Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 220, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1917 — TAKE COURAGE [ARTICLE]

TAKE COURAGE

A Message From God's Word for This Time of World Conflict This word appears again and again In the Bible. Paul “thanked God and took courage.” And, to all who will listen, the psalmist says: “Be of good courage, and he shall-strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.” These are trying times in which we live. The world has lost Its balance; the seas moan as they swallow the struggling bodies of brave men; the land drinks the blood of the valiant, and the breezes are sad funeral walls; the sun’s light Is dull; the universal human heart aches; eyes the globe around are dim with weeping. What the morrow will bring forth, we know not; anxiety prevails everywhere; we walk erect and try to appear cheerful —but we are afraid. Nor Is the human heart disturbed alone by the war. There is an unnatural restlessness in every sphere. The Christian religion, the world’s hope—the Individual’s hope —is, itself, an object of attack from all sides. Some say it has failed; others declare that it must be reconstructed to suit the times; and still others insist that it has never been correctly Interpreted. The people, religiously Inclined, as they ever will be, are confused. Also, we each wrestle with our own disappointments and temptations and sorrows. None are exempt from trouble. We suffer, we brood, we cry. But God’s Book is in his world. It is his sun whose light Is dimmed by the clouds. The nations stumble; the church stumbles; individuals stumble. It’s because the clouds are heavy and black, and we fall to see the pitfalls. But the Bible is stationary. The roar of cannon will noLmove it. nor will the pointed bullets of angry nations pierce it. This Book yvlll successfully withstand the battering-ram* of criticism. God, manifest In the flesh, hath said: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” The Book divine will remain In the sky of human life te guide the church back into the original highway of faith and obedience and service, to guide the nations out of the wilderness In which they now wander and suffer into the Canaan of democracy, to guide the Individual up life’* hill of toll and sorrow into the refreshing altitudes of childlike trust and soul repose. Courage, all! We are In the twilight, drenched with the rains, and mocked by the shadows. But there’s compensation In it all. Under the storm and the cloud today And today the hard peril and JPamTomorrow the stone shall be rolled away. For the sunshine shall follow the rain. Merciful Father. I will not complain, I know that the sunshine shall follow the rain. __ Chrlstlan standard.