The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1879-08-01

THE CHRISTIANS oppoRruyIrv

l.
Imagination, his ready sympathy, his
great cloquence, silently fortified by
private character without stain. have
given him hold on the masses which
lew advocates of negation have ever
been able to obtain.
suppose 1t is not trenching on the
sacredness of private life to say that this
man had brotherto whom he was pa
slonately attached. Their fraternal in.
tlmacy was of unusual tenderness and
strength. Between them were less thar
two years difference in age, and every
sympathy in profession, principles, taste
which could bind man TO man. When
ready for admission TO the bar, the
younger was not old enough. and the
elder refused TO be admitted in ad-
vance, butt waited ill the younger
should have completed his appointed
time' When apart, they maintained a
close and loving correspondence.
When together, they were a brace o
broad, beaming, benevolent Cbeeryble
brothers. The rotnud form of the one
was seldom met, but the ruddy face of
The other came smiling around the cor
ner. And when Robert, IN private cir
elcs, unstimuIated by miserpresenta-
tion, untempted to shock, tranquil and
frank, poured forth his ever-ready
fund OF argument, anecdote, metaphor,
pity, passion, Ebon sat by, the most
radiant and inspiring of audiences, the
picture of listening admiration and con-
tent. Ii4 rHl5I'f
1t fell out that this well-beloved bro
ther died. In the full vigor of his DAYS,
suddenly a mortal anguish clutched and
conquered him, and those who had
hidden him a merry goodnight heard
never from bis lips good-morning.
l thought it might be Gods way. L,
believing faintingly, doubtingly but her.
editarily, instinctively, desperately in
God, thought it might be Gods one way
of revealing himself to lost soul and
making him the exultant prophet of a
new faith who had been the high-priest
of unbelief. Perhaps he might grasp
the truth of immortal life through his
immortal love and longing. Perhaps,
through sheer human impossibiity,
to lose out OF heart and hope the broth
cr whom he had seen, he would haply
reach forth and grasp the God whom he
has never been able to see, but who is
not far from any one of us.
In such case what force would be
brought over to the cause o. religion
IL would not be simply that one man
would accept the Christian faith; but
one man who was endowed with powers
so marvellous that, iffaith could compel
his conviction, secure his adhesion, it
would have conquered stronghold
and marshaled an army with ban
ners.
The hour of burial came. | watch
ed intently, if through all the grief
and pain | might hear the still small
voice of divine hope; and 10 IL came.
Surely, God was not far even from the
child who could hardly grope for him
In the thick darkness. With voice
wavering, low, scarcely audible, heart
breaking in its stong repression, but
clearing, steadyiag, strene theniDg as it
struggled on, the suffering brother
paid his last tribute to his dead. For
the happy and vanished past he brought
lilies with full hands. The dread void
future he faced without flinching, COLI
fessed our barren ignorance, confront
ed Its awful silence; but then there
came 10 him, just as there comes to the
whole human race, groaning and tray
aillng in the pain of separation, not to
the head demonstrable, but to the heart
the prescience of imnortali-
ty, star shining through the gloom,
the rustling of white-winged hope.
And more than this, borne onward by
the last whispered breath of those
sealed lips, the strong man thrust aside
for the moment all the Irresistible COM
binations of the cool and careful intel
lect, and, needing only the cravings of
his hungry heart, cried out with great
and bitter cry: "Let us believe, in
spite of doubts and dogmas, of fears
and tears, that these dear words are
true OF all the countless deadr
Here was the Christians opportuni-
ty. Mr.. Ingersoll had not shown too
much consideration for Christians. He
had not trodden too reverently before
The shrine which he deemed supersti-
tious, because we held it sacred. Many
who shared his intellectual revolt were
panied by what seemed lack of SYM
pathetic spiritual Difference. But if
ye love only them which love you,
what reward have ye? DO not even
the infidels the same? If ye would
be the children of your Father which
is in Heaven, bless them that curse
you, do kindness to them that hate you,
and pray for them which despitefully
use you. Do it especially when their
hearts are sore with grief and keenly
sensitive to sympathy.
If, now, in this hour of doubt and
dole, it had been in the heart of the
Christian world to beat warm and
quick responsive to his grief; if, for
getting those things which were be-
hind and reaching forth to those which
are before, it could have pressed for
ward to heal his hurt; if it could have
shown itself unmindful of personal
grievance, bent on consolation, holding
out the Gospel as cup of elixir of life
to 1ainting hearts, not brandishing 1t as
a fiery sword over bowed heads, how
sweet might have been the sympathy,
how alluring the magnanimity, how
powerful the Divine and Holy Spiritl
What did the Christian world do?-
rIndependent.