The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1890-11-20
THURSDAY EVENING, NOV. 20. 1890.

neighborhood and all the passers by
realized that Jacob was wise in having
his own well. My hearer, 1t is your
part to dig your own we'll and 1t Is
Gods part to fill 1t, You do your part
and he will do his part,
Much is said about good luck, but
people who are industrious and self
denying almost always have good luck.
You can afford to be laughed at be-
cause of your application and economy,
for when you get your well dug and
filled it will be your tarn to laugh
BLESSED OR cURsEpl
But look up from this famous well
and see two mountains and the plain
between them, on which was gathered
the largest religious audience that ever
assembled on earth, about five hundred
thousand people. Mount Gerizim,
about eight hundred feet high, on one
SIDE and on the other Mount Ebal, the
former called the Mount of Blessing
and the latter called the Mount of
Cursing. At Joshua's command six
tribes stood on Mount Gerizim and
read the blessings for keeping the law,
and six tribes stood on Mount Ebal
reading the curses for breaking the law,
while the five hundred thousand PEG.
pie on the plain cried "Amen' with an
emphasis that must have made the
earth tremble. II do not believe that"
says some one, "for those mountain
tops are two miles apart, and how
could a voice be heard from top to
topr My answer is that while the tops
are two miles apart the bases of the
mountains are only half a mile apart,
and the tribes stood on the sides of the
mountains, and the air is so clear and
the acoustic qualities of this great nat.
ural amphitheatre SO perfect that
voices can be distinctly heard from
mountain to mountain, as has been
demonstrated by travellers fifty times
in the last fifty years.
Can you imagine anything more
thrilling and sublime and overwhelm
ing than what transpired on those two
mountain sides, and in the plain be
tween, when the responsive service
went on and thousands of voices on
Mount Gerizim cried, Blessed shalt
thou be in the city, and blessed shalt
thou be in the fields, blessed shalt be
thy basket and thy store!" and then
from Mount Ebal thousands of voices
responded, crying: Cursed be he that
removeth his neighbours landmark
Cursed be he that maketh the bin to
wander out of the way" and then
there rolled up from all the space be-
tween the mountains that one word
with which the devout of earth close
their prayers, and the glorified Of
heaven finish their doxologies, amen I
amenw-that scene only to be sur
passed by the times which are coming
when the churches, and the academies
of music, and the auditoriums of earth
no longer large enough to hold the
worshipers of God; the parks, the
mountain sides, the great natural am
phitheatres of the valleys, shall be
filed with the outpouring populations
of the earth, and mountain shall reply
to mountain, as Mount Gerizim to
Mount Ebal, and all the people be-
tween shall ascribe riches and honor
and glory and dominion and victory to
God the Lamb, and there shall arise an
amen like the booming of the heavens
mingling with the thunder of the seas
THE SAD DEATH OF ELI.
On and on we ride until now we
have come to Shiloh, a dead city on a
hill surrounded by rocks, sheep, goats,
olive gardens and vineyards. Here
good Eli fell backward and broke his
neck, and lay dead at the news from
his bad boys, Phineas and Hophni;
and life is not worth living after ones
children have turned out badly, and
more fortunate was Eli, instantly ex-
piring under such tidings, than those
parents who, their children recre-
ant and profigate, live on with
broken hearts to see them going
down into deeper and deeper plunge
There are fathers and mothers here
today to whom death would be
happy release because of their recreant
sons. And if there be recreant sons
here present, and your parents be far
away, why not bow your head in re-
pentance, and at the close of this serv-
ice go to the telegraph office and put
it on the wing of the lightning that you
have turned from your evil ways? Be
fore another twenty four hours have
passed take your feet off the sad hearts
at the old homestead. Home to thy
God, o prodigal!
Many, many letters do I get in pur-
port saying: My son is in your cities
we have not heard from him for some
time; we fear something is wrong; hunt
him up and say good word to him
his mother is almost crazy about him
be is child of many prayers. But
how can hunt him up unless he be in
this audience2 Where are you, my
boy2 On the main floor, or on this
platform, or in these boxes, or in these
great galleries2 Where are you4 Lift
your right hand. have message
from home Your father is anxious
about you; your mother is praying fol
you; your God is calling for you. Oh
will you wait until Eli falls back life
less, and the heart against which you
lay in infancy ceases to beatl What q
story to tell in eternity that you killed
herr My God avert that catastrophe.
But turn from this Shiloh of Ellis
sudden decease under bad news from
his boys, and find close by what is
called the Meadow of the Feast.
While this ancient city was in the
height of its prosperity, on this Mead
ow of the Feast" there was an annual
ball, where the maidens of the city
amid clapping cymbals and blare Of
trumpets danced in glee, upon which
thousands of spectators gazed. But
no dance since the world stood evel