The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-02-16

neT-iui tuer away from UO1, Iurther away
from the right Soon the bright apparel Of
the children will turn to rags: soon the house
hold song will become the sobbing Of broken
heart. The old story over again. Brutal
| Centa,irs breaking up the marriage feist Of
Lapitha. THE house full of outrage, aud
cruelty, and abomindtion, While trudgins
| forth from, the palace gate are Vashti and
| her children. There are homes represented
in this house this morning thai are in danger
OF such breaking up Oh Ahasuerus
that you should stand in a home, by
disspatsd life destroying the peace
and comfort of that home. God
| forbid that your children ssould
ever have 70. wiring their hands, and have
| people point their hands at them as they pass
down the street. and say, ''There goes a
| drunkard's child" God forbid that the lii.
=, tie feet should ever have to trudge the p1tb
| of poverty and wretchedness. God forbid
that any evil spirit born of the w:ns cup or
the brandy flask, should come forth and up-
root that garden, and, with blasting, bis
tering. all Consuming cilrsa, shut for ever the
palace gate against Vasht and the children
oh the women au1 men of sacrifice ars
going to take the brightest corouals of heaven |
This woman of the text gave uo pa'atial resi-
dence, gave mp all for what she considered
| right Sacrificed Is thers anything more
sublime A stelmer called the Prairie
Belle, burning on the Mississippi river.
Bludso, the engineer declared he would keep
| the bow of the boat to the shore till all were
off, and he kept his promise. AT his post,
scorched and b'ackened, he perishei, but he
| saved all the passengers. Two verses of pa
thetic poetry describe the scene but the
verses are little rough, and so changed a
| word or two:
Through the hot black breath Of the burning
dim Blud.o's voice was heard
And hey all had trust in his subborness,
And knew he would keep his word
And sare's you're born they all got off
Aforo the smokestacks fell:
And Bludso's ghost went mn above,
In the smoke OF the Prairie Belle
He weren't no Faint, but at Judgment
I'd run my chance with Jim,
Longside OF some pinus gentlemen
That wouldn't shake hands with him.
He'd seen his duty. dead sure thing,
Aud went for il there and then.
And Christ is not going to be too hard
On man that died for men.
Once more: want you to look at Vasbti
the silent. You do not hear any outcry from
this woman as she goes forth from the palace
gate. From the very dignity of her nature
you know there will be no vociferation.
Sometimes in life 1t is necessary to make a
retort: sometimes in life it is necessary to
resist; but there are crises when the most
triumphant thing to do is to keep silence.
The philosopher, confident in his newly dis
covered principle, waited for the coming of
more intelligent generations. willing that
men should laugh at the lightning ROD.
and cotton gin and waiting for
long years through the scoffing of philo.
sophical schools, in grand and magnificent
silence. Calico, condemned by mathema.
ticians, and monks, and cardinals, caricatured
everywhere, yet waiting and watching witt,
his telescope to see the coming up of stellar
e-enforcements. when the stars in their
courses would fight for the Copernican sys-
tenn; then si' ting down in complete blindness
and deafness to wait for the coming of the
generations who would build his monument
and bow at his grave The reformer. exc
Grated by his contemporaries, fassenad in a
pillory, the slow fires of public contempt
burning under him, ground under the cylin-
derS OF the printing press,ye calmly waiting
for the day when purity of soul and heroism
OF character will get the sanction of earth
and the rlaudits of heaven Affliction, ell
during without any complaint the sharpness
of the pang, and the violence of the storm,
and the heft of the chain, AMI the darkness
OF the ntght-waiting until a divine hand
shall be put forth to sooth the pang, and
hush the storm, and release the captive A
wife abused, prosecuted, and perpetual
exile from every earthly comfort-waiting
waiting, until the Lord shall gather up his
dear children in a heavenly home, and no
palace gate. Jesus, in silence, and answer
ing not a word, drinking the gall, bearing
the cross. in prospect of the rapturous con
summation when
Angels thronged HE chariot wheel,
And bore him to his throne
Then swept their golden harps and sung
The glorious work is done.
An Arctic explorer found ship floating
helplessly about among the icebergs, anc
gong on board he found that the captain
was frozen at his log book. and the helms
man was frozen at the wheel, and tn, men on
the LOOKOUT were frozen in their places. That
was awful, but magnificent All the Arctic
blasts and all the icebergs could not drive
them from their duty. Their silence was
louder than thunder And this old ship OF
world has many at their posts in the awful
chill of neglect and frozen of the worlds
scorn, and their silence shall be the euiogy
of the skies, and be rewarded long after this
weather beaten craft Of a planet shall have
made its last voyage
/ thank God that the mightest influences
are the most silent. The fires in furnace of
q factory, or of a steamship, roar though
they only move a few shuttles or few
thousand tons, but the sun that warns
world rises and sets without crackle, or
faintest sound. Travellers visiting Mount
4ttna, having heard of the glories of sunrise
on that peak, went up to spend the night
there and see the sun rise NEXT morning. but
when it came up it was So far behind their
anticipations they actually hissed it. The
mightieSt influences to-day are like the
planetary system-completely silent Don't
hiss the SUM-
o, womanl does not this story of Vashti
the queen, Vashti the yelled, Vashti the sac
ritice, Nashti the silent, move your soula
My sermon converges into the one absorbing
hope that none of you may be shut out Of the
palace gate of heaven. You can endure the
hardships, ani the privations, ana the
and the m.sfortunes of this life, il
you can only gain adm ssion there. Through
he blood of the everlasting covenant you
go through those gates, or never go at all.
When Rome was besieged the daughter of
It's ruler saw the golden bracelets on the lefe
arms of the en- emy, and she semi word to them
that she would betray her city and surrender
1t to them if they would only give her these
bracelets on their left arms. They accepted
the proffer, and by night this daughter of
ths IN ruler OF the city opened one of the gates.
The army entered, and keeping their
promise, threw upon her their bracelets.
and also their shields, and under the great
weight she died. Alas, that all through the
ages the same folly has been repeated, and
for the trinkets and glitterng treas
ures OF this world men and women
swing open the PORTALS Of the.r immortal
soul for an everlasting surrender, and die
under the shining submergement.
Through the rich grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ may you be enabled to initiate the
example of Rachel, and Hannah, aud Abi-
gail, and Deborah, and Mary, and Vashti