The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-09-08

rleS III town, On SaDDatn ne goes TO
some church for consolation, and what
is his amazement to find that the man
who carries around the poor box is the
very one who swindled him. But never
mind. The deacon has his black coat on
now and looks solemn and goes home
talking about that blessed sermon! Chris
tians on Sunday, Workings during the
week.
GOD SEES SMALL SINS.
That man does not realize that God
I knows every dishonest dollar he has in
his pocket, that God is looking right
through the iron wall of his money safe,
and that the day of Judgment is coming,
and that ''as the partridge stitch on
eggs and hatcheth them not, so he that
getteth riches and not by right shall
leave them in the midst of his days, and
| 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 for
/ Sundays.
Suppose you We're 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 go
there to get your swords and muskets
Then you would go ont in the face of the
enemy and contend for your country.
Now, l 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, "sand EST.
Martins" and "Old Hundred" are not
worth much if we do not sing all the
week. A sermon is of little account Il
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 great
sphere, Iwould do that. If could have
lived in the time of Martin Luther, if /
could have been p&urs travelling COM
panion, if had some great and resound-
ing work to do, then | should put into
application all that you say" | must
admit that the romance and knight err
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 at
Ashland has been cut up into walking
sticks. The muses. have retreated be,
fore the emigrant's AK and the trapper'o
gun, and : Tar.a20tar might go over the
AlleghaEy a i,,2 Rocky mountains and
see neither al 0rea ii1r a Sylph.
The grow where the gods used to
dwell have aaen cut up for firewood, 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 a great sphere. Ifyou do not
serve him on a small scale, you would
not on large scale. If you cannot
stand the bite of a nudge, how could you
endure the breath of a basilisk?
A TARIFF ON ANNoYANCEs.
Our national government does not
/ thing it belittling to put q tax on pins
and tax on buckles and tax on shoes.
! The individual taxes do not amount to
lluSII bttb III bAIC SSINSottS W
and millions of dollars. And would
have you, oh, Christian man, put a 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 a
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
in your heart you can get sweetness out
of that which would otherwise irritate
and annoy. A returned missionary told
me that a company of adventures row.
ing up the Gauges 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
conquer these small troubles.
Suppose a soldier should say, "This is
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 coward and
/ would be 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
This brings me to another point. We
ought to bring the religion of Jesus
Christ into all our trials. If we have a
! 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
4 comfort? You did not.
/ My friends, you need to take the re-
| igion of the Lord Jesus Christ into the
most ordinary trials of your life. You
have your misfortunes, you have your
anxieties, you have your vexations.
"Oh," you say, they don't shape my
character. Since lost my child, since
I have lost icy property, l have been a
very different man from what / 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 piece of sculpture.
You say, "Why don't You strike hard
erF' With his mallet and his chisel he
goes click, click click! 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'tyou strike harderT'
"Ohr' he replies, "that would shatter
the statue. / 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. I say, sc
Lord, why not with one tremendous blow
of calamity shape that man for the next
world!" Col SAYS. "That's not the way