Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-04-13

sucking the blood of its own arteries,
waiting for the Judgment day.
Oh, | should not wonder if on that
day it would be found out that some
of us had some things that belonged to
them; some extra garment which might
have made them comfortable in cold
days; some bread thrust into the ash
barrel that might have appeased their
hunger for little while; some wasted
candle or gas jet that might have kim
died up their darkness; some fresco on
the ceiling that would have given them
a roof; some jewel which, brought to
kept her from being crowded off the
precipices of an unclean life; some New
Testament that would have told them
of him who ''came to seek and save
that which was lost"
Oh this wave of vagrancy and hun
ger and nakedness that dashes against
our front doorstep! If the roofs of all
the houses of restitution could be lifted
so we could look down into them, just
as God looks, whose nerves would be
strong enough to stand it And yet there
they are. The fifty thousand sewing
women in these three cities, some of
them in hunger and cold. working
night after night, until sometimes the
| blood spurts from nOstril and lips.
How well their grief was voiced by
that despairing woman who stood by
her invalid husband and invalid child,
and said to the city missionary: L am
downhearted. Everythings against us;
and then there are other things.
''What other things?" said the city
missionary. oh" she replied, my
sin What do you mean by thatT
''Well," she said, Il never hear or see
anything good. It's work from Mon
day morning till Saturday night, and
then when Sunday comes | can't go
out, and [ walk the floor, and it makes
me tremble to think that / have got to
meet God. Oh, sir, it's 50 hard for us.
We have to work 50, and then we have
so much trouble, and then we are get
ting along SO poorly; and see this wee
little thing growing weaker and weaker;
and then to think we are not getting
nearer to God, but floating away from
him. Oh, sir, do wish | was ready to
die"
DUTY OF CHURCH AND SOCIETY.
I should not wonder if they had a
good deal better time than we in the
future to make up for the fact that
they had such a bad time here 1t
would be just like Jesus to say: Come
up and take the highest seats. You
ffo,CI wifi, mn nr, Cor+l,4 Iva crlo
rified with me in heaven" O thou
weeping One of Bethany! o thou dy-
ing One of the crossl Have mercy on
these starving, freezing, homeless poor
of these great cities!
/ have preached this sermon for four
or five practical reasons: Because l
want you to know who are the uproOt-
ing classes of society. Because l want
you to be more discriminating in your
charities. Because | want your hearts
open with generosity and your hands
open with charity. Because | want
you to be made the sworn friends of
ali city evangelization, and all news
boys lodging houses and all chiIdren's
aid societies and Dorcas societies, un-
der the sllillful manipulation of wives
and mothers and sisters and daughters.
Let the spare garments of your ward
robes be fitted to the limbs of the wan
and shivering. | should not wonder if
that hat that you give should come
back jeweled coronet, or if that gar
ment that you hand out from your
wardrobe should mysteriously be whit
ened and somehow wrought into the
Saviour's own robe, so in the last day
he would run his hand over it and say,
ii was naked, and We clothed me.
That would be putting your garments
TO glorious uses.
But more than that, | have preached
the sermon because | thought in the
contrast you would see how very kind
Iy God had dealt with you, ami |
thought that thousands of you would
go to your comfortable homes and sit
at your we'll filled tables and at the
warm registers, and look at the round
faces of your children, and that then
you would burst into tears at the re
view of Gods goodness to you, and
that you would go to your room and
lock the door and kneel down and say:
20 Lord, | have been an migrate;
make me thy child. o Lord, there are
so many hungry and unclad and un-
sheltered today; | thank thee that all
my life thou hast taken such good care
of me. . Lord there are so many
sick and crippled children today;
thank thee mine are well, some of them
on earth, some of them in heaven. Thy
goodness, O Lord, breaks me down.
Take me once and forever. Sprinkled
as l was many years ago at the altar,
while my mother held me, now 1 con-
secrate my soul to thee in hOlier hap
tism of repenting tears.
For sinners, Lord, thou cam'st to bleed,
And I'm a sinner vile indeed
Lord, 1 believe thy grace is free,
Oh, magnify that grace to me-