Year: 1861

~
ourselves one evening as we sat enjoying


the strawberries and cream at the table OF


distinguished civilian. He was one of


the honored of the land A goodly group


of SOLVE branches" were gathered around


him. The sweet-voiced wife at the head


of the table had in her early days been


afiianced to AIN aristocratic youth of great


wealth and promise, but on the appointed


day of their marriage he had eloped under


circumstances of peculiar baseness. What
a disappointment to expectant friends


and ambitious kinsfolk But the true


hearted girl swallowed her tears of NOR
tifcation, and in fitting time gave her


hand to a sturdy village lad, who has
since carried her as his wife to the Amer


lean Capitol She has lived to see her


renegade lover reel into the grave Of the


profigate. How little did she know what
an escape God had opened to her through
the dark door of disappointment.


We might multiply instances Of like
character from daily observation. A man


hurries breathless to the wharf in order
to reach a departing steamer. He is one


moment too late The plank is drawn f;
aud as he watches the stately vessel plow
her way off through the blue waters, she
seems to be plowing through his very
heart. Chow provoking" he exclaims
to the halfsmiling, Multiplying bystand-
ers. He goes home sulky; he retires
sulky to his bed, and walks up to read in
the morning paper that ga few hours
after leaving port, that steamer took fire,
aud whom last seen was floating on the
water a flaming wreck?' He fancies
himself clinging in despair to sinking
billet Of wood, and his very blood runs
cold when he thinks how near he came to
being on board that death freighted ves-
sci. And yet the very next time that
man is thrown out by Providence from
some favorite plan, he is slow to apply the
lesson of the past and to thank his HeaV-
enly Father for disappointment.


We do not pretend to be very apt
learner, but many of our best lessons
through life have been taught us by that
same stern old sehoolmaster, disappoint-
ment. And one lesson that we learned
was that this acorl2 agas not made
only for as. If it had been, the sun would
have shone just when our hay needed
curing, and the rain would have fallen
only when our gardens needed to be wa
tered. But we found that God went right
on and ordered things as pleased him best,
without consulting US. And when our
schemes were thwarted, the stern school
master said, "The world was not made
fer you alone Don't be selfish. Your
loss perhaps is another's gain. The rain
that spoiis your new-mown hay makes the
blade of corn to grow faster in your neigh.
boris field. The fall in grain that cuts
down your profits will help the poor wild
ow in yonder cottage. to buy bread cheaper
for her orphan babes So don't be selfish"


On grand scale we sometimes see this
lesson taught. When certain greedy
self-seeker once clutched at the empire of
the civilized world, stern disappointment
met him in his ambitious path, flung a
Russian snow-storm in his face, ard out
of the tiny flakes wove white
shroud to wrap the flower Of French chiv-
airy! Go back! 60 back he cried, all
Europe was not made for you. The les
son the proud usurper would not learn at
Aspern was taught him in blood and ag
ony at Borodino, and on the frozen banks
of the Dnieper. So, too, have we been
taught in the defeat of our humber
schems and in the failure Of our humber
plans" Don't be selfish; God did not
make this world all for you" This les
son is worth all it costs us.


II. A second lesson which dlsap-
pointment has taught US is that our losses
are not only gains to others, but very
often the richest gain to ourselves In
our short-sighted Ignorance We had ode
vised way" and set our hearts upon it.
Had we been allowed to pursue it, We
must have been led by it to ruin. God
could not have sent greater judgment
on US than simply to have let US have our
own way. Ia thousand instances we
have seen this made true both IN things
and In things spiritual. A mer-
chant is thwarted in some enterprise in
such manner as to excite his bitterest
modification. But the far-seeing God
knows full well that he has been saved
from much sorer sorrow. The pecuniary
failures of 1857 made many man of
business rich in the priceless treasure of
a Christians hope. 1t was dark door
which disappointment opened during that
calamitous year, but it led tens of thous-
lnds into the pathway Of heaven. Per-
haps it viii be seen that the black clouds
Of 1861 have "silver lining" yet to be
4nfolded. This years sad reverses have
already Taught some men true wisdom
before the sharp teacher is done with his
liscinline he NAV make them wise unfo