Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-03-16

1 our sports are merely means TO an
end They are alleviations and helps
The arm of toll is the only arm strong
enough to bring up the bucket out of
the deep well of pleasure. Amusement
is only the bower where business and
philanthropy rest while on their way to
stirring achievements. Amusements
are merely the vines that grow about
the anvil of toll and the poisoning of
the hammers Alas for the man who
spends his life in laboriously doing
nothing, his days in hunting up Ioung-
ing places and Ioungers, his nights in
seeking out some gas lighted foolery
The man who always has on his sport
ing jacket, ready to hunt for game in
the mountain or fish in the brook, with
no time to pray or work or read. is not
SO well of rs the greyhound that runs
by his side, or the fly bait with which
he whips the stream.
A man who does not work does not
know how to play. If God had in
tended us to do nothing but laugh he
would not have given usshoulders with
which to lift, and hands with which to
work, and brains with which to think.
The amusements of life are merely the
orchestra playing while the great trag-
edy of life plunges through its five acts
infancy, childhood, manhood, old
age and death. Then exit the last
earthly opportunity. Enter the over
whelming realities of an eternal world.
go further, and say that all those
amusement5 are wrong which lead into
bad company. IL you go to any place
where you have to associate with the
Incorporate, with the unclean, with
the abandoned, however well they may
be dressed, in the name of God quit it.
They will despoil your nature. They
will undermine your moral character.
They will drop you when you are de-
stroyed. They will give not one cent
to support your children when you are
dead They will weep not one tear at
your burial They will chuckle over
your damnatio,-.
THE SOCIAL NATURE ATTACKED.
I had friend at the west-a rare
friend. He was one Of the first to wei
come Inc to my new home. To fine
personal appearance he added gener-
osity, frankness and ardor of nature that
made me love him like brother. But
| saw evil people gathering around him.
They came up from the saloons, from
the gambling hells They piled him
with thousand arts. They seized upon
his social nature, and he could not
stand the charm. They drove him on
the rocks, like a ship full winged shiv-
ering on the breakers. I used to ad-
monish him. [ would say, Now l
wish you would quit these bad habits
and become a Christian" "Oh, " he
would reply, Il would like to, | would
like 10; but [ have gone so far [ don't
think there is any Wey back" In his
moments of repentance he would go
home and take his little girl of s years
and embrace her cOnvulsively, and
cover her with adOrnments, and strew
around her pictures and toys, and
everything that could make her happy:
and then, as though bounded by an
evil spirit, he would go out to the en-
flaming cup and the house Of shame
like q fool to the correction of the
stocks
/ was summoned to his deathbed. /
fastened. l entered the room. | found
him, to my surprise, lying in full every
day dress ON the top OF the couch. |
put out my hand He grasped it ex-
citedly and said Sit down Mr. Tai
mage, right there" | sat down. He
said: Last night | saw my mother,
who has been dead twenty years, and
she sat just where you sit now. 1t was
no dream. | was wide awake There
was no delusion in the matter | saw
her just as plainly as | see you. Wife,
| wish you would take these strings off
of me. There are strings spun all
around my body. l wish you would
take them off of me-" | saw it was
delirium. oh" replied his wife,
my dear there is nothing there, there
is nothing there. He went on and
said: just where you sit, Mr..
Talmage, my mother sat. She said to
me, Henry, | do wish you would do
better. l got out of bed, put my arms
around her and said: Mother, want to
do better. | have been trying to do
better. Won't you help me to do bet
take about it, no delusion. I saw her
the cap and the apron and the spec
tacles, just as she used to look twenty
years ago; but | do wish you would
take these strings away; they annoy
me so. can hardly talk Won't you
take them away" l knelt down and
prayed, conscious of the fact that he
did not realize what l was saying. l
got up. L said ''Good-by; hope you
by, gOod-by."
That night his soul went to the God
who gave it. Arrangements were made
for the obseques Some said. Don't
bring him in the church; he was too dis
solute. ''Oh, - I said, bring him He
was good friend of mine while he was
alive, and / shall stand by him now
that he is dead Bring him to the
church"
AN AWFUL RUIN.
AS [ sat in the pulpit and saw his
body coming Up through the aisle | felt
as if | could weep tears of blood. |
told the people that day: This man
had his virtues, and good many of
them. He had his faults, and good
many of them. But if there is any
man in this audience who is without
sin let him cast the first stone at this
coffin lid. " On one side of the pulpit
sat that little child, rosy, sweet faced,
as beautiful as any little child that sat
at your table this morning, [ warrant
you. She looked up wistfully, not
knowing the full sorrows of an orphan
child. Oh, her countenance haunts me
today, like some sweet face looking
upon us through a horrid dream. On
the other side of the pulpit were the
men who had destroyed him. There
they sat, hard visaged, some of them
pale from exhausting disease, some of
them flushed until it seemed as if the
fires of iniquity famed through the
cheek and cracked the lips. They
were the men who had done the work.
They were the men who had bound