The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-04-21

logical. Poor lawyers are nothing
against jurisprudence, poor physicians
are nothing against medicine, poor farm
ers are nothing against agriculture, and
mean, contemplate professors of religion
are nothing against our glorious Christi
anity.
THE wII.L-o'-rHE-wIsP OF UNBEIIEF.
Sometimes you have been riding along
on summer night by swamp, and
you have seen lights that kindled over
decayed vegetation-lghts which are
called JACKIE lantern or will-o'- the-wisp.
These lights are merely poisonous MAS
mata. My friends, on your way to
heaven you will want better light than
the will-o -the-wisps which dance on the
rotten character of dead Christians. Elk.
udations from poisonous trees in our
neighbours garden will make very poor
balm for our wounds.
Sickness will come, and we will be
pushed out toward the Red sea which
divides this world from the next. and not
the inconsistency of Christians but the
rod of faith will wave back the waters as
a commander wheels his host. The judg-
ment will come with its thundershod So
IDENTITIES, attended by bursting noun
tains and the deep laugh of earthquakes,
and suns will fly before the feet of God
like sparks from the anvil, and 10000
burning worlds shall blaze like banners
in the track of God omnipotent. Oh,
then we will stop and say, "There wassa
mean Christian; there was cowardly
Christian; there was lying Christiani
there was an impure Christian" In that
day as now, IF thou be wise, thou shalt
be wise for thyself, but if thou soonest
thou alone shall bear it." Why, my
brother, the inconsistency of Christians
so far from being an argument to keep
you away from God ought to be an ar
gument to drive you to him. The best
place for skillful doctor is a neighbor
hood where they are all POOR doctors; the
best place for an enterprising merchant
to open his store is in place where the
bargain makers do not understand their
business, and the best place for you who
want to become the illustrious and COM
plete Christians-the best place for you is
to come right down among us who are so
incompetent and so inconsistent some
times.
Other persons apologize for not becom-
ing Christians because they lack time,
as though religion muddled the brain Of
the accountant, or tripped the pen of the
author, or thickened the tongue of the
orator, or weakened the arm of the me-
chanic, or scattered the briefs Of the
lawyer, or interrupted the sales Of the
merchant. They bolt their store doors
against it and fight it back with trowels
and with yard sticks and cry, "Away
with your religion from our store, our
Office, our factory!'
A RELIGION FOR WORKERS.
They do not understand that religion
in this workaday world will help you to
do anything you ought to do. 1t can lay
keel it can sail ship, it can buy car
go, it can work pulley, it can pave
street, it can fit a wristband, it can write
constitution, it can marshal host. 1t
is as appropriate to the astronomer as his
telescope, to the chemist as his labora-
Tory, to the mason as his plumbline, to
The carpenter as his plane, to the child
as his marbles, to the grandfather as his
staff.
No time to be religious here! You have
no time not to be religious. You might
as well have no clerks in your store, no
books in your library, no compass on
your Ship no rifle in the battle, no hat
for your head, no coat for your back, no
shoes for your feet. Better travel on to-
ward eternity bare headed and bare footed
and houseless and homeless and friend
less than to go through life without re-
| ligion.
Did religion make Raleigh any less Of
statesman, or Havelock any less of q
soldier, or Grinnell any less of mer-
chant, or West any less Of a painter?
Religion is the. best security in every
bargain, it is the sweetest note in every
song, 1t is the brightest gem in every
coronet. No time to be religious! Why,
you will have to take time to be sick, to
be troubled, to die. Our world is only
the wharf from which we are to embark
for heaven. No time to secure the
friendship of Christ. No time to buy a
lamp and trim it for that walk through
the darkness which otherwise will be
illumined only by the whiteness of the
tombstones. No time to educate the eye
for heavenly splendors, or the hand for
choral harps, or the ear for everlasting
songs, or the soul for honor, glory and
immortality. One would think we had
time for nothing else.
Other persons apologize for not enter
ing the Christian life because it is time
enough yet. That is very like those per-
sons who send their regrets and say: 81
will come in perhaps at II or 10 o'clock.
l will not be there at the opening of the
banquet, but l will be there at the close. y
Not yet! Not yet!
Now, do not give any doleful view
of this life. There is nothing in my ma
t,re, nothing in the grace of God, that
tends toward doleful view of human
life. have not much sympathy with
| Addison's description of the vision Of
Mirza," where he represents human life
as being bridge of hundred arches,
and both ends of the bridge covered with
clouds, and the race coming on, the most
of them falling down through the first
span, and all of them falling down
through the last span. 1t is very dis.
NAL picture. have not much sympathy
with the Spanish proverb which says
1.-THE ky is good, and the earth is good
that which is bad is between the earth
and the sky"
CHRISTIANS SHOULD BE HOPEFUL.
But while we Christian people are
bound to take cheerful view of life we
must also confess that life is great un
certainty, and that man who says, 90
can't become Christian because there il
time enough yet" is running risk inf
mite. You do not perhaps realize thu
fact that this descending grade of si1
gets sleeper and sleeper, and that you ar
gathering up a rush and velocity which
after awhile may not answer to tn
brakes. Oh, my friends, be not among
those who give their whole life to tn
world and then give their corpse to God
1t does not seem fair while our pulses ar
in full play of health that we serve our
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