Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1872-09-09
HOME AGAIN.

lie duhCG 10 uOt nOtCu lp1 lOSdI uo-
tachments. With little apparent regret
he transfers his abode from place to
place, and calls himself at home wher-
ever he pitches his tent.
However undesirable this trait may
seem to sour cousins from abroad with
their long lasting generation for 1.-THE
ould comnthry" or for '.taderland'' it is
capital trait for ministers at least in
these later years.
While there is very much to be said
against the making of frequent changes
by those whose power for good depends
so largely upon acquaintanceawith the
people among whom they labor, there is
this partial compensation for the loss
of time and of influence necessitated in
those removals, minister and his
family come to own in the ownershiphOf
love, more than one home and itsaeiTeae
of friends. 1t is process of hear6aseA-
la,ying unto any true man or woman.
The discovery is made that the old bar
barian idea that the old allegiance in
friendship must be cast off in order to
the establishment of the new, is essen
TALLY false. The old and the new have
room together in the heart that is warm.
This at least has been our experience,
and never before so fully realized as
during our brief visit to ''Old Vermont ,"
In the family we talked of the trip
beforehand as going home, and when we
visited first the college home, '.Od Midd. ;"
never seemed so dear before. Then the
home of our childhood, the church where
the Father for long years preached the
gospel of Jesus,-the cemetery in which
q single white stone marks the place
where surrounded by the graves of many
of his kindred, his sacred dust awaits
the resurrection morn,-the old Acad-
envy now shaded with trees which in
boyhood we helped to plant, THE famil7
lar haunts which the growth of the pros
porous village has not yet disturbed, = ?
all these things with their clustering as
sociatious, and above all the faces Of
old friends grown older as the years
have touched them, made the place still
home to US.
And then our first home in the min
istry,-the people with whom we found
such tender ties during the six years O
our residence among them, and whose
welfare is still our unchanging desire
the parsonage we helped to build, anC
in which we passed years of home life
chequered With cares and sickness, anc
sorrows, but blessed with the sympathy
and generosity and kindness of a multi
tude of friends whose love will max
that spot always beautiful and preciou
in our memory,-the pulpit from whicl
we looked down upon the we'll know
faces, and whence we also noted tn
accustomed seats of some who have pass
ed from earthly scenes unto the ''Grea
assembly" of the redeemed in Heaven
; the Sabbath School with its corps Q
faithful, enthusiastic workers, and wit
the faces of some of its members shin
: ing with the light of the new-found Low
| of Jesus,-the homes of our intimat
friends, some of whose thresholds W
: had time to cross,-the clasp of war;
hands, the glance of SOULFUL eyes, an
the words of hearty welcome.--the schoo
house so greatly improved, and so we
fulfilling our dream for its future whe
we labored with the few and faithful
l re-organize and improve the school,
! multiform the things that stirred tt
home feeling in our hearts and made ,
thank God that the new does not nece
u sarily crowd out the old from our regarc
L From these homes in Vermont whic
in one sense are still ours, we have r
turned safely to our home in this bea1
tiful village in Central New York, an
with deeper contentment and larg
meaning than before our journey, v
IS say we are at home. No other place
the field Of our present duty and of o,
d joy in trying to do it. No other pla
l. is there where now we can so fully al
= so gladly feel this is where God pu
-e us and blesses us with work to do
IL Him, and with fellow-workers in who
Fl" society it is given us here to labor.
y This newer home of ours seems dear
% to US than ever as we return. to it, al
% we feel that we are getting more al
81 more closely bound to this people of o
love.
a. But a more valuable lesson than a.
s. other, we learn afresh by revisiting q
70 homes and coming back to this,-th
III it is only trust in God which mall
" any of these places of our temporary
as journ really home to u.s.
- Only God is our Dwelling Place, I
~ changing from generation to generate
:, and He alone can guide us safely throu
80 ." these different camping places unto
~ real and eternal Home.
- o, to be in readiness for the reunio
al the companionship, and the telicities
&c that Home of Glory.