Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-12-28


prairie about forty five million sheep
and all their keepers ought to fol
low the shepherds of my text, and all
those who toll in fields, all vine dress
ers, all orchardists. ali husbandmen.
Not only that Christmas night, but
all r1p and down the worlds history
God had been honoring the fields.
Nearly all the messiahs of reform
and literature and eloquence and law
and benevolence have come from the
fields. Washington from the fields.
Jefferson from the fields. The presi-
Dental martyrs, Garfield and Lin
coin, from the fields. Henry Clay
from the fields. Daniel Webster from
the fields. Martin Luther from the
fields. Before this world is right the
overfowing populations of our crowd
ed cities will have to take to the
fields Instead of ten merchants in
rivalry as to who shall sell that one
apple, we want at least eight of them
to go out and raise apples. Instead
of ten merchants desiring to sell that
one bJlshel of wheat, we want at least
eight of them to go out and raise
wheat
The world wants now more hard
hands, more brOnZed cheeks, more
muscular arms To the fields! God
honored them when he woke up the
shepherds by the midnight anthem;
and he will, while the world lasts,
continue to honor the fields. When
the shepherds crook was that famous
night stood against the wall of the
Bethlehem khan it was a prophecy
of the time when thrasher's fail and
farmers pillow and woodlands ak and
ox's yoke and sheafbinders rake
shall surrender to the God who made
the country, as man made the town.
GOD HoNoRED MOTHERHOOD.
Behold also that on that Christmas
night God honored motherhood. Two
angels on their wings might have
brought an infant Saviour to Bethle-
hem without Marys being there at
all. When the villagers on the morn
ing Of December 26 awOlxe, by divine
arrangement and in some unex-
planned way the child Jesus might
have been found in some comfortable
cradle of the village But no, no!
Motherhood for all time was to be
SOnsecrated, and one of the telderest
relations was to be the maternal re-
latiOn, and one of the sweetest words
mother"
In all ages God has honored good
motherhood John Wesley had a
good mother; St Bernard had a good
mother; Samuel Budget good mo-
Their; Doddridge a good mother;
Walter Scott a good mother; Benja-
min West good mother. In great
audience, most of whom were Chris
tians, 1 asked that all those who had
been blessed of Christian mothers
arise, and almost the entire assembly
stood up Don't you see how impor-
tant it is that all motherhood be con
secrated2
Why did Titan, the Italian artist,
when he sketched the Madonna, make
it an Italian face? Why did Rubens,
the German artist, in his Madonna,
make it a German face? Why did
Joshua Reynolds, the English artist,
III his Madonna. make it an English
face? Why did MurillO, the Spanish
artist, in his Madonna, make it a
Spanish face? | never heard, but |
think they took their own mothers as
the type of Mary, the mother of
Christ. When you hear some one, in
sermon or Grafton, speak in the alb
stract of a good, faithful, honest
mother, your eyes fill up with tears,
while you say to yourself, that was
my mother"
The first word a child utters is apt
to be Mother" and the old man in
his dying dream calls Mother!
mOtherw 1t matters not whether
she was brought up in the surround
ings of a city and in affiuent home,
and was dressed appropriately with
reference to the demands of modern
life, or whether she wore the old
time cap and great round spectacleS,
and apron of her own make, and knit
your socks with her own needles,
seated by the broad fireplace, with
great backlog ablaze, on a winter |
night.
1t matters not how many wrinkles
crossed and recrOssed her face, or |
how much her shoulders stopped with |
the burdens of a long life, if you |
painted a Madonna, hers would be |
the face. What a gentle hand she |
had when we were sick, and what |
voice to sOothe pain, and was there
any one who could so fill up room
with peace and purity and light?
And what a sad day that was when
we came home and she could greet |
us not, for her lips were forever still. |
Come back, mother, this Christmas
lay, and take your old place, and as
ten or twenty or fifty years ago
come and open the old Bible as you
used to; read and kneel in the same
place where you used to pray, and
ook upon us as of old when you
wished us a merry Christmas or a
happy New Year But no! That
would not be fair to call you back
You had troubles enough and aches
enough and bereavements enough
While you were here larry by the
;hrone, mother, till we join you
here, your prayers all answered,
md in the eternal homestead of our
God we shall again keep Christmas
Jubilee together.
But speak from your thrones, all
7ou glorified mothers, and say to all
hese, your sons and daughters, words
# love, words Of warning, words of
,heer. They need your voice for
hey have Travelled far and with
many a heartbrc.ak since you left
hem, and you do well to call from
he heights of heaven to the valleys
# earth: Hail, enthroned ancestry!
We are coming. Keep a place right
beside you at the banquet.
Slow footed years! More swiftly run
Into the gold of that ur setting sun;
Homesici< for thee,
Calm land beyond the sea.
A Joke of the Kaiser.
A story which reaches me from
'otsdam is of a harmless character.
u n