Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1917-08-26
THE CAUSE OF DIscOURAGEMENT

thy Gods, and truth's.-Shakespeake.
Since truth is Interchangeable, the on
ly thing left for its enemies to do is
IT. cause men to disbelieve it, just as
lat the beginning the serpent insisted:
Thou shalt not surely die Every
effort to make man lose faith in God,
b. righteousness, in truth, is based on
that original lie, or rather in the same
old lie, with variations.
Back of every evil deed, of every
false belief, of every thought that is
calculated to induce happiness, misery
and woe, is the serpent of error whis-
pering lies The weapons he uses are
the faults and frailties of mankind He
nses egotism, saying "Ye shall be as
gods; he uses vanity, appealing to his
victims with fattery; he uses anger,
urging the destructive impulse; he
uses selfshness which in reality COM
prises all the other weaknesses, telling
thou unwary and weak in faith that he
is about to starye to death, or that he
ior some loved one is in danger, or that
some misfortune is about to engulf him
of that evil is usti o nthe eve of over
whelming him In This way he induces
fear, and fear causes Encouragement,
and when one becomes discouraged
ard faithless, h e is virtually at the
mercy of evil and all it's imps of dark
mess Had he refused to listen to the
voice of the tempter and had given ear
to the still small voice." he would
have been encouraged by the words
Fear not for I am with thee; be not
Idismayed, for l am thy God; l will
help thee, yea, / will strengthen thee,
yea 1 will uphold thee with the right
hand of my righteousness"
When one becomes discouraged ana
fearful. it is a manifestation of more
faith in evil than in good, more faith
il error than an righteousness, more
faith in the devil than in Deity, wheth-
as he realizes it or not No one would
likely plead guilty to this, but when
it is analysed it will be seen that such
must be the case, else why the fear
and the encouragement? Why loneli-
ness and detection? Why fearful an
! ticipations of what tomorrow shall
bring forth? IF God be for us, who
can be against u.s." If it We're constant
| II realized that THE angel of the Lord
encampeth round about them that fear
him and delivereth them" we should
not be so disposed to run up the white
flag and surrender to evil, for we
should then have less belief in the
DEVILS power and ability to overcome
Jus. We would then heed the admoni-
ton and assurance, Resist the devil,
ard he will flee from you And he
fees because he is resisted, for h"
knows that such resistance comes be-
cause of ones trust in Gods power to
deliver him, and he knows he has that
power; that without it there would be
no effcrt worth while made to resist
him, for both the desire and ability 70
resist comes from Omnipotence.
The prince of the powers of the
air" does not undertake to drag one
from under the shadow of His Wing
he does not try to pluck one out OF
the hollow of His hand" he makes nc
effort to steal one out of the ever,
lasting arms" he knows it useless tc
claim ownership of one who realizes
that In Him we live, and move, an.
have our being"
Gods power and presence are not tC
be doubted.
They are everywhere evident Hi,
, immanence is as sure as existence
His omnipresence can not be ques
!tioned for to think of the smalles
: portion of the universe without God il
. i: is self-evident folly
The Power which suspended the SUI
, in the sky must be the same power tina
keeps it there. He who hung the moor
, on the dark cheek of night must still