PACIFIC CHRISTIAN MESSENGER, FRIDAY, DEC. 31, 1880.
2
Result of a Practical Joke.
had found blessedness,” and I believe this. No troubles are more real than stint struggle to be firm. That- glow
BY OEO. B. GBWIT1I.
this would be the case with many if children's troubles—whatever betheir of holy beauty iriajv'be from the light
they would cease looking for and ex cause. Children’s hearts ache, and of the refiner’s fire which is burning
The mischief that thoughtless boy»,
.Dear Siatere of the Meaaenger:
pecting it as if they thought it was children’s hearts sometimes ■ break, day and night in the heart Below, j
Let us <|raw our chairs around our their right oi as if it were their main with their troubles, Many a little Those cheerful words and smiles may ' sometimes do by their practical jokes
warm fires and have a pleasant chat thing in life.
child has deliberately put an end to I be the rich harvest from seeds which | is immeasurable; and as often un
Before we say a final good-bye to the
A dear old year this has been to his despairing life, because of trouble were ndt quickened unless theyfliedl ! known to them. A while since, a
old year. Without the blast! sweep me, although cares and sorrows have that was terribly real to him, how- and were not fruitful except as they . lady was conversing with a dear
friend, who made the remark that
by; but let us not allow the chill marked some of its days. But I have ever trifling its occasion may have were nourished from hidden graves.*
As Charles Kingsley puts it: “How “ she had never been the same person
frosts of winter to freeze our hearts met many friends whose kindness has seemed to others. We Ipay sneer at
I
and make them cold and selfish. Let given me strength, which makes life a loss which-troubles-a child, as per many sweet and lioly^ -»fills. who look since her fall”
The lady answered that she had
cheerfulness and kindly feeling like look different from what it did only a haps only " a broken toy ;” but that .cheerful enough before the eyes of
the glowing fire fill our hearts with few years ago. I feel ready to take i toy, with its associations, and with man, yet have their- secret sorrows. never been informed in regard to any
1 •
• to’’ ’p'/t" • 1 •
love and warmth toward our fellow up whatever work there is for me. to' i j* Ine
inveita tare of Ins imaginings, may They carry their cross unseen all day injury from which she‘was suffering.
beings. Oh that all homes could be do earnestly and willingly, ready, I j have beert a very dear and sacred long, and he down to sleep on it at I " I thought I had told you,’’ she re
as bright as the cheery blaze in our think, to live out the days arid years thing to the child. (An we even say night ; and they will carry it perhaps^ plied- '>■ It happened twenty years-,
rooms. But there are some where that are best for me, whether many j that our standard of values is always for years and years, and to their ago. You notice the’ scar upon my
sorrow has hung such a heavy cloud, or few ; sure that there is some work j superior to the child’s. l)o we now graves, and to the throne of Christ,- fort head. It is from the . wound I
that it seems there is nothing that can for every one of them,-however little put no false estimates on toys? We before they lay .it down; and none then received. We were moving, and
light up its gloom ; and in others such lot humble it is, always trying to be ' might,, it is true, call a loss which but they and Christ will ever know I went out in great haste, and was
walking very, briskly, when L-stum-
want and poverty of faith that I fear guarded inXvord or deed that would | well-nigl\ broke our hearts^“ a shat what it was.”
Trou ble isnot on the su rfaee. , Ti ouble _l>led over a cord that some boys had
•io brigbtnes^mther of fire or heart do harm, for it is the unguarded tered idol,” instead of “ a broken toy ;”
exist; while iiiijther stately homes word which ofVenest proves a root of but the consequent trouble would be is not alike to- all. Trouble is not to fastened across the street, where the-
the hearts are sometimes so cold and. -bitterness I know we cannot be too no greater, nor any .more real, to us, be measured by one man for another. workmen were repairing the gas
w rapped in self that there is little re careful in the exercise of a wholsome in the one case, Hian to tjie child in There is a Irakis of truth for either of pipes. I fell directly into the trench,
us in the neg« o refrain :
flected light and warmth-to even make Restraint over our tongues and inter- the other.
striking upon my forehead and also__
happiness in the fautily circle. Homes course with each other, if we would
•
‘
Nobody
knows
de
trouble
I
has
;
breaking my left arm in three places
After all, it is the childish troubles
Nobody knows bat Jesus.”
such places are not, only houses to preserve-thu mutual respectif every which are severest to most of us—
so that the bone pierced through the
stay in, repulsive often to some of the one.
especially to those who are most sen- There is less uf truth underlying the flesh. I was taken up senseless, the
inmates, who will spend as-little time i So 1 say good-by to the year just I sitive, and hence are capable of keen- despairing cry for any one of us : “ Is blood streaming % from my mouth,
there as-possible. Perhaps if parents, I going with a tender loving feeling, est suffering. What is it which just it nothing to you, all ye that pas« by? nostrils and ears; and, as we were in
Histers and brothers knew the wrong yet not regretfully for the hope comes now troubles you above all things Behold, and see if there be any sorrow > a new neighborhood, no one recog-
they often do by thus selfishly acting that the new year may be better else,? Is it that which the world like unto ury sorrow, which is done ! nixed me, and I was taken to a saloon
they would not be so careless and in stilhr—I am ready to welcome it would say was worthiest of your first unto me, wlysrew.ith the Lord hath af i near by and seated in a chair upon
different.
with a hopeful couragous heart and thought, and ought to occasion you flicted me.” “ The heart knoweth the sidewalk. Of course, 1 was soon
How pleasant to turn from such
see the wheels of time, without a.pang most anxiety ?. And what was it that his own betterness.” Each soul knows ' surrounded by.a curious crowd, among
pictuiez to happy homes that we crush into nothingness the old year’s made you so unhappy, so unfitted you its own trouble—and only Rs own. whom came a poor old woman, whom
know where love-light reigns. Let us
for the practical duties of life, a year It is not for us to expect that.others I had befriended in her poverty^
unfulfillments.
hope there are many many such * to
M. B. ' ago, and again only last month ? Does can measure our trouble; nor have we Through her exertions my husband
balance the sad, cold and lonely ones.
it seem to you now quite as important the ability or the right to pass upon was found and I was taken home
It was not-this I meant to talk of
What is Trouble ?
as it "then appeared? Can you even theirs. We cannot understandSthe Several physicians were summoned,,
however, but the old year which is
remember exactly what it was ? cause or the extent of the..whirl iq all of whom advised that I be allowed
There are few words of common
slowly and solemnly moving away. I
Whether you can or not, and what their hearts that makes it seem" as iT to die in peace, my injuries being con
have- been -watching its seasons as .use that are less understood in their ever you -think of the reasonableness the very foundations of the earth were sidered fatal. But at the entreaties
they passed, each tilled with its seppe'and force than the word., of it as'a cause of trouble to you, you being swept away ; nor can wo real- I | of myHusTahd and friends, operations
peculiar phase of life. Spring with '•'trouble.” The Bible tells us that cannot question that your .trouble *ze
we cftn have quite as severe were |>erforined, and as I lived through
its brightness and summer ootnpMe 1 man that is born of a woman is of over jt was very real at the time—as trouble from quite a different cause. them, thp physicians took eourage.
with its climax of beauty before any few days, and full of trouble ;” and real as any trouble you ever had, or But to them and to us there is coni- At four different times the probes
shadow of decay, and lovely autumn that “ man is born - unto trouble, as ever equid have. Trouble is' not the fort at every such time in the thought were introduced into the forehead to'
with its-invigorating coolne«s and its [surely as| the sparks fly upward." less real for being childish and un- that One who fully knows our trouble relieve the pressure upon the brain
harvest 6f gobd thtngH fnr oirmonrish- And- in our mdtnary speech we refer 1 easonabTcT”-
ment through the coming winter. to our troubles, and to the troubles of
Not what comes to us, but the tenderly and is able and ready known, I had to endure'to the utter
Are they not like the seasons of our others, with the widest and most light in which we look at it, settles to bring us safely through it.
most the exerheiating torture the
life ? The joyous spring of early varying range of meanings. Some the question whether we have trouble " God is our refuge and strength,
o|>erations inflicted.
childhood with its smiles and tears times we s; eakof being troubled with over it or not. The coarser grained A very present help in trouble.
" I was insane for weeks, and it
chasing each other so rapiuly, its un indigestion or the rheumatism ; again man shrugs bis shoulders, when he is Therefore will not we. fear through the was three months between the first
earth be removed,
developed beauty and pron+rse ijf what of being troubled by poor servants, or sharply rebuked by a companion, and
So you can
And
though
the mountain* be carried into and last operations.
is to come The may time of our ~by-- house-d eaning and . the painters
judge of the extent of my sufferings.
youth with ita ffowery hopes. A and plasterers; again, of our child no bones.” He is .not troubled by Though the -water* thereof roar atd be
" Since you make no allusions to
little farther on the June days of out ren’s troubles with their playmates or anything of that sort. The man of
■ troubled,
<
the broken arm,’’ said the,lady friend^
existence, when happiness Seems com their studies; of a good woman’s finer grain reads in the countenance '(bough the mountain* shake with the “ I infer that it gave you less trouble
swelling thereof.
plete—before the late summer heats trouble with her intenqierate hus of a friend whom he loves and honors
than your head.”
of life have scorched and withered its band : of lab«» troubles, and financial a censure of some careless word of his Tbo Lord of hosts with t>s.
“ My arm healed very well, but has
The God of Jacob i* our refuge
joys, or shown that sorrow must be troubles, and jailitical troubles, in the : and his heart is pierced with pain.
been
comparatively useless ever since.
Lord give ushdlp from trouble; for
mingled with the happiness of all. community at large. Yet again we I To him-
I
was
formerly a fine pianist, but
vaih is the help of man.—N. N. Time«.
Finally the gradual fading of life's say, in a general way, that *a certain
since
the
fall cannot use my hand at
“ A clouded face,
beauties and interests, especially in man has a great- deal of trouble, or Strikes harder than an angry blow.”
the piano and it is so weak that it is
The Fighting Element of Life.
what interests the joung, the falling that a certain 'other man seems re And he has trouble day and nighFun-
of little use for most practical pur
After all, what would life be with poses.”
leaf by- leaf of old friends, of old joys, markably free from trouble—jierhaps
*.
til that,face is bright again. One
of old ties that bound us to the world. that “ he never knew what trouble man loses q few hundred dollars, and out fighting, I should like to know ?
“ Were the boys ever discovered F
I say happy those whose hearts do dot was.” What is included in this term
From the cradle to the grave, fighting, inquired her visitor.
it troubles him sorely. Another finds
grow cold with the winter of age. “ trouble,” that makes it applicable to
really
understood, is the business, the
"No. A reward of a hundred dol
all the slow accumulations of years
And this year so soon to be numbered all these differint spheres of personal swept away in an hour, and it brings real, highest, honestest business of lars was offered, but they were not '
What is
with those departed forever, how or social experience ?
every son of man.' Every one who is found. Possibly they never knew the
him no serious sense of loss: yet he
much of both joy and grief have its trouble? How would you define it?
worth his salt has his enemies, who evil their thoughtlessness caused But
is in constant trouble because of his
Why, in the Bible itself, there are
days and months been freighted with.
must be beaten, lie they evil thoughts that little cord across my path has
loved son’s misdoing. Is it either of
, , ,.
...
,
WellTor usTndeed if thT griefs have more than tw e nty d i fferent H e br e w
those men to measure the
__ _______
force of -__
the
. , ,
.
, . .
been unmixed with bitterness or re words?* and a dozen additional (¡reek
wickednesses in high places, or suffering, for I have not seen a well
other's trouble ?
morse, for true sorrow rightly borne ones, all translated “ trouble ” in our
Russians, or border-rutlians. It is no day since
What folly to say, “that man has no
softens and strengthens and ennobles English version. These words in
good for Quakers, or any other body
Now, boy»,- you who have read this
trouble to be compared with mine;
us. -Chastened sorrow brings us clude the idea of labor, pressure,
of men to uplift their voices against incident, pause and ask yourself if
because he has no experience that du
nearer our great Head—the com agitation, weariness, fear, sorrow,
fighting. Human nature is too strong ever you were guilty of a thoughtless
plicates mine !” What if he is free
passionate One who was called “ a wickedness, and various kindred ex
for them, and they don’t follow their deed like this. .
from such physical pain that racks my
mau of sorrow and acquainted with periences. The root idea of the Eng
own precepts. Every soul of them is
It is not by any means an uncom
frame ? Are you sure that he would
grief.” He did not frown on grief, lish word* which comprehends them
doing his own piece of lighting, some mon thing for boys to do in the city,
not rather be in physical pain until
thobgl
would not have us sit idly all is: a whirling disturbance; that
The world this stretching of cords across the
the day of his death, than endure the how and somewhere.
down
give up to it, but bids us state of being which makes one whirl
might
be
a
better
world
without sidewalks; and wo have known
trial of his remorseful memories ?
C‘v>t all our care on the Lord, for he round and round instead of standing
fighting,
for
anything
I
know,
but it several people to be injured by them.
What if he seems supplied withall
caretb for us ; and-j’i8%toiiiA.>'’OU‘e sor quietly, or of going straight ahead.
wouldn
’
t
be
our
world
;
and
therefore
Let this unfortunate lady’s' exper
thesJ sources of comfort—in family
rows grow the brightest heavenly joys- Tfcaf is trouble : to be iii such a whirl
I
am
dead
against
crying
peace
when
ience
be a warning against all
and property and popular favor—the
in the end. Joy, what different mean that you can neither rest composedly
there
is
no
peace,
and
isn
’
t
meant
to
cal
jokes
that are liable to inflict ■ in
■ lack of which is the cause of all our
ings are attached to that word by nor move forward unwaveringly.
be. l am as sorry as any man to see.' jury. Many boys do not distinguish
.' rouble
< an you say Chat ho would
different ones.
Some call mere i Trouble, then, is an effect, and not a not have felt less keen|^the death of folks fighting the wrong people and | between miSChierKfiJl'tih: Whatever "
pleasure -by*<-that name , Pleasure ! cause;.it,js the inside result rather the dearest to him, and the loss of the wrong things, but I’d a deal enp injure another is mischief.
seems to me the feeling natural to the than the outside pressure; it is a
sooner see them doing that, than that y Humanly speaking, death would have
been preferable to the fearful pain and
ie fact I property and popular favor, than he they should have no fight in them.
young on any happy occasion. But condition of being, instea'd
life-long suffering caused by the boys
feels
the
bitter
betrayal
of
a
trusted
joy I hold to be an emotion dwelling of any particular incidents of life, 1 friend, 8r the failure to he true and T homas H ughes , in True Manlineat. who inflicted such injuries upon that
lady.
deep in the heart, welling up from' .Just here is where the true nature of noble on the part of one to whom he !
—Very touching and tender was
trouble
is
more
commonly
lost
sight
I might tell you how beautiful shc-
springs of pure happiness and sending
had given the highest place in his j the memorandum left by the late was at the time of her fall; how happy
of
;
and
because
of
its
misconception
radiance over one’s whole life*. ^A
| ■he a r t, as a lofty ideal ?
Dean Alford: " When I am gone, and as
_ _ a v
__ o ____
u> ttllu
young
bride t ; how „,„
kind,
and
Solemn tender thing, which no man those about us are misjudged as to I Ah’ how little we can judge of the a WUBU
«9
vu
UV
pv
MjF,
ICV
WIC!V
MV,
»
...
i.7Vinn
19UO
mill
IB
tomb
is
to
be
put
up,
let
there.be
,
benevolent,
and
Christian
she
still
is; ’r
taketh away. In a book I was read the extent and severity of their ex liidden troubles of our fellows, by the besides my indication of who is lying ^oW specially tender, toward child-
ing some time ago, I found the fol periences of trouble.
below, these words, and these only: 'f1' j
*1-9'C«n V l’,e I*??1’’
We say, sometimes, that children calm exterior and the untroubled ap . q,. ■
,
.
.
-, •
J
And yet all her life has been emb t-
lowing passage, which spoke to me
peal a neo which they present to us. "I he inn of the traveler on hts way ^4 by mi9cllievous boys.—
with deep meaning-. " She had learned ; know nothing of real trouble. There The firm set face may represent a con- to Jerusalem.’ ”
Da ya.
I
to do without happiness and instead couldn't be a greater mistake than
J
»
Thoughts on the Closing Year.
•
Contributed.
■' '*■