woodstock" whic
was In course Of writing ct the time
written Ia the very maelstrom Of thu
adversely and NOT BY the CULVER Of
hair stroke. not BY the suggestion .
i single tremor IN tho hand, not by !
erasure or change. not BY any fallin
OF In the creative interest Of the stor
could any one detsct that whom scot
wrote the second part Of that move
he did ~ under : cloud OF bitter u
vsrsity."
And biography = full of such. III
mashngs Of the pressure Of the dar
days succeeding the bright days 4
lifs. Milton's psrsonality became
tfar more potent influence altar blina
ness Ind stricken him. The loss /
physical aight Intensified tho keennea
Of spiritnl vision. Had Runyan nev<
lAintnBsdtord jail 10 had nsve
dreamed tho .Pilgyim,e Progress,