Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-10-05


the park OF that village, l said to my
self, eff have an especial work to do
in the world I ought to find it out
now" and with that determination I
prayed as | had never before prayed,
and got the divine direction and wrote
it down in my memorandum book, and
| saw my lifework then as plainly as |
see it now. Oh, do not be satisfied
with general directions Get specific
directions Do not shoot at random
Take aim and fire. Concentrate. Ma
poleon's success in battle came from
his theory of breaking through the
enemy's ranks at one point, not trying
to meet the whole line of the enemy's
force by a similar force.
One reason why he lost Waterloo
was because he did not work his usual
theory and spread his force out over
wide range. Oh Christian man, oh,
Christian woman, break through some
where Not a general engagement for
God, but particular engagement, and
made in answer to prayer. If there are
sixteen hundred million people in the
world, then there are sixteen hundred
|
ferent styles of work to do, different
orbits in which to revolve, and if you
do not get the divine direction there
are at least fifteen hundred and ninety
nine million possibilities that you will
make a mistake. On your knees be-
fore God get the matter settled, SO that
you can firmly say, ''To this end was
born"
THE CLIMACTERIC CONSIDERATION.
And now [ come to the climacteric
consideration. AS near as [ can tell,
you were built for happy eternity, all
the disasters which have happened to
your nature to be overcome by the
blood of the Lamb if you will heartily
accept that Christly arrangement. We
are all rejoiced at the increase in hui
man longevity People live, as near
as can observe, about ten years longer
than they used to. The modern doc
tors do not bleed their patients on all
occasions as did the former doctors. In
those times, if man had fever they
bled him, if he had consumption they
bled him, if he had rheumatism they
bled him, and if they could not make
out exactly what was the matter they
bled him Olden time phlebotomy was
deaths coadjutor.
All this has changed. From the way
/ see people skipping about at eighty
years of age l conclude that life insur-
ance companies will have to change
their table of risks and charge a man
no more premium at seventy than they
used to do when he was sixty, and no
more premium at fifty than when he
was forty. By the advancement of
medical science and the wider acquaint-
ance with the laws of health, and the
fact that people know better how to
take care of themselves, human life is
prolonged. But do you realize what,
after all, is the brevity of our earthly
state? In the times when people lived
seven and eight hundred years, the
patriarch Jacob said that his years
were few.
Looking at the life of the youngest
person in this assembly, and supposing
| he lived to be a nonagenarian, how
short the time and soon gone, while
banked up in front of us is an eternity
SO vast that arithmetic has not figures
| enough to express its length or breadth
or depth or height. For a happy eter-
nifty you were born unless you run
yourself against the divine intentions
If, standing in your presence, my eye
should fall upon the feeblest soul here
as that soul will appear when the
world lets it up, and heaven entrances
it, [ suppose | would be SO OverpOwered
that l should drop down as one dead
You have examined the family Bible
and explored the family records, and
you may have daguerreotypes of some
of the kindred of previous generations,
you have had photographs taken of
what you were in bOyhoOd or girlhOod,
and what you were ten years later, and
it is very interesting to any one to be
able to look back upon pictures of what |
he was ten or twenty or thirty years
ago; but have you ever had a picture |
taken of what you may be and what |
you will be if you seek after God and |
feel the Spirits regenerating power2 |
Where shall [ plant the camera to take |
the picture? [ plant it on this plat
form. l direct it toward you. Sit still |
or stand still while I take the picture
A WONDERFUL PICTURE
1t shall be an instantaneous picture. |
There! l have it. 1t is done You |
can see the picture in its imperfect |
state and get some idea of what it will |
be when thoroughly developed. There
is your resurrected body, so brilliant |
that the MONDAY sun is patch of mid
night compared with it. There is your
soul, SO pure that all the forces of di-
abolish could not spot it with an i'm
perfection. There is your being, so
mighty and SO swift that flight from
heaven to Mercury or Mars or Jupiter
and back again to heaven would not
weary you, and a world on each shout
der would not crush you. An eye that
shall never shed a tear. An energy
that shall never feel fatigue. A brow
that shall never throb with pain. You
are young again, though you died of
decrepitude. You are we'll again,
though you coughed or shivered your
self into the tomb. Your everyday as
sociates are the apostles and prophets
and martyrs and most exalted souls,
masculine and feminine, of all the cen
turtles. The archangel to you no en-
barrassment. God himself your pres
sent and everlasting joy. That is an
instantaneous picture of what you may
be, and what l am sure some of you
will be. If you realize that it is an i'm
perfect picture my apology is what the
apostle John said, cit doth not yet APP
pear what we shall be, ;" ITO this end
was I born" If I did not think so I
would be overwhelmed with me1an-
choly.
The world does very well for little
while-eighty or hundred or hun
dred and fifty years-and I think that
human longevity may yet be improved
up to that prolongation for now there
is so little room between our cradle and
our grave we cannot accomplish much
But who would want to dwell in this
world for all eternity? Some think this
earth will finally be turned into a
heaven Perhaps it+may, but it would