LAY SERMONS by Los Angeles Times

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 8, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 10.

LAY SERMONS.

By Los Angeles Times

How OFTEN we forget that this life is but the primary department of the grand school in which God has placed His children, in order that they may learn the wonderful lessons of His wisdom and His love! And how wise are His teachings, how gentle His commands! Yet sometimes we rebel against them, and, like little children, strive to have our own way, and then He finds it necessary to discipline us for our own good, but that discipline is as tender as His care and love for us will allow, and the end be attained.

The puzzles of life are all solved when we remember God's wisdom and love, and our own feebleness, and shortsightedness, which makes it necessary for us to have a teacher, who will lead us in ways that we know not of.

And the farther our education progresses here under the guidance of our infinite Teacher, the more fully shall we be prepared not only for the enjoyment of this life, but for the fullness and glory of the life beyond. To get near to Christ is the great secret of the happy Christian life. There is no chance anywhere in life; nothing is transpiring in God's great universe without His knowledge, "not even a sparrow falls to the ground without His notice." Thus, if we can see His hand in all things, why should we not trust Him—why should we ever be afraid?

All our doubts and fears we shall find, if we study our hearts closely, come from a lack of trust in our heavenly Father, and so we set about trying to find some other way than the one in which He would have us go until He is obliged to restrain us, and sometimes to discipline us until we yield our wills to His will to be led and guided only by Him. And when we thus submit, how soon the morning of peace and joy brightens! We are no longer afraid, and we feel that whatever He orders is well. Life is no longer a "troubled sea, whose waters cast up mire and dirt," but a broad and shining ocean, gleaming with the light of love, over which we are sailing to the haven of eternal rest, and God's hand is at the helm, the hand that is mightier than all storms—the hand that is full of blessings.

"So much we miss If love is weak! So much we gain If love is strong! God thinks no pain Too sharp or lasting to ordain To teach us this." —Los Angeles Times.