Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-04-17
ness is profitable for the life that now is

ness is profitable for the life that now is
as well as for the life which is to GOMEZ
Peter, with nature tempestuous as the
sea that he once tried to walk. at one
look of Christ went out and wept bitter
". Rich harvests of grace may grow on
the tiptop of the jagged steep, and focks
of Christian graces may find pasturage
in fields of bramble and rock. Though
your disposition may be all Artistic with
fretfulness, though you have temper
a-gleam with quick light1sqgs, though
your avarice be like that Of the horse
leech. crying, ''Givc!' though damnable
impurities have wrapped you in all con-
summing fire, God can drive that devil
out of your soul, and over the chaos and
the darkness he can say, Let there be
L IT."
Converting grace has lifted the drunk
ard from the ditch and snatched the knife
from the hand of the assassin and the false
keys from the burglar, and in the pestif-
erous lanes of the city met the daughter
of sin under the dim lamplight and scat
tered her sorrow and her guilt with the
words, ''Thy sins are forgiven-go and
sin no more" For scarlet sin a scarlet
atonement.
Other persons apologize for not enter
ing the Christian life because of the in
constituencies of those who profess reli-
gion. There are thousands of poor
farmers. They do not know the nature
of soil nor the proper rotation of crops.
Their corn is shorter in the stalk and
smaller in the ear. They have 10 less
bushels to the acre than their neighbors.
But who declines being a farmer because
there are SO many poor farmers?
There are thousands of incompetent
merchants. They buy at the wrong
time. They get cheated in the sale of
their goods. Every bale of goods is to
them bale of disaster. They fail after
awhile and go out of business. But who
declines to be a merchant because there
are SO many incompetent merchants?
There are thousands Of poor lawyers
They cannot draw declaration that will
stand the test. They cannot recover
just damages. They cannot help de-
PENDANT escape from the injustice of his
prosecutors. They are the worst evil
dence against any case in which they
are retained. But who declines to be
competent lawyers? Yet there are tens
of thousands of people who decline being
religious because there are so many I'M
worthy Christians. Now, I say it is il
logical. Poor lawyers are nothing
against Jurisprudence, poor physicians
are nothing against medicine, poor farm
ers are nothing against agriculture, and
mean, contemplate professors of religion
are nothing against our glorious Christi
anity.
THE wILLl-O'-THE-WISP OF UNBELIEF.
Sometimes you have been riding along
on summer night by swamp, and
you have seen lights that kindled over
decayed vegetation-lights which are
called JACKIE lantern or will-o -the-wisp.
These lights are merely poisonous MAS
mata. My friends, on your way to
heaven you will want better light than
the will-o'-t he-wisps which dance on the
rotten character of dead Christians Ex-
udations from poisonous trees in or
neighbours garden will make a very poor
balm for our wounds
Sickness will come, and we will be
pushed out toward the Red sea which
divides this world from the next. and not
the inconsistency of Christians but the
rod of faith will wave back the waters as
a commander wheels his host. The judg-
ment will come with its thundershod So
IDENTITIES, attended by bursting noun
tains and the deep laugh of earthquakes,
and suns will fly before the feet of God
like sparks from the anvil, and 10000
burning worlds shall blaze like banners
in the track of God omnipotent. Oh,
then we will stop and say, There was a
mean Christian; there was a cowardly
Christian; there was a lying Christian;
there was an impure Christian" In that
day as now. eff thou be wise, thou shalt
be wise for myself, but if thou soonest
thou alone shall bear it." Why, my
brother, the inconsistency Of Christians
so far from being an argument to keep
you away from God ought to be an ar
gument to drive you to him. The best
place for skillful doctor is a neighbor-
hood where they are all poor doctors; the
best place for an enterprising merchant
to open his store is in place where the
bargain makers do not understand their
business, and the best place for you who
want to become the illustrious and com
plete Christians-the best place for you is
to come right down among us who are so
incompetent and SO inconsistent some
times.
Other persons apologize for not becom-
ing Christians because they lack time,
as though religion muddled the brain of
the accountant, or tripped the pen Of the
author, OF thickened the tongue of the
orator, or weakened the arm of the me-
chanic, or scattered the briefs Of the
lawyer, or interrupted the sales of the
merchant. They bolt their store doors
against it and fight it back with trowels
and with yard sticks and cry, "Away