St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-03-26

Oy III pdIuy 10 IT'S HiSHtN uOlpci, out SUI
itude is necessary to its being; no clos
et,' no Christianity. So teaches our
Lord, and so teaches all the experience
of his followers.
But all this is the chosen, the refresh
ing loneliness that is not imposed, but
sought by every believing and thought
full mind and feeling heart. Our text is
pitched to a more sad and serious note
it turns our thoughts to that other lone
illness that seems more desolate-that
in which we cannot have companions.
81 have trOdden the wine-press alone"
There is many dread and solemn way
in which man must walk alone, apart
from every fellew-creature. Where we
seem most to need companionship and
sympathy, often we cannot have it. In
the exigencies in which affection would
wish to do most for us, it cannot stretch
forth its helping hand, cannot do any
thing; in the severest perils there is no
loving care of a fellow creature to de-
liver us. We must meet temptation
alone, and death alone, and the judge
ment alone. Give few moments
thoughts to each of them.
Temptation we must meet, each one,
alone. Parents have instructed, friends
have warned us; many of the wise and
kind would guide us, and the words
and looks and hearts of the loving have
pleaded with us, that we keep the path
of innocence and virtue. rectitude and
purity but sin takes us by ourselves,
and makes its offers to us one by one.
Every soul must meet the tempter face
to face, like Jesus in the wilderness,
han ha
his entertainments no voice can say for
us, ''Get thee hence" That contest
must be waged in the secret breast,
where no allies can interpOse to turn
away the tide of battle the strength
of principle and of will that resides in
every mind must undergo the fearful
test of its sufficiency alone; there is no
proxy admitted in that war. They who
through love would die for us, if they
might, cannot save us from falling
there, though the fall were worse than
death. We must stand alone behind
the ramparts of individual conscience.
We must take the sword of the spirit in
our own hand and 60 forth to that
dread encounter alone. Every child of
man must leave his friends behind while
he grapples single-handed with his
moral adversary, to stand or fall by the
force that is in him. Friends may
counsel, watch and pray. But they
must stand aloof, though we perish.
We must tread that wine press alone.
In aff1ictiOn we are sometimes alone.
There are sorrows which no sympathy
can avail to assuage. There are some
bereavementS that seem to make the
earth desert. When the nearest and
best beloved die, all other voices but
remind us that the voice We desire most
is silenced, and all other companionship
seems null and vain. The more our
friends gather round us in their kind
ness, the more we feel the inadequacy
of all remaining things to fill the void,
and there is more utter loneliness in
society than in solitude; and the sight
of the eyes is more substantial to the
heart than the images of memory. He
who, amid the vicisstudes of human re-
latiOns, does not sometimes feel lone
illness that all the world cannot people,
has been always alone and has never
known the society of the heart.
In death we are alone. That is a
narrow path where no two may walk
abreast though a thousand should
breathe their last breath together, there
is no fellowship. When that hour comes
to us, the beloved cannot detain us nor
go with us; they cannot ward off the
stroke nor share it science and skill
may interpOse their delays and offer
their alterations affection will smooth
the pillow and soOthe, with new devo-
ton, the last hours of life but when
the hour comes, all must stand back
and look on in impotence and see us
launch alone upon the uuexplOred sea
of eternity. The little child that had
never strayed for an hour from the
shelter of the parental bo-
som must go forth to that untried
bourne alone. The aged one that has
leaned upon devoted children through
every step of the decline, must ut last
drop every staff and pass into the
shadow of that valley alone. Those
who have been one by the most sacred
ties and affections, and have stood side
by side in every strait and peril of the
earthly walk, are parted at that brink,
nor can any more stretch out hand to
one another, nor speak Il word to guide
or cheer, nor so much as exchange sig
nails of recognition and remembrance.
Shrouded and cOffined, alone, the body
goes to the place of graves, followed,
yet alone, and takes its place in the
tomb alone. Reverent and gentle
hands may lay us down to rest, but
they return to the scenes of life and
leave us there alone. And though we
be laid beside the dust of kindred, with
those we have loved the best, there il
no communion. "Stay by me-" said q
dying parent to her only child watching
by her weary bed ''stay by me, viii
you not, to the last ~ And be stayed
but soon the closing eyes knew not hi
features, and the ear knew not til,
voice that had been the music of its lift
and the nerveless hand returned not
nor distinguished the pressure of hi
hand. He was no better than hireling
Not even filial love could add one throl
to the beating pulse, or prolong on
moment the fieeting breath and whel
the last came, though she was hi
mother and had done so much for him
he could do nothing for her but Civ
up her dust to the ground alone an,
commend the spirit to it's God alone.
We must appear before God alone
alone in Judgment human love ma,
not interpOse there to cloak our sin
with charity, or take the blame of then
upon itself, or claim to share the con
domination that may await them. L
the great concerns of the conscienc
there can be no partnership here o
+ hereafter. For that harvest every ma
has his own field to SOW, fenced Of
q from every other; and what he sowetf
n that also must he reap,-he himseI
! alone. They who have watched owe
: us most carefully that the winds Nigh
@ not blow ON us too rudely, and hav
: labored for us that we might not labor