Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-11-14

] tcE"uIuS bOule ueBTee OF cultlNhtlOn. ANA IL
may not be out of place to say farther, that
there would be a stronger bond of sympathy
between members of the common brother
hood, if the papers taken were in full accord
with the truths which are taught from this
desk from week to week, and the truths you
expect to hear taught so long as you bear the
name you do. Certainly in an order as liber-
al as ours this can be called no bigoted
demand and when the choice lies between
papers second in ability to none that are pub
lished, it cannot be called narrow one. We
can hardly expect any person or family to be
fully in sympathy with us when the family
paper is sowing discord, and know Of no
way in which more could be done to bring
us together as one family than to have some
paper in full accord with our faith introduced
into every household among us. This GER
tainly is not impossible when groups of fam
lilies can club together and circulate some one
or more papers from house to house for the
religious paper has mission which is not ac-
complished by single reading in single
household.
In connection with a subject like this some
utullOu huOulu Dt uhub OI lue NQhIhuQuA
Literary and Scientific Circle There has of
late been, developed under the leadership of
that busy Sunday school worker, DIR. Vim
cent, plan for giving the working men and
women of our land the college students out
look upon the world Of men and matter by
course of reading demanding, on an average,
forty minutes of work each day for nine
months Of the year, and costing for the books
about five dollars. 1t is too much to say that
the plan has yet been perfected, but enough
has already been accomplished to show that
it is feasible, and to call forth the hearty en-
dorsement of scholars and educators From
eight to fifteen thousand persons have avail
ed themselves of this means of literary and
spiritual culture, rather, may say, spiritual
and literary culture, for, starting as it did in
connection with Sunday school work, science
and literature are held to be tributary to that
religion which is founded on the revealed
word Of God. The results already achieved
are better testimonials to the enterprise than
the commendation of the good and the wise.
The increased sales of standard literary works,
the reports from those whose names are en-
rolled, and the answers to the examining pa
pers sent out, give a promising outlook for
the future. As an evidence of the classes
that are reached, one man stated in his re-
port that he could not number the hours he
had given to the work, for he was night
watchman and had done his reading by the
light of street lamps between his rounds
lady in her calls upon the poor in Western
city found upon the table of a woman al
most blind, q copy of Green's History of
England whose pages were perforated with
pin marks, and otherwise showed signs of use
In answer to inquiry the woman said, II
commenced the Chatauqua course before my
eyes failed me, and cannot give it up now
My husband and my boy read to me, and
when they come to anything l can't readily
tell them to put pin in there
When they are gone and am alone, take
the book and feel the pages until l come to
the pin, and lift the bandage from my eyes,
glance at the difficult passage, and then think
it over until it is clear in my mind" The
visitor also found that in her poverty she had
saved money for the purchase of books by
having her son thread a number of needles
for her every morning before going to school,
thus enabling her to do the family sewing.
These are some among the many indications
that the work so carefully planned by ex-
pertS, college professors, scientific students
and teachers of experience, has not been in
vain, Indications " hch warrant us in believ-
ing that among the many good things which |
bear the name Of Chatauqua and are the out
come of an increased zeal in Biblical study,
this is by no means the least.
And my treatment of this theme this morn
ing would be vitality defective did I fail to |
speak of one book which is found in all our
homes, and a knowledge of which is profta-
BILE for the life that now is and that which is
10 come. 1t may seem like cant to speak in
terms of praise of the Bible, aud yet We are
to do this by the ignorance of shall
low sciolists and retailers of secondhand |
skepticism who heap their abuse upon the
revealed word. 1t is only the ignorant, and |
those worse than ignorant who speak in |
terms of contempt of this book however slow |
men may be to obey its precepts. Thomas |
Jefferson was called freethinker, yet he al |
ways chose this book for his reading before |
he went to bed at night. The private life of |
Daniel Webster was not model of excellence, |
yet he was called the Congressional Concord
,nce from his familiarity with this book. |
Buckle wrote in opposition to revealed relig- |
on, yet his taste for literature was formed |
by his mothers reading to him from the Bi-
Die in childhood. The books which Byron |
preferred above all were the books of the
Old Testament. Ruskin, when a child, COM
nitted long portions to memory and read the
entire Bible through once year. Dickens
expressly declared he got his style from it.
John Quincy Adams commended it to his
children by precept and example. Wash
ngton Irving walked his sleeping fancies by
chapters in Isaiah. These men, some of them,
laye not been accounted lights in the Christian
'hurch yet they were men of wisdom sufi-
,ient to appreciate the excellence of this
book of books and of manliness sufficient to
acknowledge the obligations they owed. It's
eal worth can best be measured by those
Who have experienced the truths it reveals.
The future is not dark before us, my
riends. 1t is true that the land is flooded
With literature that is vile and death-deal-
ng but it is as true that in no period of our
history have so many copies of the word of
iod been Sold and distributed, at no time has
here been such popular interest in the
Bible, at no time has there tithe of the
elps for the understanding of the Scriptures
'een published, which in connection with our
inform Sunday School lessons have been
catered broadcast over the land. Here are
Influences at work which, with the Divine
essing, may not only reform the taste, but
egenerate the hearts of men. May God
peed the day
November.
No sumo moon!
No mOrn-no noon