Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-01-09

come wealthy. N o one pretendS TO &C
count for his princely wardrobe, or the
chased silver, or the full curbed steeds
that rear and neigh like Bucephalus in
the grasp of his coachman. Did he come
to sudden inheritance? No. Did he
make fortune on purchase and sale?
No Everybody asks where did that par
fridge hatch The devil suddenly threw
him up. and the devil will suddenly let
him come down. nat hidden scheme
God saw from the iirs5 conception Of the
plot. That partridge. swift disaster will
shoot it dovn and the higher it flies the
harder it falls. The prophet saw, as you
and have often seen. the awful mistake
Of pertridges
But from the top of Bible fir tree
hear the shrill cry of the stork. Job,
Ezekiel. jeremiah. speak of it, David
cries out. AS for the stork. the fir tree
is her ho,,sa" This large white Bible
bird is supposed without alighting some
times to wing its way from the region Of
the Rhine to Africa. AS winter comes
all the storks fly to warmer climes and
the last one of their number that arrives
at the spot to which they migrate is
killed by them. What havoc it would
make in our species if those men were
killed who are always behind! In orien-
tai cities the stOrk is domesticated and
| walks about on the street and will follow
it's keeper.
In the city Of Ephesus | saw a long
row Of pillars, on the top of each pillar
q stork's nest. But the word ''stork'
ordinarily means mercy and affection.
from the fact that this bird was distin-
guished for its great love for its parents.
It never forsakes them, and even after
they become feeble protects and provides
for them. In migrating the old storlzs
lean their necks on the young storks.
and when the old ones give out the
young ones carry them on their backs.
God forbid that dumb stork should
have more heart than we. Blessed is
that table at which an old father and
mother Sit blessed that altar at which
an old father and mother kneel!
What it is to have mother they know
best who have lost her. God only knows
the agony she suffered for us, the times
she wept over our cradle and the anxious
signs her bosom heaved as we lay upon
it, the sick nights when she watched us
long after every one was tired out but
God and herself Her lifeblood beats
in our heart, and her image lives in our
face. That man is graceless as a canni-
bal who Ill treats his parents, and he
who begrudges them daily bread and
clothes them but shabbily, may God
have patience with him; / cannot.
heard a man once say. Il now have my
old mother on my hands," Ye storks
on your way with food to your aged
parents, shame him.
THE PROSECUTED CHURCH.
But yonder in this Bible sky flies
bird that is speckled. The prophet de-
scribing the church cries out, Mine
heritage is unto me as a speckled bird;
the birds round about are against her"
So it was then: so it is now. Holiness
picked at. Conservation picked at. Be
nevolence picked at Usefulness picked
at 4 speckled bird is a peculiar bird;
and that arouses the antipathy of all the
beaks Of the forest.
The church of God is peculiar insti-
tuition, and that is enough to evoke at
tack of the world, for it is a speckled
bird to be picked at. The inconsistent
cies Of Christians are a banquet on which
multitudes get fat. They ascribe every
thing you do to wrong motives. Pct
dollar in the poor box and they will say
that you dropped it there only that you
might hear it ring. Invite them IL
Christ. and they will call you {, fanatic.
Let there be contention among Chris
tians, and they will say: ''Hu1rah! The
church is in decadence.'
Christ intended that his church should
always remain Il speclsled bird. Let
birds of another feather pick ut her. but
they cannot rob her Of a single plume.
Like the albatross, she can sleep on the
bosom of a tempest. She has gone
through the fires Of NebuchadneZzar'
furnace and not got burned; through the
waters of the Red sea and not been
drowned: through the shipwreck OH the
breakers of Melita and not been foun-
dered. Let all earth and hell Try to hunt
down this speckled bird, but far above
human scorn and Internal assault it shall
sing over every mountain ton and fly
over every nation, and her triumphant
song shall be: The church of God!
The pillar and ground of the truth.
The gates of hell shall not prevail against
her.
But we cannot stop here. From
tall cliff hanging over the sea I hear the
eagle calling unto the tempest and lift
ing its wing to smite the whirlwind.
Moses. jeremiah, Hosea and Habakkuk
at times in their writings take their pen
from the eagles wing. It is a bird with
ferceness in its eye, it's feet armed with
claws of iron and its head with dread
ful beak. Two or three of them can I'LL
the heavens with clangor But gener-
ally this monster of the air is alone and
unaccompanied, for the reason that it's
habits are so predaceous it requires five
Or ten miles Of aerial or earthly domin-
ion all for itself
The black brown of IFS hacl, and the