The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-12-13

may he prosperel until you can fail for five
hundred thous'nl dollars, instead OF having
the disgrace of failing for only ton thousand
as some unenterrrisng people do 1t Is
or twenty years to be called one
OF the sold men Of Brooklyn or Boston, and
then, to make your fortune last as long as
possible, we viii give Won splendid funeral,
and you shall have twenty-five carriages fol-
lowing you, with somebody in the most
silver handles on the Sides and we
will mourn for You in splendid pocket.
handkerchis's hound with Grape, and bonn
bazine twenty full yards long, trailing half
across the parlor so that all the company
may stand upon it, and we will write our
letters for the next six months on paper edged
with black But my friends, your worldly
all that you will be worth in worldly estate
seventy-five years from now. l have the
money in my pocket with which to do it.
Here it isl Two cents 1t is a large sum TO
offer for all you will possess at the
close of seventy-five years. Choose the
choose heaven. That estate lies partly on
this side Of the river, but mostly on the
other. 1t is ever accommodating The pros
pect of it makes one independent
Of earthly misfortunes, so that Rogers,
the martyr, slept so soundly the night before
his burning, they violently shook him in
order to get him awake in time TO- for
thought of the 'joy unspeakable and
full Of glory" Oh, choose earth or Heaven
Make up your mind whether you will walk
in earthly joys, or fly with heavenly ex-
pectations. Be not bat, fit neither to walk
nor fly. having just enough of heaven to
world as to spoil heaven. Christ says
that your present condition nauseates him to
positive sickness: Because thou arr
spew thee out of my mouth" In the
ruins Of Pompei there was found petrified
woman, who, instead of trying to fly from
the. destroyed city, had spent her time in
her life nor her jewels. There are
multitudes making the sans mistake.
In trying to get earth and heaven they
lose both. "Ye cannot serve God and
Mammon." Be one thing or the other.
Tread the earth like a lion, or mount the air
like the eagle; for my text says: I'VE shall
have in abomination among the fowls, the
bat"
Again: taking the suggestion of the text,
drive out the cham sleon from your soul.
There is some difference among good men as
to the name of this creeping thing
which God pronounced unclean, but shall
take the opinion which seems best suited
-
chiefly known by its changeableness of color,
taking the color of the thing next to it, some-
times brown, sometimes red, and
sometimes gray, but always the color
of its surroundings, typ, OF that class
OF Christians who are now one thing In re-
ligious faith, and now another, just to suit
circumstances, always taking their color Of
religious belief from the man they are talk
ing TO. They go to ons place, and are first
rate Unitarians. "Jesus was good man.
but nothing more" They go to Princeton,
and they are Trinitarians almost willing to
die for the divinity of Jesus. Among the
Universalists they refuse the idea of future
punishment; and going among those OF
opposite belief, announce that there Is
hell with gusto that makes you
think they are glad of it. Drive out that
unclean chameleon from your soul. Do not
be ever changing the color of your faith. My
friends, liberal Christianity falsely so-callel,
believes in nothing. God is I5 anything hing
Bible to be believed in so far as you
like it. Heaven a grand mixing up of Neros
and Pauls The man who dies by suicide in
his right mind in 1883, beating into glory by
ten years the Christian man who dies
Christian death in 1898; the suicide proving
himself wiser than the Christian. Oh, my
friends, let us try to believe in something.
An infidel was called to the bedside of his
daughter. The daughter said: Father,
which shall ! believe, you or mother? Mother
took the religion of Christ, and died in its
embrace. You say that religion is a humbug.
Now l am going to die, and | am very much
perplexed; shall l believe you, or take the
belief of my mothers" The father said:
weak to choose for myself; want you to
choose for me-" "Well," said the father,
after much hesitation AMI embarrassment:
MARY, | think you had better take the
religion of your mother" The time will coma
when We shall have to believe something We
can not afford to be on the fence in religion.
Truth and error are set opposite to each
other The one is infinitely right, and the
other infinitely wrong On the Judgment
day wa must give an account of what we
believed as well as for what we acted.
The difference between believing truth
and believing error is the difference between
paradise and perdition. Ibeg you, in the
light Of the Bible, and on your knees be-
fore God, to form your religious opln-
ion and then stick to it, though business COM
panions scof, AMI wits caricature, and the
air craclles with the fires of martyrdom.
Surely truths in behalf of which Christ
died, and angels of God trooped forth, and
the whole universe is marshaled, are worth
living for and worth dying for. Amidst the
most unclean things is this everchanging
chameleon of religious theory. Away with
summing adherence.
Once more take the suggestion of the
text, and drive out the snail from your soul.
God has declared it unclean 1t is an ANNA
to be found everywhere between the coolest
north and the hottest south. There are
fifteen hundred species of the snail. They
have no backbone, and they are SO slow thai
their movement is Interchangeable Yo,
see asnail in one place to-day; go tomorrow
and you will find it has advanced only few
| inches. 1t becomes an emblem of that large
| class of Christian people who go to worl
| with slowness and sluggishness that is won
| derful. They are stopped by every little OBJ
stacle, because, like the snail, they have NJ
backbone. Others mount up on eagles wing
| but they go at a snail's pace.
o, child of God, aroused We hav,
| apotheosized Prudence and Caution Ions
enough. Prudence is beautiful grace, bu
| of all the family of Christian graces
like her the least, for she has beer
married so often to Laziness
and Sloth, and Stupidity. We have
million idlers in the Lords vineyard whit
pride themselves on their prudence. "Be
prudent" SAID the DISC pies to Christ, "anc
stay away from Jerusalem;" but He went
''Be prudent said ! aul's friends, land lool
out for what you say to Felix" but h,
| Numbered away until the rulers knee
knocked together. In the eyes Of the world
| the most imprudent men that ever llvet
were Martin Luther and John Oldcastle, ant
Wesley, and Knox. My opinion is that tn
most imprudent and reckless thing is to stan,
still. 1t is well to hear our Commanders voic
when He say "Hat' but quite as importan
! to hear it when he says Forward" Ihi
| Gospel ship made to pillow the sea at fifteel
knots an hour is not making three
Sometimes it is most prudent t,
ride your horse slowly and pick out tn
way for his feet and not strike him with tn
spurs; but when band of Shoshonee In
dians are after you in full tilt
the most prudent thing for you to d
is to plunge in the rowels and pu
| your horse to a full run, shouting: &c,
'longr' until the Rocky Mountains echo it
The foes of God are pursuing us. The world
the flesh, and the devil are after us; and ou
wisest course is to go ahead at swiftes
speed.
When the Church Of God gets to advanc
ing too fast, it will he time enough to us
caution. No need Of putting on the brake
while going up hill. Do not let us sit dow
waiting for something ito turn up" blu
go ahead in the name of God, and turn
up. The great danger to the church now j
not sensation, but stagnation. Oh that tn
Lord God would send host of aroused an
consecrated men to set the Church Of
fire, and to turn the world upside down
Let us go to work and catch the las