Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-06-12
We thought that friendship was q grand
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we made our graduating speech on COM
mencement day on friendship. Oh, it
was a charmed thingi But does it mean
as much to you is it used to? You have
gone on in life, and one friend has be-
trayed you, and another friend has mis-
interpreted you, and another friend has
neglected you. and friendship comes
now sometimes to mean to you merely
another ak to grindi
So with money. We thought if man
had competency he was safe for all the
future, but we have learned that a
mortgage may be defeated by an I'M
known previous incumbrance; that sign
ing your name on the back of q note
may be your business death warrant;
that q new tariff may change the cur
rent of trade; that man may be rich
today and poor tomorrow. And God,
by all these misfortunes, is trying to
loosen our grip, but still we hold on.
God smites us with staff, but we hold
on. And he strikes us with q rod, but
we hold on. And he sends over us the
iron wheel of misfortune, but we hold on
There are men who keep their grip on
this world until the last moment who
suggest to me the condition and conduct
of the poor Indian in the boat in the Nj
agara rapids coming on toward the fall.
Seeing that he could not escape, a mo-
1nent or two before he got to the verge
of the plunge he lifted wine bottle
and drank it off and then tossed the bot
tie into the air. So there are men who
clutch the world, and they go down
through the rapids of temptation and
sin, and they hold on to the very last
moment of life, drinking to their eternal
damnation as they go over and go down.
Oh, let go! Let go! The best fortunes
are in heaven. There are no absconding
cashiers from that bank, no failing in
promises to pay. Set your affections on
things above, not on thing on the earth.
Let go! Depend upon it that God will
keep upon you the staff, or the rod, or
the iron wheel until you do let go.
THE STAFF AND THE ROD.
Another thing my text teaches us is
that Christian sorrow is going to have
sure terminus. My text says, ''Bread
corn is bruised because he will not be
ever thrashing it." Blessed be God for
that! Pound away, o fail. Turn on,
0 wheel! Your work will soon be DONE
''He will not be ever thrashing it." Now
the Christian has almost as much use in
the organ for the stop tremulant as he
has for the trumpet. But after awhile
he will put the last dirge into the portfo-
lilo forever. So much of us as is wheat
will be separated from so much as is
chaff, and there will be no more need Of
pounding.
They never cry in heaven because
they have nothing to cry about. There
are no tears of bereavement, for you
shall have your friends all round about
you. There are no tears of poverty be-
cause each one sits at the kings table
and has his own chariot of salvation
and free access to the wardrobe where
princes get their array. No tears of
sickness, for there are no pneumonias on
the air, and no malarial exhalations from
the rolling river of life, and no crutch
for the lame limb, and no splint for the
broken arm, but the pulses throbbing
with the health of the eternal God in
climate like our June before the bios
SONS fall, or our gorgeous October be-
fore the leaves scatter.
In that land the souls will talk over
the different modes of thrashing. Oh,
the story Of the staff that struck the
fitches, and the rod that beat the cum
min, and the iron wheel that went over
the corn! Daniel will describe the lions,
and Jonah leviathans, and Paul the elm
wood whips with which hewas scourged,
and Eve will tell how aromatic Eden
was the day she left it, and John Rogers
will tell of the smart of the flame, and
Elijah of the fiery team that wheeled
him up the sky sleeps, and Christ of the
numbness and parOxysm and hemor-
rhages of the awful crucifxion There
they are before the throne of God On
one elevation all those who We're struck
of the staff. On higher elevation all
those who were struck of the rod On
highest elevation, and amid the highest
attitudes of heaven, all those who were
under the wheel He will not ever be
thrashing it.
Oh, my hearers, is there not enough
salve in this text to make plaster large
enough to heal all your wounds? When
child is hurt, the mother is very apt to
say to it, ''Now, it will soon feel better"
And that is what God says when he I'M
bosoms all the trouble in the hush of this
great promise, Weeping may endure
for a night, but JOY cometh in the morn
ing" You may leave your pocket hand
kerchief sopping wet with tears on your
death PILLOW, but you will go up abso-
lutely sorrowless. They will wear black;
you will wear white. Expresses for
them; palms for you.
You will say: ''Is it possible that I am
here? Is this heaven? Am SO pure now
will never do anything wrong? Am
SO well that 1 will never again be sick?
Are these comprehensive so firm that
they will never again be broken? Is that
Mary? Is tn It John? Is that my loved
one put away into darkness? Can it be