The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1891-05-29

then he turned and looked out of the
window and into the night with
silence ! was too overpowered to break.
That was another illustration of the
fact that no one escapes trouble. Why,
that man seated next to you in church
has on his soul a weight compared with
which mountain is feather. That
woman seated next to you in church
has a grief the recital of which would
make your body, mind and soul shud-
der.
When you are mending your net for
this wide, deep sea of humanity take
out that wire thread of criticism and
that horsehair thread of harshness,
and put in soft silken thread Of
Christian sympathy. Yea, when you
are mending your nets tear out those
old threads of gruffness and weave in a
few threads of politeness and geniality.
In the house of God let all the Christian
welcome Say good morning" to the
stranger as he enters your pew, and at
the close shake hands with him and
say, 'How did you like the music"
Why, you would be to that man a
panel of the door of heaven; you would
be to him a note of the doxology that
seraphs sing when new soul enters.
That man is a thousand miles from
home, and he has just heard by tele-
graph that his child is sick with scarlet
fever, and his boy at college has got
into disgrace, and he has had business
troubles, and is so homesick he can
hardly keep from crying. Just one
word of brotherly kindness from you
would lift him into small heaven.
have in other days entered pew
in church, and the woman at the other
end of the pew looked at me as much
as to say, ''How dare youa This is my
pew, and pay the rent for it." Well,
crouched in the other corner and
made myself as small as possible and
felt as though had been stealing some
thing. So there are people who have
sharp edge to their religion, and they
act as though they thought most peo-
pie had been elected to be damned and
they were glad oft Oh, let us brighten
up our manner and appear in utmost
gentlemanliness or ladyhood.
AVOID ABRUPTNEss.
The object in fly fishing is to throw
the fly far out, and then let it drop
gently down and keep it gently rising
and falling with the waters, and not
plunge it like man-of-wars anchor;
and abruptness and harsbness of man
ner must be avoided in our attempt at
usefulness. | know a man in New
York who is more sunshiny and genial
when he has dyspepsia than when he is
not suffering from that depressing
trouble have found out his secret
When he starts out in the morning with
such depression he asks for special
grace to keep from swapping up any
body that day, and puts forth add
tional determination to be kindly and
genial, and by the help of God he ac-
complshes it. Many of our nets need
to be mended in these respects, the
black threads and the rough threads
taken out, and the bright threads and
the golden threads of Christian genial
ity woven in.
In addition to this, we need to mend
our nets with more threads of patience
1t is no rare thing for a fisherman te
spend one whole day before he car
take a st. Lawrence pike or an Ohio
salmon or Long Island pickerel or q
Cayuga black bass, or Delaware cat
fish, and he does that day after. day
without particular encouragement
But what lack of patience if we dc
not Immediately succeed in soul catch
ing. We are apt to give it up and say
II will never try again" Into all oul
nets we need to weave all along the
edge, and all through the center, great,
long, stout threads of Christian pa
thence. How patient God has beer
with us! Can we not be patient with
our fellows2 had presented me from
Scotland a few days ago an ornament
ed inkstand, the wooded parts of which
were made from piece of tree GU
down by Mr.. Gladstone, at Hawarden
and sent by him to Scotland by re
quest
The incident reminded me of the fac
that woman who had long been OF
Mr.. Gladstone's estate had way
ward boy, and in her despair she asked
Mr.. Gladstone to take the boy in hand
While prime minister of England, will
all the mighty affairs of the kingdom
in his hand, he took that boy in hi
study and counseled him, and thel
knelt down and prayed with him, ant
the boy was saved. If we all ha'
hearts of sympathy like that, wha
would be to us impossible9 "Is it no
delightful that can sing SO wella" sal
Jenny Lind in burst of joy that sh
could help Others. SIS it not delight
full that can singso well2" And nigh
we not all say in thankfulness to GOD
Is IL IOl lileht VIC Cttll oy IL
pathize with others and encourag
: others and help others and save others?
: THE THREAD OF FAITH.
4 Again, in mending our nets we nee
q also to put in the threads of faith an
!. tear out all the tangled meshes of III
~ belief. Our work is successful accord
q ing to our faith The man who bt
4 lieves in only half a Bible, or the Bib
a in spots; the man who thinks he car
u not persuade others, the man VIII
. halts, doubling about this and doub
ing about that, will be a failure i
= Christian work Show me the ma
J. who rather thinks that the garden {
, Eden may have been an allegory, an
: is not quite certain but that there ma
= be another chance after death, an
does not know whether or not the Bib
Il is inspired, and tell you that man fo
soul saving is a poor stick. Faith i
q God and in Jesus Christ, and the Hol
= Ghost, and the absolute necessity of