Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-04-29


have to this text is that bad man ute 81
it. Nevertheless it is true, and in a higher
and better sense than that in which it wa
originally uttered. Years ago a legenC
something like this was told me: In hui
lived a very poor woman by the name o
Misery. In front Of her door was a pear tree
which was her only resource for living
Christ, the Lord, in poor garb was walking
through the earth and no one would enter
tain Him. In vain He knocked at the door
of palaces and of humble dwellings. Cole
and hungry and insuft1ciently clad, as de
was, none received Him. But coming ont
day to the hut of this woman, whose name
was Misery, she received Him. and offered
Him few crusts and asked Him to warm
Himself at the handful of Goals, and she SAT
up all night that the wayfarer might have
pillow to rest on.
In the morning this divine being asked her
as He departed what she would have Him dc
in the way of reward, and told her that He
owned the universe and would give her what
she asked. All she asked was that her pear
tree might be protected, and that the boys
who stole her fruit, once climbing the tree,
might not be able to get down without her
consent. So it was granted, and all who
climbed the tree were compelled to stay
there After awhile Death came along and
told the poor woman she must go with him.
But she did not want to go, for, however
poor ones lot is, no one wants to go with
Death. Then she said to Death, 81 will go
with you if you will first climb up into my
pear tree and bring me- down a few pears
before / start" This he consented to do,
but having climbed into the tree he could
not again come down.
Then the troubles of the world began for
Death did not come. The physicians had no
patients, the undertakers no business, law
yers no wills to make, the people who waited
for inheritances could not get them, the old
men staid in all the professions and occupa-
tons so that there was no room for the
young who were coming on, and the earth
got overcrowded, and from all the earth the
cry went up: ''Oh, for Death! Where IS
Deathr Then the people came to the poor
woman and begged her to let Death descend
from the tree. In sympathy for the world,
she consented to let Death come down on one
condition, and that was that he should never
modest or take her away and on that condi-
ton Death was allowed to come down, and
he kept his word and never removed her,
and for that reason We always have Misery
with US.
In that allegorY some one has set forth the
truth that mean to present on this Easter
morning, which celebrates the resurrection
Of Christ and our coming resurrection-th4t
one Of the grandest and mightiest mercies
of the earth is our divine permission to quit
it. Sixty-four persons every minute step
off this planet. Thirty million people every
year board this planet. AS a steamer must
unload before it takes another cargo, and as
the passengers of rail train must leave it
IL order to have another company of passen-
gers enter it, so with this world
What would happen to an ocean steamer
If man, taking a Stateroom, should stay in
it forever? What would happen to a rail
train if one who purchases a ticket should
always occupy the seat assigned him? And
what would happen to this world If all who
came into it never departed from it? The
grave is as much benediction as the cradle.
hot fhofS int ba
days ego? Too many passengers. What
was the matter with that steamer on the
Thames which, few years ago, went down
with 600 lives? Too many passengers. Now
this world is only ship, which was launched
some six thousand years ago. 1t is sailing
at the rate of many thousand miles an hour.
It is freighted with mountains and cities,
and has in its staterooms and Storage about
sixteen hundred million passengers. So
many are coming aboard, it is necessary that
a good many disembark.
Suppose that all the people that have
lived since the days of Adam and Eve were
still alive. What cluttered up place this
world would be-no elbow room-nO place
to walk-no privacy-nothlng to eat or
wear, or if anything were left the human
race would, like a shipwrecked crew. have
to be put on small rations, each of us having
perhaps only a biscuit a day. And what
chance would there be for the rising genera
tons? The men and women who started
when the world star led would keep the
modern people back and down, saying:
I'VE are six thousand years old. Bow
down. History is nothing, for we are older
than history" What a mercy for the hu-
man race was death! Within a few years
you can get from this world ell there is in
it.
After you have had fifty or sixty or sew
enty springtimes, you have seen enough
blossoms After fifty or sixty or seventy
1lfI1 have
foliage. After fifty or sixty or seventy
winters, you have seen enough snowstorms
and felt enough chills and wrapped yourself
in enough blankets. In the ordinary length
of human life you have carried enough bur-
dens, and shed enough tears, and suffered
enough injustices, and felt enough pangs,
and been clouded by enough doubts, and
surrounded by enough mysteries. We talk
about the shortness of life, but if we exer.
csed good sense we would realize that life is
quite long enough.
If we are the children of God we are at
banquet and this world is only the first
course Of the food, and we ought to be glad
that there are other and better and richer
courses of food to be handed on. We are
here in one room Of our Fathers house, but
there are rooms up stairs. They are better
pictured, better upholstered, better fur
nlshed. Why do we want to stay in the
anteroom forever, wnen there are palatial
apartments waiting for our occupanc7e
What mercy that there is a limitation to
earthly environments!
Death also makes room for improved
physical n achinery. Our bodies have Won
drous powers, but they are very limited.
There are beasts that can outrun US. outfit
us, outcarry US. The birds have both the
earth and air tor travel, yet we must stick
to the one. In this world, which the human
race taxes for its own, there are creatures
of God that can far surpass us in some
things. Death removes this slower and less
adroit machinery and makes room for some
thing better. These ewes that can see half