The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1915-07-04
The Rainbow IN the Cloud
Bv n. Rev. Dr.. Charles 3. Mitchell, Rector Of
Christ Episcopal Church.

4 OnSt1S 6He9s
cen. 7:13. ..I do set my bow In
\ the cloud and 1t shall be for token
1 OF q covenant between me ana the
! earth" The great deluge mas
i passed. The storm is in full retreat.
The ark has come to anchorage up
! ON, the solid earth Here and there
J through the abating floods the high
ground begins to appear. The dove
/, which has been sent out comes back
with an olive leaf In her mouth. The
1 fountains of the deep and the WIN
! dows of heaven are stopped. and the
rain Is restrained.
The sun, SO long hidden, il break
ing through at last, and across the
hzky from horizon to horizon. stretches
! a splendid rainbow. Its glorious COL
/ ors arch the frowning heavens with
marvellous beauty. Noah ana MS
! sons see it there In all its magnin-
cence. It fills them with nope, anu
4 that hope is intensified and given I'M
mortal meaning when God says, This
rs the token of the covenant which 4
make between me and you and every
| living creature that is with you, Tor
/ perpetual generations. / DO set my
I bow in the cloud and it shall be Tor
+ q token of a covenant between me
and the earth"
The incident Is overlooking with
suggestion. Let US bring out SOM
/; of the lessons of 1t for our coml1 hI
/. and healing. The first thing TO pc
The Cloud.
It Is as common in our human Ike
! as st is in the sky above. US. 20
where you will. 1T is always In evl-
dence. N day. no life. without .
cloud somewhere, sometime. II IS THIS
| fact that makes q sermon or an al
!; dress, intended to cheer and comfort.
always appropriate. Speak about
honor. or fame, or glory; about posi-
ton. or power, or prosperity; ABOUT
some great success, or some great
victory. or some acquisition or great
wealth; speak about lives that know
nothing but sunshine and whose rect
walk amid pleasant surrounding
and you speak in a foreign tongue 10
Your talk is outside the range OF
! their experience They cannot UNI
derstand, there is no response. But
let your subject be pain, let IL oeal
with affection and sorrow ana neart
ache, with disappointment ana de-
feat, and every member OF your au-
dience feels that your words are Tor
, him. When trouble ts your target.
: no matter what may be the company
70 yOAS SOAH
strike home.
There is not man living who
does not know what is meant by gr1et
and fear and suffering and darkness.
In this one fact, which nobody Will
question, there is q world of s1gnin-
cance do not now go into the reas-
ON of it. Enough for my present
purpose to direct your thought to the
fact. Some words need defining
! Their meaning is not exactly clear.
To find out what they signify we need
light. But not SO with the words
which have to do with the rain of
life, with it's trials and its east winds
and its shadows. Explanation here
would be superiuous. Why are not
the skies always bright, and the road
always smooth, and the wind always
fair? Why should there ever be
wall or a groan or a misery?
Why should there be any cup OF
bitterness to drink Could not the
God of all power and all love have
fashioned world where these things
would have been forever unknown!
Why could not the great ochestral
leader Of the skies have filled the
universe with music of the hallelujah
sort, all jubilant. all triumphant. all
keyed to joy and exultatfon, and ex-
cluded from it every note of melan-
choly and every harsh discord and
every undertone or overtone or De
jeotion and gloom? Perhaps we shall
see later. We shall Sometime.
sometime, we'll understand" But
here let 1t suffice TO get a fresh grip
upon the thing that is. / am talking
about realities and not about phaE-
toms. / appeal to the book of your
own experiences. You know, every
one OF you, that the cloud is here. In
some shape and with varying degree
of density and blackness 1t hangs In
the sky of every life
The Rainbow.
But now from this background. SO
true to our experience let us go on
to think of the rainbow.
It is there in your life and mine.
God pity us If 1t were not. II 1t be
true that no man ever escapes the
cloud, 1t is also true that the cloud
. is never wholly black, unreieved oy
a single CLINT Of light.
1 have seen men in the deep wat
ers; have seen them in the driving
rain of some fearful sorrow, but new
er yet have I seen one utterly aban-
doned and left alone.
Tire was always some break in the
cloud, always some silver lining. al
ways some drop of sweetness In the
bitter cup. We look out into society.
into the homes of the people. and Of
ten our eyes fal upon tragedies that
make our hearts bleed. But dread
full as they are. there is invariably
some rift through which a ray of
sunshine falls. Out of the stagger-
4ng darkness, caused by the sinking
Titanic, out of the heaviness that
settled down upon two conttnents
! over the anguish and horror and
\ separation of that pitiless toll OF the
! sea, came heroisms and God like
! sacrifices which have enriched the
! world for all time to come. The
) grief may be the keenest that can