Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-11-24

/ calneis | sec them now In memory
making their slow way up the zigzag
road from the plain of Esdraelon to
Nazareth Familiar was Christ with
/ their appearance. also with that small
/ insect. the gnat which he had seen his
mother strain out from cup OF water
Or pafl of milk, and no wonder he
brings afterward the large quadruped
and the small insect into his sermon,
and. while seeing the Pharisees careful
about small sins and reckless about
large ones. cries out: Woe unto you,
blind guides, which strain out a gnat
and swallow a camel.
THE SHEEP KNOW HIS VOICE.
He had in boybood seen the shep-
herds get their fiocks mixed up, and to
one not familiar with the habits of
shepherds and their fiocks, hopelessly
mixed up. And a sheepstealer APP
pears on the scene and dishonesty de-
mands some of those sheep, when he
owns not one of them. well, say
the two honest shepherds, 1--WE will
soon settle this matter and one shep-
herd goes out in one direction and the
other shepherd goes out in the other
direction and the sheepstealer in an
other direction, and each one calls, and
the fiocks of each of the honest shep-
herds rush to their owner, while the
sheepsteaIer calls and calls again, but
gets not one of the flock. No wonder
that Christ years after, preaching on
great occasion and illustrating his own
shepherd qualities, says: When he
putteth forth his own sheep he goeth
before them, and the sheep follow him,
for they know his voice, and the
stranger they will not follow, for they
know not the voice of the stranger"
The sides OF these hills are terraced
for grapes. The boy Christ had often
stood with great round eyes watching
the trimming of the grapevines. Clip!
goes the knife and off falls a branch.
The child Christ says to the farmer,
''What do you do that for?" ooh, J"
says the farmer, ''tf 1T is dead branch,
and it is doing nothing and is only in
the way, so | cut it off " Then the
farmer with his sharp knife prunes
from a living branch this and that ten
drill and the other tendril But. !"
saws the child Christ, ''these twigs that
YOU cut off now are not dead. What
do you do that for?" ooh, says the
farmer, 1--WE prune off these that the
main branch may have more OF the
sap. and so be more fruitful" No
wonder in after years Christ said in
his sermon: II am the true vine and
my Father is the hCsbandman: every
branch in me that beareth not fruit he
taketh away, and every branch that
beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may
bring forth more fruit. Capital No
one who had not been a country boy
would have said that.
JESUS KNEW ALL NATURE.
Streaks of nature all through Christ's
sermons and conversations! When a
pigeon descended upon Christ's head at
his baptism in the Jordan it was not
the first pigeon he had seen. And then
he has such wide sweep of discourse as
you may imagine from one who has
stood on the hills that overlook Naza-
reth AS far as | understand, Christ
visited the Mediterranean sea only
once but any clear morning he could
run up on hill near Nazareth and
look off to the west and see the Med
iterranean. while there in the north is
snowy Mount Lebanon, clad as in
white robe of ascension, and yonder on
the east and southeast Mount Gilboa,
Mount Tabor and Mount Gilead, and
wonder in the south is the plain OF Els
draelon over which we rode yesterday
on our way to Nazareth Those mount
l, ~, Il n
you wonder that Christ, when he want
ed a good pulpit, made it out of a
mountain seeing the multitudes he
went up into the mountain. And
when he wanted especial communion
with God he took James and John and
Peter into "a mountain apart.
Oh. this country boy of Nazareth
come forth to atone for the sins OF the
world. and to correct the follies of the
world, and to stamp out the cruelties OF
the world, and to illumine the darkness
of the world, and TO transfigure the
hemispheres! So it has been the mis-
sion of the country boys In all ages TO
transform and inspire and rescue.
, | They come into our merchandise and
our court rooms and our healing art
and our studios and our theology.
) They lived in Nazareth before they en-
, tered Jerusalem. And but for that
annual influx our cities would have en-
| ervated and sickened and slain the
race Late hours and hurtful apparel
| and overtaxed digestive organs and
crowding environments of city Life
l would have halted the world, but the
5 valleys and mountains of Nazareth
have given fresh supply of health ano
| moral inauguration to Jerusalem, ano
7 the country saves the town.
) From the hills of New Hampshire ano
5 the hills of Virginia and the hills O
s | Georgia come into our national elo
/ quence the Websters and the Clays ano
l the Henry w. Gradys. From the plalr
? homes of Massachusetts, and Maryland
t come into our national charities the
, George Peabodys and the William Cor
: corans From the cabins of the lionel.
= country regions come into our natlona
7 destinies the Andrew JacksOns and TIT
4 Abraham Lincolns. From ploWboy,
g furrow and village counter and black
smiths forge come most of our CIT.
-
n departments dwelt il Nazareth befor
S they came to Jerusalem. [ send thu
q day thanks from these cities, mostl.
r made prosperous by country boys, Il
the farm houses and the pralrles ant
& the mountain cabins, and the obscur
> homesteads of north and south AM
4 east and west, to the fathers and moth
D ers in plain homespun, if they be stll
S alive, or the hillocks under which the
t sleep the long sleep. Thanks from Je
: rusalem to Nazareth.
IS MODERN CRUCIFIXION.
Il But alas that the city should so ofte
d treat the country boys as of old th
e one from Nazareth was treated at Jeru
e salem! Slain not by hammers an
spikes, but by instruments just as crue
On every street of every city the cruc
5. fixion goes on. Every year shows il
N ten thousand of the slain. Oh, no
er we grind them upl Under what wheel
y in what mills and for what an awfl
l. l.