St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-03-30

derness cloud was over them going
ahead, and when the cloud moved they
moved, and when it rested they rested.
Who could have led them through that
wilderness as well as the Lord .? He
knew all the difficulties and pitfalls,
and could lead them a good deal better
than they could go themselves. And
so the Lord God of heaven wants to be
your way, wants to take you by the
hand and lead you. He will keep us in
the right way in many "a dark hour if
we will let him be our guide and way.
He will save us many sOrTowful day,
in many a storm and conflict, and we
will be kept from falling into many a
pitfall, if we will only let the God of
heaven be our way. Out on the West
ern frontiers where the men go hunting
they take hatchets along with them,
and cut the bark so that they may know
the way back. That operation they
call "blazing the way" Christ has
been down here and "blazed" the way
and gone up on high, and says, "FollOw
Me-" and if we follow
WE WILL HAVE NO TROUBLE
about darkness or getting into bondage.
He will deliver us all from pitfalls if
we will only just trust in him and not
be looking at this man or that, this
church or that church, but let him be
our way, our truth and our light. He
is something more than a Saviour, de-
liverer and the way He is the light
upon the way. A good many Christians
ness. You don't all of you look as if
you were rejoicing Christians. | wish
you did. If we just had joyful church
then we should have conversions all
the time, of the old and young; if We
didn't misrepresent our Saviour. The
fact is, so many carry long faces and are
going with their heads down we are
not rejoicing in our hearts all the time.
DR.. Plummer was giving a friend of
mine some advice, when he was about
leaving for the South, and he remarked
about a certain owner of plantation
that he was very severe with his slaves
and had the reputation of being cruel
master. And this gentleman said when
he visited there that he found it about
so, and noticed that he never heard any
of the negroes singing on that mans
place. He made up his mind that what
that man said was true because he
never heard these slaves singing. Now,
says the old doctor, there are a good
many of Gods people whom you never
heard singing; they are not filled with
the spirit of the Master. Let us not
misrepresent our God. We are children
of the light and ought to be rejoicing in
his love. In the eighth chapter of
John, twelfth verse, he says 81 am the
.aIN 81 h. hot fDll Il
me shall not walk in darkness, but shall
have the light of life"
IF WE ARE CLOSE BY CHRIST
we are in the light as he is in the light.
| have seen picture i'll some of your
homes which represents Christ standing
at door with a lantern. That greatly
misrepresents him. What would he
want of lantern when he is the light
of the whole world. Don't put a Ian
tern in his hand, my friends. Christ is
the sun himself, the light. And if any
one is in darkness here to-day, it is
because you have got away from Christ,
| remember during the war an incident
at prayer meeting at the rooms of the
Young Mems Christian Society. 1t was
the first year of the wal, and we had
had quite a number OF unsuccessful
battles we had been repulsed, and it
looked as though the country was go
ing to pieces. We were very much dis
cOuraged and disheartened. remem-
Der that every one who spoke in that
prayer meeting was telling a very dole
full story. By-and-by an old man with
beautiful white hair and beard arose.
| said to myself then that he must look
like Moses. He rebuked the young
men, saying that there was no darkness
where God is, and if God is with us,
why should we be cast down =? After
he had rebuked us little while he gave
us some good advice and closed by
stating that he had been east, spending
the summer in the Eastern states. One
day he wanted to go up into noun
tain, having heard how beautiful the
sun looked from there when it rose in
the morning. He made his arrange
ments and started early, with a guide.
As the old pilgrim got up a little way,
by-and-by thunder storm came on, it
rained hard, and the lightning played
around them and the thunder began to
peal and shook the mountains. He said
to the guide Il think | had better 90
prevent my reaching the tOp.n The
guide smiled and said he thought they
would get above the storm soon, and on
they went
THROUGH THE CLOUDS AND STORM,
and at last got above them to the sum-
nit, where it was as calm as summers
evening. They could see the storm in
the valley and hear the thunder. "Chil-
dren," said the old gentleman, "don't
stay down i'll the valley of darkness
where you are climb up higher where
it is light" | never forgot it, and if
the way IS dark can hear the old pill
grim's words in my ears, and there is
no darkness. If we keep close to him
we will have light all the time. A man
was talking about some young converts,
''the idea of their being converted" 1t
was all mOOnshine. "Yes,n said one,
Il feel proud of the compliment ; the
moon borrows light from the sun, and
we borrow ours from the Sun of
righteousness" Let MS bear in mind
that we are here to reflect Gods light,
as the moon reflects the light of the
sun. And it is only when we get nearer
to Gods light that we shine brighter
How many leave their light hid under
a bushel and men cannot see any diff
ference between us and the world, and
they go stumbling over us. But if we
kept our lights trimmed and burning
they would not keep on stumbling over
us. | remember once of hearing of
blind man who was sitting on a curb
stone in a city holding a lantern. A
man passed by and saw he had no ewes
went along and kept wondering why
he had that lantern. At last, his curl
osity being aroused, he went back and