Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1870-07-19
Is There Anything In It.
BY MRS. H. B. STOWE.

DT. DOluIuulo Hdu GuG uluco' CO
he informed Mrs. Doldrums the first
thing when she came down in the
morning.
This is such confounded, misera-
BILE unsatisfying world" said DR.. Dol
drums; 81 wonder what it was made
for-why VIC are put in it, and what
use there is in the confounded thing
any way"
DR.. Doldrums did not swear, be-
cause he was pious man, and mem
Der of Exmouth Church. Moreover
the night before he and Mrs. Dol
drums had been in the most edifying
manner to the prayer-meeting, and in
a most charming frame of mind had
sung out of the Exmouth hymn-book-
Shall l be carried to the skies.
On howery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize
And sailed through bloody seas?
Sure ! must fight if must reign,
Increase my courage, Lord;
L II DtdI bu6 CIOSS. GuuuEt lIt pail.
Supported by thy Word.
They were, in fact, about as good
people as the average, this DR.. and
Mrs. Doldrums, or, to put the thing
intelligibly, about as good as you or l
dear reader.
When in the prayer meetings of Elk
mouth Church, or under the vivid or
atory of its minister, their souls were
often waited in prayer and praise
above all things seen and temporal
and triumphed in things unseen anC
eternal, and had they been caught W
Just then and there, might have made
very proper pair of angels.
A stranger going into the Exmoutl
prayer-meeting, and listening frou
time to time to the things sung there
might suppose if all those things were
true, there was, indeed, for those ia
vored individuals, no need of trouble
no need of sorrow, nc need of care
under the sun-that the great un
searchable mystery Of life, for them
at least, was at last solved. Al in
quirer who believed all that they pro
fessed would say, Here is d compa
ny Of true philosophers. They have
found the Kal0n-the true, solid, in
destructible philosopher stone, whicl
whose hath fears nothing, either il
this life or the life to come,
The very evening before, DR.. anC
Mrs. DoIdrgms, standing up in soil,
column, wish all Exmouth Church, hal
sung
Head Of the Church, triumphant,
We jOyfully adore thee;
Till Thou appear, Thy numbers here
Shall sing like those in glory.
Thou dost conduct Thy people
Through deserts of temptation,
Nor will we fear, when Thou art near,
The fire of trbulation.
The world, with Sin and Satan,
In vain our march opposes
BY Thee we viii break through them al
-ALlNt 1AAl7 tAit sung VI -AV'tS'
How bravely and joyously the word
had surged and rung and billowed o.
the waves OF hundreds of hearty voice
the evening before, as the members 0
EXmouth Church sang, after Joh
Bunyan's fashion
Lustily and with good courage.
But this morning, nevertheless, Dl
Doldrums, as aforesaid, declared tha
he had the blues, and that he couldn
see what such a world was made fol-
How came this great change? 1t
true that DR.. Doldrnms, on goin
down this morning had picked up W
on his doorstep an instalImeGt of th
: "world and the feSh," in the shape {
, the morning papers, and looking there
in, he saw that the stock of the Grea
Interior Ground Line Company wa
; rapidly going down, and DR.. Do
! drums was large owner in that con
pany.
Now, 1t Is also true that the goo
Doctor had been courageously SIM
, ing the night before, that he must nc
, expect to be carried to the skies c
fowery beds of ease. He had bee
! rejoicing and 'triumphing in the pc
!, session of kind Of stock that couI
not fall in value, though every bar
: and every corporation and compar
IN this world were sunk in the sea
: = and yet his heart appeared to sir
down to his very boots at this nev
e from the Great Interior Ground Lii
u Company.
y How was this J? Were the passic
{ and earnestness of last nights praye
u meeting hypocritical?
Not bit Of it. They were as tru
u as heartfelt and sincere as anythir
{ you or | ever felt in our lives.
. We're the things sung last mig
still true? Undoubtedly they were
g If you had faced the Doctor with t
Is question that very morning, he won
IS have told you that they were.
l' What, then, was the matter?
J. We can illustrate it by phenon
i, non Of every day occurrence, in t
u experience Of a traveller in the ALI
10 At sunset you may stand in your C
y tage door in Geneva, and see t
!0 whole of the Mont Blanc range,
10 gether with the distant dazzling ra
d and file Of the Oberland Alps, glist,
y ing like jewels, and looking like cit
u built of gold and precious stones
Z Z topaz, ruby and amethyst. The ne
e. morning you rise and look where I
u dazzling vision was, and 10 there
nothing there No colors, no gliCt
vs. no sheen, no mountains, no glory
" nothing but a cool, dull, leaden, gr
K sky, that seems firmly and honestly
10 bound the horizon.
~ The wonderful vision may be til
10 behind that gray horizon, but you
af neither see nor touch it. 1t lives
,lv faith alone.
,ja Such double life do we all
.es who try to live by faith in the inv
= BILE, in the midst of this hurrying, br
at ling, obtrusive and painfully visi
N. world. The bright visions of our
of ter hours are all gone behind clol
ri of earthly reality The world and
y" things OF the world are all that do
we pear.
Besides this, it is to be remembe
that, on the present occasion, it ,
i've a cold, shivery March morning. L
ey. evening had been treacherously