Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1894-01-04


life or in OLD age. The most of the bank
presidents have white hair. Many of those
who have been largely successful have been
full of arrogance or worldliness or diss-
patton in old age. They may not have lost
their integrity, but they have become So
worldly and so selfish under the influence
of large success that it is evident to every
body that their success has been II temporal
calamity and an eternal damage
Concerning many people it may be said it
seems as if it would have been better il they
could have embarked from this life ut 20 o"
b. years of age. Do you know why the
vast ma iorty of people die before 50? 1t is
because they have not the moral endurance
for that which is beyond the 80, and mer-
ciful God will not allow them to he put to
the fearful st ain.
Again. there is "A blessing in an abbrevi-
ated earthly existence in the fact that one
is the sooner taken Off the defensive As
soon as one is old enough to take care of
himself he is put on his guard Bolts on
the door to keep out the robbers. FireprOof
safes to keep of Se flames. Life insurance
and fire insurance against accident Re
ceipts lest you have to pay deha twice.
Lfeboat against shipwreCE. Westinghouse
airbrake against railroad collision. There
are many ready to ovcrreach you and take
all you have Defense against cold de
Tense against heat, defense Against sickness,
defense against the worlds abuse, defense
all the way down to the grave, al,e even the
tombstone sometimes is not sufficient
barricadc.
If "a soldier vino has been on guard, shiy-
eriug and stung with the cold. pacing up
and down the parapet with shouldered mus
4.
guard and he can go inside the fortress,
ought not that man to shout for JOY who
can put down his weapon of earthly de
Tense and 90 into the kings castle? Who
is the more fortunate-thc soldier who has
t0 stand guard u hours or the man who
he's to stand guard six hours? We have
common sense about everything but re-
ligion. common SENSE about everything but
transferencc from this world
A FORTUNATE ESCAPE.
Again, there is blessing in an abhrcvi-
ated earthly existence in the fact that one
escapes so many bereavements. The longer
we live the more attachments and the more
kindred. the more chords to be wounded or
rasped or sundered. If a man live on to 20
or go years of age, how many graves are
cleft at his feet In that long reach of time
father and mother 20, brothers and sisters
20, children go, grandchildren 20, personal
friends outside the family circle whom they
had loved with love like that of David
and Jonathan
Besides that, some men have natural
reputation about dissolution, and ever and
mon during 80 or 80 or go years this horror
If their dissolution shudders through soul
and body. Now, suppose the lad goes at IL
ears of age. He escapes 80 funerals. 80
.lskets, 80 obseques, 50 awful wrenchings
# the heart 1t is hard enough for us to
lear their departure, but is ii not easier for
u, 10 bear their departure than for them TO
tav and bear 50 departures? Shall we not,
y the grace of God, rouse ourselves into q
generosity of bereavement which will prac-
| ticallv say, at is hard enough for me to 90
| through this bereavement but how glad |
0m that he will never have % 20 though it -
so reason with myself, and 50 you will
! find it helpful to reason with yourselves.
! David lost his son. Though David was
| king, he lay on the earth mourning and in
| consolable for some time. At this distance
| Of time, which do You really think was the
one to be ngratulated- short lived
! child or the long lived father? Had Da id
/ died AS early as that child died he would
| in the first place. have escaped that partic-
| llar bereavement; then he would have cs-
| oaped the worse bereavement of AbSaom,
his recreant son, and the pursuit of the
| phIlistines, and the fati@ues Of his military
campaigns, and the jealousy of Saul, and
! the perdv of Ahithophel, and the curse OF
! ~hmei, and the destruction of his family
ut Xiklag, and, above all, he would have es-
capped the two great calamities of his life
| the Great sins of uHclcauness and murder
~. i L., 8
and the world, but so far as his own happi.
ness was concerned does it not seem to YOU
that it would have been better for him tc
have gone early
Now this, my friends, explains some
things that to you have been ineXplicabla
This shows you why when God takes little
children from household he is very apt &c
take the brightest, the most genial. the most
sympathetic the most talented WHY? 1t
is because that kind of nature suffers the
most when it does suffer, and is most liable
TO temptation. God saw the tempest sweep
ing up from the Caribbean and he put the
delicate craft into the lirsT'narbor. Taken
away from the evil to come
GODS FAvORITE TILE CIRCLE.
Again, my friends, there is a blessing in
an abbreviated earthly existence in tn,
things. All astronomers, iniidcl as well a,
Christian, agree in believing that the uni
verse swings around some great center
Any one who has studied the earth ant
studied the heavens knows that Gods ia
vorite figure in geometry is circle Wher
| God put forth his hand to create the uni
verse, he did not strike that hand at right
angles but he waved it in Il circle and KEEP
on waving it in Il circle until systems ant
consultations and galaXes aud all worlds
took that motion. Our planet swinging
around the sun, other planets swintn.
around other suns, but somewhere a grea
hub around which the great wheel of tn,
universe turns. Now, that ccnteris heaven
That is the capital Of the universe Tina
Is the great metropolis Of immensity.
Now, does not our common sense teacl
Us that in matters of study it is better fol
us to move out from the center toward tn,
circumference rather than 10 be on the cir
conference, where our world now is? W,
are like those who study the American con
tinent while standing on he Atlantic beach
The way to study the continent is to eros
to la hoo oft 4, =.