Year: 1879




e. Church, Nov. 27th, 1879.


Prosperity after Trial.


Psalm LXvI. Verse Il


"We tUent through fire and through tcGter;
but thou brOughtest as out into a s0ealthy
place"


The refining work of Divine Prov
idence is carried forward by a va
ried discipline. Individual exper-
ience is chequered and shifting. Ma
tional history is an interchange of
calm and storms. The record of
the church is a succession of appar-
ent disasters and successes. And
often, for a long time, it seems as if
disasters were the rule, and storms
the law of Providence. Open the
dusty tones of history, either of ma
tions or the church, at almost any pc
riOd of the past, and certainly it
seems far more as if the world were
passing through fire and water, than
resting in a wealthy place. Yet
there is a guiding wisdom in this
succession; a goal of glorious re-
suit toward which all of it is work.
ing. To the soul that God leads, af-
ter darkness cometh light. To the
church, after struggle cometh tri-
umph. To the world, after the long
ages of oppression and war and an
guish, cometh the reign ofpeace and
holiness. After the fire and water
God bringeth out into the wealthy
places.


We have not vet, by any
means, reached the final age when
the fire and water of trial shall have
forever become a history of the past;
yet often,in the course of Providence,
there are premonitions of the glorious
end, clear shining after the storm fore
telling the day when the storm shall
be no more. And there is not only
such occasional Frightening to en-
courage human hope, but there is an
evident general progress running
through the ages, indicating the ad-
vance toward the goal. While in our
own age there is much, to the observ-
ant mind, evidenclng that the pro-
gress is growing in force and rapidity,
and that the blessedness of these lat
ter days is already making itself felt;
reality taking the place of prophecy.


propose, in this discourse, to
illustrate these statements by two
or three facts of present experience,
and to bring together the lines of
thought which they suggest, to see
whether we may not obtain from
them some glimpses of guiding
Providence working out the text,
and bringing US from the fire and
water into the wealthy place. For
it seems to me that nothing can be
more appropriate for our Thanks
giving Day than to trace the good
Providence of God, and to rejoice
that He reigneth, and that he is full
filling his promises of blessing.


Ist. We note one of the slighier
fulfillments of the text,in the return
ing business prosperity of our peo-
pie. This, of course, cannot be re-
garded as an abiding change; as if
prosperity were coming never again
to pass away. For prosperity has
returned many times before after
years of financial disaster and gloom;
and again, through human weakness
and divine discipline, it has given
place to adversely. So that the history
| of the past, in this regard, instead of
being steady advance through the
fire and water to the place of wealth,
has rather been like the tide of the
ocean, now flowing in fullness over
the shore, and again ebbing back,
leaving wrecks stranded on the sand.
Yet these returns of prosperity,
though in themselves shifting, are
indications of the general law which
lies far behind them: the certain
progress toward the prosperous fu-
tuTe which the world under Gods
band is making. Even in the affairs
of earthly business, which, although
to man SO engrossing, yet to His in-
finite ken, we might suppose, would
be the mere dust of the balance; yet
even in these God does not leave to
perpetual distress, but brings us out
of the trial into the wealthy places.
We have a right to trace a loving
Fathers care right through the little
things of this life; in health after
sickness, in safety after danger, in
business quickened, in prosperity re-
newed. He, who notes the fall of
the sparrow, cares for my houshold
and yours, watches over nv sickbed
and yours, is interested in my bust
ness and yours. The fault and the
loss of the world is that they seDa-
rate their worldly things from God.
They consider him a being so high,
with thoughts SO far above their
thoughts, that he can have no inter-
est in their affairs. But our God is
not an isolated majesty, shutting
himself out from the souls which he
has made. MOI Heis an all pervading
care and love. Nothing III which we
are interested so small that it is not
His concern. No good thing which
comes that is not His gift and
claims not our thanks.


And although this restored pros
perity is in reality one of our small
est causes for thanksgiving, yet
throughout our country in general
it will be in the mind to-day more
than almost any other, because it
comes right home to every busy,
struggling man, weary of the fears
and reverses of the past, and hope
full that a better day has begun.
Our President impresses this especi-
ally in his proclamation; and we
thank God to-day for every indica-
tion of reviving business and return
ing prosperity.


I'd. We take larger view and
look at fact teaching the same gen.
eral lesson, but vastly more import.
ant. This day is national day, and
our thoughts naturally recur to our
nation; and not merely to the nation
in the one aspect Of reviving busi.
ness, or for the period of half a doz-