News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-09-07

at his end shall be fool" But how
many there are who do not bring the
religion of Christ into their everyday
occupation. They think religion is fol
Sundays.
Suppose you were to go out to fight
for your country in some great contest
would you go to do the battling at Troy
or at Springfield? No, you would &C
| there to get your swords and muskets
Then you would go out in the face of the
enemy and contend for your country
Now, take the Sabbath day and the
church to be only the armory where we
are to get equipped for the great battle
/ of life, and that battlefield is Monday
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Fri
day and Saturday. antioch" and est
| Martins" and 'Old Hundred" are not
worth much if we do not sing all the
week. A sermon is of little account i
we cannot carry it behind the counter
and behind the plow. The Sabbath day
is of no value if it last only "a hours.
.Oh," says some one, IF had a great
sphere. Iwould do that. If I could have
lived in the time of Martin Luther, if
could have been Pauls travelling com
panion, if had some great and resound
ing work to do, then 1 should put into
application all that you say" must
admit that the romance and knight er
rantry have gone out of life. There is
but very little of it left in the world
The temples of Rouen have been changed
into smithies. The classic mansion al
A Ii -, -
sticks. The muses. have retreated be
fore the emigrant's AK and the trapper'e
gun, and a Vermonter might go over the
Allegheny and the Rocky mountains and
see neither an Dread nor Sylph.
The groves where the gods used to
dwell have been cut up for frewood, and
the man who is looking for great spheres
and great scenes for action will not find
Them And yet there are Alps to scale,
and there are Tablespoons to swim, and
they are in common life. 1t is absurd
for you to say that you would serve God
if you had great sphere. fyou do not
serve him on small scale, you would
not on a large scale. If you cannot
stand the bite of nudge, how could you
endure the breath of basilisk?
A TARIFF ON ANNOYANCES.
Our national government does not
thing it belittling to put a tax on pins
and tax on buckles and tax on shoes.
The individual taxes do not amount to
much, but in the aggregate to millions
and millions of dollars. And 1 would
have you, oh, Christian man, put high
tariff on every annoyance and vexation
that comes through your soul. This
might not amount to much in single
cases, but in the aggregate it would be q
great revenue of spiritual strength and
satisfaction.
A bee can suck honey even out of a
nettle, and if you have the grace of God
of that which would otherwise irritate
and annoy. A returned missionary told
me that company of adventures row.
ing up the Ganges were stung to death
by flies that infest that region at certain
seasons. / have seen the earth strewn
with the carcasses of men slain by insect
annoyances. The only way to get pre-
pared for the great troubles of life is to
sonquer these small troubles.
d
only skirmish, and there are only a
few enemies-I won't load my gun; wait
until get into some great general en-
gagement" That man is a coward and
would be a coward in any sphere. If a
man does not serve his country in a
skirmish, he will not in Waterloo. And
if you are not faithful going out against
the single handed misfortunes of this
life you would not be faithful when
great disasters with their laundering ar
tillery came rolling down over the soul.
Tie, brings me to another point. We
ought to bring the religion of Jesus
Christ into all our trials. If we have
bereavement, if we lose our fortune, if
some great trouble blast like the tenn
pest, then we go to God for comfort, but
yesterday in the little annoyances of
your store or Office or shop or factory or
banking house did you go to God for
comfort? You did not.
My friends, you need to take the re-
ligion of the Lord Jesus Christ into the
most ordinary trials of your life. You
have your misfcrtunes, you have your
anxieties, you have your vexations.
"Oh," you say, ''they don't shape my
character. Since lost my child, since
1 have lost my property, l have been a
very different man from what l was"
My brother, it is the little annoyances
of your life that are souring your dis
position, clipping your moral character
and making you less and less of man.
You go into an artists studio. You
see him making a piece of sculpture.
You say, ''Why don't you strike hard
err" With his mallet and his chisel he
goes click, click, clicki 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, ''Why don't you strike harder?"
"Ohr' he replies, ''that would shatter
the statue. 1 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 some
man. He is shaping him for time and
shaping him for eternity. 1 say, so
Lord, why not with one tremendous blow
of calamity shape that man for the next
world?" God says, s'That's not the way
deal with this man; it is stroke after
stroke, annoyance after annoyance, If
ritation after irritation, and after awhile
he will be done and glad spectacle for
angels and men,
THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS.
Not by one great stroke, but by ten
thousand little strokes of misfortune are
men fitted for heaven. You know that
large fortunes can soon be scattered by
being paid out in small sums of money,
and the largest estate of Christian char
acter is sometimes entirely lost by these
small depletions.
We must bring the religion of Jesus
Christ to help us in these little annoy
ances. Do not say that anything is too
to affect your character.
Rats may sink ship. One lucifer
match may destroy a temple. A queen
got her death by smelling of a poisoned
rose. The scratch of sixpenny nail
may give you the lockjaw. Columbus,
by asking for piece of bread and
drink of water at u franciscan convent,
came to the discovery of a new world.
And there IS Il great connection between
trifies and immensities, between moth
ings and everythings.
Do you not suppose that God cares for
your insignificant sorrows? Why, my
friends, there is nothing insignificant in
your life. How dare you take the re-
sponsibility of saying that there is? Do
you not know that the whole universe is
not ashamed to take care of one violet? l
say: "What are you doing down there
in the grass, poor little violet? Nobody
knows you are here. Are you not afraid
nights? You will die with thirst. No