Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1888 — Page 2
sbc Jtcpublicau. Qso. E. Makshau., Publisher. RENSSELAER, ; H INDIANA
The good sense of Pope Leo is deserting him. His latest encyclical is indiscreet, unwise and offensive. He should khow better than to bmii su]ch news abroad, in such times as these. And for Bach vtewsthe times will never be better. He says that it is not proper -“to treat the various religions, as they call them, alike; and to bestow upon them promiscuously equal rights and privileges. The profession of one religion is necessary to that one should be professed which alone is true, and which can be recognised without difficulty. This religion,- therefore, the rulers of the State must preserve and protect. False doctrines should be diligently suppressed by public authority.’’ His Holiness has probably been reading the copy of our Constitution which was sent him by President Cleveland. Evidently the encyclical is intended as an antidote. Immediately on the heels of his pronunciamento on Irish affairs this document is injudicious.
MISCELLANEOUS NOiES. _______ * A plant called the “laughing plant, - ’ or, in scientific parlance, “Cannabalis Sativa,” has been discovered,and it is alleged thathrhen it is eaten in its green state, or taken as a tincture made either from the green or dried leaf, as a powder of the dried leaf or smoked as tobacco,it is potent in producing exaltation. laughter, and cheering ideas. The third of the three heaviest rifled guns ever made In this country is nearly completed at the ordinance foundry of the South Boston Iron Works. The first gun made was of cast iron, the second of cast iron hooped and tubed with steel, and the gun now in the foundry is like the second. It will be ready to deliver ipabout a month. A wealthy English bachelor invited a few friends to an evening party just before his departure abroad. As the guests entered the reception roota each received a handsome engraved card with, the word “Causerie” at the top and the quotation from Paradise Lost: “With the conversing, I forget all time.” It was explained that ten subjects had been selected for discussion and ten couples chosen to do the work. Instead of spending the evening in dancing each gentleman was expected to till out his cards with the names of the young ladies to whom he desired to talk. Five minutes were to be devoted to each topic, and at a signal from the host there was to be a general swapping of partners and a complete change in the subject** The contemplated Channel bridge, as outlined by French and English engineers. is expected to cost 6ome two hundred million dollars, the shortest distance being some twenty-two miles, that is, on the score of shallowness. The depth of the Channel is declared to be much less than is commonly supposed, and there are two shallows —those between Cran-anx-Aufs and Folkstone, where the depth is only twenty feet,and these, it is expected, will insure a material difference in laying the foundations and huge piles which will be required for such a gigantic structure. From the French coast to these shallows the depth is about 160 feet, and from the other shallow to Folkstone about 100 feet. The plan is to have a bridge with two slight’bends, the first deviating a little to reach one shallow, and the other falling back to reach Folkstone. The piles required would be blocks of concrete a»d masonry 160 feet long by 100 broad, these to be placed at intervals of about 550 yards, these measurements to be possibly augmented in order to insure to the bridge a strength capable of bearing 25,000 tons weight. The causeway of the bridge Will be about 160 feet above the sea level, or oi sufficient height to enable vessels of any class to pass freely beneath it The process of sheep shearing bv machinery is now performed in Australia by an ingenious kind of device, the results, as represented, being very satisfactory. The apparatus in question is a very simple one, being made on the same principle as the cutter of a mower or reaper, and the ■knives are worked by. means Of rods within the handles, these in their turn being moved.bya corewithin a long flexible tube, which is kept in a rotary shaft, and wheels driven by a stationary engine. The comb is in the form of a segment of a circle, about three inches in diameter, with eleven conical-shaped teeth. Each machine is worked by a shearer, and, as tjye comb is forced along the skin of the animal, the fleece is eut. The? machine can be run either with a steam or gas engine, or by ordinary horse power, and does not easily get out of order.
The novel spectacle of a funeral procession of street cars was w itnessed in Washington recently. At the funeral of two employes of tfie street railway, the other employes draped an open summer car, which was made to serve as a hearse, and this was followed by a string of cars, all drapediand occupied by the employes and their friends.
His Rank.
Harper’* Bszar. Compassionate Woman —So you were in the Union army, were you? Well, I always honor' the . brave. What was your capacity? Tramp—l was a prisoner, mum?
WOES OF THE WORLD.
WHOM THE LORO LOVETH HE ALSOCHASTENETH. R«y. T. Dr Witt T»lnmg*’» Hrnnon Last Sunday *t Kant Hampton on “riatOTi That St.ck.” ’ Mr. Taimage’s subject for his sermon last Sunday' was “Plasters That Stick.” His text was. “Miserable comforters are ye all."—Job xvi, 2. Following is the sermon: ■ k ’> The mail of Ur* hadn great 'many trials— the loss of his family, the loss of his property jAhu loss of liis health; but the most eXfcspe rating thing that cAtne upon him was the tantalising talk of those who ought to have sympathised with him. 1 .looking around upon thetit,anil weighing what they had said, he'utters the words of my text. < Why did God let sin comp (fito world?It is a question that I oftbn hear discussed, but never satisfactorily answered. Goti made the world fair and beautiful at the start. If our first parents had not sinned in Eden they might have gone out of that garden and found fifty paradises all around the earth—Europe,Asia, Africa, North and South America—so many flower-gardens, or orchards of fruit, redolent and luscious! I suppose when God poured out the Gihou and the Hiddekel, he poured out, at the same time, the Hudson and the Susauehanna; the whole earth was very fair and beautiful to look upon. Why did it not stay so? God had the power to keep back sin and woe. Why did He not keep them back? Why not every cloud roseate, and every step a joy, and every sound music, and all the ages a long jubilee of sinless men and sinless women? God can make a rose as easily as He can make a thorn. Why, then, the predominance of thorns? He can make good, fair, ripe fruit. Why so much, then, that is gnarled and sour? He can make men robust in health. Why, then, are there so mgny invalids? Why not have for our whdle race perpetual leisure, intead oi this tug and toil and tusle for a lh'elibopcgfl will tell you why God the world when I get <$ l the other side of the River of Death. That is the place where such questions will be answered and such mysteries solved. He who this side that river attempts to answer the question only illustrates his own ignorance and incompetence. All I Know is one great fa,ct, and that is that a herd of woes has comp in upon us, trampling down ever}' thing fair and beautiful. And now I have to say in a world like this, the grandest occupation is that of giving condolence. This holy science of imparting comfort to the troubled we ought all of us to study. There are many of you who could look around upon some' of your very friends who wish you well’and are very intelligent, and yet be able truthfully to say to them in your days of trouble, “Miserable comforters are ye all.” I remark, in the first place, that very voluble'people are incompetent for the work of giving comfort. Bildad and Eliphaz had the gift of language, and with their words almost bothered Job’s life out. Alas for these voluble people thft go among the houses of the afflicted and talk, and talk, and talk, and' talk! They rehearse their own sorrows, and then they tell the poor sufferers that they feel badly now, but they will feel worse after a while. Silence! Do yon expect, with a thin court-plaster* of words to heal a wound as deep as the soul? Step very'gently about a broken heart. Talk very softly around those whom God has bereft. Then go your way. Deep sympathy has not much too say. A firm grasp of the hand, a compassionate look, just one word that means as much as a whole dictionary, and you have given perhaps, all the comfort that a soul needs. Agai n T remark, thabal 1 those persons are incompetent to* give any kind of comfort who act merely as worldly philosophers. They come in and say: “Why, this is what you ought to have expected. The laws of nature must have their way;” and they get eloquent over something they haveseen in post-mortem examinations. Now, away with all human philosophy at such a time! What difference does’ it make to that father and mother what disease that son died of? He is dead, andit makes no difference whether the trouble was in the epigastric or hypogastric region. If the philosopher be of the stoical school he will come and say: “You ought to control your feelings. You must not erv so. You must cultivate a cooler temperament. You must have self-reliance, self-govern-ment,’self-control;” an iceberg reproving a hyacinth for having a drop of dew in its eye. .A violinist has his instrument, and he sweeps his fingers across the strings, now evoking strains of joy, and now strains of sadness. He cannot play all the times on one string. The human soul, is an instrument of a thousand strings, and all . sorts of emotions were made to play on it, Now an anthem, now a dirge. It is no evidence of weakness when is one overcome of sorrow. Edmund Burke was found in the pasture-field with his arm around a horse’s neck, caressing him, and sqpie one said, “Why the great man has lost his mind!” No;, that horse belonged to his son who had reeentlv died, and his great heart broke over Abe grief. IF is no sign of weakness that men are overcome of their sorrows.
Again I remark, that those persons are incompetent for the work of comfortbearing who have nothing but cant to offer. There are those who have the idea that you must groan over the distressed and afflicted. There are times in grief when onq cheerful face dawning upon a man’s soul is worth a thousand dollars to him. Do not whine over the afflicted. Take the promises of the Gospel, and utter them in a manly tone. Do not be afraid to smile if you feel like it Do not drive any more hearses through that poor soul. ’Do not tell him the trouble was foreordained; it will not be any comfort to know it was a million years coming. If you want to find splints for a broken bone, do not take east-iron. Do not tell them it is God’s justice that weighs out grief. They want now to hear of God’s tender mercy. In other .words, do not give them aqua fortis when they need valerian. ■j Again Y remark, that those persons are poor comforters who have never had any trouble themselves. A larkspur can not lecture on the nature of a snow-flake —it never saw a snow-flake; and those people who have always lived in the summer of prosperity can not talk to those who are frozen in disaster. God keeps aged people in the world, I think,
for this very work of sympathy. Thev have been through all these trials. They know all that which irritates and all that which Boothes. If they are men and women who have old people in the house, or near at hand so that thev can easily reach them, I congratulate them. Some of us have had trials in life, and, although we, have had manv friends around about us, we have wished that father and mother were still alive that we might go and tell them. Perhaps •they could not say much, but it would have .been such a comfort to have them around. These aged ones, who have been all through tne trials of life, know how to giye couiffllence. Cherish them; let them lean on your arm—these aged people. Aw*.., People who have notrafcrials themselvps can not give They may talk very b«autiTmlty.ago they may give you a great •sentiment; but while poetry that, smells Sweet, it makr s’ a v<ff|fcoor salve? If you have a grave pathway, and somebody comes and ere it all over .with flowers, it is a ' grave yet. Those who have not had grief themselves know not the mystery of a broken heart. They know not the meaning of childlessness, and the having of no one to put to bed at night, the standing in a room where eVerjT book and picture and door is full of memories—the door-mat where she sat, the cup out of which she drank, the place where she stood at the ‘door and clapped her hands, the odd figures that she scribbled, the blocks she built into a house. *S «
But there are three ok four considerations that I will bring this morning to those who are sorrowful and distressed, and that we can always bring to them, knowing that they will effect a cure. And the first consideration is that God sends our troubles in love. I often hear people in their trouble say, “Why, I wonder wliat God has against me!” They seem to think God has some grudge agai” st them because trouble and misfortune have come. Oh, no. Do you not remember that passage of •Scripture, “Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth?” A child comes in with a very bad splinter in its hand, and you try to extract it. It is a very painful operation. The child draws back from you, but you persist..* You are going to take that splinter out, so you take the child with a gentle but firm grasp; for, although there may be pain in it, the splinter must come out. And it is love that dictates it, and makes you persist. My friends, I really think that nearly all our sorrows in this world are only the hand of the Father extracting some thorn. If all these sorrows were sent by enemies, I would say arm yourselves against them; and, as in tropical climes. when a tiger comea down from the mountains and carries off a child from the village, the neighbors band together and go into the forest and hunt the monster, so I would have you, if I though these misfortunes were sent by an enemy, go out and battle against them. But no, they come from a Father so kind, so loving, so gentle, that the prophet, speaking of His tenderness and mercy, drops the idea of a father, and says, “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you.” Again 1 remark, there is comfort in the thought that God, by all this process, is going to make you useful. Do you know that those who accomplish the most for God and heaven have all been under the harrow? Show me a man that has done anything tor Christ in this day in a public or private- place, who has had no trouble and whose path has been smooth. Ah, no. Remember that if God brings any kind of chastisement upon you, it is only to make you useful. Do not sit down discouraged and say, “I have no more reason for living. 1 wish I were dead.” Gh, there never was so much reason for you living as now! By this ordeal you have been consecrated a priest of the Most High God. Go out and do your whole work for the Master. * - Again, there is comfort in the thought that all our troubles are a revelation. Have you ever thought oi it in that connection? The man who has never been through chastisement is ignorant about a thousand things in his soul he ought to know, For instance, here is a man who prides himself on his cheerfulness of character. He has no patience with anybody who is depressed in spirits. Oh, it is easy for him to be cheerful, with his fine house, bis filled wardrobe, and well strung instruments of music, and tapestried parlor, and plenty of money in the bank waiting for some permanent investment. It is easy for him to be cheerful. But suppose his fortune goes to pieces, and his house goes' down under the Sheriff’s hammer, and the banks will not have anything to dowith his paper. Suppose those people who were once elegantly entertained at his table get so short sighted that'they can not recognize him upon the street. How then? Is it so easy to be cheerful? It is easy to be cheerful in the home, after the day’s work is done, and the gas is turned on, and, the house is full of romping little ones. But suppose the piano is shut because the fingers that played gp. it will no more -touch the keys, and the childish voice that asked ,so many questions will ask no more. Then is it so easy? When a man wakes up and finds t hat his resources are all gone, he • begins to rebel, and he says: “God is hard; God is outrageous, jde had no business to do this to me.” Mv friends, those of us who have been through trouble know what a sinful and rebellious heart we have, and how much God has to put up with, and how much we need pardon. It is only in the light of a flaming furnace that we can learn our weakness and our own lack of moral resource. There is also a greatdeal of comfort in the fact that there will be a family reconstruction in a better place. From Scotland, or England, or Ireland, a child emigrates to this country. It is very hard parting, hut he comes, after a while, writing home as to what a good land it is. Another brother comes, a sister comes and another, and after a while the mother comes, and after a while the father comes, and now they are all here and they have a time of congratulation and a very pleasant reunion. Well, it is just so with our families, they are emigrating to a better land. Now, one goes out, Oh, how hard it is to part with him! Another goes. Oh, how hard it is to part with her! And another, and another, and we ourselves will after a while go over, and then we will be together. Oh, what a reunion! Do you believe that? “Yes,” you say. You do not! Ypu do not believe it as you believe other things. If yon did, and with the same emphasis, why, it would take nine-tenths of your trouble off your heart. The fact is, heaven to many' of us is a great fog.
It isaway off somewhere,filled with anunj certain and indefinite population. That is | the kind of heaven that many of us dream about; but it is the most tremendous fact in all the universe—this heaven of the Gospel; Our departed friends are not afloat. The residence in which you live is not so real as the residence in which they stay. You are afloat, you who do not?know in tihe morning what will happen before night. They are housed and and safe forever. Do not, therefore, pitv your departed friends who have died in Christ. They do not need any of your pity. You might As well send a letter of condolence to Queen Victoriaon her obscurity, or to the Rothschilds on their poverty, as to pity those who have won the palm. Do not say of thbse who are departed. “Poor child!” “Poor father!” “Poor mother!” They are not poor. You are poor—you whose homes have been shattered—not do not dwell much with world. All day .jonjrsßri|S