Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1886-09-17

and swept back again to your own grateful |
heart But sometimes it is a wider circle |
and does not return for great while | saw |
! bill of expenses for burning Latmer and |
Ridley. The bill of expenses says:
One load of fir fagots. s.......... 3s. 4d.
Carriage of four leads of wood. e. 2s. Cd.
Item, posi-. :................... is. 40.
Item, two chains. ns................. Is. 4d.
Item, two staples s............... oss cd.
Item four laborers ers.............. Is. Sd.
That was cheap fire. considering all the |
but it kindled light which |
shone all around the world; and around the
martyr spirit; and out from that burning Of |
Latimer and Ridley rolled the circle, wider
and wider, starting other circles cOnvolut-
ing, overrunning, crcumScr.bing, overarch
ing all heaven-a circle.
But what is true of the good is just as true
of the bad. You utter SANDER against youp
1eighbor. 1t has gone forth from your teeth.
It will never come back, you think. You
have done the man all the mischief you can.
You rejoice to see him vince. You say:
'Didn't give it to him2" That word has
gone out, that slanderous word, on its poison
Gus and blasted way. You think it will
never do you any harm; but l am watching
that word, and see it beginning to curve,
and it curves around, and it is aiming at
your heart. You had better dodge it You
cannot dodge it, 1t rolls into your bosom,
and after it rolls in q word of an old book,
which says: "With what measure ye mete,
it small be measured to you again."
You maltreat an aged parent. You be-
grudge him the room in your house. You
are impatient Of his whimsicalities and gar
rulity. 1t makes you mad to hear him tell
the same story twice. You give food he
cannot masticate. You wish he were away.
You wonder if he is going to live forever.
He will be gone very soon, His steps are
shorter and shorter. He is going to stop.
But God has an account to settle with you
on that subject. After while your eye will
be dim and your gait will halt, and the sound
of the grinding will be low, and you will tell
the same story twice, and your children will
wonder if you are going to live forever, and
wonder if you will never be taken away
They called you Father once; now they
call you "the old man, If you live few
years longer they will call you "the old
chap" What are those rough words with
which your children are aecosting you2 They
are the echo of the very words you used
in the ear of your old father forty years
ago. What is that which you are trying to
chew, but find it unmastcable, and your
jaws ache as you surrender the attempts
Perhaps it may be the gristle which you gave
to your father for his breakfast forty years
ago. A gentleman passing along the street
saw q son dragging his father into the street
by the hair of his head. The gentleman, out
ragged at this brutal conduct, was about to
punish the offender, when the old man arose
and said Don't hurt him; it's all right;
forty wears ago this morning l dragged o1t
my father by the hair of the head.n 1t is
circle My father lived into the eighties, and
he had very wide experience, and he said
that maltreatment of parents was always
punished in this world. Other sins may be
adjourned to the next world, but maltreat-
ment of parents is punished in this world.
The circle turns quickly, very quickly.
OH what a stupendous thought that the
good and the evil we start come back to us.
Do you know that the Judgment day will
be only the points at which the circles join,
the good and the bad we have done coming
back to us, unless divine intervention hinder
coming back to us welcome of delight or
curse of condemnation?
Oil l would like to see Paul, the invalid
missionary, at the moment when his influence
comes to full orb--his influence rolling out
through Antioch, through Cyprus, through
Lystra, through Corinth, through Athens,
through Asia, through Europe, through
America, through the first century, through
five centuries, through twenty centuries,
through all the succeeding centuries, through
earth, through heaven, and, at last, the wave
of influence having made full circuit strikes
his great soull Oh, then | would like to see
him No one can tell the wide sweep Of the
circle Of his influence, Save the One who is
seated on the circle of the earth. / should
not want to see the countenance of No.taire
when his influence comes to full orb. When
the fatal hemorrhage seized him at eighty
three years of age his in6uen2e did net cease.
The most brilliant man of his century, he had
used all his faculties for a3slultng Chris
tianity; his bad influence widening through
France, widening out through Germany,
widening through all Europe, widening
through America, widening through the 10l
years that have gone by since he died, widen
ing through earth, widening through hell,
until at last the accumulated influence of his
bad life in fierv surge OF omnipotent wrath
will beat against his destroyed spirit and at
that moment it will be enough to make the
black hair of eternal darkness turn white
with the horror. No one can tell how that
bad mans influence girdled the earth, save
the One who is seated on the circle Of the
earth-the Lord Almighty
"Well, now," say people in this audience,
sths, in some respects, is very glad theory,
and in others a very sad one: we would like
to have all the good we have done come back
to us, but the thought that all the sins we
have ever committed will come back to us
fills us with alright My brother have to
tell you God can break that circle, and will
do so at your call. l can bring twenty pas
sages of scripture to prove that when God, for
Christ's sake, forgives man, the sins OF his
past life never come back. The wheel may
roll on and roll on, but you can take your
position behind the cross and the wheel
strikes the cross and it is shattered for
ever The sins fly off from the circle into the
perpendicular, falling at right angles into
complete oblivion, For given ForgivenI
The meauest thing man can do is, after
some difficulty has been settled, to bring il
up again, and God will not be so mean as that.
Gods memory is mighty enough to hold all
the events of the ages, but there is Que thing
that is sure to slip his memory, one thing he
is sure to forget, and that is pardoned trans
gression How do know it, l will prove
1t. ''Their sins and their iniluities will re-
member no more.n Come into that state this
morning, my dear brother, my dear sister.
'Blessed is the one whose trangressions are
forgiven"
But do not make the mistake of thinking
that this doctrine of the circle stops with this
life; it rolls on through heaven. You might
quote in opposition to me what st. John say
about the city of heaven. He says it '1iett
four square," That does seem to initiate
against this idea; but you know there is
many a square house that has a family circle
facing each other, and in a circle moving
aud l can prove that this is so in regard tc
heaven. st. John says: ~ heard a voice
of many angels round about the throne
and the beasts and the elders" And
again he says: "There was rainbow round
about the throne" The two former instance:
a circle; the last either circle or semi
circle. The seats facing each other, the
angels facing each other the men facing
each other. Heaven an ampitheatre of glory
Circumference of patriarch and prophet, and
apostle. Circumference of Scotch covenant
ers, and Theban legion, and Albigenses. Cir
cumference of the good Of all ages. Periph
n