FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43  
44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   >>   >|  
sted the sweet wines of Italy, they asked where they came from, and never rested until they had overrun Italy. Not Troubled with Doubts One of the happiest men I ever knew was a man in Dundee, Scotland, who had fallen and broken his back when he was a boy of fifteen. He had lain on his bed for about forty years, and could not be moved without a good deal of pain. Probably not a day had passed in all those years without acute suffering. But day after day the grace of God had been granted to him, and when I was in his chamber it seemed as if I was as near heaven as I could get on earth. I can imagine that when the angels passed over Dundee, they had to stop there to get refreshed. When I saw him, I thought he must be beyond the reach of the tempter, and I asked him: "Doesn't Satan ever tempt you to doubt God, and to think that He is a hard Master?" "Oh, yes," he said, "he does try to tempt me. I lie here and see my old schoolmates driving along in their carriages, and Satan says: 'If God is so good, why does He keep you here all these years? You might have been a rich man, riding in your own carriage.' Then I see a man who was young when I was walk by in perfect health, and Satan whispers: 'If God loved you, couldn't He have kept you from breaking your back?'" "What do you do when Satan tempts you?" "Ah, I just take him to Calvary, and I show him Christ, and I point out those wounds in His hands and feet and side, and say, 'Doesn't He love me?' and the fact is, he got such a scare there eighteen hundred years ago that he cannot stand it; he leaves me every time." That bedridden saint had not much trouble with doubts; he was too full of the grace of God. Honey-Dew I have sometimes been in a place where the very air seemed to be charged with the breath of God, like the moisture in the air. I remember one time as I went through the woods near Mount Hermon school I heard bees, and asked what it meant. "Oh," said one of the men, "they are after the _honey-dew_." "What is that?" I asked. He took a chestnut leaf and told me to put my tongue to it. I did so, and the taste was sweet as honey. Upon inquiry I found that all up and down the Connecticut valley what they call "honey-dew" had fallen, so that there must have been altogether hundreds of tons of honey-dew in this region. Where it comes from I don't know. Do you suppose that this earth would be worth living on if it were not for the dew and
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43  
44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Dundee
 

fallen

 

passed

 

bedridden

 
trouble
 
doubts
 

wounds

 
suppose
 

leaves

 

hundred


eighteen

 

living

 
region
 

Connecticut

 
valley
 
inquiry
 

chestnut

 

school

 
tongue
 

breath


charged

 

moisture

 

remember

 
altogether
 

Hermon

 
hundreds
 

driving

 

suffering

 

granted

 

chamber


Probably

 

heaven

 
thought
 

refreshed

 

imagine

 

angels

 
overrun
 
Troubled
 

rested

 

Doubts


fifteen

 

broken

 

happiest

 

Scotland

 
tempter
 

perfect

 
health
 

whispers

 
carriage
 

couldn