News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1892-09-22

I he spider taKeGn nOld Win nef
hands" Oh, what lesson that is for
you and me! You say if you had some
great sermon to preach, if you only had
a great audience to talk to, if you had
great army to marshal, if you only had
a constitution to write, if there was
some tremendous thing in the world for
you to do-then you would show Us.
Yes, you would show us!
Wh5t if the Levite in the ancient tenn
pie had refused to snuff the candle be-
cause he could not be high priest?
What if the humming bird should refuse
to sing its song into the ear of the honey
suckle because it cannot, like the eagle,
dash its wing into the sun? What if the
raindrop should refuse to descend be-
cause it is not Niagara? What if the
spider of the text should refuse to move
its shuttle because it cannot weave a
Solomon's robe? Away with such folly!
If you are lazy with the one talent, you
would be lazy with the ten talents. If
Milo cannot lift the calf he never will
have strength to lift the OK. In the
Lords army there is order for promo
ton, but you cannot be a general until
you have been a captain, lieutenant
and colonel 1t is step by step, it is
inch by inch, it is rtroke by stroke that
our Christ4es TO such .aS>dea builded.
Therefore becte Enat God
commands yd4sqan1
God is not ash5s hall things.
He is not ashamed 6sg914Bdnd chiseling
a grain of sand, or helping d honeybee
to construct its cell with mathematical
accuracy, or tingeing a shell in the surf,
or shaping the bill of chaffinch. What
God does, he does well. What you do, dc
well, be it great work or small work.
IF ten talents, employ all the ten. If
five talents, employ all the five. Ii one
talent, employ the one. If only the
thousandth part of talent, employ that.
BE thou faithful unto death, and | will
give thee the crown of life" tell you
if YOU are not faithful to God in small
sphere, you would be indolent and in
significant in large sphere.
THE REPULsIvE IN HIGH PLACES.
Again, my text teaches me that re-
pulsiveness and loathsomeness will
sometimes climb up into very elevated
places, You would have tried to have
killed the spider that Solomon saw.
You would have said: ''This is no place
for it. If that spider is determined to
weave a web, let it do so down in the
cellar of this palace or in some dark
dungeon" All! the spider of the text
could not be discouraged. 1t clambered
on and climbed up, higher and higher
and higher, until after awhile it reached
the kings vision, and he said, 1.-THE
spider taketh hold with her hands, and
is in kings palaces" And so it often is
now that things that are loathsome and
repulsive get up into very elevated
places.
The church of Christ, for instance, is
a palace. The King of heaven and earth
lives in it. According to the Bible, her
beams are of cedar, and her rafters of
fir, and her windows of agate, and
the fountains of salvation dash rain of
light 1t is glorious palace-the church
# God is, and yet sometimes unseemly
and loathsome things creep up into it
evil speaking and rancor and SANDER
and backbiting and abuse, crawling up
on the walls of the church, spinning a web
from arch to arch, and from the top of
one communion tankard to the top of
another communion tankard. Glorious
palace in which there ought only to be
light and love and pardon and grace;
yet spider in the palace!
Home ought to be a castle. 1t ought
to be the residence of everything royal.
Kindness, love, peace, patience and for
bearance ought to be the princes resid-
ing tfTere;-arfd yet-sometiRaes- dissipation
craw1s up into that home, and the jeal-
Gus eye comes up, and the scene of peace
and plenty becomes the scene of domes-
tic jargon and dissonance. You say,
what is the matter with the homer ]
will tell you what is the matter with it.
A spider in the palace.
A well developed Christian character
is grand thing to look at. You see
some man with great intellectual and
spiritual proportions. You say, GLOW
useful that man must be!'' But you find
amid all his splendor of faculties there
is some prejudice, some whim, some evil
habit that great many people do not
notice, but that you have happened to
notice, and it is gradually spelling that
mans character-it is gradually going
to injure his entire influence. Others
may not see it, but you are anxious in
regard to his welfare, and now you dis
cover it. A dead fly in the ointment. A
spider in the palace.
TOLL FOR THE HIGHER.
Again, my text teaches me that per-
severance will mount into the kings
palace. 1t must have seemed long
distance for that spider to climb III Solo
mons splendid residence, but it started
at the very foot of the wall and went up
over the panels of Lebanon cedar, higher
and higher, until it stood higher than the
highest throne in all the nations-the
throne of Solomon. And so God has de-
creed it that many of those who are
down in the dust of sin and dishonor
shall gradually attain to the Kings
palace. We see it in worldly things.
Who is that banker in Philadelphia?
Why, he used to be the boy that held
the horses of Stephen Girard while the
millionaire went in to collect his divi-
dends. Arkwright tolls ON up from a
BARRIERS shop until he gets into the pal
ace of invention. Sextus V tolls on ND
from the office of swineherd until he
gets into the palace of Rome. Fletcher
tolls on up from the most insignificant
family position until he gets into the
palace of Christian eloquence. Hogarth,
engraving pewter pots for living, tolls
on up until he reaches the palace Of
world renowned art.
And God hath decided that though
you may be weak of arm and slow of
tongue, and be struck through with a
great many mental and moral deficits,
by his almighty grace You shall yet ar
rive in the Kings p ypt such an
one as is spoken of Mot one
of marble-not one aldermen with pillars
of alabaster and thrones of ivory and
hagons of FURNISHED gold-but palace
in which God is the King and the angels
of heaven are the cupbearers.
The spider crawling up the wall of
Solomon's palace was not worth looking
after or considering as compared with
the fact that we, who are worms of the
dust, may at last ascend into the palace
of the King Immortal. By the grace of
God may we all reach it. Oh, heaven is
not dull place. 1t is not wornout
mansion, with faded curtains and out
land1sh chairs and cracked ware. No;
1t is as fresh and fair and beautiful as
though it were completed but yesterday.
The kings of the earth shall bring their
honor and glory into it.
A palace means splendor of apart
ments. Now, | do not know where
heaven is, and l do not know how it
looks, but If our bodies are to be resur-
rected IN the last day think heaven
must have a material splendor as well
as spiritual grandeur. Oh, what