Year: 1879

|
and most jubilant OF all associations
is Christian association.


Again l fad much sunshine In
Christian and divine explanation.


TO most people life is an lnexplica-
BILE tangle.


Things turn out opposite TO what
you might suppose. There is
useless woman perfectly we'll, ana
there is an industrious and conse.
Grated woman completely invalided.
There is a bad man with $4,000 in
come, and there is a good one with
81, BOO. There is a man, nuisance
to society, seventy five years OF age,
and there is Christian at thirty


five years taken from the scene of


his usefulness. There is no one
sentence that you oftener utter than


81 don't understand this.p Our re.
ligion comes in with our misfor-
tunes. The world goes the other


way when a man is down. During
the week before that man lost his
property there were fifteen or twen-
ty carriages at the door. The week
after his misfortune you could count
all the carriages on one finger. The
week before his financial disaster
men took their hats clear of, pass
ing him in the street. The days
that he was under severe financial
discussion people only tipped their
hats, hardly bending the rim A fter
the question was decided adversely
people gave a slight jolt of their
heads without touching their hats,
and the week after the sheriff had
sold him out people were busy look
| ing in the store windows as they
passed him. But religion delights
10 come TO a man when he is down.
1t assures him there are some things
more important than money. It
saws your sickness is merely purih-
cation. IL says, God wants TO
transplant your family 90 Heaven.
and he had TO begin somewhere,
and, Of course, he took the one best
fitted TO go. do not say that re
ligion makes everything plain, down
TO the minutia, but it has general
explanations very consolatory. You
know the principle of telegraphy by
ciphers. Not wishing the public TO
get the telegram. the merchant In
Chicago telegraphs TO the merchant
in New York certain words, which
are simple nonsense TO others, but
at each end Of the route there Is


man who has the key, by which


these meaningless words become i'm


portant information, on which bust


ness operations Of tens Of thousands


of dollars are builded. So the vicis-


situdes of our life sometimes seem


senseless rigmarole OF a contra
diction, or u mysterious cipher.
But God has a key to it, and though


we have some difficulty in spelling
it out, we shall get enough meaning
out of it to learn that God is doing
everything for the very best. Is


there no sunshine I'm that? 1t Is


pleasure far beyond laughter. 1t is
nearer the fountain of tears than OF


boisterous demonstration. Have
you ever cried for joy? There are


tears which are eternal rapture in


this relation. There are thousands


here who walk in the full satisiac


tion and the perpetual delight that
all is well. i do not know how
men without the explanations of re
! ligion keep out of the insane asy
lum. Your child dead, ald that Is
the end of il. Your property gone,
and that is the end Of that. Your
reputation perished, aud that is the
end of it, Tell rue how you can stand
all this2 Are your nerves and mus
cles different from minc2 Where
did you get this supernatural tough
ness2 No religion, and yet not
maniac!


| find much Sunshine in the cli-
macterine joys OF the next life. A
man who rises and leaves the build
ing after tile opening voluntary Of -
concert has been played, and before
the priD1a donna takes the platform,
or before the full orchestra has be
gun, has as good an idea Of the
whole concert as that man has OF
the pleasures OF religion who thinks
that they stop at the end OF this
life. We only here have the FIRST
note of the oratorio. In that bless
ed land we shall have the pleasures
Of discovery. In five minutes we
will catch up with all The geogra
pliers and philosophers and 90 cn
lists and mathematician who 50 far
distanced us in this world. ] adj
iourn, for the most par, astronomy
and geology, and mathematics and
architecture 10 the next world. We
will have better apparatus there We
will have more opportunity. must
study these arts and sciences 80 as
to be qualified for my work, but
shall toll on in my work, trying 70
save my own soul, and % save the
souls OF others, with the Supreme
satisfaction that in one flash Of eteT-
nifty 1 will get il all. Oh, what an
observatory Heaven will be from
which TO study astronomy No
telescope but a supernatural VISION
comprising everything, aud % me
thing be doubtful ten N hipn miles
away, sweeping there AID back
quicker than can tell yoI. Grol
ogy-what "A place % study geology
when the world is beiug picked
apart as easily as school girl in
botanical studies pulls tne b al irom
the corolla. We sometimes wish
VIC knew more about architecture.
But, oh what a place Heaven wall
be in which TO study architecture
mid thrones and palaces aud TEN
pies and cRthedrals; where ~.
Marks and 81. PauPs would be only
mockeries. We envy the man who
has the time and the me ns 70 travel
all around the world. We hayn't
the time; we havn't the means. We
will make all that trip during the nu.
sical pause between an eternal an
them. Discovery l shall know every
thing that is worth knowing. foL
will too. / say this for the encOur
agement Of all those people WHO are
living what they call Q bumdrum
life, who have passion iVF kDoyl'
edge and yet have no means of SAT.
tsfying il; who work and toil and