Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1893-08-24


the stranger tarried in the room, and the
old hunter took hold of the horns of the
altar and brought down the blessing of
| God upon his tlousehold and upon the
stranger within their gates. Rude but glo-
rious Christian hospitality!
| Again, this woman in my text was great
| In her Kindness toward Gods messenger.
| Elisha may have been a stranger in that
| household, but rs she found out he had
| come on divine mission he was cordially
welcomed. We have n great many books
In our day about the hardships of ministers
| and the trials of Christian ministers.
wish somebody would write a book about
the joys of the Christian minister, about
the sympathies all around him, about the
kindnesses, about the genial considerations
of him. Does sorrow come to our home,
and is there shadow on the cradle, there
are hundreds of hands to help, and many
who weary not through the long night
watching, and hundreds of prayers going
up that God would restore the SIGH. Is
there burning, trimming cup of calamity
placed on the pastors table, are there not
many to help him drink of that cup and
who will not be ComfOrted because he is
stricken? Oh, for somebody to write
book about the rewards of the Christian
tian sympathy.
ONLY A TYPE.
This woman of the text was only type
of thousands of men and women who come
down from the mansion and from the cot
TO do kindness to the Lords servants.
suppose the men Of Shunem had to psy the
bills, but it was the large hearted Christian
sympathies of the women of Shunem that
looked after the Lords messenger
Again, this woman in tn" text was great
in her behavior under troubl
Her only son had died on hca lap. a very
bright light went out in that household
The sacred writer puts it very tersely when
he says, He sat on her knees until noon,
and then he died" Yet the writer goes on
to say that she exclaimed, ut is WE'LL"
Great in prosperity, this woman was great
in trouble
Where are the feet that have not been
blstered on the hot sands of this great
Sahara Where are the shoulders that
have not been bent under the burden of
grief? Where is the ship sailing over CLASSY
sea that has not after awhile been caught
in cycloneY Where is the garden of
earthly comfort but trouble hath hitched
up its fiery and painting team and gone
through it with burning plowshare of dis
nsterg Under the pelting of ages of suffer
ing the great heart Of the world has burst
with woe.
Navigators tell rs about the rivers, and
the Amazon and the Danube and the Mis-
sissippi have been explored, but who can
tell the depth or length of the great river
of sorrow made up of tears and blood roll
Ing through all lands and all ages, bearing
the wreck of families and of communities
and of mpires-foaming, writing, boiling
with the agonies of 6,000 years? Etna and
CotopaXi and Nesuvius have been described,
but who has ever sketched the volcano of
suffering retching up from its depths the
lava and the scOria and pouring them down
the sides to whelm the nationsl Oh if |
could gather all the heartstrings, the
broken heartstrings, into harp / would
play on 1t a dirge such as was never sounded
GREATER THAN GoRGoN.
Psychologists tell us of Gorgon and Cen
taur and Titan, and biologists tell us of ex-
tinct species of monsters, but greater than
Gorgon or megatherium, and not belong
ing to the realm of fable, and not of an OK
tlnct species, is Il monster with iron Jaw
and iron hoofs walking across the nations,
and history and poetry and sculpture in
their attempt to sketch it and describe it
have seemed to sweat great drops of blood
But, thank God, there are those who can
CONQUER as thls woman OF the text CON
quered and say; ut is well! Though my
properly DC gone thouGh my children he
sone' 'nouSh my nome De broken up,
NY ne"i'h DE sacrllceu' IL Is we'll IL
- -, wei! mere Is no storm on 'he sea but
20 " i!9' i ~, 'ne ninueI parO oil
' ,ne mp anu iuSn IT, mere IS no DARKNESS
ouu tne CONSIDERATIONS Oh uod eternal love
o"h iii"nline ~, anu ,houSh the winter
comes out Oh Vne northern SKY you have
sometimes seen the northern SKY an ablaze
Wilh auroras 'hac seem 10 say: Come up
thl5 way Up thls way are thrones OF light,
az" seas Vi sapphire anu lhe splehuor OF an
euernai hea'eh' Noihe up this way
We may, like the ships, by tempest be tossed
On On perilous deeps' but cannot be lost.
~ Ihousn satan , ehrase lhe "ihu ana me tide,
H' p'0",''0 "''u''' u' 'N' 4oiu VIII proViue'
heard an echo OF my text in very dark
hour, when my father lay dying, and the
old country minister said to him, Mr.
Ialmage, how do you feel now rs you are