St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-03-26
Extract from Letter written on the 5Oth Birth
day.l
Events and Trials we Must Meet
Alone.
SERMON BY THE LATE DIR. GEORGE w
PUTNAM.

ISAIAH. LXIH3
II have trodden the winepress alone"
shall take only the sentiment of this
text. 1t teaches no doctrine. 1t declares
no great principle. 1t only suggests a
thought, and awakens feeling. | need
not, therefore, study out the connec-
lions of the passage, or show what it
strictly means us it stands related to the
sublime imagery that precedes and fol-
lows it in that old book of the prophet.
The tone of it is my text. will attempt
nothing but to echo and prOloDg Il little
the sound oft, striking so fifty as it does
upon the ear that is attuned to Sabbath
meditatiOns.
II have trodden the wlne-press
alone"
The sound of the words is solemn and
pensive and almost mournful. 1t fingers
on the ear like the sigh of a lonely
spirit 1t comes us IA strain from the
hearts desert places, voice from the
deep solitudes of life, where the help
and sympathy of man cannot reach. 1t
seems to speak of those burdens which
the human soul must bear alone, the
dangers it must struggle with alone,
and of those great crises of existence
in which the arm of friendship and the
heart of love are withdrawn or unavail-
ing. This is the tone of our text; and
there is something in every breast that
vibIates to it, as to truth that every
one finds, or will tind, in some hours, in
some epOchs of life, to be truth to
him.
We are made for society, and we are
also made for solitude. We are made
for the free and conEding converse of
our fellow men, and we are made for
lonely thoughts and emotions in which
none living may take part. We are
made for those ties of life which bind
united hearts together in mutual help
fulness and make them one to do and to
bear through love and brOtherly kind
ness. And we are made, too, to undergo
the dissolution of those ties, and for
emergencies in which the soul can have
ne earthly partner. There are times in
which to feel that we are everything to
one another, and can double our bless
ings by sharing them, and halve our
woes by breathing and bearing them
together, and times i'll which to find
that nothing can be done for us, and
that there are wants of the soul that
transcend the power of man to supply.
There are thousand ways in which
God would have us feel that we are one
fol mutual aid, and he has ways also to
teach us, that we are so many separate
beings and pass before him one by one,
and can lean upon him and have no
other stay.
There are two kinds of loneliness APP
pointed for man. The one is pTivi-
hn ntl iS fria nj
ed. The one is assigned for the rest
and refreshment of the spirit the other
for its Christening, to test its faith IN
God and its reliance on things stronger
and more enduring than an equals love
and care. The first is that which Jesus
sought on those several occasions OF
which. as we are told, he went apar
into the mountains, into the desert, into
the garden, apart by himself, to medi
tate and to pray, to converse with him
self and with the Father, in a highe
communion than that of earthly kin
bred and friends. We cannot penetrat,
the privacy of that exalted spirit. Blu
we know the necessities of our owl
souls. Every soul of man, if it ha
awakened to a consciousness of itself
if it has risen out of the earthliness O
it's condition here, needs its solitar,
hours. The best thoughts that we gai
from the speech of men are matured
made our own, only by private medita
ton. The highest joys which visit u
from God or man, though they are Civ
en- to be shared with others, are not fel
with a full appreciation, unless tn
heart has had opportunity to pOnde
them in the stilluess of its privacy, Th
best purposes, though, it may be, frs
conceived amid crowd, and to be cal
ried out among men again, want ma
turing and building up in the solitar
place of contemplation when the min
NAV clear up its moral vision and mus
ter the energies of will by itself. Their
is good work of self-eXamination tina
is not assisted but disturbed by any hu
man testimony OF adjudication. Th
yeTy affections that bind us closer
those we love, are strengthened an
purified by these separate hours where
in the heart cherishes only the imas
that is within itself and spreads out i
treasures only to its own eye and Cod
Both wisdom and virtue, and the GOO
affections, whose sphere of exercise an
beneficence is the thick pe0pled werl
and strength in those silent scenes al
from amid those secret thoughts wi
which no man intermeddleth. And f
those deeper wants, and those high
aspirings of the soul for the faith tn
reaches beyond the dome of the mat
rial universe to the heaven of heave
aud the spirits home; for the pie
that melts in repentance, rejOices
hope and trusts in God; for these Il
secret place of devotion and meditatiC
is the nursery that no soul of man CT
Outgrow or spare while tabernacled
the flesh.
The thronged temple of worship al
instruction has its sacred uses and f
ness, and its dear satellites, and the i
tercOurse of kindred spirits travelil
one way and seeking the same end, h
its edifying power but the place preeI
inently hallowed by Christ's words al
his disciples experience in every ag
is the closet, the solitary place, whe
the soul takes account with itself a
renews its VOWS, and devotion reviv
ats fame, and faith and hope pluI