The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1892-09-23

uewurop, and dlsmounts from the char
lot OF midnight hurricane to cross over
on the suspension bridge of spiders
web.
You may take your telescope and
I sweep it across the heavens in order to
behold the glory of God, but l shall
take the leaf holding the spider and the
spiders web, and shall bring the mi
croscope to my eye, and while | gaze
and look and study and am COMPOUNDED
l will kneel down in the grass and cry,
"Great and marvellous are thy works,
Lord God Almightyp
Again, my text teaches me that insig-
nificance is no excuse for inaction. This
spider that Solomon saw on the wall
might have said: 81 can't weave web
worthy Of this great palace; what can |
do amid all this gold embroidery am
not able to make anything fit for SO
grand place, and so will not work my
spinning jenny" Not SO said the spider.
"The spider taketh hold with her
hands" Oh, what lesson that is for
you and me! You say if you had some
great sermon to preach, if you only had
great audience to talk to, if you had
great army to marshal if you only had
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 a high priest?
What If the humming bird should refuse
to sing its song into the ear of the honey
suckle because 1t cannot, like the eagle,
dash its wing into the sun? What If the
raindrop should refuse to descend be.
cause it is not a Niagara What if the
/ spider of the text should refuse to move
its shuttle because it cannot weave a
Solomon's robe1 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 captain, lieutenant
and colonel. 1t is step by step, it is
inch by inch, it is stroke by stroke that
our Christian character is builded.
Therefore be content to do what God
commands you to do.
God is not ashamed to do small things,
He is not ashamed to be found chiseling
grain of sand, or helping honeybee
to construct its cell with mathematical
accuracy. or tingeing shell in the surf,
or shaping the bill of chafinch. What
God does, he does well. What you do, do
well, be it great work or small work.
II ten talents, employ all the ten. If
five talents, employ all the five. If 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." 1 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 1t. If that spider is determined to
weave web, let it DO 80 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 a rain of
light. 1t is glorious palace-thc church
of 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 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 palacei
Home ought to be castle. It ought
to be the residence of everything royal.
kindness, love, peace, patience and for
bearance ought to be the princes resid-
ing there, and yet sometimes dissipation
crawls 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 tbs matter with the homer /
will tell yop 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, 'now
useful that man must BET" But you Qnd
amid all his splendor OF faculties there
is some prejudice, some w4lim, 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 1t. but you are anxious in
regard to his welfare, and now you dis
cover 1t. 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 in Solo
mons splendid residence, but it started
al the very foot OF the wall and went ur
over The panels OF Lebanon cedar, higher
and higher, until + stood higher than the
highest throne in all the hatiens-the
throne q Solan1n. And 20 Goa las de-
creed 1t that many of those o'ho me
down IN The dust Of SIN and disheior
shall gsattuaky attain to Che Kings
palace. We roe 1t IN worldly tldn...
Who rs chat ssr,kE in Pltlaielplia?
Why, he used 10 be Tho boy that keid
the horses OF Stephen Grard while the