Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1874-06-12
DAVID SWINGS SERMONS.


II is pleasant to know that some of III
best of these eloquent discourses have beef
put into book form. We have received from
w. ID. Keen, Cook and Co., Of Chicago.
neat octave volume with the above title
containing fifteen sermons, including thos
particularly referred to in the late trial 70,
heresy, together with DR.. Patton's charges
and Prof Swings Declaration to the Pres
bytery. Ii gives also portrait and poem
PIP. l44. Paper, S1.00 cloth $3.50.
We take this extract from an Easter ser
mon entitled
The Joyful Sunday"
In coming up TO such day as this. We
have not encountered a kind of accident ,oI
tho religion Of Jesus, but have come 20 il,
lnmost aud permanent spirit. When the
Divine Author Of religion declares that "His
yoke is easy and His burden light" we NAV
accept Of the words as covering all the DAYS
Of this pilgrimage. When looked at from
tho standpoint Of old Jewish law, full OF
imperlections, full OF wrath, and too narrow
either for life or death, whose confines were
single nation, and whose religion was an
external Offering Of ilocks, aud whose great
emblem was Sinai covered with thunder.
ings and vivid lightnings, Christ's yoke, with
its perfection Of reason in its new law, and
with its redemption on the cross, and with
its forgiveness, and its brotherhood of man
and loving presence Of God, became easy
and His burden light.
When the Testament in many places as.
sures us that whoever would follow Christ
must deny himself and take up the cress, Il
would seem that Christianity was sent
forth on a mission Of sorrow, bus much of
that language was directed to those imme-
date times when to follow Christ was TO
place the foot in a path which led to mar
tyrdom. 1t was necessary for st. Paul
and for tens Of thousands around his grave
to turn away from the paths Of early hap.
piness, and bidding farewell to friends, to
look death calmly in the face as the fate Of
the morrow not far away. The prayer Of
Milton over the martyrs of Piedmont passes
beyond his horizon and becomes full Of aw-
iul solemnity when breathed over the 6rst
four centuries after our Lord
Forget not in Thy book record their groans
Who were Thy sheep, and In their ancient fold
Slain by the bloody Piedmontese that rolled
Mother with infant down tho rocks. Their means
The wales redoublcd to the hills and they 10 heaven
Their martyrd blood and ashes SOW
Der all tho Italian fields"
In view Of these dark ages, whose fury it
seems was not wholly to die away for thou
sand years, Christ handed down TO His chill
dren the form of His own cross to 70 with
them, the emblem oil many. sorrow and
many martyrdom. Thus feel that many
Of the Enthusiastically words Of Christ were
spoken as against the prosecutions that
would follow and did exhaust themselves
upon that special shore, leaving His broad
sst and everlasting declaration to be that of
our text "My yoke is easy aud My bur.
len is light" Sorrows may come here and
here, to this or that period, or to this or
hat heart, but as a general truth embracing
Ill lands and all humanity. Christianity is
he most abundant fountain of happiness Of
whose waters the human family may ever
rink. If there is any happiness in this
world it ought to be found in the obedience
Vt such morals as are found in the Sermon
lpon the Mount, and in such life Of broad |
owe and charitable action as are seen ia the
life Of Christ, and in that refuge for. the
oul found beneath His Gross, and in that
opo which there bursts upon the vision be-
'ond the open tomb.