The Alaska citizen., 1915-08-09
. Q C q . [. Q c c . . . TROUBLE AND HOW TO BEAR IT

| HOUblE ANU HOW Q BEAR IT
 Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. Job 5:7
 Sparks fly upward according to a natural law, and it is just as natural for every heart that beats to ache, for every eye that looks to weep, and through the strain and the tug of the sorest suffering.
 If you have not suffered you will suffer, and if the subject does not touch you today it will touch you sooner or later. For as there is a law that if you loosen your grip on the book you hold in your hand it will fall to the earth, so is there a law that man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward.
 It seems that everything in nature prOclams this fact. It is heard in the signing of the winds, and the moaning of the storm, and the beat ing of the waves upon the seashore, So many things in life are written in a minor key.
 | We all know that the same thing Is true in human nature. It may be you will agree with me that We got wrong start from our first parents, for you have heard the | Coll Il all,' and it's truth fingers with you. 1 And how often in life have you realized that man has a bend toward the things that are bad, and that it takes a hard struggle to ever choose the things that are right and good. Men and women, boys and girls, are constantly illustrating this fact. We see it in each other. You see it in me. l see it in you. Trou ble, sparks, upward and how the words ring with truth!
 It takes little thinking for one to arrive at the conclusion that there is weakness in our nature and l tlldl lllNIC lo CllS LII III NllV Id " of moral gravitation, and each one who will speak out of the depths of his experience, must agree that it is easier to go down hill than to climb up. that it is easier to drift with the stream than to swim against the current, that it is easier | tn lN tn 1o ri oh
 All, then, need power from without in this time of need for it
 is sure that we cannot escape trou- ble. You cannot flee from it, you cannot buy yourself free from it, you cannot find a place where it does not reside. One of the richest men in the world had little grand child who was extremely i'll. The disease was pronounced fatal, but this rich man called counsel of 1 physicians, and said to them, "I will give a million dollars to the man who will spare this child's life and keep this shadow from our home" But the child died.
 One of these days your family circle will be broken. The little child that you love today will sicken and die and you cannot keep back the wave of trouble. One of these days your mother will die At a California hotel sat two men at an early breakfast. Both were large and strong and well. Suddenly one broke into tears. After while he recovered himself and said, "Ey- cuse me, sir, I know it is weak for man to cry, but l buried my mother yesterday. This is the first morn ing in all my life that I have been motherless. l never thought. some how. that mother would die. thought that I might die, that my children might die, but I somehow thought that mother would live" You cannot escape trouble and one of these days you will face it. Pneumonia may try to rob you of your dearest child. scarlet fever may lay his whitening grasp upon the little voice that rings so chee1y now with song. Trouble will come and you had better be prepared to meet it.
 In travelling between two of the important cities of California the road along the coast leads through a long tunnel AS the train approach es the place the lights are made clear and shining You turn to your companion and say. What is that fellow lighting those lamps for?" In an instant you would be in the darkness of midnight but for the preparation made for your comfort. Then you know why the lamps have been lighted.
 Some of you have never had any real trouble. You have never had 6 disappointment, you have never had deep heartache. you have never come back from the grave to find the house empty. And so I light the lamps for you now ere you are plunged into the tunnel so dark. It Is by no means the worst eX