The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1891-11-20

blessing am called to the pleasant
task of presenting to you these two easy
chairs. May you live many years to
enjoy them. And may you also re-
member that while comparatively few
names appear as donors, many hearts
are breathing sweetness into these gifts,
and many more names would have
been appended had the opportunity
been extended to them"
Mr.. McNaughton responded as fol
lows:
at was said of st. Paul, His let
ters are weighty and powerful, but his
bodily presence is weak and his speech
contemplate This, Paul gives us to
understand, prevented him from being
exalted above measure You may
truly say the same OF me and for the
same end, for if | could speak the full
emotions of my heart | should be in
danger of feeling exalted above meas
ure. Over twenty-five hundred years
ago the Infinite Giver of every good
and perfect gift made this standing
proposition: Bring ye all the tithes
into the store house and prove me here
with, saith the Lord of Hosts, if | will
not open the windows of Heaven and
pour you out a blessing, that there shall
not be room enough to receive it. For
long time | have earnestly desired to
close that contract by the performance
of my part of the proposition, but |
have feared that the imperfections Of
my heart and the fallability of my ma
ture had and would hinder me from
fully performing. But this evidence
of many and warm friends comes to me
as crowning blessing and encourages
me to believe that my failures to per-
form have been overlooked, and my
desire to perform my part Of the con-
tract has been accepted, for certainly
blessings have descended upon us in
such measure that there is scarcely
room to receive them. The commercial
value of these luxurious and inviting
places of rest bears no proportion to
their value as they come from your
hands. You have adorned them with
priceless associations. They will speak
to us of kind friends and send a beam
of light through the gloom Of declining
years. But do you know, dear friends,
that you have placed us in an awkward
situation, and | will tell you how. |
have sent a great many car loads OF
lumber from this station, and with each
load have sent bill of lading to my
customer giving the number and di-
mensions of every piece, also the total
amount and its value. Science taught
me to do this. | bring you a heart
load of gratitude and | appeal to SCI
ence to help me to give you Its full
measure, but science is silent. The
doors and bars of mans spiritual nature
say to science, Hitherto shalt thou
come but no farther, and here shall thy
proud waves be stayed Science has
taught us to give the depth Of the sea,
the breadth of the Earth's orbit the We
locity of ray of light and the distance
to the sun above us. But when we ask
her to help us give you the measure of
heart load of gratitude she is dumb
and deaf. We have somewhere picked
up three vague and uncertain monysyl-
tables that serve the hypocrite and the
courtesan with seemingly equal fidelity
as they offer sincere gratitude. They
are, We thank you, and we must use
them from necessity but they don't sat
isfy heart burdened with gratitude.
But we have this consolation, you have
proven that your hearts abound with
generosity and charity, and we believe
that you will generously consider our
poverty of words and accept our simple
we thank YOU and charitably give
US credit for a gratitude as deep as the
sea, as broad as the Earth's orbit, as
intense as the ray of light and as high
as the luminary of day. | designed to
stop here but like the monk of olden
times:
4 feel a power within my breast
| That will not, cannot be repressed,
prompts my voiceit swells my veins,
1t burns, it surges, it constrains,
me to say, may the Infinite Creator
consider you his people and say of you,
1T shall be well with thee. May He
number you with His children to whom
Ihe has said. Thou shalt not fear for
the terror by night nor for the arrow
that fieth by day, nor for the pestilence
that walketh in darkness, nor for the
destruction that wasteth at MONDAY" )"
Seeing is Be