Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1892-03-24


shine There are more men ruined by
prosperity than by adversely. If we had
our own way in life. before this we would
have been representations of selfishness
and worldlincss and disgusting sin, and
pulled up until we would have been like
julius Caesar, who was made by syco-
plants to believe that he was divine, and
the frecklcs on his face were Us stars of the
armament.
One of the swiftest transatlantic voyages
made last summer by our swfftest steamer
was because she had stormy wind abaft,
chasing her from New York to Liverpool
But to those going in the opposite direc-
ton the storm was buffeting and him
drance. 1t is bad thing to have storm
ahead, pushing us back; but if we be Gods
children and aiming toward heaven the
storms of life will only O. e us the sooner
into the harhor. ! am > glad to believe
that the monsoons and typhoons and mis-
trails and siroccos of the land and sea are
not unclaimed maniacs let loose upon the
earth, but are under divine supervision! |
am SO glad that the God of the Seven Stars
is also the God Of Orionl 1t was out of
Dante's suffering came the sublime "Di-
vina Commedia," and out of John Millions
blindness came paradise Lost" and out
of miserable inndel attack came the
"Bridgewater Treatise" in favor of Chris
tianity, and out of David's exile came the
songs of consolation, and out of the suffer
ings of Christ come the possibility of the
worlds redemption, and out of your be
reavement, your persecution, your power
ties, your msfortuncs may yet come an
eternal heaven.
THE ROLLING WORLDS on HIGH.
Oh, what mercy it is that in the text
and all up and down the Bible God induces
us to look out toward other worldsl Bible
astronomy in Genesis in joshua in Job, in
the Psalms, in the prophets, major and
minor, in St. Jshn's Apocalypse, practical.
ly saying: "Worlds! worlds, worlds! Get
ready for them' We have nice little
world here that we stick to, as though los
ing that we lose all. We are afraid Of fall
ing off this little raft of a world We are
afraid that some meteOric icOnoclast will
some night smash it, and we want every
thing to revolve around it, and are disap-
pointed when we find that it revolves
around the sun instead of the sun revolv-
ing around it. What fuss we make about
this little bit of world, its existence only
short time between two spasms, the par
oxysm by which it was hurled from chaos
into order, and the paroxysm of it's demo-
iton.
And am glad that so many texts call
US to look off to other worlds, many of
them larger and grander and more re-
splendcpt. Look there says job, "at
Nazareth and Arcturus and his sonsw
"Look there" says st. John "at the moon
under Christ's feet Look there" says
Joshua. Eat the sun standing still above
Gibeon!" Look there" says Moses, lat
the sparkling lirmament"' Look there"
says Amos, the herdsman, lat the Seven
Stars and Orion Don't let us be so sad
about those who shove off from this world
under Christly pilotage. Don't let us be
SO agitated about our own going off this
little barge or sloop or canal boat of n
world 10 get on some Great Eastern Of
the heavens. Don't let us persist in want
ing to stay in this barn, this shed, this out
house of a world when all the king s palaces
already occupied by many of our best
friends are swinging wide open their gates
to let us in.
When read, "In my Fathers house are
many mansions" do not know but that
each world is a room, and as many rooms
as there are worlds, stellar stairs, stellar
galleries, stellar Railways, stellar windows,
stellar domes. How our departed friends
must pity us shut up in these cramped
when they some morning, by one stroke of
wing, eau make circuit of the whole stellar
system and be back in time for mathis!
/ Perhaps yonder twinkling constellation is
the residence of the martyrs; that group
of twelve luminaries is the celestial home
of the apostles. Perhaps that steep of
light is the dwelling place of angels chel7I-
bic scraphic, archangelic. A mansion
with as many rooms as worlds, and all
their windows illuminated for festivity
THE STIMULUS TO CHRISTIAN THOUGHT.
Oh, how this widens and lifts and slim
ulates our eXpectationsl How little il
makes the present and how stupendous it
makes the future How it consoles lie
about our pious dead, who, instead Of be.
ing boxed up and under the ground, have
the range Of as many rooms as there are
worlds, and welcome everywhere, for it is
the Fathers house, in which there are
many mansions! Oh, Lord God of the
Seven Stars and Orion, how can | endure
the transport, the ecstasy of such vision
must obey my text and seek him. ! will
seek him. | seek him now, for | call tC
mind that il is not the material universe
I that is most valuable, but the spiritual
and that each If us has Il soul worth more
than all the worlds which the inspire
I utfuSlIdn S;tW from MS DOOtn on the NH
of Ickoa.
| had studied it before, but the Cattle
dral ot Cologne, Germany, never inn
pressed me as it did the last time saw it,
1t is admittedly the grundest gothic struc
ture in the world, its foundation laid il
l245, only eight or nine years ago com
pleted. More than six hundred years il
building. All Europe take, for its con
struction. Its chapel Of the Magi witt
precious stones enough to purcha.e a king
dom. Its chapel of St. Al nes with master
pieces of painting. les spire springing fly,
hundred and eleven feet into the heavens
Its stained glass the chorus of all ricl
colors. Statues encrcling the pillars ant
encircling all. Statues above statues, unit
sculpture can do no more, but fants ant
falls back against carved stalls and dow
on pavements over which the kings ant
queens of the earth have walked to con
fession. Nave and Nislcs and transept ant
portals combining the splendors Of sunrise
lnterlaced, imtCtoiatod. intcrcolumncC
grandeur. As | stood outside looking Al
the double range of flying buttrcsscs ant
tle forest pf rlppapleg higher md liUba,