Norwich bulletin., 1917-05-26
Sunday Morning Talk
HANDICAP RAGING.

Every contestant on the cinder track of life runs his course under some dis advantage. We are conscious enough of our own handicaps, but those of our neighbors are often hidden from view We cannot see the circumstance that holds this or that man back. nullify- ing his best efforts and putting him behind in the race. It is certain. how
 weight. and the fact should lead us to
 make due allowances and to judge him leniently.
 The Apostle Paul suffered from. a
 thorn in the fesh'' or. as the margin gives it. "a stake" in the flesh. The
 probability is that he was afflicted
 with some bodily infirmity or painful
 disease that threatened to wreck his
 usefulness. Some scholars have in
 c1ined to the opinion that it was
 epilepsy. Others think he was trou-
 bled with weak eyesight: while others
 have advanced the theory of malarial
 fever. Whatever it was, it represent
 ed an impeachment in the great cam
 paign that was before him The Apos-
 tie besougflt the Lord thrice that the thorn might depart from him, but his
 prayer was unanswered. Instead, he
 was given the deeper understanding in which all similar situations must be interpreted-'GMy grace is sufficient for thee. for My power is made per feet in weakness.
 Some handicaps are very evident and we hasten to honor one who sur mounts them. When Helen Keller pre- sented herself to take the examination that admits to Radcliffe College, even her friends were amazed. She could neither see the examiner nor hear his voice, and the subjects were Greek, advanced Latin and the higher math- ematics. Her old teacher might have communicated the printed questions to the blind, deaf dumb girl, but out of difference to the rules of the institu- tion. this method was ruled out. A man was found who could write the Braille a.phabet and engaged to put the questions in that form. At the appointed time, however, it was dis covered that he knew only the Amer ican system, while Miss Keller had systems being In their arrangement quite different. To the difficulty of the abstruse subjects was now added that of reading a strange writing. The which she was to have measured the 1 time she dared give to the various topics had been inadvertently left at | home With only her instinct as | guide, this wonderful young woman | kept track of the passing minutes and | at the end of the examination period | handed in a paper that enrolled her | with the entering class.
 A victory like that calls ou the ad- of the world. We are less en- | thusiastic over thousands of less con- spicuous victories that may be in [ process of being won all about us, be- cause we fail to recognize them The | wonder regarding a multitude of the | sons of men is not that they get ahead so slowly, but that they get ahead at | all When we take into account the various physical maladies, the mental | twists, the inherited crotchets, the i'm of circumstance that play | their parts in human affairs we are less surprised at failure and infinitely more appreciative of success A l thousand ships would be faster saiIers if some clumsy defect of construc- ton beneath the waterline could be and a million human lives might forge ahead if the hidden hand leap could be removed.
 Let the handicap be honestly recog- | nized. We must perceive with Elmer son that life invests itself with in syitable conditions which the unwise seek to dodge, which one and another orags that he does not know, that T. they do not touch him; but the brag Is on his lips, the conditions are in l. his soul. If he escapes them in one ll part, they attack him in another more vital part" r.
 But let the handicap never in Gods world be held as either terror or an excuse. The Apostles thorn phiIos- ophy is not an easy one to reach, but | 1t has girded with strength those who hold it. 'T will rather glory in mine nfirmities,' he could write, that the power of Christ may rest upon me take pleasure in weak f. aesses, in injuries in necessitieso' Only such a spirit could comprehend that paradox of the divine love by j. which from limitation has ever been Ii made to issue strength and accom- plishment and joy.
 THE FARsoN.. Ii