Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-09-14
Illuminations Of the White House.

The lessons of patience and submission,
and of cheerful hope and restful satisfying
peace, that have come forth from the cham
Der where our stricken President has lain in
pain and suffering for seventy-fve days past,
are lessons that the nation may well ponder
and each individual learn. III they be
learned IL will doubtless be seen and felt
that they have not been taught at too great
expense. at is expedent that one man
should die for the people, and that the
whole nation perish not" What manly
courage and Christian peace have shone out
from the White House for these weeks past.
The White House has been illuminated by
the patience in suffering and by the sweet,
gentle and accomplishing, yet heroic spirit
of the PROSTATE chief. How unselfish in
all that he has said and done. How thought
full of others, and little thought of himself
How dutiful and fiial to the aged mother,
faithful and loving to the devoted wife and
her tender children. With what firm cour-
age and equal step has he faced the last
enemy 1t is related of one of Napoleon's
marshals, that when he fell mortally wounded
he gave way to rage and despair at the cut
ting short of his brilliant career. And when
one tried to console him by the remem-
brance that he had often faced death on the
battle field, "Yes," he replied, "Marshal
Lannes has often faced death, but never be-
fore has death faced him" But our Pres
ident is not Napoleonic marshal. He is
more He is Christian citizen. For more
than ten weary weeks he has faced death,
and death has faced him. He has seen and
known and felt his danger, and yet he has
been calm. With clear eyeh he has looked at
what was before him and contemplated the
end in peace Never has he mourned If
he must give up his high honors and fail of
what the Nation and Providence alike seem
to have raised him up for and placed within
his reach. With more than mortal calmness
and composure he has bowed to the Al
mighty will. With childlike confidence he
has trusted the guidance OF the Heavenly
Father. Has he not had much of the peace
which Jesus impaired to the disciples when,
after the resurrection, he came to them in
trouble and perplexity and great fear" the
peace of God which passeth understanding"
and which the Apostle declared shall keep
the hearts and minds of the faithful in Christ
Jesus
This peace is not the enforced silence of
stoicism and hardheartedness. Insensibility
and indifference it is not. Inacton and
stiffness are not composure and rest. Much
less is the death of the sensibilities and emo
tions peace. "There cannot be peace"
wrote the Rev. DIR. Lord in one of those edi-
torials which he prepared when, in the midst
of great distress, he was experiencing this
peace, "there cannot be peace where there
cannot be passion and strife. Peace is posi-
tive, active, powerful. 1t lays its hand on
the wild sea and bushes the waves, 1t
speaks to the troubled heart, and it lies quiet
and submissive even while all the great
forces of life are irresistiby throbbing in it.
1t is the power of life hushed and comforted
by God, and not the quiet of death that no
trouble can ever again invade. 1t is the
right relation of all the moral and spiritual
forces of man toward God, his neighbor and
himself. 1t is the established polarity Of
the soul. No matter how violently the nee
die is jostled, or how it shivers and trembles
at rude touches, it always comes back to its
true point of rest. So the soul, however
vibrated and shaken, ever returns to God.
Wherever faith, obedience, love and submits
sion exist toward God, and justice, truth and
kindness toward man, and purity, humility
and self-control in ones self, there is the
peace Of God. There is no peace where
there is wickedness or sin or selfshness,
where there is wilfulness or rebellion or
atheism
Passing through this vale of tears. it must
needs be we pass through many dark and
gloomy avenue. Calamities and crosses all
are exposed to and must bear, the prince as
well as the peasant. They are the lot of
this mortal life. Man is born unto trouble
as the sparks fly upward. But
"The darts Of anguish fix not when the seat
OF suffering hath been thoroughly fortified
BY acquiescence in the will supreme,
For time and for eternity; by faith,
Faith absolute in God, including hope
And the defence that lies in boundess love
OF his PROJECTIONS: with habitual dread
OF aught unworthily conceived, endured
lmpatiently, ill-done or left undone
To the dishonor of his holy name"
Our Lord said to his disciples in view of
trials that he knew would overtake them,
for he had appointed them, I" | will not leave
you comfortless. will come to you. Peace
I leave with you. Mypeace give unto you.
Not as the world giveth, give unto you.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it
be afraid" Our President has experienced
this peace. 1t rises above the fear of death.
1t takes away the sting of death, which is
sin. 1t overcomes the last enemy And
what sight is this for the nation? Living
or dying, the President has taught the people
double lesson. He has taught them how
to live and how to die.