Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1892-04-11

that ever rolled through the churches
had, In their patlos, the sighs and groans
of the composers, who wore their lives
out in writing the harmony. American
independence WAS triumphant bat it
moved on over the lifeless forms of tens
OF thousands of men who fell at Bunker
Hill and Yorktown and the battles be-
tween. which were the hemorrhages Of /
the nation The kingdom of God adj
vances il all the earth, but 1T must be /
over the lives of missionaries who die OF |
malaria il the jungles or Christian |
workers who preach and pray and toll |
and die In the service. The Saviour TIL |
umpns IN all ,lirections-but beauty and |
strength must be torn down from the |
palm trees OF Christian heroism and con-
secration and thrown in his pathway.
To what better use could those palm |
trees on the southern shoulder Of Mount |
Olivet and clear down into the Valley Of
Gethsemane put their branches than to
surrender them for the making OF
Christ's Journey toward Jerusalem the
more picturesque, the more memorable
and the more triumphant? And to what
better use could we put our lives than
into the sacrifice for Christ and his cause
and the happiness Of our fellow crea-
lures? Shall we not be willing to be
torn down that righteousness shall have
triumphant way? Christ was torn down
for us. Can we not afford to be torn
down for him? IF Christ could suffer so
much for us, can we not suffer little
for Christ? IF he can afford on Palm
Sunday to travel to Jerusalem to carry
a cross, can we not afford few leaves
70 1rnc
way?
FEW LEAVES FROM OUR BRANCHES.
The process is going on every moment
in all directions. What makes that
father have such hard work to find the
hymn today? He puts on his spectacles
and holds the book close up, and then
| holds it far off, and Is not quite sure
/ whether the number of the hymn IS 100
/ or 100. and the fingers with which he
| turns the leaves are very clumsy. lie
stoops good deal, although once he was
! straight as an arrow, and his eyes were
keen as a hawks, and the hand he
! offered to his bride on the marriage day
was Of goodly shape and as God made 1t.
will tell you what is the matter. Forty
wears ago he resolved his family should
have no need and his children should be
well educated and suffer none Of the
disadvantages Of lack of schooling from
which he had suffered for a lifetime, and
that the wolf Of hunger should never
put its paw on his doorsill, and For
forty or fifty years he has been tearing
off from the palm tree of his physical
strength and manly form branches to
throw in the pathway of his household.
It has cost him muscle and brain and
health and eyesight, and there have
| been twisted off more years from his life
than any man in the crowd on the
famous Palm Sunday twisted off
branches from the palm trees g. the
road from Bethpage to Jerusalem. What
makes that mother look so much older
than she really is? You say she ought
not vet to have one gray line in her hair.
The truth is the family was not always
as well off as now The married pair
had hard struggle at the start. Elk
anime the tips of the forefinger and
thumb Of her right hand and they Will
tell you the story of the needle that was
piled day in and day out.
Yea. look at both her hands and they
will tell the story of the time when she
did her own work, her own mendin5
and scrubbing and washing. Yea, look
into the face and read the story OF
scarlet fevers aud Groups and midnight
watchings when none bat God and her
self in that house were awake, and then
the burials and the loneliness afterward.
which was more exhausting than the
preceding watching had been, and no
one now to put to bed. How fair she
once was and as graceful as the palm
tree. but all the branches of her strength
and beauty were long ago torn oil and
thrown into the pathway OF her house
hold. Alas! that sons and daughters,
themselves SO straight and graceful and
educated should ever forget that they
are walking today over the fallen
strength of an Industrious and honored
parentage A little ashamed, are you,
at their ungrammatical utterance? 1t
was through their sacrifices that you
learned accuracy Of speech. Do you
lose patience with them because they
are little querulous and complaining!
[ guess you nave forgotten how queru-
lous and complaining when you were
: getting over that whooping cough or
that intermittent fever. A little an
/ moved, are you, because her hearing is
: poor and you have to tell her some
: thing twice? She was not always hard
: of hearing. When you were two years
old your first call for q drink at mid
night woke her from q sound sleep as
: quick as any one will waken at the
: trumpet call of the resurrection.
: Oh, my young lady, what is that uudel
1 the sole of your fine shoe? 1t is palm
t leaf which was torn off the tree of ma
ternal fidelity. Young merchant, young
!, LAWYER, young journalist, young me
e chanic. with good salary and fine clothes
S and refined surroundings, have you for
gotten what time your father had thai