Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-10-06

| RI the people, ana we know they are
sources of peace in moral sense, in that
the human mind cannot but feel the effects
| of their lofty grandeur,-the passions hush
ed in their soitudes and silence. Mountain
people have ever been noted for the fleet
foot, the strong, nervous, elastic form, the
cheerful face the bright eye, and the clear
intellect. The last people with whom you
would want to measure physical strength,
or meet in battle, would be men who from
infancy have breathed the mountain air.
And in the intellectual and moral battles of
life, they fall behind none. 1t is not the
Swiss merely, who long to return to their
huge swelling Alps, aud their deep, almost
sunless valleys, but all, who have spent their
childhood under the shadows of great
mountain, long, when absent, to return to
them. You see but part of the mountain,
but the imagination rounds out the unseen
side. You see only its outline, but you know
that it has rocks and caverns within, and
the wild animals to creep, and the wild birds
TO sing, on its sides, so covered with its cur
tain of blue.
But our text looks to something higher
yet. he mountains may fling their shadows
over the plain where peaceful homes are
nestltngs-wher families may grow up I'M
tempted, and uncontaminated by vices,
where the tastes may remain simple, where
the mind may receive its first impressions
from nature-and a beautiful manhood may
be developed-but this is not all! The
mountains where the Prophet saw, were
| glded by the light of the latter day, and
| they become enobled-as does every thing
which the light touches. How every thing
| on earth, or in the heavens, is enobled by
| this dispensation! The sparrOws and the
| lilies are .dignifed into teachers. The coin
| in the fish's mouth teaches all natives that
| they must pay their taxes and support civil
government. 1.-The Kings Son" spoken
| of in our Psalm, has but to call the fisher
men frcm their little bo<ts, and they became
| Apostles. He sends his messengers into
| heathenism, and turns and raises heather
| into churches, to whom such profound
| Epistles as that to the Romans are addressed.
! His Gospel raises the poor and the lowIy
into disciples and martyrs and missionaries,
| and the feeble became US the house OF
David, and the house of David as the angel
of God. 1t leads you to the manger to see
Him whom the star points out. IL takes
YOU to the SHOWS of the North, and to the
burning sands of the Equator, and shows
YOU noble men and women, counted by
hundreds VINO leave home and the comforts
of civilization that they may tell the story
OF Redemption to the heather. 1t creates a
self denial that knows no limits, even to the
laying down of life.
If. then, the tendency of the Gospel is
thus to raise and dignity small things, so
thar the litte chest, called the ark, shall be
held in everlasting remembfance-So that
the sOiled and weary feet coming over the
mountains to bring peace, shall he - Deautl-
ful so that a cross of wood shall be more
honored than all the carvings of art,-so
that volume cOntanlnE Coo S words snail
be the Book of the human race, you will not
then, deem me peryerting that text, If l
lead your minds at this time to consider the
blessings which the Gospel conveys to the
world by and through single mountain
town.
Many of our New England towns are
one hundred years old at least. Many of our
western towns are fifty years old-others not
half of that; but the time will come, when
all this will be called the early history OF
our country, and all these cities and villages
will seem TO have been built at the same
time and the whole country settled together.
What are a few centuries IN nation NE!
Now 90 back Il Ceulury-When the white
man plunged trembliugly into the forest,
and came TO the spot where the beautiful
Town now stands. His first object IS to dad
Il spring OF Water-near when lie Is 10 erect
his little log cabin. There are no roads, but
the trail of the Indian. there are no neigh
bors.-no forests yet cut dOWI-no helds
sowu.-uO mills TO grind his food, or saw
his lumb r,-uo trading post where he may
relieve g Wunt,-uO physician when he Is
slck.-uo school for his Child,-no property
by which he can supply his necessities. His
music is the ring OF the axe, and the falling
of the trees The night is made more sOLt-
airy by the hooting of the owl, and the
scream of the wild beast When he burles
his dead, he himself must make the coffin,
dig his grave, and without Dell 10 toll, Or
minister to offer prayer, lie must bury
the dead under the tail tree. The pioneer
must struggle With poverty, take nature in
The rough, let sunshine into ms house anu
heart. BY his own industry and struggles
His food is the plainest, his dress is the
simplest, his home the most humble-and
the only thing that cheers him, Is hope,
that has cha icT,gt will reap the benefit OF all
this selfdenial. Bat the poor man brought
his Bl6ie with him, his education with him,
his shreWdness with him, and his braWny
arm and cheerful courage. He must live
and die poor. But the light OF the Gospel
shines upon the first dwelling that is reared,
and that becomes q controlling power in all
the future history of the town. Go there a
century after this That beginning has
become a mighty power. The same old
mountains lift themselves up there, but the
forests are gone, the pleasant roads and
bridges are all buiIt-and town, growing,
thriving. prosperous, is there. The fields
are under high cuture-the meadows glow
with beautv-and the town sits like Queen,
crowned with a wreath OF beauty. The
sources OF her power, are the church of Cod
the most prominent object which meets
the eve Of the stranger place OF worship,
bringing the mind into contact with the
InHgite-a place Of conscience, where the
awful - thou shall not " rings into The ears
of the Oui--and place OF teaching and OF
thought. where tna mental and moral tacill-
ties are made to nestle among the pillars OF
truth. Near by, the pride of the town, is the
.y.I l. pSS
. rs central fi4ht will not be convenient for
o. these school-ho4ses are erected all over
an, SO that no little child shall become
cDa. ~. uFY, and no child Shall be deprived
~ Enc mr. 'yilegss Of the free school. These
20 ,o,it he 1then schools, nor intideI schools,
hn+ 60 FAR +, Z contrary; tlat the Bible is the
standard of II. orAlity, and It's words, like
the dews of Heaven, fall gently upon the
Ionng heads. This free school Is mlS4ty
power, and it lifts every emu up so tl"' i0
becomes an Intelligent man.
Industry Is another power, If any one
thinks that the forest ana the DESERT mas
been made to blossom us the fose,-that an
these beautiful homes and these pubic
hnildin0s. the mechanics shops have been
erected. all this property accumulated, these
factories pat in motion, these Objects OF CON
veuiepces and refinement made common,
without an industry that was untlrlng, IN
creased, and well directed. he knows little
about il. The christian home now stahuS
where the bear lay down century aso.
Property is power, and property is the
daughter of industry. The people own the
land in fee-simple, Till it with free labor, and
at night, having no theatre to compel by its
glare and unholy eXcitements, they lie
down under the shadow of the Most High.
BY this time, the town is surrounded by
Gordon of similar towns, and having its
centre, its churches, its free school, and its
hum of industry. One town acts upon
another, make an improvement in one,
build a good school-house in one, do a
generous, noble act in one place, and you
electrify all that surround you; the example
of what is good, is seen and copied. Each
town is little Republic by itself, aud the
most perfect Republic in the world. Public
sentiment settles everything, and these sis
ter towns act and react upon each other as
diamonds are polished by diamonds
Now let us look ar the methods by which
the power of mountain town brings
peace to people" 1t is sometimes thought