Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1893-09-07

the ctOud, Il IL give IL drink" NO, SlyS
the sun, "Ill warm it in my BOSOM"
And then the wind rises and comes bend
ing down the grain and sounding the
psalm through the forest, and | say,
"Whither away, wind on such swift
wing?" and it answers, 81 am going to cool
the cheek of that violet" And then l see
pulleys at work in the sky, and the clouds
are drawing water, and say, what are
you doing there, o cloudst" They say,
I'VE are drSyiug water for that violet"
And then look down into the grass and
say, Can it be that God takes care of
poor thing like you;' and the answer
comes up, YES, yes; God clothes the grass
of the field, and he has never forgotten me,
IA poor violet" Oh, my friends, if the
heavens bend down to such insignificant
ministry as that l tell you God is willing
| to bend down to your case, since he is just
as careful about the construction of n spi-
lers eye rs he is in the conformation Of
| flaming galaXies.
AFAgrE FROM PLATO.
Plato had n fable which have now near
~ forgotten, but it ran sonnet hing like this:
He said spirits of the other world came
back tc this world to find body and find
a sphere of work One spirit came and
took the body of IA king and did his work
Another spirit came and took the body Of
n 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, ALI the best
one has been left for you Ulysses said,
whats that" And the reply was The
| body of common man, doing a common
work and for Il common reward" A good
fable for the world and just as good fable
Tor the church.
But, | remark again, we ought to bring
the religion of Jesus Christ into our or
binary blessings. Every autumn the pres-
| dent of the United States and the governors
make proclamation, and we are called to-
sether in our churches to give thanks to
God for his goodness. But every day ought
to be a Thanksgiving day. We take most
of the blessings of life as matter Of course
We have had ten thousand blessings this
morning for which we have not thanked
Cod Before the night comes we will have
a thousand more blessings you will never
think of mentioning before God
We must see a blind man led along by
his dog before we learn what Il grand thing
it is to have ones eyesight. We must see a
man with st. Nitus' dance before we
learn what grand thing it is to have the
use of our physical energies. We must see
some soldier crippled, limping along on his
crutch, Ct his empty coatsleeve pinned UP,
before we learn what n grand thing it is to
have the use of all our physical faculties
In other words we are so stupid that moth
ing but the misfortunes of others can wake
us up to an appreciation of our common
blessings.
We get on board train and start for
Boston and come to Norwalk bridge, and
i ,F 4
Fifty lives dashed out. We escape We
come home in great excitement and call
our friends around us, and they congratll-
late us, and we all kneel down and thank
God for our escape while so many persisted
But tomorrow morning you get on train
of cars for Boston. You cross that bridge
at Norwalk. You cross all the other
bridges. You get to Boston in safety
Then you return home. Not an accident,
not an alarm. No thanks.
In other words, you seem to be more
grateful when 80 people lose their lives and
you get off, than you are grateful to q od
when you all get off, and you have no
alarm at all. Now yCG ought to be thank
full when you escape from accident but
more thankful when they all escape In
the one case your gratitude is somewhat
selfish, in the other it is more like what it
ought to be.
OH these common merces, these COM
mon blessings, how little we appreciate
them and how soon we forget them. Like
the on grazing, with the clover up to its
eyes, like the bird picking the worm out of
the furrow-never thinking to thank God,
who makes the grass grow and who gives life
to every living thing, from the animalcul;e
in the sod to the seraph on the throne
THANK spi WING on the 9th nf NoNat,, h.r II,
the autumn of the year, but blessings hour
by hour and day by day and no thanks at
all.
! compared our indifference to the brute,
but perhaps | wronged the brute. | do not
know but that among its other instincts it
may have an instinct by which it recog-
nizes the Divine hand that feeds it. | do
not know but that God is through it hold |
ing communication with what we call 'ir-
rational creaVlon." The COW that stands
under the willow by the water course chew
ing her cud looks very thankful, and who |
can tell how much a bird means by its
song? The aroma of the flowers smells like !
incense, and the mist arising from the river
looks like the smoke of a morning sacri- |
flee. Oh, that we We're as responsive!
If you were thirsty and asked me for a
drink and gave You this glass of water
you" And yet how many chalices of mer-
cy we get hour by hour from the hand of
the Lord, our Father and our King, and we
do not even think to say Thank YOU"
More just to men than we are just TO God.
Who thinks of thanking God for the !
water gushing up in the well, foaming in |
the cascade, laughing over the rocks, pat !
tering in the shower clapping its hands !
in the sea? Who thinks to thank God for I
that? Who thinks to thank God for the I
air, the fountain of life, the bridge of sun
beams, the path of sound, the great fan on
a hot summer day? Who thinks to thank |
God for this wonderful physical organism,
this sweep of vision, this chime of harmony |
struck into the ear, this crimson tide roll |
ing through arteries and veins, this drum
ming Of the heart on the march of immor-
tality?
convict myself and | convict every one !
of you while | say these things-that we are
unappre,iative of the common mercies of |
life, And yet if they Were Withdrawn the
hoe wit 1,11I la;