St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-06-01

liable to weakness, to disease and to
deformity. Many are not equal to the
labor for which the proprieties of their
stations in life seem to call, and it is a
source of greater or less unhappiness to
them. Many are victims of disease,
causing them more or less pain, and
their material interests more or less in
jury. Many, by mutilation, or by dis
ease, are misshapen and live in con-
slant Inconvenience and modification.
These all are objects of pity, many of
them of public or private charity. The
misfortunes of some of them are so i'm
pressive by their greatness as to sadden
us for days after behOlding them.
But greater still is the misfortune of
them of unsound mind-the idiotic and
the insane. The imbecile is not aware
of his deprivation nor conscious of men
tai suffering, yet by all who behold his
vacant stare and hear his incoherent
mutterings he is viewed with sorrow
and pity. But for insanity, as chief of
temporal evils, men by common consent
reserve their deepest commiseration.
That fountain, whence flowed once
streams of wit and wisdom and clear
and cOgent reasoning, has been fOuled
by some disturbing agent and pours
forth wild vagaries and senseless raw
ings. That tossing wreck was once a
noble vessel. That costly engine, sub
lime specimen of the Creators handi-
work, accurately fitted together and
nicely adjusted to play, each part upon
its fellow, without friction, in noiseless
harmony, is in ruins, whether it lie a
scene of silent desolatiOn OF of violent
struggling and antagonism, its various
powers and faculties wrestling among
themselves, its energies wounding and
crippling each other. All is inverted
and in confusion. Those motives to
which that mind once responded as soon
as they were presented meet now no
recognition, awaken no emotion, or a
wrong one. Your gentleness would
awake fear, your frankness beget dis
| trust, YOUR tortures be met with Il smile
of contempt. If the spectacle were new,
you weuld gaze upon it with astonish-
ment, while i'll proportion to your realiz-
alton of the magnitude of the msfor-
tune would be your sorrow and pity tOl
the unfortunate subject of it. No sad
der sight do human eyes ever look upon
than these manifestations of intellectual
wreck and ruin.
But, as have said, there is deeper
unseundness with which souls are af,
t1icted. 1t is unbelief, disease or de.
formity which renders men incapable al
least of certain correct spiritual percep'
tions, and conduct appropriate thereto
By the taste of food the healthy palate
is gratified. If good food, at proper in
tervals, is loathed, not desired, we in
fer physical disease. And so, wheI
those objects which are adapted to ex
cite certain emotions in the mind, whel
presented at the right time and in tn,
right way, fail of producing those re
suits, we infer something wrong-men
tai weakness or disease. So may tn
angels watch human souls and not
what response certain doctrines ant
commands of Gods word meet, as S
many tests of their spiritual sanity o
) sOundness. The statement that Co
will punish sinners with everlastin
more dreadful than any human threa
, of violence. But where are the blanch
) ed cheek, the quivering flesh and tn
quaking heart that are the appropriat
manifestations of the fear they ought t
| feel ? The display of Gods love an
! tenderness towards our race in the Cos
pei is far more touching than any man
festation of human love. But whel
' are the tears of gratitude which are til
: least that would be appropriate in til
7 objects of his mercy? The desire I
7 friendship, of happiness and of all goo
= is awakened by many an earthly objec
] But when Christ is presented, i'll whOl
all the lOngings of the soul may be full
= satisfied, it sits in calm indifference,
h turns away in disgust. To the calls
S patriotism and parental authority I'll
= human heart responds in willing Obed
e ence. But to the calls of God it is de-
= or actively rebellious. These now al
J, tests. Christ and Christianity thus pr,
n sented to the human soul are tests
e its soundness or unseundness. And
:, bodily disorders are sad, and ment
t arrangements fill behOlders with so
row, what emotions of grief might n
It swell celestial bOsOms to see that higl
: est nature, by which man is allied
e the Divine and rendered capable
|, angelic virtues and deeds, thus ruint
n by some cancer, as it were-defOrn
d ed, discordant The very fact that Il
n moral nature is the most important al
V the noblest of all, renders unbelief,
y disease, the greatest misfortune up,
1t which spiritual eyes can look.
Is But, secondly, in its results we me
Is with further evidence of the unhapl
a ness of this state of unbelief.
,e l. 1t is hindrance to knowledg
Ie Faith, that spirit of submission al
rs trust, is essential to the learning
IN many important things. tits that sta
E. of the heart which ''makes truth cret