Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-05-04
Then let our songs abound,
And every tear be dry;
We're marching through Emmanuel
To fairer worlds on high.

[ have to say, also, that we need to
put more spice and enIivenment in our
religious teaching, whether it be in the
prayer meeting or in the Sabbath
school or in the church We ministers
need more fresh air and sunshine in our
lungs and our hearts and our head.
Do you wonder that the world is so far
from being converted when you find so
little vivacity in the pulpit and in the
pew? We want, like the Lord, to plant
in our sermons and celebrations more
lilies of the field We want fewer
rhetorical Celebrations and fewer SEES
quipedalian words; and when we talk
about shadows we do not want to say
adumbratiOn; and when we mean
QueerneSs, we do not want to talk about
idiosyncrases; or if a stitch in the back,
we do not want to talk of lumbagO,
but in the plain vernacular preach that
gospel which proposes to make all men
happy, honest, victorious and free.
In other words, we want more CHINA
mon and less gristIe. Let this be so in
all the different departments of work
to which the Lord calls us. Let US be
plain. Let us be earnest. Let us be
common sensical. When we talk to the
people in a vernacular they can under
stand they will be very glad to come
and receive the truth we present.
Would to God that Queen Balkis would
drive her spice laden dromedaries into
all our sermons and prayer meeting ex-
hortations
More than that, we want more life
and spice in our Christian work The
poor do not want so much to be grOan-
ed over as sung to. With the bread
and medicines and garments you give
them let there be an accompaniment
of smiles and brisk encouragement. Do
not stand and talk to them about the
Indebtedness of their abode and the
hunger of their looks and the hardness
of their lot. All they know it better
than you can tell them Show them
the bright side of the thing, if there be
any bright side Tell them good times
will come. Tell them that for the chill
dren of God there is immortal rescue.
Wake them up out of their stOlidity by
an inspiring laugh, and while you send
in help, like the queen of Sheba also
send in spices.
There are two ways of meeting the
poor. One is to come into their house
with a nose elevated in disgust, as
much as to say Il don't see how you
live here in this neighborhood 1t act
ually makes me sick. There is that
bundle-take it, you poor. miserable
wretch, and make the most of it" An
other way is to go into the abode of the
poor in a manner which seems to say:
''The blessed Lord sent me- He was
poor himself 1t is not more for the
good [ am going to try to do you than
it is for the good you can do me-"
Coming in that spirit, the gift will be as
aromatic as the spikenard on the feet
of Christ, and all the novels in that
alley will be fragrant with the spice.
SPICE NEEDED N CHURCH MUSIC.
We need more spice and enlivenment
in our church music Churches sit dis
cussing whether they shall have choirs
or precentors or organs or bass viols
or cornets I say take that which will
bring out the most inspiring music If
we had half as much zeal and spirit in
our churches as we have in the songs
of our Sabbath schools it would not be