The log cabin Democrat., 1916-05-01
GOD STILL RULES
And to Those That Love Him All Things Work EverlastingIy
 for Good.

-duCA III our IlNeS IS a puzzle. some times Q desperate paradox None of us can draw up his life chart for a year to come and follow it as a mechanic does his blueprint. We lay wise plans and they end in folly. We commit gross blunders and they are oyerruled for good. We hasten toward a bright light and it goes out in dark ness We stagger into darkness and 10. it becomes light, We pray for pleasures and they mildew into griefs. We sink down in our griefs and they blossom into joys. Today our apples turn into ashes and tomorrow our stones become bread We celebrate some prosperity and then leanness comes with it. We shudder at some diversity and later find it big with blessings. We run toward open doors and dash our heads against a granite wall. We prepare to batter down the wall and 10. it opens to let us through,
 In 1899 the first peace conference meets at The Hague In 1907 the per manent court of arbitration is found ed. Soon a number of peace treaties are being negotiated. War seems al most unthinkable, well-nigh doomed- when suddenly the worst war in his tory bursts upon the world. Is it true that the Son of Man has all authority in heaven and on earth? Does he ride upon the storm? Faith trusts. hope is htlf ha know that to them that love God all things work together for good" We are not the victims of a mild illusion nor faint hope We attain to i'm pregnable assurance We know" Not that we know all of Gods plans, but we know God. We are not taken into all his secrets, but we are lifted up into the light and warmth of his love. Are we facing losses, caught in a tangled thicket, defeated in some of the holiest ambitions of our life? There is one pathway to assurance and peace Hove God and thou shalt know" Thou shalt acquire the cognition of faith.
 All Things Work to an End.
 Diplomats may defeat the right for time, treaties may be scraps of pa per, but what statesman can check mate the hand of God? "I am Jehovah that maketh all things, that frustrat- eth the signs of the liars and maketh diviners mad, and that turneth wise men backward and maketh their knowledge foolishness." In the fur rows of shot and shell God is sowing the seed of new civilization. Not one soldier staggers to his death for nothing. Not one sailor sinks beneath the wave, not one widow weeps in vain. In the wake of guns and by the smoking ruins of huts and desolated fields God says today just what he did in Cyrus day, "Distill ye heavens from above and let the skies pour down righteousness; let the earth open that it may bring forth salvation and let it cause righteousness to spring up; for l Jehovah have created it."
 o men and women let us trust his unlimited skill! What to us is mar red and ruined he can turn into an enduring triumph. Point the telescope of your faith into the blackness of the night and you will find your star Trust him with your failures, and you will find that you are in the hands not of Fate" but of love. Perhaps this very year has left you richer than all others in the solidities of eternity
 Let our doubts give way to thanks giving, our fears pass into battling courage. The shadows come and go. The battle smoke does not mean that we have lost. In the fierce flame that devastates Europe, there walks the form of the Son of Man. Never fear! What shall separate these bleeding peoples from the love of Christ? Shall diplomacy, or intrigue, or monarchies, or war lords, or treaty y-breaking, or de- vastating armies? Nay, in all these things humanity the one family of the one Father, shall be more than con querors through him who loved us.
 Dost thou doubt this, O man?
 Love God and thou shalt know; obey him and thou shalt be sure Yield yourself to be an instrument of right eousness and a co-worker with the Son of Man, and thou shalt see his sal vation.
 As the Father hath sent me into the world, even so send l ou."-Rev. Thomas w. Smith, D. D.