Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1892-03-07


your children: Who keeps them
safe? Were you ever sicl1?" Yes
who made you well2 Have you been
fed every day? Who feeds you! Put
your hand Oh your pulse. Who
makes it throb2 Listen to the res
piration of your lungs. Who helps
YOU to breathe2 Have you a Bible in
the house, spreading before you the
future life Who gave you that
Bible?'
Oh, it has been a story of goodness
and mercy all the way through! You
have been one Of Gods pet children.
Who fondled you and caressed you
and loved you? And when you went
astray and wanted to come back did
he ever refuse? I know of a father
who, after his son came back the
fourth time, said, No; / forgave
you three times, but l will never for
give you again" And the son went
off and died But God takes back
his children the thousandth time as
cheerfully as the first. AS easily as
with my handkerchief I strike the
dust off book God will wipe out all
your sins.
There are hospitals for ''incura-
bles.' When men are hopelessly
sick they are sent there. Thank
God, there is no hospital for spiritual
incurables Though you had the
worst leprosy that ever struck a soul,
your flesh shall come again like the
flesh of a little child Oh, this mercy
of God | am told it is an ocean.
Then place on it four swift sailing
craft, with compass and charts, and
choice rigging and skillful navigators,
and [ tell them to launch away and
discover for me the extent of this
ocean.
That craft puts out in one direc-
ton and sails to the north; this craft
to the south; this to the east this to
the west. They crowd on all their
canvas and sail ten thousand years,
and one day come up the harbor of
heaven, and [ shout to them from
the beach, Have you found the
shore?" and they answer, No shore
to Gods mercyI Swift angels, dis
patched from the throne, attempt to
go across it. For a million years
they fly and fly, but then come back
and fold their wings at the foot of
the throne, and cry, mo shorel no
shore to Gods mercy!
Mercy! Mercy! Mercy! l sing
it. | preach it. | pray it. Here l
find man bound hand and foot to
the devil, but with one stroke of the
hammer of Gods truth the chains
fall off and he is free forever. Mercy!
Mercy! Mercy There is no depth
it cannot fathom, there is no height
it cannot scale, there is no infnity it
cannot compass. | take my stand
under this goodly cedar and see the
focks flying thither. They are torn
with the shot of temptation, and
wounded and sick and SCARED Some
fought with iron beak, some once
Toasted on carcaSSeS, some were fierce
of eye and cruel of talon, but they
came, flock after fOck-"All fowl of
every wing.
ALL THE DYING.
Again, all the dying will find their
nest in this goodly cedar 1t is cruel
to destroy a birds nest, but death
does not hesitate to destroy one.
There was a beautiful nest in the
next street. Lovingly the parents
brooded over it. There were two or
three little robins in the nest. The
scarlet fever thrust it's hot hands into
the nest and the birds are gone.
Only those are safe who have their
nests in the goodly cedar. They
have over them the feathers of the
Almighty" Oh, to have those soft,
warm, eternal wings stretched over
lis! Let the storms beat, and the
branches of the cedar toss on the
comes, you can see the birds flying
to the woods Ere the storm of death
comes down. let us fly to the goodly
cedar.
OF what great varieties heaven
will be made up. There come men
who once were hard and cruel and
desperate in wickedness, yet now,
soft and changed by grace, they
come into glory All fowl of every
wing" And here they come. the
children who were reared in loving
home circles, focking through the
gates of life-''All fowl of every
wing THESE were WHlCo aHu came
from northern homes; these were
black, and assembled from southern
plantations; these were copper col
ored, and went up from Indian res
ervations-''Allf fowl of every wing"
So God gathers them up. 1t is as
tonishing how easy it is for a good
soul to enter heaven. A prominent
business man in Philadelphia went
home one afternoon, lay down on the