Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1892-06-06


licve in anybody OF anything.
If they see two people whispering they
think it is abort themselves. If they
see two people laughing they think it is
about themselves. Where there is one
sweet pippin in .ieir orchard there are
fifty crab apples. They have never been
able to forget. They do not want to
forget. They never will forget. Their
wretchedness is supreme. for no one can
be happy if he carries perpetually in
mind the mean things that have been
done him.
On the other hand, you can find here
and there a man or woman for there
are not many of them) whose disposition
is genial and summary. Why? Have
they always been treated well? Oh, no.
Hard things have been said against
them. They have been charged with
oficiousness; and their generOsities have
been set down to a desire for display,
and they have many time been the
subject of tittle-tattle, and they have
had enough small assaults like gnats
and enough great attacks like lions to
have made them perpetually miserable,
if they would have consented to be mis-
cradle.
But they have had enough divine phil
osophy to cast off the annoyances, and
they have kept themselves in the sun
light of Gods favor, and have realized
that these oppositions and hindrances
are part of a mighty discipline, by
which they are to be prepared for use
fulness and heaven. The secret of it all
is, they have by the help of the eternal
God learned how to forget.
FORGIVE AND FORGET.
Another practical thought-when our
faults are repented Of let them go out of
mind. If God forgets them, we have a
right to forget them. Having once re-
pented of our infelicities and misde-
meanors, there is no need of our repent
ing of them again. Suppose [ owe you
a large sum of money, and you are per-
suaded am incapacitated to pay, and
you give me acquittal from that obliga-
ton. You say: Il cancel that debt
All is right now. Start again" And
the next day [ come in and say: ''You
know about that big debt l owed you.
have come in to get you to let me off.
l feel so bad about it 1 cannot rest. Do
let me off," You reply with little i'm
bother yourself and bother me with any
more of that discussion
The following day I come in and say:
''My dear sir, about that debt. [ can
never get over the fact that owed you
that money. 1t is something that weighs
on my mind like milestone. Do for
give me that debt This time you clear
lose your patience and say: You are
nuisance. What do you mean by this
reiteration of that affair? [ am almost
sorry forgave you that debt. Do you
doubt my veracity, OF do you not under
stand the plain language in which told
you that debt was canceled?''
Well, my friends, there are many
Christians guilty of worse folly than
that. While it is right that they repent
of new sins and of recent sins, what is
the use of bothering yourself and insult
ing God by asking him to forgive sins
that long ago were forgiven? God has
forgotten them. Why do you not for
get them? No, you drag the load on
with you and $50 times a year, if you
pray every day, you ask God to recall
occurrences which he has not only for
given but forgotten. Quit this folly. L
do not ask you less to realize the turpi-
tude of sin, but | ask you to a higher
faith in the promise of God and the full
deliverance of his mercy. He does not
give a receipt for part payment, or SO
much received on account. but receipt
in full, God having for Christ's sake de-
creed, your sins and your iniquities
will remember no more
As far as possible, let the disagree
IL E.
things in the present and there will be
enough in the future to disturb us with
out running Il special train into the great
gone-by to fetch us as special freight
things left behind Some ten years ago,
when there was q great railroad strike,
I remember seeing all along the route
from Omaha to Chicago and from Chi
cage to New York hundreds and thou
sands of freight cars switched on the
side tracks, those cars loaded with all
kinds of perishable material, decaying
and wasting.
After the strike was over did the rail
road companies bring all that persisted
material down to the markets? No,
they threw it off where it was destroyed.
and loaded up with something else. Let
the long train Of your thoughts throw
off the worse than useless freight of a
corrupt and destroyed past, and load up
with gratitude and faith and holy de-
termination. We do not please God by
the cultivation of the miserable. He
would rather see us happy than to see
us depressed. You would rather see
your children laugh than to see them
cry, and your heavenly Father has no
fondness for Mysteries.
GLORYING IN WICKEDNESS.
Not only forget your pardoned trans
gressions, but allow others to forget
them. The chief stock on hand of
many people is to recount in prayer
meetings and pulpits what big scoun-
drels they once were. They not only