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toil or hardship of some sort. 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 15 
- The Mask of Calamities. 
Rev. L. H. Ruge Treats the Subjest of Human Suffering from the Standpoint 
of Cause and Effect. 
We print below abstracts from a sermon preached at the 
Congregational church, Manchester, Sunday, Sept. 11, by Rev. 
—Ed. 
Rev. Mr. Ruge opened his subject by saying, ‘‘I have 
berrowed the phraseology of the title here from Emer- 
son who says, ‘Divine Providence sends its chiefest 
benefits under the mask of calamities.’ 
‘‘Lowell even more beautifully chimes in with: 
“*All God’s angels come to us disguised, 
Sorrow and sickness, poverty and death, 
One by one they lift their frowning masks, 
And we behold the angel’s face beneath.’’ 
**But let us go to St. Paul for our text: ‘Our light 
affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a 
far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.’ II. Cor. 
ha YB 
““What a sublime antithesis in this splendid text! 
What a magnificent reach there is to Paul’s hope of 
ultimate things! 
“It is a proposition to which we do not readily give 
assent, for ‘no affliction for the present seemeth joyous 
but grievous.’ That is because life has not reached the 
ultimate. 
“Suffering in some form seems at present to be our 
fate. We belance between sorrow and joy, failure and 
success, life and death. That brooding old Persian poet 
expresses it graphically— 
‘*And here, along this strip of herbage strown 
This just divides the desert from the sown.’’ 
“The whole intricate problem of human suffering is 
set forth by Paul under the idea of cause and effect. He 
comforts us with the thought that the evolution of hu- 
man events shall at last vindicate God’s goodness and 
lIeve. - 
“The word, ‘worketh’ contains both the gist and 
the redemption of Paul’s philosophy. That which 
stands for heaven and immortal life and happiness is 
not a reward, a recompense for suffering, but the result. 
Affliction is the seed; immortal glory is the result. Life 
is like the strange process of the seed in the ground 
before it bursts forth into bloom and glory. That 
process might be called affliction for seed and bulb and 
root, the flower and fruit the weight of glory. 
“Here is a youth training for some physical contest 
te achieve glory. Every night he lays down sore and’ 
afflicted in every part; but the glory of the conflict and 
conquest shall be the final result. Affliction and glory 
are here a part of the dispensation of cause and effect. 
*‘Others train as bravely for some intellectual prize, 
a superintendent’s berth or even the presidential chair. 
*‘In very avenue of achievement no man amounts to 
very much until he suffers something. The toughest, 
strongest, bravest physique is that which has endured 
The hardest race is that 
which shivers and freezes under ice and snow half the 
time. 
‘Great ee like the Chicago fire, the fearful _ 
Boxer uprising in China, and the San Francisco earth- 
quake are blessings in disguise. 
‘And like these things is the process of individual 
suffering. Like a frost that kills all the smiling flowers, 
like the icy blast that stills all the laughing streams, like 
the ruthless clutch that grips the singing throat of na- 
ture, like the white shroud that covers all the hills and 
fields comes affliction upon us, but it cannot touch the 
root and its vitality. The autumn blast may strip the 
tree of every leaf, but— 
‘“Here above the blast, thro’ icy strings, 
The Heavenly Father’s whisperings.’’ 
‘“See the process of cause and effect upon the sea- 
shore as the surf afflicts the pebbles and shells in its 
ceaseless dragging back and forth. How long do you 
suppose it took, and how many storms, to so polish the 
pebbles and tint the shells? Affliction, the stones and 
shells might call it, but what a process of purification 
and refinement. 
‘*T don’t know why, unless it is the purity and refine- 
ment I find there, but sufferers appeal to me. It seems 
to me I never know a man until I have seen him suffer. 
‘As I reverently lift the mask of suffering I see a light 
in the eye, a character in the face I never saw before, 
av inherent nobility brought forth only in this test of 
suffering. 
‘*So the ancient King of Israel suffered, and he cried: 
‘All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.’ Oh, 
the tears! ‘salter than the estraticing sea’ that David 
shed, but he came from the process kinglier than ever. 
‘<Cruel seems the grain of sand 
Forced within the sensate shell, 
But a pearl is gendered there, and— 
At, you know the parallel; 
Round our soul, the water-swirl 
Sings and sings, no pain, no pearl.’’ 
‘‘Hear the parable of the flute. The flute complained 
bitterly in the hands of the artisan; ‘once I was a piece 
of perfect, beautiful wood, but see how I have been 
bruised and marred with rifts and holes.’ ‘But,’ said 
the maker, ‘this marring means thy glory in the hands 
‘of the musician.’ 
‘‘Hear the parable of the broken violin with a soul. 
It mourned at its misfortune and wondered how it could 
ever live and breathe melody again. But the musician, 
out of a tender regard for his beloved violin, fitted it 
carefully together and glued it. Then he adjusted the 
soulful strings and when he drew the bow across its 
sobbing breast, behold a far sweeter strain than ever 
before was heard. 
‘‘Sorrow and suffering will teach a soul to pray, to 
reach out after God, if anything ever does. 
‘*You will never know communion with the Spirit of 
God until you have suffered something. You will never 
cling to the unseen Father’s hand until the skies turr 
black as with the going out of the last star. You will 
never drink of the fountain of life until your old earthly 
cistern runs dry. You will never rest under the shadow 
of His wing until He has withered the gourd under 
which you lie dreaming. 
(Continued to page 29) 
