Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1887 — FORGIVENESS. [ARTICLE]

FORGIVENESS.

De® Not the San Go Down Upon Your Wrath. Ut« Chert'r Should Supplant All Veuiinr* of Pot gw* Ta Would Bo Forjivan. Rev. Dr. Talmage preached lithe Brooklyn Tabernacle last Sunday. Sub iecfc ‘‘Forgiveness Before Sundown.” Text Ephe*, iv., 25 He said: What a pillow embroidered of all . •olors hath the dying day! The cradle of clouds from which the sun rises it ’ beaut itu' enough, but it is surpassed by , the .many colored mausoleum in which ' at evening it is buried. Sunset among the mountains! It almost takes one's breath away to recall the acene. The longehadows stretching over the plain makes the glory of the departing light, i on the tip-ton crags and struck aslant] through the foliage, the more transpicuous. Saffron and gold, purple ami ] crimson commingled. All the castles of •loud in conflagration. Burning Mos- ' cows on the sky. Hanging gardens of roaes at their deepest blush. Banners of vapor, r dns if from carnage in the battle of the elements. The hunter among the Adiro.idacks. and the Swiss villager among the Alps, know what is a sunset among the mountains. i Forgiveness before sundown. He who never feels the throb of indignation is imbecile. He who can wa ! k‘ am ong the injustices of the World, in flii'fed upon himself and others, without flu-h of th“ cheek, or flash of eye, or agitation of nature, is either in sympathy with wrong or semi diotic. It all depends on what you are mad at and how long the feeling lai-ts whether anger is right or wrong. Life ts full of exasperations. Saul after David, Succotb after Gideon, Koroh after Moses, the Pasquius after Augustus, the Pharisees after Christ, and every one has had his pursuers, and we ate swindled, or belied, or misrepresented, or persecuted, or in some way wronged, and the danger is that healthful indignation shall become baleful sphe; and that our feelings settle down into a prolong ed outpouring of temper displeasing to God and ruinous to ourselves, and hence the important injunction of the text: “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” Why that limitation to one’s anger? Why that period of flaming vapor set to Eunctuate a flaming disposition? What as the sunse. got odo with one’s resentful emotions? Was it a haphazard sentiment written by Paul without special significance? No, no; I think of five reasons why we should not let the sun set before our temper sets: First, because twelve hours is long enough to be angry about any wrong inflicted upon us. Nothing is so exhausting to physical health or mental faculty as a protracted indulgence of ill humor. It racks the nervous system. It hurts the digestion. It heats the blood in ; brain and heart until the whole body is first overheated and then depressed. Besiaes that it sours the disposition. , turns one aside from his legitimate work, expends energies that ought to te belter employed, and does us more barm than it does our antagonist. Paui gives us a good, wide allowance of time, for legitimate denunciation, from six o’clock to six o’clock. Other things being equal, the man whoyw-serves good temper will come out An old essavlst says that the eelet se Jd John Henderson, of Bristol" EnJ 1, was at a dining party where poll al excitement ran high, and the debl% got angry, and while Henderson was speaking hia opponeiit, .unable to answer his argument, dashed a glass of wine into his face, when the speaker deliberately wiped the liquid from his face and said: * This, sir, is a disgression; now. if you please, for the main argument.” While worldly philosophy could help but very few in such equiEoiae of spirit, the grace of God could elp any man to such a triumph. “Impossible,”- you say, “I would either have left the table in anger or have knocked the man down.” But I have come to believe that nothing is impossible if God help, since what I saw at Beth-Shan faith cure in London, England, two summers ago. While the religious service was going on Rev. Dr. Boardman, glorious man! since gone to his heavenly rest, w <s telling the scores of sick people present that Christ was there as of old to heal all diseases, and that, if they would only believe, their sickness would depart. I saw a woman near me with hand and arm twisted of rheumat am, and her wrist was fiery with inflamation, and it looked like those ca*es of chrnnic rheumatism which we have all seen and sympathized with,: cases beyond all human healing. At the preacher’ reiteration of the wotds: “Will you believe? Do you believe?. Do you believe now?” I heard this poor sick woman say, with an emphasis which sounded through the building: “I do believe.” And then she laid her twisted arm and hand out as straig ,t as your arm and hand or mine. If 1 had seen one rise from the dead I would not have been much more thrilled. Since then I believe that God will do

anything in answer to our prayer and in Answer to our faith, and he can heal our bodies, and if our soul is all twisted and mishappen of revenge and hate and inflamed with sinful proclivity, he can straightenthat also and make it well and clean. Aye, you will not postpone till sundown forgiveness of enemies if you can realise that their behavior toward you may be put into the catalogue of the “all’ things” that ‘♦work together for good to those that love God.” I have had multitudes of friends, but I have found in my own experience that God has so arranged it that the greatest opportunities of usefulness that have been opened before me were opened by enemies. And when, years ago, thev -onspired against me, that opened all Christendom to me as a field in which to pre.ich the Gospel. 80 you may harness your antagonists to your best interests and compel them to draw you on to better work and higher character. ‘Suppose, instead of waiting until six minutes past five o'clock this evening, when the sun will set, you transact thivglorious work of forgiveness before meridian. Again: We ought not to let the sun’ go down on our wrath, we will sleep better if we are at peace with everybody. Insomnia is getting to be one of the most prevalent of disorders. How few peop’e retire at ten' o’clock ■ at night and sleep clear through to six in the morning!? To relieve this’ disorder all narcotics, and sedatives, ; and chloral, and bromide of potassium. I and cocaine, and imuxicaasr are tec

but nothing is more important than a quiet spirit if we would win somnolence. How is a man going to sleep when he is in mind pursuing an enemy? With what nervous twitch he will start out of a dreaml Thqt new plan for cornering hie foe will keep him wide awake while the dock strikes eleven, twelve, one, two, three, four. I give you an unfailing prescription for wakefnllneea; spend the evening hours renearsing your wrongs and the beet wav of avenging them. Hold a oonveption of friends on this subject in your parlor or office at eight or nine o’clock. Close the evening by writing a bitter letter expressing your sentiments. Take from the desk or pigeon-hole the papers in the rase to refresh your 'mind with your evening’s flneanness. Then lie down and wait for the corning of the day, and it will come before eleepcomes, oryourlslejp will be a worried quiescence, and, if ydu take precaution to lay flat on your back, a frightful nightmare. Why not put a bound to your rnimoaity? Why let your foes home into the sanctities of your dormitory? Why let those slanderers who have al ready torn your reputation to pieces or injured your buisness, bend over your midnight pillow and drive from yon one of the greatest blessings that Almighty God can offer—sweet, refreshing and invigorating sleep? Why not fence out your enemies by the golden bars of the sunset? Why not stand behind the barricade of evening cloud ami say to them: “Thus-far and no further.” Many a man and many a woman is having the health of the body as well as the soul eaten away by a malevolent spirit. A boy in Sparta, having stolen a fox, kept him under his coat, and though the fox was gnawing MS vitals, he submitted to it rather than expose his misdeed Many a man with a smiling face has under his jacket an animosity that is gnawing away the strength of his body anil the integrity oi his soul. Better get rid of that hidden lox as soon as possible. There are hundreds of domestic circles wherethat which most is needed is the spirit of forgiveness. Brothers apart, sisters apart and parents and children apart. Solomon says a brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city. Are there not enough sacred memories of your childhood to bring you together? The ribbins recount how that Nebuchadneaiar’s son had such a spite against his father and after he was dead he had his father burned to ashes, and then put the ashes into four sacks and tied them to four eagle’s necks, which flew away in opposite directions. And there are now domestic antipathies that seem f®rever to have eoattered all parental memories to the four winds of heaven. Hdw far the eagles fly with the sacred ashes! The hour of sundown makes to that family no practical suggestion.

Again, we ought not allow the sun set before forgiveness takes place, because we might not live to see another day. and what if we should be ushered into the presence of our Maker wittoa grudge upon our soul? The majority of the people depart this life in the nighL Between 11 p. m. and la m. there is something in the atmosphere which relaxes the grip which every body has on the soul, and most people enter the next world through the shadows of this world. Perhaps God may have arranged it in that way so as to make the contrast the more glorious. I have seen sunshiny days in this world that must have been almost like the radiance of heaven. But, as most people leave ths earth between sundown and sunrise, they quit this world at its darkest, and heaven, always bright, will bo the brighter for that contrast. Out of blacknessinto irradiation. Shall we,then, leap over the roseat bank of sunset into the favorite hunting-ground ot disease and death, carrying our animosities with us? Who would want to confront his God, against whom we have all done meaner things than anybody has ever done against us, carrying old grudges? How can we expect His forgiveness for the greater when we are not. willing to forgive oth - ers the less? Napoleon was encouraged to undertake crossing the Alps because Charlemagne had previously crossed them. And all this ragged path of forgiveness bears the bleeding footsteps of Him who conquered through suffering, and we ought to be willing to follow. On the night of our departure from this life into the next,our one plea will have to be for mercy, and it will have to be offered in the presence of Him who has said: “If you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Heavenly Father forgive your trespasses.” What, a sorry plight if we stana there hating this one, and bating that one, and w ishing this one a damage,and wishing some one else a calamity, and we ourselves needing forgiveness for ten thousand times ten thousand obliquities of heart and life. When our last hour comes, we want if to find us ah right. Hardly anything affects me so much in the uncovering of ancient Pompeii as the account of the soldier who, after the- city had for many centuries been covered with the ashes and scorio of Vesuvius, was found standing in his place.

on guard, hand on spear and helmet on head. Others fled at the awful submergment. but the explorer, seventeen hundred years after, found the body of that brave fel low in right position. And it will be a grand thing if, when our last moment comes, we are found in right position toward the world, as well as in right position toward God, on guard and unanrighted by the ashes from the mountain of death. What is the use of our worry ing about our human antagonism? If we are misinterpreted the God of the many-colored sunset can put the right color on our action. If He can afford to hang such masterpieces over the outside wall of heaven and have them obliterated in an hour, He must be very rich in resources and can put us through in safety. If all the garniture of the Western heavens at eventide is but the upholstery of one of the windows of our future home, what small business for us to be chasing enemies! Let not this Sabbath sun go down upon your wrath. And now. I wish for all of you a beautiful sunset in jour -ear thly existence. With some of you it has been a long day of trouble, and with others of you it will be far front calm. When the sun rose at six o’clock it was the morning of youth, and a fair day was prophesied;., but by the time the noon day of midlife had come, and the clock of your earthly existence had struck twelve, cloud racks gathered and tempest bellowed in the track of tempest. But as the evening of old age approaches, I pray God the skies may brighten and the clouds te piled up into pillars as of celestial temples to wh'ch yon go, or move as with mount-; cJ . jiioi-U. come io Uke you home; And; ' ■ i

as you sink out of sight below the horizon may there be a radiance of Christian example lingering long after you are gone,, and on the heavens be written in letters of sapphire, and on the waters in letters of opal and on the hills in letters of emerald: “Thy sun shall.no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.” . Ro shall the sunset of earth become the sunrise of heaven. „ Women's Convention. ' Albany Frew. Ina woman’s convention in Anna Dickinson, with her quick repartee, silenced the Rev. Robert Laird Collier. It was requested from the platform, where sat the dignified ladies, that any one in the audience would respectfully ask questions as to the purpose of the reformers, and give opportunity to speak of the proposed improvement sn society. Dr. Collier, seeing Miss Dickinson occupying a seat of honor, arose and asked that she would give her interpretation of the words in scripture, “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands.” In a moment Miss Dickinson was on her feet with the reply—“ The text and context read: 'Wives submit to your own husbands. Husbands, love vour wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.” “Find me the men, Mr. Collier, who love their wives as Christ loved the church, and then, I say submit.” Another gentleman got up and said he should like permission to read the “coming obituary,” 'which was agreed to. The following was the suggestive sentiment: “Died, in the thirty-fifth year of his age, John Smith, husband of Hon. Jane Smith, at her residence in Franklyn, at six o’clock. Mr. Smith was a meek and quiet husband, beloved for the graces of a cultivated nature. He excelled in the domestic virtues. As a cook he was surpassed by few; as a nurse he was equalled by none.” The ladies of the convention took it in a spirit of mirth and good nature. Terrible Danger in Natural Gm. Fireman’s Herald. Two hundred years ago in China there was just such a craze about natural gas as we have in this country today. Gas wells were sunk with as much vim and vigor as the Celestials were capable of, but, owing to a gas explosion that killed several millions of people and toie up and destroyed a large district of country, leaving a large inland sea, known on the maps as Lake Foo Chang, the boring of any more gas wells was then and there prohibited by law. It seems, according to Chinese history .that many large and heavy pressure gas wells were struck, and, in some districts, wells were sunk quite near to each other. Gas was lighted as soon as struck, as in this country. It is stated that one well with its unusual pressure, by induction or back draught, pulled down into the earth the burnihg gas of a smaller well, resulting in a dreadful explosion of a large district r deatray.ing-the i n h ahi ta n ts thereof. Lake Foo Chang rests on this district The same catastrophe is imminent in this country unless the laws restrict further developments in boring so many wells. Should a similar explosion occur there will be such an upheaval as will dwarf the most terrible earthquake ever known. The- country along the gas belt, from Toledo, through Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, will be ripped up to the depth of 1,200 to 1,500 feet and flopped over like a pancake, leaving a chasm through which the waters of Lake Erie will come howling down, filling the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys and blotting t tern out forever. .. The Silk Industry. Silk culture tn this country is comparatively a new industry, yet it has reached a point oi considerable importance and is much larger than most people suppose. John Dean, of Brooklyn, N. Y., who has given the matter much study, recently lectured on the production of silk and gave some interesting facts. While China, Japan, Italy and France are usually supposed to furnish nearly all the silk used in the world, the fact is that America produces an enormous quantity of it. It is the third of the great textile industries of this country. Out, of a total value of silk goods consumed of SBS 000,000. the importation amounts to only $35,000,000. Cocoons were first raised in California in 1860, and after the war there was some interest taken in the matter in the-East; but the industry increased very slowly up to about twelve years ago, when it got a firm foothold in Philadelphia. In 1880 Dr. Chamberlain, pf that city, made a suggestion that it should be made a national industry for women and children, and an association was formed called the Woman’s Silk Culture Association, which is now firmly established. There is every reason to think that it will not be long untfl vfe will rdse and manufacture all our own silk and have a surplus to export. Making Himself Solid. Wife—Why did you send home a ton of coal to-day, dear? We have coal ehough to last until July. Husband—l didn’t order any coal, and I wish you wouid’t pay gas bills., I went to the office to make a kick and waslold the bill was paid. Wise —Why I haven’t paid any gas bills. . Daughter (blushing)—George is the responsible one, papa, and I think it was a very delicate thing for him to da.