The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1892-11-11
SECULAR SERMON.

From the proverbs of Norman ! tak'
this verse, sDespise not commonplace
things; for they are thy life" There i!
| in the world my dear hearers great de
sire to be heroic. The stories of Revolu
tionary heroes and heroines, the daring
deeds of the soldiers of our Civil war, the
rehearsal of the acts of courage of the
fireman and the engineer, all make us
wish to do some great thing.
But, beloved, there is heroism of daily
| life of which we too often lose sight. We
could get along without our heroes of
the battle and the fire, but we should be
overwhelmed if our commonplace heroes
and heroines failed in their duty. Just
let me show you a few of these common
place heroes that you may see how your
life depends upon them.
Who thinks of calling Hiram Holdfast
hero? He is working on his fathers
farm and caring for his old father and
mother. He has never married because
there was no place for new mistress in
the house where his mother presides. He
has never gone awav to work, because if
he did there would be no one to run the
farm and care for the old folks, and as
you look at him now five and 80, bronzed
with the labor of the farm, somewhat I'M
polished because he has no opportunity
to get out into society, you call him a
commonplace man.
And you wonder why he did not have
q hinhnr than Io
mon farmer on the land his father has
titled before him. Well let me tell you
he did have ambitions. He wanted to go
to college. He hoped to be a teacher or
a professor. But it was choice be-
tween duty and inclination and he chose
duty. Don't think that he he is always
regarded as you regard him.
His pastor considers him as helper in
the church always to be relied on; his
friends know that when Hiram promises
to do thing it will be done if within hui
man possibility; and even the little ur-
chins down in the village call him the
"kind man" for he always has rosy
checked apple or flower for them when
he takes the butter to market. His story
may never get into the papers, the 'sHer-
ald'' or the ''Sun'' or even THE BEE may
never print his biography but up in Heav-
en- believe God keeps an account and
calls him His hero.
Day before yesterday | walked down
town behind two of the simpering butter
flies of fashion and overheard them talk
ing about our plain little school ma'am,
Miss Betsey Discola. They were laugh,
ing about her plain dresses and her quiet
ways. But, bless you, never meet Miss
Betsey without lifting my hat with
feeling of almost reverence.
She is no Joan of Arc, for she would be
afraid of horse and faint at the sight of
blood. Nor is she a Mary Queen of
SCOTS in her beauty. But know that
she gave up many cherished plan
Of life to care for her poor lame mother;
and that she is bearing all the burden of
school teaching, that the little home may
have enough of food and drink in it. If |
The children of our district should vote |
for the woman they love most, next to |
their mothers name. almost every one of |
them would put the name of Miss Betsy. !
suppose she is only commonplace |
school-ma am and getting to be an old |
maid at that, but she is a heroine all the
same, take my word for it.
So just here l want you to put pin in
20 bear this thing in mind. Do not de-
spise the commonplace folks and our
things. Our Bridgets and
our Maggies, our Peters and our Johns
make our lives happy because they do
heir duty. They really make up the
blessings of our lives. The other day |
come across this little poem. Let it close
he sermon for US:
"A commonplace life,' we say and we sigh,--
But why should we sigh as we say?
The commonplace sun in the commonplace
sky,
Makes up the commonplace day.
rhe moon and the stars are commonplace
things,
And the flower that blooms, and the bird
that sings,
And dark were the world, and sad our lot,
not
Add God, who studies each separate soul,
)ut of commonplace lives makes his beauti-
full whole
Gems of Thou ohfs