FOR THE SABBATH.
"LIFE'S UNEXPECTED ISSUES."
(By W. L. Watkinson).
The routine of life is familiar to all and anticipating the future we picture it as agreeing in the main with things as they are. But hnw frequently our reasonings are falsified and we find ourselves in unfamiliar situations! Probability may be the "guide of life," yet vast scope is left for the improbable; again and again we see the incredible of one day becoming history on the next. The most probable, after all, is that the future will be utterly unlike the present bringing to pass events now farthest from our thought. Pleasant surprises await us. —"The surprise view" of Fountain's Abbey is known to many. The visitor is conducted along the pathway until a certain eminence is gained when the guide suddenly flings open a door and a panorama of memorable beauty greets the eye, God also startles and delights His people with such discoveries. We are, perhaps, haunted with fears; and if not exactly in the mood of fear, we are certainly not in the mood of expectation, when an unforseen combination of cirumstances cunfess affluence, distinction and happiness beyond our rosiest dream. "The Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad." The sweet surprise may not seem to come often. Yet strangely mournful is the life in which it never occurs at all. The miner rarely finds a monster diamond, or the diver a big pearl, and to the majority the flush of success is almost the miracle of life: yet the great Father does not forget the lowliest of His children, lighting up the winter of their discontent with beams of spring, sprinkling gold dust on their meagre lot, causing a rose to bloom on their monotonous path, lest their spirit should fail before Him and the souls that He has made. Painful surprises are a common experience. God works out His purposes, alike of judgment and mercy, in a way that trancends the cummon order. Some trials we foresee and brace ourselves to meet, but other strokes of adversity astonish us by their suddenness and uniqueness. Misfortune comes in a time when we look not for it. Anxieties natural to mature life trouble youth and the troubles that we might reasaonably suppose to pass with our noon revive to add consternation and bitterness to our closing years. We aro confounded by a sudden rock in smooth sea, by a thunderbolt out of a blue sky, by frosts in the time of roses. The uncertainty of life is a tremendous and dangerous fact, dashing the cup from our lips, quenching in the blackness of night, brilliant hopes. Then let us prepare for the unexpected. In certain worldly callings we observe an order of intellect that deals promptly and effectually with the unexpected. Job's wife lost her head and shrieked "Curse God, and die." Job' kept his. "In all this Job sinned not nor hanged God foolishly." The grand preservative is habitual trust in God and a just sense of the value and proportion of earthly things; with such habitual confidence and judgment we shall neither lose our dignity nor compromise our peace. Then, whatsoever wind doth blow, My heart is glad to have it so; And blow it east or blow it west, The wind that blows, that wind is best. Mary Jones, of Llanfihangel, at the age of 16, walked over 50 miles in order to have a Bible. Has yours a little dust on it? "Think of sin in your own being. Think that the man in the next house has the same amount of sin in him and all the people in your street are like that. Multiply that by all the number of streets in your city, and that by the number of cities in your country, and that by t.he number of countries in the world, and you have a ghastly spectre under which your imagination staggers. However, the sin can be taken away. 'Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!' Drummond. The union of the Methodist and Primitive Methodist Churches will take place early next year. The united church will comprise 260 ministers and home missionaries, 30,000 Sunday school scholars and 100,000 adherents. remember me for good, Passing through the mortal vale; Show me the atoning blood, When my strentgh and spirit fail Give my gasping souls to see Jesus crucified for me! Fault-finding is the shortest-sighted policy in the world. It does no good. It is energy wasted. There is an infinitely better way. When a person makes a mistake or does wrong, speak to hinkkindly. It will act like magic. "Down in the human heart, crushed by' the temper, feelings lie buried which grace can restore." "Heaven knows, when there are so many abuses, we ought to thank a man who will hunt them out. I will never believe that a man has a real love for the good and beautiful, except he attacks the evil and the disgusting the moment he sees it."' —Kingsley. In these days of doubtful disputations, vague doctrines and dangerous deceits let us hold fast to this great foundation fact of Justification. Let us study our Bible to gain and grasp a clear view of its meaning. "People are perpetually afraid of doing wrong, but unless they are doing its reverse energetically, they do it all day long."—Ruskin.
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King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 498, 7 September 1912, Page 3
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905FOR THE SABBATH. King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 498, 7 September 1912, Page 3
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