The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-09-06
PRICE THREE CENTS.

whole communities, while vicious men take
on n superciliOus air In condemnation of him.
as though Lord Jetireys should write an
essay on gentleness, or Henry VIII talk
about purity, or Herod take to blessing little
children
Now, a certain amount Of persecution
rouses mans defiance, stirs his blood for
magnificent battle, and makes him fifty times
more man than he would have been with
out the persecution. So it was with the
great reformer when he said: II will
not be put down; | will be heard.n And SO
it was with Millard, the preacher, in the time
of Louis XI. When Louis XI. sent word to
him that unless he stopped preaching in that
style he would throw him into the river he
replied: Tell the king that | will reach
heaven sooner by water than he will reach it
by fast horses.n A certain amount of perse-
cution is a tonic and inspiration, but too
much OF it, and too long continued, becomes
the rock Bolez, throwing a dark shadow
over mans life. What is no to do thens
Go home you say. Good advice, that. That is
just the place for man to go when the world
abuses him. Go homa. Blessed be God for
our quiet and sympathetic homes But there
Is many man who has the reputation of
having home when he has none. Through
unthlnkingness or precipitation there are
many matches made that ought never to
have been made An officiating priest can
not alone unite couple. The Lord Al
mighty must proclaim banns. There is
many home in which there is no sympathy,
and no happiness, and no good cheer. The
clamor of the battle may not have been
heard outside, but God keows, notwithstand-
ing all the playing of the wedding March,
and all the odor of the orange blossoms,
and the beneiiction of the officiating pastor,
there has been no marriage.
Sometimes men have awakened to find on
one side of them the rock of persecution, and
ON the other side the rock of domestic in
felicity. What shall such one do. Do as
Jonathan did-climb. Get up the heights Of
GODS consolation, from which we may look
down in triumph upon outside persecution
and home trouble. While good and great
John Wesley was being sienced by the mag
istrates, and having his name written on the
board fences of London in doggerel, at that
very time his wife was making him as miser-
able as she coud-acting as though she were
possessed with the devil as suppose she was;
never doing him kindness until the dav she
ran away, so that he wrote in his dairy these
words: 81 did not forsake her; | have not
dismissed her; will not recall her," Plant
ing one foot-John Wesley did-upon outside
persecution, and the other foot on home
trouble he climbed up into the heights Of
Christian joy, and after preaching forty
thousand sermons, and travelling two hun
dred and seventy thousand miles, reached
the heights of heaven, though in this world
he had it hard enough-'a sharp rock on tile
one side and sharp rock on the other"
Again, that woman stands in the crisis OF
the text, who has bereavement and q strug-
gle for livelihood at the same tfrae. With
out mentioning names, | speak from obser-
walton. All, it is a hard thing for a woman
to make an honest living, even when her
heart is not troubled, and she has q fair
cheek and the magnetism of an exquisite
presence. But now the husband, or the
father, is dead. The expenses OF the obsequies
have absorbed all that was left in
the savings bank; and wan and wasted
with weeping, she goes forth-a grave,
a hearse, a coffin. behind her-to contend for
her existence and the existence OF her chill
dren. When see such a battle as that open
l shut my eyes at the ghastliness of the
spectacle. Men sit with embroidered Slip
pers and write heartless essays about womens
wages; but that question is made up OF
tears and blood, and there is more blood than
tears. Oh, give women free access to all the
realms where she can get livelihood, from
the telegraph office to the pulpit. Let mems
wages be cut down before hers are cut down.
Men have iron in their souls and can stand
it. Make the way free to her of the broken
heart. May God put into my hand the cold,
bitter cup of privation, and give me nothing
but windowiess hut for shelter for many
years, rather than that after am dead there
should go out from my home Iuto the ptiless
world woman's arm to fight the Gettysburg,
the Austerlitz, the Waterloo Of life for
,read
And yet how many women there are
seated between the rock of bereavement on
the one side, and the rock of destitution on
the other-Bozez and Seneh interlocking their
shadow and dropping them upon her miser-
able way. There is a sharp rock on the one
side. and sharp rock on the other side"
What are such to do. Somehow, let them
climb up into the heights of the glorious
promise: Leave thy fatherless children;
| ,,,;I tharp ali and ett tby widows
trust in Me-" Or get up into the heights Of
that other glorious promise: The Lord
preserveth the stranger and relieveth the
widow and the fatheress." O! ye sewing
woman on starving wages o. ye widows
turned out from the once beautiful home. q!
ye female teachers, kept on niggardly
stipend OF ye despairing woman seeking in
vain for work, wandering along the docks, and
thinking to throw yourself into the river last
night Ol We women OF weak nerves and
| aching sides, and short breath and broken
heart, you need something more than human
sympathy; you need the sympathy OF GOD.
| Climb up into His arms He knows it all,
! and He loves you more than father, or
| mother or husband ever could or ever did;
| and instead of sitting down, wringing your
hands in despair, you had better begin to
| climb There are heights of consolation for
! YOU. though now "there is a sharp rock on
the one side, and sharp rock on the other
side"
Again, that man is in the crisis of the text
who has wasted life on the one side, and
an Illuminated eternity on the other Though
man may all his life have cultured delibera
tion and self-poise, il he gets into that posi-.
tion all his salf-possession is gone. There are
all the wrong thoughts of his existence, all
the wrong deeds all the wrong words-strata
above strata, granite, ponderous, over
shadowing. That rock call Bozez. On the
other side are all the retributious of the fu-
ture the thrones OF Judgment, the eternal
ages. angry with his long defiance. That
rock call Seneh. Between these two rocks
Lord Byron perished, and Alcibiades perished,
| and Herod persisted, and ten thousand times
ten thousand have parished. o! man immor-
tai, man redeemed, man blood bought. climb
up out of those shadows Climb up by the
way of the Cross. Have your wasted life
forgiven; have your eternal life secured.
This morning just take one look to the past
| and see what it has been, and take one look
to the future and see what it threatens to be.
| You can afford to lose your health, you can
| afford to lose your property, You can afford
| to lose your reputation: but you cannot af-
| ford to lose your soul. That bright, gleam-
| ing glorious precious, eternal possession you
| must carry aloft in the day when the earth
| burns up and the heavens burst.
You see from my sub iect that when a man
| goes into the safety and peace of the Gospel,
| he does not demean himself. There is moth
| ing in religion that leads to meanness or un-
manlness. The Gospel of Jesus Christ only
asks you to climb as Jonathan did-chmb to-
ward God, climb toward heaven, climb into
the sunshine of Gods favor. To become a
Christian is not to go meanly down; it is to
come gloriously up-up into the communion
Of saints, up into the peace that passeth all
understanding, up into the companionship OF
angels He lives up; he desup
U! then, accept the wholesale invitation
which | make this morning to all the people
Come up from between your invalidism and
financial embarrassmsnts. Come up from
between a wasted life and an unillumined
eternity. Like Jonathan, climb with all
your might instead of sitting down to wiring
your hands in the shadow and in the dark
ness-"a sharp rock on the one side, and q
sharp rock on the other side.n