National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1867-10-04
The Trial Sermon.
A STORY OF TODAY.

minister WnOm they had sent for to
preach on trial. He had gone to
his present country home, in the re-
tIed little country town among the
rugged and barren New England
hills. The four hundred dollars sal
| AIRY they offered him had seemed
quite competence in those days;
and when he married and brought
home his wife, and they gave him
in addition the rent of the little par
sonage close by the old church, he
had been well satisfied and thought
he could live and die there. But
as the years passed on and three
children played in the small lyooms
three children to be warmed and
clothed and fed-and then the war
came, and prices doubled, times
grew hard with him and he knew
that some changes must be made.
The minister did not blame the
little parish of his first love. Times
We're hard with them, too. They
mad raised his salary one hundred
dollars, and five hundred a year, be
sides the parsonage, was as much as
they could afford; for among the
farmlngpeople of his parish money
was not made easily, and none OF
them We're rich. Henry Eastman
would have been glad To remain
with them. lie knew that no
other people and no other place
would ever be SO dear But it seem
ed To him that all his energies were
used IN the single struggle to keep
out of debt: and every year his
children needed more. were growing
more expensive. Yes. he must go;
and the Woodburn chur ch must
content themselves again with some
young man. hopeful and unembar
raSSed as he was once, who would be
willing to come To them for his
ministerial tnoNltate.) They under
stood it all and though their hearts
chung to him, they were unSeltish
enough to wish him God-spc i.
And SOFT had come about, through
the influence of a cousin OF one OF
his Noodburn people-a lady who
had listened 10 him in many Il sum
mer ViSit-that he had been sent
for by the large and influential par
iSh OF CoIonorc, to preach trial
sermon in their just vacant pulpit.
1t was one trinl among many 20
them. They were sure of being
suited by-and-by, and could afford
to wait. To him it was an epoch of
the most imtcuSc and feVcriSh in.
tereSt.
Before he left home he had talked
The whole thing over with his wife.
1t was a great matter to choose
what sermon to take, among the
eight or ten which he accounted
his best. Usually his wife was the
most simple and unworldly of WON
en-. She seemed To forget that God
/ held control in this as well as in
other concerns of life. Her cheeks
I'll we'd. and her hand was teverish.
Her voice fairly tremblcd as she
said, the very last thing:
80 Henry, don't think of failing
Remember the childrcn-Low soon
. they'll need to go to school and col.
4 lcge-how much you'll want to see
them grow up in the midst of refine.
ment and culture"
She had not thought or spoken Of
herself Alicc ncVcrdiG. He thought
of her mono the less, however, rs he
rode on, in the numbering farm wag
nn. towards the five miles off station,
where he was to set out on his louln.
cy to tolonore. How pretty she
had been ten years ago, how young,
how bright. He knew that some
thing more than ten years had
changed her to the pale, hollow eyed
woman who had Just hidden him
good bye. The cares, which had
pressed heavily enough on him, had
fallen with doublr weight on her
He knew how she had lost youth
and brightness. And to what good
he asked himself. in thanklcSs, al
most deSpalring mo ID.
As there was To ac II sabbatl
school concert in the afternoon, h,
was not expected to preach hut hal
of the day, and had chosen ut msi
among his sermons, one from the
teXt-ssln my fathers house ar,
many mansions if it were not so
would have told YOU This was {
discourse of the kind which offend
j, no one, yet which all agree IN DIES
cribing by the one adjective, beau
tiful. Mr.. Eastman had chosen i
because it could jar upon no one
: prcjudices. Colonorc, he had hcar'
:. and heard with regret, was, well, le
!, us say-a very conservative parish
There were a few such left in Cor
: nccticut low belt spoken. II wotl,
not do to preach To them that iier
!. sermon in which, ~ his old deaco
:. grmly told him he had proved hin
} self u very ''son Of thunder trol
the text.
r. "But he. willing to Justify himset
said unto Jesus, who is my neig|
b bor9
{. Sometime, perhaps, that very ~
IS mon, with it's stern denunciations
wrong, it's fervest claim OF neig
Il borhood and brotherhood for all II
ut ccs, and classes, and kindred of IN,
might do these Colonorc pcop
r good. But that must I've after
I'd had taught them to respect him al
IN his faith; and to like him, pcrso
ally, as well.
:, Just now as it WIS all importa