Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-09-04


character. Since l lost my child, since
have lost my property, have been a
very different man from what was"
My brother, it is the little annoyances
of your life that are souring your dis
position, clippin>, your moral character
and making you less and less of a man.
You go into an artists studio. You
see him making a piece of sculpture.
You say, ''Why don't you strike hard
er?'' With his mallet and his chisel he
goes click, click, click and you can
hardly see from stroke to stroke that
there is any impression made upon the
stone, and yet the work is going on.
You say, ssWhy don't you strike harder?"
sOhr' he replies, ''that would shattet
the statue. must make it in this way,
stroke by stroke" And he continues on
by week and month until after awhile
every man that enters the studio is fas-
cinated.
Well, find God dealing with soma
man. He is shaping him for time and
shaping him for eternity. I say, go
Lord, why not with one tremendous blow
of calamity shape that man for the next
world?'' Col says, 'sThat's not the way
[ deal with his man; it is stroke after
stroke, an.e,yance after annoyance, ir-
ritation af,er irritation, and after awhile
he will be enc and a glad spectacle for
angels AMI -.
TIL = OF SMALL THINGS.
Not by : great stroke, but by ten
thousand l.,,ie strokes of misfortune are
men fitted fer heaven. You know that
large fortunes can soon be scattered by
being paid cut in small sums of money,
and the largest estate of Christian char
acter is sometimes entirely lost by these
ANAL depletions.
We must bring the religion of Jesus
Christ to help us in these little annoy
1nces Do rot say that anything is too
insignificant to affect your character.
Rats may sink ship. One lucifet
match may destroy temple. A queen
got her death by smelling of poisoned
rose. The scratch of a sixpenny nail
may give you the lockjaw. Columbus,
by asking for q piece of bread and a
drink of wGfcr at u Franciscan convent,
came 10 the discovery of a new world.
And there IS q great connection between
trifes and immensities, between moth
ings and rythings.
Do you not suppose that God cares for
your Insignificant sorrows? Why, my
friends, there is nothing insignificant Ill
your life. How dare you take the re-
sponsibility of saying that there is? Do
you not kncw that the whole universe is
not ashamed to take care of oneviolet? !
say: .sWhat are you doing down there
in the grass, poor little violet? Nobody
,,<N% 1fr.a1
nights? Yen will die with thirst. No
body cares for you. You will suffer; you
will perish NO" says a star, I'll
watch over it tonight" NO." says the
cloud, It'll give it drink ''No,' says
the sun, Til warm it in my BOSOM"
And then the wind rises and comes
bending down the grain and sounding
its psalm through the forest, and [ say,
"Whither away, O wind, on such swift
wing?" and it answers, Il am going to
cool the CHECK CT that violet" And then
I see pulleys at work in the sky and the
clouds arc craving water, and [ say,
''What arc you doing there, o clouds?"
They say. VIC are drawing water for
that violet And then look down into
the grass, and say, ''Can it be that God
takes care CT & poor thing like you?' and
the answer comes up, Yes, yes; God
clothes tllc ;grass Of the field and he has
never forgotten mo, poor violet Oh,
my friend :, If the heavens bend down to
such inei - Ci Mt ministry as that, tell
you God Is wiling to bend down to your
case, since 10 is just as careful about
the con-. on CT . spiders eye as he
is in t. formation of flaming gal
axies.
Plato has = fable which I have now
nearly forgotten, but it ran something
like this: lie said spirits OF the other
world came back to this world to find q
body and find g sphere Of work. One
spirit came and took the body of a king
and did his work. Another spirit came
and took the body Of q poet and did his
work After awhile Ulysses came, and
he said: why, all the fine bodies are
taken, and all the grand work is taken.
There is nothing left for me-" And some
one replied, ''Ah, the best one has been
left for yoU." Ulysses said, Whats
that?" Aud the reply was, ''The body
of a common man, doing a common
work and for q common reward A
good fable for the world and just as
good fable foy the church.
But, I remark again, we ought to
bring the religion OF Jesus Christ into
our ordinary blessings. Every autumn
the president Of the United States and
the governors make proclamation, and
we are called together in our churches
to give thanks to God for his goodness.
But every day ought to be thanksgiv-
ing day. We take most of the blessings
of life as a matter of course. We have
had ten thousand blessings this morning
for which we have not thanked God.
Before the night comes we will have
thousand more blessings you will never
think Of mentioning before God.
HOW To APPRECIATE OUR BLESSINGS.