St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1891-12-03
THANKSGIVING SERVICE.
"CONCERNING THE WORTH THERE
OFF,
"IncIudine Sundry Observations on
Living in a VIIIage-'

held at the South church on
Thursday morning last, when Rev.
Edward T. Fairbanks preached an
interesting and practical sermon
from the last clause of [. Kings
xxi :2-"Or, if it please thee | will
give thee the worth of it in money"
Rev. F. D. Buckley of St. Andrews
church assisted in the service, read
ing the Scripture and offering prayer
Below we give the sermon in full:
We shall say that was a fair offer, and
politely put. Ahab wants the vineyard
of Naboth No such scheme as that which
Mistress Jezebel shortly after fetched up
from the pit has once occurred to him.
He goes to Naboth in a manly, courteous
way and makes him a double offer. L
will give thee for it better vineyard, or,
if it please thee the worth of 1T in money.
So he said, and | haven't doubt he
meant it, inasmuch as the failure OF
negotiations took away his appetite.
For directly he encounters a practical dit
ficulty. How much money was it
worth? Suppose they called in referee
the man best posted on Jezreel real estate.
He could figure the market value, dare
v.
out. has nothing to do with the case.
Naboth, it seems, doesn't want to sell.
He is well content. He likes this vine
ward. 1t is worth more to him than
that "better one' talked about; worth
more to him than 1t cost him, worth
more to him than any money price he
might put on it. Yet the real estate man
will say, with the emphasis of one who
knows-"that vineyard is worth 12O
shekels."
But 12O shekels are no thing to Naboth
1t suits him better to hold on to his vine
ward. There are reasons why. Perhaps
his father planted the vines there when
he was a boy; or maybe his own boy
is buried up there in the corner just under
where the sparrow hath made her nest,
and raised her young these ii years.
Some treasured bits of family life or
sentiment have been wrought in to that
place, along with the toll of the
summer days and the yearly joys of the
vintage-the ancient Thanksgiving day.
We can all understand how that night
be- There are things in our possession
worth more to us individually than any
one else can know. Some crooked old
walking stick, which another would
burn up to get rid of, some insignificant
souvenir from somewhere-SOme picture
book torn and dog-eared by the children S
fngers-some big family Bible, or old
arm chair; and who shall dare chide
you for holding on to that? We recog-
nize, aside from the values which any
one can reckon, those finer ones which
are purely personal-fringes of sentiment,
or ingrainings of associations that a
stranger wotteth not of. The real
estate man of Jezreel makes no account
of all this, when he breaks in with his
knowing statement, saying That
Naboth vineyard is worth 100 shekels
silver money"
The worth of it in money. But if you
notice. that is the way we have to speak
of values all the while. So much for your
land horse, COW, rent, fuel; so much for
what you put on every morning, or for
what you take in three times day to
keep up the circulation. 1t costs money
to be alive, to go along to do anything,
to be somebody. Therefore we have
to calculate, we have to make ends meet
we have to take hold of each thing by
the worth of it in money, and many a
time wish the money would go further.
But now, inasmuch as money is often
short, it is worth while to know that
many things are worth more to person
than their market price. In fact, incline
to think that is true of about all we or
dinari1y spend money for. OF course one
cents for some shoddy goods, or 81 90 for
something he didn't want and couldn t
use, but got because twas cheap; and in
such case his acquisitions are not pro-
digious.
But / believe that nine parts out of ten
of all we turn our money into will be
found to have intrinsic values much
above the market worth thereof. We
have run so long in the rut of prices
current that we've scarcely noted what
lay behind the figures, in all sorts Of
adaptations that suit so well, and in the
common probabilities that we couldn't
do without.
We need not go far to find this. Look
at what is shortly impending, for | take
it Thanksgiving dinner is on the way
That chicken, | suppose, cost $1.OO and
the lordly turkey twice that; the saucer
of cranberry sauce cost about 1 cent
cup of coffee 2 cents, and good piece
of pumpkin pie, say cents. Now what
soever any one person shall consume al
dinner today or any day in the year viii
not mount so very high in money-cost te
him. Yet considering the fact that il
involved the outdoor operations O
planting, cultivating, harvesting, o
raising and dressing multitudinou.
poultry, besides no small goings on IL
the kitchen; also considering that it wa
gotten together, some of it, from farthe
off than Caledonia county,-from tee
gardens of the Orient and tropica
sugar plantations, [granulated sugar a
FIVE cents!;] from coffee-helds and isle
where spicy breezes blow-includin:
traffic with foreign peoples and al
manner of beasts of burden; with ship
and drays and rail-cars, retail stores
delivery wagons, and collecting clerk
and whatsoever and whatsoever else
do believe, come to take these things in
to account, the true worth of any squar
meal you may eat is not fully set dow
in the grocer's bill you pay, especial
when besides all this, its worth to yo
practically is that it keeps you alive an
on your feet.
But besides your eating, look at you
housing 1t is agreed that rents are hig
and home of ones own costs money
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