News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-12-18

door a prancing span that won the
prize at the horse fair. and leave hin
estate enough to make him Independent
Il of all struggle, and what will become
of him? If he does not die early of in
anition or dissipation, he will live {
useless life and die an unlaInenteC
death, and go into Il FOOLS eternity.
PERFECTED THROUGH SUFFERING.
But what has been the history O
most of the great cedars in merchan
disc, in art, in law, in medicine, in
craftsmanship, in Christian usefulness
John, get up and milk the cows; it's
late; it's half past in the morning
Split an armful of wood on your way
out, so that we can build the fires fol-
breakfast. Put your bare feet on the
cold oilcloth and break the ice in your
| pitcher before you can wash. Yes, il
has been showing and drifting again
last night, and we will have to break
the roads" The boys educational ad-
vantages, a long oak plank without
any back to it in country school house,
and stove throwing out more smoke
than heat Pressing on from one hard
ship to another
| After a while u position on salary or
wages small enough to keep life, but
keep it at its lowest ebb. Starting in
occupation or business with prosperous
men trying to fight you back at every
step. But after good while fairly on
your feet, and your opportunities wild
ening, and then by some sudden turn
you are triumphant. You are master
of the situation and defiant of all
earth and hell. A Lebanon cedar
John Milton on his way up to the
throne of the worlds sacred poesy must
sell his copyright of Paradise Lost
for seventy-two dollars in three pay
ments And William Shakespeare, on
his way up to be acknowledged the
greatest dralnatist OF ali ages, mus
hold horses at the door of the London
theatre for n sixpence, and Homer
mu-t struggle through total blind
ness to Immortality, and John Bun
van must cheer himself on the way
up by making a flute out of his
prison stool, and Canova, the sculptor,
must toll on through orphanage, mod
cling a lion in butter before he could
cut his statues in marble. And the
great Stephenson must watch cows in
the field for few pennies and then be-
come a stoler and afterward mend
clocks before he puts the locomotive on
It's track, and calls forth plaudits from
parliaments and medals from kings.
Abel Stevens is picked up a neglected
child of the street, and rises through
his consecrated genius to be one of the
most illustrious clergymen and histo-
rians of the century. And Bishop James
of the same church in boyhood worked
his passage from Ireland to America
and up to usefulness, where, in the
bishopric, he was second to no one who
ever adorned it.
While in Punishment Xenophon wrote
his "Anabasis" and Thucydides his
History OF the Peioponnesian War;"
andVictor Hugo must be exiled for many
years to the island of Guernsey before
he can come to that height in the affec-
tons of his countrymen that crowds
the Champs Elysees, and the adjoining
boulevards with one million mourners.
as his hearse rolls down to the Church
of the Madeleine. Oh, it is a tough
old world, and it will keep you back
and keep you down and keep you I'M
der as long as it can2 Hail, sons and
daIiphtnrc Of tho firai
Stand as the anvil when the stroke of stalwart
men falls fierce and fast;
Storms but deeply root the oak whose
brawny arms embrace the blast;
Stand like anvil; noise and heat are born of
earth and die with time
The SOUL like God, its source and sea-. is solemn.
still, serene, sublime.
Thirty years from now the foremost
men in all occupations and professions
will be those who are this hour in awful
struggle of early life, many of them
without five dollars to their name. So
in spiritual life it takes Il course of be
reavements, prosecutions, sicknesses,
and losses to develop stalwart Chris
tan character. 1 got a letter a few
days ago saying: II have hardly seen
a well day since was born, and could
not write my own name until | was so
years of age, and l am very poor; but l
am, by the grace of God, the happiest
man in Chicago"
The Bible speaks of the SHOWS of
Lebanon, and at this season of the year
the SHOWS there must be tremendous.
The deepest snow ever seen in America
would be insignificant compared with
the mildeSt winter of SHOWS on those |
Lebanon mountains. The cedars catch |
that slzyfull of crystals on their brow
and on their long arms. Piled up in |
great heaps are those SHOWS, enough to
crush other trees TO the ground, split |
ting the branches from the trunk and |
leaving them rent and torn, never to |
rise. But what do the cedars care for |
these SHOWS on lebanon? They look |
up to the winter skies and say: Snow |
onl Empty the white heavens upon
us, and when this storm is passed |
let other professions of tempest try |
to bury US in their fury. We have
for five hundred winters been ac-
customed to this, and for the next |
five hundred winters we will cheerfully |
take all you have to send for that is
the way we develop our strength, and |
that is the way we serve God and teach |
all ages how to endure and conquer"
So | say: Good cheer to all people
who are showed underl Put your faith
in God and you will come out glorious
ly. Others may be stunted growths.
or weak jumpers on the lower levels
of spirituality, but you are going to be
Lebanon cedars. At last it will be said
of such as you: ''Thcse are they who
came out of great tribulation and had
their robes washed and made white in
the blood of the Lamb"
But while crossing over these mount
aims of Lebanon | bethink myself of
what an exciting scene it must be when
one of the cedars does fall. 1t does not
go down like other trees, with slight
crackle that hardly makes the woods
man look up, or a hawk flutter from
bough. When a cedar falls
It is the great event in the calendar OF
the mountains. The axmen fly. The
wild beasts stink to their dens The
cartridges swoop to the valley for es-
cape. The neighboring trees go down
under the awful weight of the descend
ing monarch. The rocks are moved
put of their places, and the earth trem-
Oles as from miles around ali ravincs
send back their sympathetic echoes.
Crashl crash craShl So when the
great cedars of worldly or Christian in
iuence fall it is something terrific.