Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-06-23

and beautified until there probably
never has been so bright a spot since
the Garden of Eden as what he loved
to call The Leasowes. +" In addition to
the nlazyeis which nature had wrought
he added the perfection of art Arbor
and terrace and slope and rustic tenn
pie and reservoir and urn and fountain
here had their browning Oak and
yew and hazel put on their glory of
verdure What the greenness of deep
grass and the foam of cascade and the
glitter of still lake could give of beauty
were added. No life was more diligent
and no soul more ingenious than those
of Shenstone, and all that genius and
diligence were directed to the adorn-
ment of that treasured spot What
more could one want to make home
happy
Yet there is one man who sits signing
in those bowers, and casting gloomy
looks upon those parks, and the mirth
of leaping waterfalls makes no melody
in his ear. 1t is Shenstone, the owner
of the Leasowes II have lost my road
to happiness, says the respondent
man. II am angry and envious and
detected and frantic, and disregard all
present things, just as it becomes a
mailman to do" My friends, there is
no solid happiness in anything but re-
igion. [ care not how bright home
Orpah has in Moab, when she turns
away from duty she turns away from
peace. Amid the bacchanalia of Bel
shaZzar's feast and the glitter of chal-
ices there always will come out hand
writing on the wall fearfully ominous:
''Tekel'-weighed in the balances and
found wanting. When you can reap
ha~ests off bare rocks, and gather
balm out of nightshade, and make sun
light sleep in the heart of sepulchers,
and build a firm house on a rocking
billow, then can an unpardoned soul
find firm enjoyment amid its trans
gressions. Then can Orpah go back to
Moab without weeping.
FAMILIES DIVIDED BY RELIGION.
Again, this subject teaches that a
religious choice and the want of it fire.
quently divide families. Ruth and
Orpah and Naomi were tenderly at
tached. They were all widows, and
their life had been consecrated by
baptism of tears. In the fire of trial
gether they were SO pleasantly united
you can hardly imagine them separated.
Yet a fatal line is drawn dividing them
from each other, perhaps forever.
Naomi cannot live in heather coun-
try She must go into Bethlehem, that
there among the pious she may worship
the true God Ruth makes similar
choice, but Orpah rebels. "And they
lifted up their voice and wept again,
and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law,
but Ruth clave unto her" The history
of this family of Elimelech is the his
tory Of many families of this day.
How often it is that in a circle of rel
atives, while they look alike, and walk
alike and talk alike there is a ire
mendous difference. Outwardly united
in the affectional relations of this life,
they are separated in the most i'm
portant respects. Some now are the
children of light and others the chill
dren of darkness. These are alive
in Christ and those are dead in sin,
Ruth in the land of Bethlehem, Orpah
in Moab. Of the same family are David
and Solomon, worshipers of the most
high God, and Ado-.ijah and Absalom,
who live and die the enemies of all
righteousness. Belonging to the same
family was the holy and devout Eli
and the reckless Phineas and Hophni.
Jonathan Edwards, the good, and
Pierrepont Edwards, the bad, belong
to the same family. Aaron Burr the
dissolute, had a most excellent father.
Dying yet immortal nearer, by the
solemnity of the parental and fflial
and conjugal relation, by the sacred
ness of the family hearth, by the honor
of the family name, by the memory of
departed kindred, point out this part
ing of Ruth and Orpah.
WHY PEOPLE REFUSE CHRIST.
Again, this subject suggests to me
two of the prominent reasons why peo-
pie refuse the kingdom of Christ. There
may have been many other reasons why
Orpah left her sister and mother-in-law
and went back home, but there were
two reasons which / think were more
prominent than the rest. She had been
brought up in idolatries. She loved the
heather gods which her ancestors had
worshiped, and though these blocks of
wood and stone could not hear, she
thought they could hear, and though
they could not see, she thought they
could see, and though they could not
feel, she thought they could feel. A
new religion had been brought to her
attention. She had married Il cody
man. She must often have heard her
mother-in-law talk of the God of Israel
She was so much shaken in her original
belief that she concluded to leave her
idolatries, but coming to the margin of
the land of Bethlehem her determine
ton failed her and speedily she returned
to her gods.
This is the very reason why multi
tudes of persons never become Chris
tians They cannot bear to give up
Juggernaut that brushes more men than
the great car of the Hindoos To it
they say their morning and evening
prayers A little of Christ's religion
may creep into the Sabbath, but Mon
day, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday and Saturday are the days de-
voted to this American idol Every
hour there is a sacrifice on the
altar. Home Duties health of body,
manly strength and immortal affections
must all burn in this holocaust. Men
act as though they could take their
bonds and mortgages and saws and
trowels and axes and day books with
them into the kingdom of heaven.
There are many who have no unholy
thirst for gold, yet who are devoting
themselves to their worldly occupations
with a ruinous intensity. Men of the
stock exchange, men of the yardstick,
men of the saw, men of the trowel, men
of the day book, what will become OF
you, if unforgiven, in the great day
when there are no houses to build, and
no goods to sell, and no bargains to
make? Tt is possible to devote ones self
even to a lawful calling until it be-
comes sinful. There is no excuse on
the earth or under the earth for the
neglect of our deathless spirit. Lydia
x,7aS a Snllor of Y,J7rpJo Uat she did not