‘Aa STURIES GO”
By llaniel H. Kress, M. II.
me LV ERAL years ago some business
: N—— RE men, going to their offices in the
RIOR city on a fast train, were side-
tracked at a way station. After a
half hour’s waiting they became quite un-
eusy and said to the conductor, “This is
great service vou are giving us,” and re-
minded him of the important appointments
they had for that morning in the city.
Not wishing to disturb them unduly, the
conductor made no reply. They waited
another half hour, when a freight train
passed them. This was more than they
could stand, and they became abusive.
After a little the conductor came to them
and said, “Gentlemen, there has been a
flood down the line, and I was not sure
about the bridge ahead of us; so I side-
tracked this train and allowed the freight
train to go ahead of us to test it. The
bridge went down.” One and all of those
passengers felt like lifting their hats and
thanking the conductor for his foresight
and good sense.
Plans carefully worked out are sometimes
interfered with by a kind Providence. We
cannot see why. Could we penetrate the
future, we would frequently find an expla-
nation. God sees and leads us as we would
choose to be led, could we see what He sees.
You have been sidetracked by illness.
Naturally you are anxious to get on the
main line again as soon as possible. You
are uneasy. Do not be in too much of a
hurry. Wait until the conductor tells vou
it 1s safe to go.
For your encouragement I want to say
that in reading about men who have lived
to an advanced age I find that at some time
in life they were sidetracked by sickness.
Luigi Cornaro, who lived past the age of one
hundred, was one of these. At the age of
forty he was at the point of death. His
physician informed him that there was no
hope for him. All his relatives had died.
He alone at the age of forty was left. He
then determined to find out why he was in
this condition. He soon discovered the
cause. Instead of eating and drinking as
before, he limited his daily supply of food.
So radical were his reforms that his friends
predicted he would surely die of starvation.
But he did not. He surprised them all, and
at the expiration: of one vear was enjoying
wood health.
At the age of fifty, in writing to the
physician, he said, “I ‘fully expect to live
another quarter of a century.” Time more
than fulfilled this prediction. At the age of
ninety-six he wrote his biography, which is
most interesting literature. He tells us how
he enjoyed life at that advanced age. “I
relish an ordinary piece of bread,” he said,
Page FOURTEEN
“better than I formerly
enjoyed the most ex-
quisite dainties.” His
mind was clearer so that
he appreciated the beau-
ties of nature as he never
did before. All Iie
senses, he said, con-
tinued “perfect.” It was
fortunate for him to
have been sidetracked
early in life,
John Wesley was un-
other sidetracked man.
At the age of forty he
was practically an in-
valid. He began to make
some radical changes in
his manner of living.
At the age of eighty-
two he said, “It is now
twelve years since I
have experienced any
sensation of weariness.”
BLACK STAR
¥ Almost everybody is sidetracked at some time in his experience,
but when a man reads his own obituary, well—but read what Dr.
Kress has to say about it.
I, too, was once a
sidetracked man. | > &K&
know something of how
it feels. At the close of a lecture in Aus-
tralia some years ago a lady came to
me and said, ‘Are you Dr. Kress from
London?” She had read a report of
my death in a London paper. She brought
the paper containing my obituary. To
me 1t was interesting reading. In head-
lines I read: “The voice we once heard we
shall hear no more.” It gave a very vivid
write-up of all the good I had accomplished
and deplored the fact that one so promising
should be cut down so early in life. It ended
by saying, ‘The world can ill afford to lose
such men.”
It happened in this way: I had been a
very sick man. For years I had been burn-
ing the candle at both ends. Finally my
health failed. I discovered I had a disease
which then was recognized as incurable.
I fully expected to die, and in fact, came to
the place where I wanted to die. I thought
that possibly if I lived I might do some
wicked thing, and that the Lord knew
best; so I felt reconciled.
In this condition of apparent hopeless-
ness, some of my associates felt that the
work could not spare me. They wanted to
carry out the instruction given in the book
of James and have prayer. To this I con-
sented. The result was that IT began to
improve and made a complete recovery.
They did something that I knew nothing
about at the time. They sent a cable to
America, saying, ‘Kress dying. Pray.”
This message was read before a large meet-
ing, and those assembled had a special
season of prayer. As stories go, 1 suppose
this one went. Someone said, “Have you
heard that Kress 1s dying?” The next one
probably said, By this time no doubt he
is dead,” and so it got into the papers.
My sickness taught me a lesson. While 1
had been careful in my habits of eating, 1
worked from morning till night, at my
office in the city of London and at the sani-
tarlum out in the country. I edited a
health journal, and in addition traveled
from place to place giving health lectures.
Doing pioneer work, I was working at
breakneck speed. Being alone, I felt every-
thing depended upon me. Why at a time
when I was so much needed I should be
sidetracked, I could not then understand.
I now know that it was the best thing that
could have happened.
We all need to be sidetracked sometime
in life, for we have all ‘gone astray; we
have turned every one to his own way.”
We have detoured from the simple life.
The sole purpose of the gospel is to lead us
back. Few would return if not sidetracked
bv illness. The Scriptures say, © Then they
cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He
delivered them out of their distresses. And
He led them forth by the right way.” Psalm
107: 6, 7. The psalmist said, “It 1s good
for me that I have been afflicted.
Before 1 was afflicted 1 went astray.”
(Psalm 119: 71, 67.)
We are anxious to be healed instantly,
but this gets us into trouble sometimes.
We should feel more concerned to ascertain
and correct the causes of our illness. What
1s the good of being raised to health and
The WATCHMAN MAGAZINE