Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1888-05-04

cup of earthly existence, which is sometimes
stale, etfervesce and bubble. They placate
animosities They foster longevity. They
Stay tollies and absurdities which all the
sermons Of all the pulpits cannot reach.
1hey nave Tor examples Elijah, who made
fun of the Baalites when they called down
fire and it did not come, suggesting that their
heather god had gone hunting or was of
on ii journey, or was asleep and nothing but
vociteration could wake him, saying: "Cry
aloud for he is god; either he is talking or
pursuing or peradventure he sleepeth and
must be awaked" They havean example in
Christ, who with healthful sarcasm showed
up the lying, hypocritical Pharisees, by sug.
costing that such perfect people like them
selves needed no Improvement, saying: 1.-THE
whole need not physician, but they that
are sickn
But what use are you making of your witt
Is it besmirched with profanity anil unclean.
ness' DO you employ it in amusement at
physical defects for which the victims are
not responsiblel Are your powers of mimicry
used to put religion in contempt9 Is it a
bunch of nettlesOme invective. Is it a bolt
of unjust scorn! Is it fun at others mis-
fortune! Is it glee at their disappointment
and defeats Is it bitterness put drop by drop
INTO cup! Is it like the squeezing of arte-
misia absinthium into draught already dis
tastefully pungent9 Then you are the star
NORWOOD. Yours is the fun of a rattle
snake trying how well it can sting. 1t is the
run OF hawk trying how quick it can strike
out the eye of dove.
But will change this, and l will suppose
you are star of worldly prosperity. Then
you have large opportunity. You can en-.
courage that artist by buying his picture.
You can improve the fields, the stables, the
highway, by introducing a higher style of
FOWL aud horse and cow and sheep. You can
bless the world with genealogical achieve
ments in the orchards. You can advance
arboriculture and arrest this deathful icono-
clasm of the American forests. You can put
a piece of sculpture into the niche of that
public academy. You can endow a college.
You can stocking thousand bare feet from
the winter frost. You can build a church.
You can put a missionary of Christ on that
foreign snore. on can neIp ransom worIu.
A rich man with his heart right Can YOU
tell me how much good James Lennox or a
George Peabody or Peter Cooper or a Will
lam E. Dodge did while living, or is doing
now that he is deadl There is not a CITY
town or neighborhood that has not glorious
specimens of consecrated wealth.
But suppose you grind the face of the poor.
Suppose when a mans wages are due you
make him wait for them because he cannot
help himself. Suppose that because his
family is sick and he has had extra expenses
for this year, and you roughly tell him if he
wants better place to go and get it. Sup
pose by your manner you act as though he
were nothing and you were everything.
Suppose you are selfish and overbearing and
arrogant. Your first name ought to be At
lila, and your last name Atti!a, because you
are the star NORWOOD and you have en-
FILTERED one-third, if not three-thirds of the
waters that roll past your employees and
operatives and dependents and associates,
and the long line of carriages which the I'M
dertaker orders for your funeral in order to
make the occasion respectable will be filled
with twice as many dry, fearless eyes as there
are persons occupying them. The clumsy
pail bearers may make the gates of your
sepulcher quake by striking your silver
handled coffin against them, but the world
will feel no jar as you go out Of it,
There is an erroneous idea abroad that
there are only few geniuses. There are
millions of them; that is, men and women
who have especial adaptation and quckness
for some one thing. 1t may be great it may
be small. The circle may be like the circun-
ference of the earth or no larger than
thimble. There are thousands of geniuses
here this morning, and in some one thing
you are star. What kind of star are
you! You will be in this world but few
minutes. As compared with eternity the
stay of the longest life on earth is not more
than a minute. What are we doing with
that minute! Are we embittering the domes-
tic, or social, or political fountains, or are
we like Moses, who, when the Israelites in
the wilderness complained that the waters
of Lake Marah were bitter and they could
not drink them, their leader cut off the
branch of a certain tree and threw that
branch into the water, and it became sweet
and slake1 the thirst of the suffering host?
Are we with a branch of the tree of life
sweetening all the braclIish fountains that
we can touch! Dear Lord, send us all out
on thy mission. All around us embittered
lives, embittered by persecution, embttered
by hypercriticism, embittered by poverty,
embittered by pain, embittered by in
justice, embittered by sin. Why not
go forth and sweeten them by smiles
by inspiring words, by benefactions,
by hearty council by prayer, by
gospelized behavior. Let us remember
that if we are NORWOOD to Others we are
NORWOOD to ourselves, and our life will be
bitter and our eternity bitter. The Gospel
of Jesus Christ is the only sweetening power
that is sufficient 1t sweetens the DISPOSE
ton. 1t sweetens the manners. 1t sweetens
life. 1t sweetens mysterious Providences
1t sweetens Affections 1t sweetens death.
1t sweetens everything. I have heard people
asked in social company: ''lf you could have
three wishes gratified what would your three
L
met this morning tell you what they would
be. First-More of the grace of God Sec
ond-More of the grace of God. Third
More of the grace of God In the door yard
of my brother John, missionary in Annoy,
China, there is O tree called the emperor
tree, the two characteristics of which are
that it always grows higher than its sur
romdings, and its leaves take the form of a
crown. If this emperor tree be planted by
rose bush it grows a little higher than the
BUSH and spreads out above it crown. If
it be planted by the side of another tree it
grows a little higher than that tree and
spreads above it a crown. Would God that
this religion of Christ, more wonderful
emperor tree, might overShadow all your
lives; are you lowly in ambition or circum-
stance, putting over you its crown; are you
high in talent and position putting over you
its crown. Oh, for more of the saccharine
in our lives and less of the NORWOOD?
What is true of individuals is true Of ma
tions, God sets them up torevolve as stars,
but they may fall NORWOOD.
Tyre-the atmosphere of the desert fra
grant with spices coming in caravans to her
fairs; all seas cleft into foam by the kees of
her laden merchantmen; her markets rich
with horses and canals, from Togarmah,
her bazaars filled with upholstery from
Dedan, with emeralds and coral and agate
from Syria, with wines from Helbon, with
embroidered work from Ashur and Chill
mad. Where now the CLEAN of her towers,
where the roar Of her chariots, where the
masts of her ships9 Let the fishermen who
dry their nets where once she stood, let the
sea that rushes upon the barrenness where
once she challenged the admiration of all ma
tions, let the barbarians who set their rude
tents where once her palaces glttered, an
swer the question. She was a star, but by
her own sin turned to NORWOOD and has
fallen
Hundred-gated Thebes-for all time to be
the study of antiquarian and hieroglyphist;
her stupendous ruin spread over twenty
seven miles, her sculptures presenting in
figures of warrior and chariot the victories
with which the now forgotten kings of Egypt
shook the nations; her obelisks and columns;
Carnac and Luxor, the stupendous temples
of her pride. Who can imagine the greatness