The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1886-08-13

Then life strand twists Of cailc bands.
That man sins Wis renders Caesars
things to God with him who renders Gods
thing to Caesar. 4 duty to the state asks
fultillment at our hands, and we sin who
do not that duty. A duty to the church
asks fulfillment at our hands, and We sin
who do not that duty. There is time and
strength for fulfilling ouf duties to the
state. There is time and strength for full
filling our duties to the church. These
duties need not conflict. But who takes
what lac owes the state, even though he
give it To the church. is a thief. and as
we'll who takes what he owes to the church,
even though he give ii to the state, is a
thief. In the thought Of Jesus, church
and state are divorced with a blessed
enforcement. The church only asks
fiberty-freedom within a free state
and it will work its works And they
who have married church and state
have gone contrary to Jesus, and out
of that marriage have eruelest oppres-
sions and hitterest wrongs been bona
very brood Of hell with hands of awful
murder and deadliest tyranny have trooped
from the bed of lust. Never can state
and church lawfully marry, for it is not
Gods will But yet every man must serve
the church. every man must serve the
state. The state has to dc with good gov
eminent. The church has to do with good
~. eao4.- 1koI a+a4a IaaI 20 ~. vri4I the
externals af society, giving every man the
fullest freedom in everything consistent
with the general welfare. The church has
to do with ;he delicate matters of con-
science; the fine matters Of the souls re-
lationship 10 its God. and when with this
the clumsy hand of the state interferes, it
wrecks and ruins the delicate machinery.
A free church in a free state is Gods
thought; and a good church member and
a good citizen is mans duty.
~
The best friend of the poor is the poor,
because they have a like sore upon their
heart and can sympathize with one bear
ing the same wound. The rich, having
never suffered in poverty, can i'll suceor
them that are in poverty suffering; and in
what they do there is great danger that
there be lack of a loving, sympathetic
heart, that their work be mechanical, and
So doing only All outward help, not better
ing the soul. Indeed is sympathy the soul
of all help. and without il help is heartless-
is mere machinery. And SO God became
man and felt our deep wonnd upon his own
heart, and by that he is able to help with a
help that thrills through and through with
a loving heart. And is not here the key
OF much OF e~artli's suffering By it we
are fitted to help save some of Gods
worlds that shine in dark deeps of the
night. We who are made perfect through
suffering are fitted to help them that are
suffering. We are Gods workmen in
training. What great and wonderful work
we may do only He knows who, through
suffering, is fitting as for that work, even
as by the cross lie fitted Himself for the
great work Of redeeming the world.
-
Angularity is mans natural condition,
and one is constantly knocking against the
sharp points of the angles and getting
bruised. But when Gods love sets to its
work IN his heart the angles are cut away,
and there is a mellowed roundness of
beauty that always blesses when we come
mean and touch it. The gospel finds man
encompassed with singing burs, but like
the frost touching the chestnut, opens the
burr and 10 a charming beauty lies with
III! In man natural there is much beauty
and worth, but the touch of Gods grace
must perfect it, sloughing of the imperfec-
tons, making its loveliness appear, fash
ionmg it into new forms Of beauty, impart-
ing to it new substances of lo~veliness.
-
Obedience to the little truth does not ex-
cusc from obedience to the greater. 1t is
rather the obligation to believe in and live
the greater. Ii a man docs the little truth
Of yielding to church ordinances it does
not excuse from bur obi gates him to do
the great truths of moral uprightness in
ways OF his every day lite. Not one duty
excuses from another, but each duty is the
obligation 10 do the other, and more, each
duty wei done is strength for The doing
well OF the next Indeed. all truth and its
doings is one. and from It hand Of faithful
doing wins eternal moral strength for the
soul,
So
Summers price Is winter ice.
The real gain Of sacrifice for noble ends
lies in the heart that by the suffering isen-
nobled.
Where mortgage rests its heavy paw,
It's teeth do rend Tor hungry NAV.
In the country there is often the truest
refinement; in the city there is often but
polish, and even pine wood may be polish
cd. IN the country there is a quiet Thought
fitness that goes to the heart Of Things.
while in the city there is a hurried glimpse
that sees only the surface of things. The