The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-02-23

words to j CD calls me to look at the pat
of foam in the wake of that ship, and
tell you it is all a-gleam with splendor
of Kindness done, and rolling with i
lumined tears that were wiped away
and a-dash with congratulations, an
clear out to the horizon in all direction
is the sparkling, flashing, billowing phos
phorescence of Christian life. III
maketh path to shine after him."
And here correct one Of the mean no
tions which at some time takes posses
sion of all of us, and that is as to tn
brevity of human life. When bur,
some very useful man. clerical or lay, il
his thirtieth or fortieth year, l say
"What q waste OF energies! 1t wa
hardly worth while for him to get read,
for Christian work, for he had 80 sooI
to quit it." But the fact is that / may
insure any man or woman who does any
good on large or small scale for lif'
on earth as longas the world lasts. Sick
ness, trolley car accidents, death itself
can no more destroy his life than they
can tear down one of the rings OF Sat
urn. You can start one good word, one
kind act, one cheerful smile, on mis-.
sion that will last until the world be.
comes bonfire, and out of that blaze il
will pass into the heavens, never to halt
as long as God lives.
WHAT ORDINARY PERSONS CAN DO.
There were in the seventeenth century
men and women whose names you never
heard of who are today influencing
schools, colleges, churches, nations. You
can no more measure the gracious re-
suits of their lifetime than you could
measure the length and breadth and
depth of the phosphorescence last night
following the ship of the White Star line
1900 miles out at sea. How the courage
and conservation of others inspire us to
follow, as a general in the American
army, cool amid the flying bullets, in
spired trembling soldier, who said aft
erward, 81 was nearly scared to death,
but l saw the old mans white mustache
over his shoulder and went on" Aye,
we are all following somebody either in
right or wrong directions.
A few days ago stood beside the gar
landed casket of gospel minister, and
in my remarks had occasion to recall
snowy night in farmhouse when L was
a boy and an evangelist spending a
night at my fathers house, who said
so tender and beautiful and
impressive that it led me into the king
dom of God and decided my destiny for
this world and the next. You will, be-
fore "a hours go by, meet some man or
with big pack of care and trou-
BILE, and you may say something to him
DR. her that will endure until this world
shall have been so far lost in the past
that nothing but the stretch of angelic
will be able to realize that it
ever existed at all.
I am not talking of remarkable men
md women, but of what ordinary folks
IAN do. am not speaking of the phos-
in the wake of a Campania,
)ut of the phosphorescence in the track
# Newfoundland fishing smack. God
makes thunderbolts out of sparks, and
nut of the small words and deeds of a
mall life he can launch a power that
will flash and burn and thunder through
he eternities.
How do you like this prolongation of
our earthly life by deathless influence?
dany babe that died at months of
ge by the anxiety created in the parents
cart to meet that child in realms Sc
aphic is living yet in the transformed
cart and life of those parents and will |
i've on forever in the history of that |
amily. If this be the opportunity of Or
mary souls, what is the opportunity of
hose who have especial intellectual or |
ocial or monetary equipment
Have you any arithmetic capable of es-
mating the influence of our good and |
racious friend who few days ago went
p to rest-George w. Childs of Phila-
elphia? From newspaper that was
rinted for 80 years without one word of |
or scurrility or scandal, and
utting chief emphasis ON virtue and
harity and clean intelligence, he reaped
fortune for himself and then distrib-
ted vast amount of it among the poor
nd struggling, putting his invalid and
yed reporters on pensions, until his
anne stands everywhere for large heart
lness and sympathy and help and high
It style of Christian gentleman.
In an era which had in the chairs of
8 journalism Horace Greeley, and
enry j. Raymond, and James Gordon
emmett. AID al Erasths Brooks, and
gorge v illiam Curtis, and an Irenaeus
rimc, Zone of them will be longer re-
emlrrel than George w. Childs. STAY
g away from the unwilling of the mon
neut he bad reared at large expense in
IT Greenwood in memory of Professor
'octor, the astronomer, lest | should
y something in praise of the man who
d paid for the monument. BY all &C .
owledged a representative of the high
t American journalism. c
If you would calculate his influence
r good, you must count how many 1
eets of his newspapers have been pub
he'd in the last quarter of century, |
d how many people have read them, =
d the effect, not only upon those read
J, but upon all whom they shall infiu- Q
ce for all time, while you add to all b
1T the work of the churches he helped v
lid and of the institutions of mercy he b
ped found. Better give up before you