Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1875-09-13
Religious Department.
Extract from Sermon Delivered in
Boston, by Rev. G.. H.Hepworth.


Scripture tells us that this world is
dream and the other world is reality, |
but to the average man it is this world
that is the reality, and the next world
which is the dream. Once in while,
in sickness or in affection the hope of
comes to us, but like an
April day, one moment the sun shines
out with genial warmth, and the next,
a cloud comes to cover it and darken all |
the world. The consciousness that i'm
mortality is fact-the great pivotal
fact-this does not take hold upon us
and become motive in our lives.
sometimes wonder what the angels think
of us, working day after day and year
after year, with an all-absorbing zeal,
for the things which we must leave be-
hind us. 1t is like child playing with
its toys and painted baubles; but, adas,
in our cases we play at forty and fifty,
and to the angels it must seem strange
indeed that immortal souls can be salts
fed with the things which pass away.
Our young men, especially in the great
cities, are fed on wrong philosophy of
success. A young man stands on the
threshold of New York or Boston COM
mereial life and perceives the secret of
success to be shrewdness and expedien-
cy. This world is but well-filled Ia
bic, and he gets the largest share who
has the stoutest muscle and the greatest
shrewdness and cunning. Too many of
our young men have the idea that might
controls right and this philosophy leaves
God out, and is therefore wrong. 1t is
not philosophy that looks forward to
the years that are to come. Expedien-
cy is the falsest principle in the world.
Honesty as policy is fatal to manhood.
1t is the faisest philosophy that ever
came from the printing press. In the
name of Heaven, never be honest be-
cause it is policy. Be honest because
it is Gods commandment. Read histo-
ry with the eye of care, and where to-
day are all the wrongs, mighty as they
have been? They arc gone forever, ev.
cry one of them. An evil cannot long
exist, but is ever short.lived. Lool
abroad again where is the good of the
past {? 1t is here; it is the legacy o.
the past to the present. God always &C
cumulates and evil disintegrates. HI
who is loyal to God will find, in tn,
long run, peace, happiness, and immor
tally. 1t seems to me that what tn
Church falsely calls carnal reason is il
our way. mean that there is rampan
in the community, feeling Of infdelit
toward certain truths and principle
which have been the life and characte
Of the past 1t is regarded as an ev
denee of weakness for man to have sue
implicit faith in this Book that he make
it his guide. Science aids these imprei
sions, and her opponents have left th
domain of fact for that Of assertions
!. When a scientist overleaps the domai
of his proper investigation, and attemp
to blow the Rock of Ages into ten tho
u sand atoms, l say to him, l have four
in my own experience and life the Boz
to be true. 1t teaches me to befrieI
" the friendless as no other philosopl
. could, and Gains me as the words of o.
>" Saviour Gained the troubled sea /; al
" having settled it as fact that Chr
has spoken l make that fact the bac
ground of my life, and fight adverse
and trouble with satisfaction and 81
, cess which the slightest doubt would {
~ stroy. We only half believe, and I
great want of the age is whole beli
% =, taking God at His word and acting
y" His commandments. l take the Bi
- :. as my guide and accept the results. I
40 more / believe in it. the more l HI
Nh peace, and the more the sunshine ste
V through the clouds and touches all
" days and years. If l can only lie do
e'' at the foot of the throne it will
enough. Faith is better than sight
cry We live not by what we see but
OF what we know; that is the most preci
ct truth in the world, and we can prov
by our daily experience. When we
lite simply on the word of God it is our
ort, in all seasons"