The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1890-05-08

Az Hawarden, England, Mr.. Gladstone,
while showing me his trees during pro-
ionsed walk through his magnificent park,
pointed out sycamore and with wave OF
the hand said; IN your visit TO the Holy
Land did you sec any sycamore more impress
siva than tkatY | confessed that had not.
Its branches were not more remarkable than
Its roots. IL was to such tres as that Jesus
pointed when He would illustrate the power
OF faith. "Ye might say unto this sycamore
tree, BE thou plucked up by the root aud DO
thou cast into the sea, and IL would obey
YOU" One reason why Christ has fascinated
the world as no other teacher is because in-
stead of using severe argument He was al
ways telling how something In the spiritual
world was like unto somathing In the natural
world. Oh, thess wonderful "lises' OF our
Lordl Lake grain OF mustard seed. Like
treasure hid in field, Like merchant
Seeking goodly pearls. Like unto net that
Was cast into the sea. Like unto a house,
holder
Would Christ teach ths precision with
which He looks after you, He says He counts
the hairs OF your head. Well, that is a long
and tedious count if thu hand have the aver
age endowment, 1t has been found that IL
the hairs of the head be black there are about
l2o, 900, or II they be fiaxen there are about
l40,OO But God knows the exact number:
"The hairs OF your head are all numbered"
Would Christ impress us with tho divine
watchfulness and care, He speaks OF the spar.
rows that were a nuisancs In those tunes.
They were caught by the thousands In tho
net. They were thin and scrawny and had
comparatively no meat on their bones. They
seemed almost valueless, whether living or
dead. Now, argues Christ, il my Father
takes care of Them will He not take care OF
| your Christ woul1 have the Christian, de-
| spondent over his slowness of religious devel-
opsment, 60 to his corn field for lesson. He
watches first the green shoot pressing up
through the clods, gradually strengthening
into stalk, and last of all the husk swelling
out with the pressure of the corn: First the
blade, then the ear, after that the full corn
| in the ear"
| Would David set forth the freshness and
beauty Of genuine Christian character, he
| sees an eagle starting from its nest Just after
the melting Season, its old feathers shed,
| and its wings and breast decse1 with new
down and plumes, its boiy as finely feath-
| cred as that OF her young ones just begin.
ming to try the spse1 of their wings. Thus
reiuvenated and replunsi is tho CHRISTIANS
faith and hope, by every season of communion
with God. "Thy youth is renewed like the
eagles" Would Solomon represent the an.
noyauce of contentious woman's tongue,
he points to leakage in tn, top OF his hous,
or tent, where, throughout thu stormy day,
the water comes through, falling upon thu
| floor-dripl dripl drip! Aud he says: "A
| continual dripping in very rainy day and a
contentious woman are alike"
Would Christ set forth the character Of
those who make great profession of pety,
but have no fruit, He compares them to bar
| rem fig trees, which have very large and
snowy leaves, and nothing but leaves. Would
Job illustrate deceitful friendships he speaks
of brooks in those clisnes, that wind about in
different directions, and dry up when you
| nj IN riy,i- out 81 h,.ath ,-a-,
have dealt decsttully as brook and as the
stream of brooks they pass away" David
when he would impress us with the despond-
ency into which he hal sunk, compares it to
quagmire of those regions, through which
no had doubtless sometimes tried to walk, but
sunk inup to his neck, and he cried: II sink
in deep miro where there is no standing.n
| Would HsbakkuS set forth tn, capacity
which God gives the good man to walk safely
amid the widest perils, he points to the wild
| animal called the hind walking over slippery
| rocks, and leaping from wild crag to wild
crag, by the peculiar make of its hoofs able
calmly to sustain itself in the most danger.
Gus places: "The Lord God is my strength,
and He will make my feet like kinds feet"
JOB makes all natural objects pay tribute
to the royalty of his book. AS you go
through some chapters of Job you feel as il
it were bright spring morning, and, as you
see the glittering drops from the grass under
your feet, you say with that patriarch
who hath begottel the drops of the dew?'
And now, as you read ON, YOU seem in the
silent midnight to behold the waving of a
great lightupon your path, and you look up to
find it the aurora borealis which Jobdescribe1
SO long ago as "the bright light in the clouds
and the splendor that cometh out of ths
north" As you read on, there is darkness
hurting in tho heavens, and the showers
break loose till the birds fly for hiding plaza
tt,a 70
over the rocky shelving, and with the
same poet, you exclaim: "Who can number
the clouds in wisdom, or who can stay the
bottles of heaven@ AS you read on, YOU
feel yourself coming in frosty climes, and,
in fancy, wading through the snow,
you say with thai same inspired writer,
sHast thou entered into the treasures of the
snowg' And while the sharp sleet drives in
your face, and the hail Stings your cheek, you
quote him again: 'Hast thou seen the treas
ures of the hai?" In the Psalmist's writings
hear the voices of the sea: Deep calleth
uuto Deep and the roar of forests: ''The
Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh;" and
the loud peal Of the black tempest: ''Fhe
God OF glory thuniereth;' and the rustic OF
the long silk on the well filled huslSs: "The
valleys are covered with corn and the cry
of wild beasts: THE young lions roar after
t-their prey" the hum of palm trees and ce-
dars: The righteous shall flourish like a
palm tree; he shall grow like cedar in Leb-
anon" the sough OF wings and the swirl OF
fins: Dominion over the fowl of the air and
the fish Of the sea-"
The truths of the Gospel might have been
presented in technical terms, and by the
means of dry definitions, but under these the
world wouldnot have listened or felt. How
could the safety of trusting upon Christ have
been presented, We're it not the figure of a
rock? How could the gladdening effect OF
the Gospel have been set forth, had hot
Zacharias thought of the dawn of the morn
ing. excaming, ''The day spring from on
high hath visited us to give light to them
that sit in Darkness How could the souls
intense longing for Christ have been pre-
sented so well as by the emblem of natural
hunger and natural thirst? AS the lake
gathers into its bosom the shadow Of hills
around, and the CLEAN Of stars above so, in
these great deeps Of divine truth, all objects
in nature are grandly reflected. We walk
forth in the spring time, and everything
breathes of the Resurrection. Bright bios
som and springing grass speak to us OF the
coming up of those whom we have loved,
when in the white robes of their Joy and cor
onation they shall appear.
And when in the autumn of the year ma
ture breaches thousands of funeral sermons
from the text "We all do fade as a leaf"
and scatterS her elegies in our path, we can
not help but think OF sickness and the tomo.
Even winter being dead, yet speaketh."
The world will not be argued into the right.
1t will be tenderly illustrated into the right.
Tell them what religion is like. When the
mother tried to tell her dying child what
heaven was, she compared it to light. but
that hurts my eyes, said the dying girl.
Then the mother compared heaven to music.
But any sound hurts me; | am so weak,
said the dying child. Then she was told that
heaven was like mothers arms "Oh, take
me therer she said. "If it is like mothers
arms, take me there| The appropriate
smile had been found at last.
Another contribution which the natural
world is making to the kingdom of Christ is
the defense and aid which the elements are
compelled to give to the Christian personal
ly. Thers is no law in nature but is sworn
for the Christians defense. In Job this
thought is presented as a bargain made be
tween the inanimate creation and the rigat-
eous man: Thou shalt be in league with
the stones of the field" What grand
thought that the lishtnings, and the TEN.
pests and the hail, and the frosts, which are
. the enemies of unrighteousness, are all mar
shaled as the Christians bodyguari. They
! fight for him. They strike with an arm OF
q