Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-01-26

prisons in Babylon! Iner0 were people
there that would like to have died.
suppose there were men and women in
torture in that city who would have
welcomed Death. But he comes to the
palace, and just at the time when the
mirth is dashing to the tiptop pitch
Death breaks in at the banquet. We
have often seen the same thing illus
trated. Here is young man just come
from college He is kind. He is low
ing. He is enthusiastic. He is elo-
ouent. By one spring he may bound
to heights toward which many men
have been struggling for years. A pro
fession opens before him. He is estab- |
lished in the law His friends cheer
him. Eminent men encourage him
After a while you may see him stand
ing in the United States senate or NOV
ing a popular assemblage by his elo-
ouence. as trees are moved in a whirl-
wind. Some night he retires early. A
fever is on him Delirium, like a reck-
less charioteer, SEXES the relns OF his
intellect. Father and mother stand
by. and see the tides of his life going
out to the great ocean. The banquet
is coming to all end. The lights OF
thought and mirth and elOquence are
being extinguished. The garlands are
snatched from the brow. The vision is
gone. Death at the banquet.
We saw the same thing, on larger
scale. illustrated at the last war in this
country. Our whole nation had been
sitting at a national banquet-north,
i hot lin q
there but we grew it on our hills.
What invention was there but our
rivers must turn the new wheel and
rattle the strange shuttle, What warm
furs but our traders must bring them
from the Arctic What fish but our
nets must sweep them for the markets.
What music but it must sing In our
halls What eloqIence but 1t must
speak in our senates.
Ho! to the national banquet, reach
ING from mountain to mountain, and
from SCI, to sea! To prepare that BAN
uuet the sheepfolds and the aviaries OF
| the country sent their best treasures.
| The orchards piled up on the table
| their sweetest fruits. The presses
| burst out with new wines. To sit at
| that table came the yeomanry OF New
| Hampshire, and the lumbermen OF
| Maine and the CarOlinian from the
rice fields and the western emigrant
from the pines of Oregon, and we were
all brothers brothers at banquet.
| Suddenly the feast ended.
What meant those mounds thrown
up at Chickamstuga, Shiloh, Atlanta,
| Gettysburg, South Mountain? What
meant those golden grain fields, turned
into "a pasturing ground for cavalry
| horses? What meant the corn fields
quilted with the wheels of the heavy
supply train? Why those rivers OF
tears, those lakes of blood? God was
angry Justice must come. y hand
writing on the wall The nation had
been weighed and found wanting
Darkness, Darkness! Woe to the
north! Woe to the south! Woe to the
east! Woe to the west! Death at the
banquet!
| THE DEATH OF THE WICKED.
I have also to learn from the subject
that the destruction of the vicious and
of those who despise God will be very
sudden The wave of mirth had dashed
to the highest point when that Assyran
army broke through 1t was uneXpect-
ed. Suddenly, almost always, comes
the doom of those who despise God and
DEFY the laws of men. How was 1t ut
the deluge? Do you suppose 1t came
through a long northeast storm so that
people for days before were sure 1t was
coming? No; [ suppose the morning
was bright; that calmness brooded OF
the waters; that beauty sat enthronec
on the hills, when suddenly the heav
ems burst, and the mountains sank like
| anchors into the sea that dashed cleal
over the Andes and the Himalayas.
The Red sea was divided. The Egyp
tians tried to cross it. There could b'
| no danger. The Israelites had jus
gone through Where they had gon'
) | why not the Egyptians? Oh, 1t wa
such a beautiful walking place
pavement of tinged shells and pearls
l and ON either side two great walls o
: | water-solid. There can be no danger
t Forward great host of the Egyptians
Clap the cymbals and blow the trump
cts of victory! After them! We vii
catch them yet, and they shall be de
g stroyed. But the walls begin to tren
$ BILE. They rock! They fall The rush
l ing watersl The shrek of drowning
V men! The swimming of the war horse
/ | in vain for the shore! The strewing @
Q the great host on the bottom of tn
: sea, or pitched by the angry wave o
t the beach-a battered, bruised an
;, loathsome wreck! Suddenly destrut
:. ton came. One half hour before the
+ could not have believed it. Destroyed
e and without remedy.
[ am just setting forth a fact Whlc
e you have noticed as well as l. Ananio
Is comes to the apostle. The apostle say
10 Did you sell the land for so much
IS He says, yes" 1t was a lie, Dead
? as quick as that! Sapphira, his wife
5. comes in. did you sell the land fC
Is SO much?" Eyes" 1t was lie; an
d quick as that she was dead! God
W judgments are upon those who despl:
d and defy him They come suddenly.
n The destroying angel went throug
A Egypt Do you suppose that any
l. the people knew that he was coming
o. Did they hear the flap of his great wins
d No! no! Suddenly, Unexpectedly, |
id | came.
le Skilled sportsmen donot like to sho'
a bird standing on sprig near by.
I they are skilled they pride themselv
IS on taking it on the wing, and they wa
is till it starts Death is an old sport
Il. man, and he loves to take men f1yiI
el under the very sun. He loves to tai
ye them on the wing.
w HEED WHAT FOLLOWS!
Id Are there any here who are unpr
I'll pared for the eternal world? Are the
n any here who have been living witho
d. God and without hope? Let me say
ID you that you had better accept of t.
an Lord Jesus Christ, lest suddenly yo
It. last chance be gone. The lungs W
th cease to breathe, the heart will sto
at | The time will come when you shall
he no more to the Office, or to the stol
or to the shop, Nothing will be Il
ad but Death and Judgment and Eterl
NJ ty, Obi flee to God this hour!
h ono in +I,iC YoroSonOo who n